One man's journey with the TOTS

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

We lost our switch hitter on April 20, 2019.

Carl Brutovsky became a TOT back in 1999. A spunky 62-year-old  from Johnson City, New York, who could beat out a hit with the best of them. Carl was on the ball field with the 60-and-over baseball club until 2015 before moving a few miles north to Maricopa, Arizona with his wife, Mary.

Mary and Carl were married for 53 years and for many, many years Mary would send him off to play baseball with the "boys at Udall" and play he did. The fastest 70-plus year old on the TOTS.

During his stint with the TOTS, heart problems caused him to do a little fine-tuning to keep himself on the ball field. In his 11th year with the TOTS, Carl was saddled with a pacemaker just below his left shoulder. He was forced to pull a switch and become a left-handed hitter in order to protect the added instrument in his body.

Back in 2011, Brutovsky said. "I also wear a chest protector just in case."

No problem. He could still beat out a slow roller and from his new left-handed spot at home plate, he was closer to first base.

And there were many times Carl would come to play dressed in a bright orange jersey.

The late Conrad Royksund, a former player with the TOTS and the club's photographer back in 2014 wrote at the time:  "People tend to loose their place in sentences, reverse the logic of their own arguments, and forget to close their mouths, just looking at Carl."

Royksund went on to add: "All Carl has to do is smash a dribbler down toward third, and the fielders, even if they pick up the ball, tend to forget what they are supposed to do with it, in their fascination for what a runaway pumpkin looks like."

Rest in Peace, Carl.

Photo: A photo of Carl (on the left ) in the dugout four years ago conversing with teammate Floyd Lance.

A special note: A Memorial Service is being planned at the Veteran's Memorial Cemetery in Marana, AZ. Details to come.