Down 6-1, Team White bounces back wins 10-6 in TOTS' game

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

Toeing the rubber in a 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers game can be frustrating at times.

If you are a TOTS' pitcher then your ERA is not something you want to discuss with your spouse over dinner at home, following highly-contested old-timers' games, which are held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Udall Park.

The TOTS keep track of hits...and runs, but the amount of errors made in a game and how many runs are earned and unearned are not statistics the club keeps track of.

Still, the club has been around for over 50 years and you can't play the game without pitchers. So somebody has to do it. Today, it was right-hander Mike Dawson who got the call for Team White.

Before the dust had settled -- after just two innings of play --  Dawson and his teammates were down 6-1. Dawson's teammates had committed seven errors (give or take an error). Fortunately for Dawson and Team White, there were five innings to go. With the sun beating down and the temperature heading for the 90-degree mark, Team White regrouped and suddenly it took only three outs to get out of an inning instead of six...or seven.

Team White kept chipping away at the Team Blue lead. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Team White tied the game and then went up 7-6 when Team Blue's catcher Roger Beebe tried to pick off Pigpen Price, the runner at first base. The ball bounced away from Ron Carlson, Team Blue's first baseman, and Dawson, who was the runner on third and chomping at the bit to score, rambled home with the go-ahead run.

Dawson, who went 3 for 4 and drove in four runs to help his own cause, mowed down Team Blue the rest of the way, while his teammates failed to make an error down the stretch and added three insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth to put the game on ice.

Ron Petersen, a lefty, went the distance for Team Blue and was saddled with the loss. Tim Tolson and Ron Ryan had two hits apiece for the losing team. Team Blue lost their catcher Mike Steele in the fifth inning.

Steele was running from first to second and cramped up and went down in pain. "I thought I had got hit by the ball," Steele said. It may turn out to be a cramp or worse yet a pulled muscle. At any rate, Steele was helped off the field and replaced by Beebe.

A lot goes on during a TOTS' game -- hits, runs, errors...injuries, a laugh or two. There are no winners or losers in a 60-and-over game. Yes, one team is chalked up with the win on the scoreboard, but if you play ball at the age of 60, 70, 80 or 90, like the TOTS do...well it's all good.

The TOTS will be back in action on Monday at Udall. Game time: 9 a.m.