TOTS' 50th season in final countdown

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

The 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers are just four weeks away (maybe 12 games left, weather permitting) from the completion of its 50th season. It's hard to find an amateur baseball organization comprised of a bunch of old dudes who love to play the game of baseball and do so every week, year in and year out -- all 52 weeks, season after season after season.

Yes, there is Little League, an organization considered to be the largest organized youth sports organization in the world with over 180,000 teams and 2,600,000 competitors.

That's one thing, but a bunch of old timers who play around 150 games a year, every year...now that's certainly a group of characters in a league of their own.

The club was formed in 1968 and here they are heading into 2019 and going strong with 50 or so active members who strap on the baseball gear and take the field at Udall Park three days a week come rain or shine. Well, sometimes the weather can keep them from taking the field, but not very often. A die hard regular who never misses a game or an at bat can log over 600 at bats a year.

The organization is currently managed by Pete Peters, 69, and Jesse Ochoa, 67, and the club is certainly in good hands with the two men who see to it that things run smoothly. Peters, retired from Civil Service, and Ochoa, a former Tucson police officer, a former head of the Northern Arizona University police department and a retiree from Raytheon, have done so much in recent years for the organization. Peters and Ochoa, along with a committee of six, have handled everything from complaints, to ramrodding the yearly luncheon and Christmas party, to the purchase of equipment to keep the field at Udall Park in perfect condition.

The TOTS now own their own tug and the field is dragged before every game by 68-year-old Lloyd Barzell. Ochoa has even come up with a plan dividing the members up into small groups to assist Barzell and on game day, as the sun rises over the Rincon Mountains, the final touches are completed with the lining of the field and the bases are set in place.

Time to play ball.

It wasn't long ago, when the hard-working Chico Bigham used to ramrod things prior to game time. The man could single-handedly prepare the field at Udall without a tug and a lot of fancy equipment. The organization lost Chico, who passed away in 2017, and the organization's new shed, which houses the new tug and all the additional equipment, has appropriately been named Chico's Place.

The TOTS now have a waiting list for prospective members. It may take a few months before a player is added to the roster. A flock of new 60-year-old players are now joining the ranks, but it doesn't matter what age as long as the new want-a-be has reached the age of 60. There are plenty of 70-plus players on the roster, some are in their 80s and one player turns 90 in 2019 and the oldest player, Floyd Lance, is 93.

The best news of all is the fact the TOTS are thriving and another 50 years will begin on January 1, 2019.

Go, TOTS!

Photos from top to bottom:  Pete Peters, Jesse Ochoa, Lloyd Barzell, the late Chico Bigham and Sir Floyd himself, 93-year-old Floyd Lance.