A down home country battle...TOTS style

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

Corona Games

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The East vs. the West...or to be more specific:  the 60-and-over TOTS from East of the Missouri River against the TOTS players from West of the Pecos.

Now there are no guns allowed in this one. Bats only. The wooden kind and certainly not those creatures from China. For the game today we have a couple honorary managers -- for the Pecos Blues we have Judge Roy Bean. We definitely need law and order for the next two hours, while the Mizzou Whites will counter with Casey Stengel, the former manager and right fielder of the New Yankees.

That should give Team White the edge, after all they have a baseball mind to guide them, while Bean, who was born in Kentucky in 1825 and turned 195 years old in March, knew what to do with a pistol, but never saw a baseball in his life.

Of course, Stengel is just a youngster compared to Bean. Casey will turn 130 in September and is only 36 years older than the TOTS'  oldest player -- 94 year-old Floyd Lance.

Enough about age. It's all relative.

Starting for the Pecos Blues is a tall lanky right hander by the name of Reed Palmer, from Portland, Oregon, while Pete Maldonado, from da Bronx, will get the call for Team White. The catchers for today's game will be Roger Beebe from Tombstone, the town too tough to die, while Ron Carlson, from Brooklyn, New York, will put on the gear for the Mizzou Whites and set up shop behind home plate.

The Pecos Blues will have former Tucson prep stars: Dave Byars at first base, Pigpen Price at second, Mike Dawson at short and John Mathews at third base. In the outfield, left to right:  Tim Boyd, Tim Tolson and Mike Steele, along with short fielder Jesse Ochoa.

Team Mizzou will counter with Joe Opocensky, from Virginia, at first base, Bill Mishler, from Miami, Florida, at second base, and two guys from da Bronx, Ray Garcia at third and Lloyd Barzell at shortstop.

Another man from da Bronx, Ken Nebesny, will handle duties in left field, Dennis Crowley, from Boston, will set up shop in center and Ted Davis, from Athens, Alabama, will handle chores in right field. Jerry Hamelin, from Hartford, Connecticut, is the designated short fielder.

Once again, fresh off the square dance floor, is umpire Robert Royer, from Reading, Pennsylvania. Royer spends most of his free time square dancing these days. He will be hard pressed to dance around the calls for balls and strikes. There will be no Dosy Doe around home plate today.

As for the reporter, I'm already tired and the first pitch has yet to be thrown.

The Mizzou Whites took the field 15 minutes late. All the masks were stolen and the players had to wait the arrival of another 20 or so masks, all coming from the local Circle K, just one mile east of  Udall ballpark.

At 9:15. a.m. the first pitch was thrown. It was a high fastball from Palmer and Nebesny let the pitch go for ball one. On the very next pitch, Nebesny sent a screamer by Mathews at third. The ball went all the way to the fence and Nebesny ended up at third. Crowley followed with a swinging bunt in front of the plate. Nebesny scampered home and Crowley beat out the infield hit. Opocensky followed with a two-run homer to right and the Mizzou Whites led 3-0.

The Pecos Blues picked up a run in the bottom of the first on four straight singles from Dave Byars, Pigpen Price, Mike Dawson and John Mathews. Byars scored from third on Mathews' opposite-field single to right field.

Maldonado allowed two more hits in the inning -- a single by Tolson and a double from Boyd. But the man from da Bronx settled down and got out of the inning with a 3-1 lead.

The game turned into a pitching duel for the next four innings. Palmer gave way to Ernesto "Doc" Escala in the fifth and he shutdown the Mizzou Whites until the seventh inning, while Maldonado did the same with four strike outs -- two in the fifth and two more K's in the sixth.

In the top of the seventh inning, the Mizzou Whites picked up an insurance run on singles by Mishler,  Garcia and Barzell. With two outs and the bases loaded, Nebesny hit a shot up the middle to score Mishler, but Palmer, now playing straight-a-way center, unleashed a throw to the plate in time for Beebe to catch the ball and tag out Garcia for the final out.

Down 4-1, the Pecos Blues were in trouble and their manager Judge Roy Bean had a little too much whiskey in the dugout. In fact, Bean had left the premises, as did Stengel, who turned over his duties to Hamelin, a former MSBL manager.

With Judge Bean out of the way, Steele took over the managing duties, gathered his troops and told everyone to hit away. And that's exactly what they did. Beebe, Dawson and Palmer all singled to load the bases and Escala stepped into the batter's box to face  Crowley,  who came on in relief of  Maldonado.

Escala worked the count to 3-1 and then sent a high fly ball to deep left field. Nebesny looked up and followed the oval as it left the ball park. A GRAND SLAM and the Pecos Blues win the game in walk-off fashion, 5-4.

This reporter is tired. These fantasy games take a lot out of you.