TOTS' Bobby Katz to turn 83

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

The Tucson Old Timers do their best to celebrate a players'  birthday.

After all, the TOTS are a group of 60-plus old-time baseball players and every birthday is a milestone.

Bob Katz, who turns 83 on July 11, is the next birthday celebration for the organization, an amateur baseball club in the midst of its 53rd season. Katz, a 15-year member of the TOTS, grabbed his last at bat in 2014, but walked 57 times to tie for the team lead in that category.

Katz no longer takes the field for the TOTS and is now listed as an associate -- a more formal word for a retired TOT. An associate of the organization, but certainly not forgotten. How could a member of the TOTS forget a former player? It just doesn't happen.

As for Katz, he's one of those "special guys" who deserves a week-long celebration.

Bobby has had it with hospitals. He is at home with his wife of 56 years, Yolanda. They live a half a mile from the ball park. In fact it is not out of the question for the TOTS' power hitting 63-year-old Reed Palmer, who holds the record for single-season home runs at 29, to blast the baseball by the gate entrance to the couple's home at Vactor Ranch.

Katz married Yolanda in 1964. A marine, Katz, nicknamed "The Gunner," met Yolanda in Orange County, California, and eventually the couple set up shop in Tucson, Yolanda's hometown, where her father and grandfather were well-known owners of a chain of restaurants.

In fact, Yolanda's father, the late Louis Aranetta, had an old grain silo built (see photo below) on South Sixth Avenue for El Zarape's daily production of corn tortillas that were delivered to supermarkets and restaurants throughout Southern Arizona. 

 

As for Bobby, he grew up a long way from Orange County and Tucson, Arizona, in the baseball town of Philadelphia. As a young boy, Katz walked through the turnstiles at Shribe Park and watched Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts play the game of baseball.

"I grew up in Philly and my mother gave me 60 cents and I would hop on the trolley and head for a game," Katz said. It cost a quarter for the trolley and another 35 cents to get into the game." 

My goodness. Another memory from a TOT.

The TOTS have their stories and their memories.

And thank goodness we have teammates like Bobby Katz.

Happy Birthday, Bobby!.

Photos: (at top )-- the one and only Bobby Katz