Like a Rock

Like a rock…

Lately, I've been into Bob Seger's songs. 

After all, it stands to reason because we are both the same age.

There are many singers I can relate to. Seger is special and his songs stand the test of time. My playlist is filled with a diverse group of artists : some country, some rock, a heck of a lot of blues, and, of course, the music from the 60s from not only Seger but just about any artist who can take me away from it all for three minutes at a time.

George Jones could do it. Of course, he is gone now.

Seger can get me thinking back to where it all began. My favorite songs are "Like a Rock," "Turn the Page," and "Against the Wind."

I'm not sure I was ever a rock. If I ever was, I certainly have enough chips on my torso to prove that, if anything, I was a fragile one. I've certainly turned my share of pages, and I know for a fact that I've been against the wind for a good portion of my life. Fortunately, I'm 79 now and no longer run anywhere, except maybe to first base if I ever get a hit on my 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers team.

My teammates keep me grounded when they say: "You call that running!"

Alan Jackson is another singer who can take me back in time. One song in particular is "Remember When."

I certainly remember when!

Palmer cruises to 6-2 TOTS win

 Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

Reed Palmer had it going today.

The tall right-hander allowed just two runs en route to a 6-2 win over Team Blue at Udall Park today as Team White scored three runs in the first and three more in the fifth inning for an easy win.

Pete Peters, Mike Dawson and Palmer, all went 2 for 3 and drove in two runs apiece to complete the scoring for Team White, while Bobby Long and Pete Maldonado knocked in the only two runs for Team Blue.

Ron Ryan also had a good day for Team White with a 3 for 4 day and Brad Vermeer drilled the longest  ball today to the warning track in center field. It turned out to be a long single as centerfielder Mark Capley grabbed the ball off the fence, and fired the ball back to the infield, keeping the not-so-speedy Vermeer at first base.

The TOTS will be off on Friday and return to Udall on Monday. Game time: 10 a.m.

Photo: Reed Palmer

The Roland Boys continued...

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

Doc and Gary Thompson

Sixty years ago, DeLon "Doc" Thompson signed a contract with the Minnesota Twins and played a couple of years of minor league ball. Doc, now a member of the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers, grew up in Roland, Iowa with older brother, Gary, who just happened to set a trail to stardom in Iowa basketball and became an all-American and even found his way to the Ed Sullivan show with the other all-Americans, including Wilt Chamberlain. The gym floor (see above photo) in Roland was renovated in 2016, bearing Gary's signature.

As for Doc, besides playing baseball with the TOTS, he has enjoyed a career in country music. Although, at the age of 78, he's content with playing baseball three days a week with the Tucson Old Timers, but still finds time to do some business transactions with his music.

"In my song writing, I have tried to stay true to the classic sounds of country music and country-Gospel music," says Doc Thompson. "I still enjoy writing love songs, story songs, feel-good songs and romantic songs."

Thompson still enjoys the game of baseball.

And yes he can still pitch. Just ask the players on the Tucson Old Timers.

 

Old Pueblo 9 Tucson Aces 8

Today's Tucson Aces game at Santa Rita

Tucson Aces and Old Pueblo tangled in the dust of Santa Rita Park today. When dust settled OP came out 9 - 8 winners. Plenty of hits on both sides as Mike Dawson and Rudy Duarte threw strikes. After Aces jumped out to 5-0 lead, OP scratched back to tie the game at 7-7 in the fifth inning. Old Pueblo took a 9-7 lead into the seventh. Aces rally came up short with tying run on second base and slugger Reed Palmer at bat. Duarte induced a harmless infield pop up. (to end the game)

Note: Thanks, Mike. Pigpen can certainly use the help these days. Aces fall to 17-2.

Opocensky, Dawson lead Team White to 6-1 TOTS win

Tucson Old Timers

60-and-over baseball

Joe Opocensky pitched a complete game, allowing one run on nine hits, while shortstop Mike Dawson made five putouts and collected four assists to lead Team White to a 6-1 win in a 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers game today at Udall Park. 

Opocensky struck out two and walked one, while Team Blue's Ernesto Escala was saddled with the loss, despite pitching well with three strike outs. Team White scored a run in the first, two in the third, two more in the fifth and another run in the sixth.

Dawson had two hits on the day and knocked in four runs, while Team Blue's Bill Mishler and Ken Nebesny collected two hits apiece. Rookie Mark Capley, who was welcomed to the club today by Dawson, collected two hits for the winning team, as did TOTS veteran Tim Boyd, who singled and doubled.

The father-son combination of Pigpen Price and Mike Price went 3 for 6 and scored a run. Pigpen is 75 and his son turns 56 on November 30. Mike still has four years to go before becoming an official TOT, but was allowed to see action today, due to the low turnout. 

The last time the Price combo played together was back in 2012 when both players played for the 38-and-over Orioles (see photo below) in the Tucson MSBL at Reid Park.

The TOTS will be back at Udall on Wednesday with a 10 a.m. start time. The TOTS will take Friday off, due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

TOTS welcome three new players

 

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

The 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers are getting younger all the time with three new additions to the club this week. The trio includes Bobby Williams Jr., a Palo Verde High School grad, from back in the day; Mark Capley, another Tucson product from Rincon High School, again from back in the day, and the third addition is 65-year-old Rick Bitzer, who comes to the TOTS with some baseball credentials.

Bitzer, pictured above, is a former Tucson MSBL player/manager who managed the 45-and-over Cubs for 16 years and logged 17 years in the organization, which has teams and rosters full of ball players just a little bit younger than a TOTS regular -- some 25 to 30 years younger... and in some cases there may be a 40-year age difference.

It'll definitely be a learning experience for Bitzer, but after two weeks of action at Udall Park, he seems to be fitting in rather nicely.

"When Covid-19 hit and all three of my teams folded (he was also player/manager or was involved with the Tucson MSBL 25-and-over, as well as a 18-and over independent league), I thought I was done with baseball." Bitzer said.

Bitzer has discovered in a few short weeks that the TOTS keep on plugging year, after year...after year. In fact, the TOTS missed only March and a couple of weeks of April this year and it has been full speed ahead since the beginning of May. The TOTS are just six weeks away from completing its 53rd season.

Welcome aboard to all three newcomers. Rick has got a little head start on Williams and Capley, who are both a bit younger than Rick and still may be logging some work time.

The TOTS, and hopefully all three "rookies" will be begin yet another week of action on Monday. Game time: 10 a.m.

79-year-old rancher feels at home on a saddle or in the batter's box

 Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

Arnie White has been a member of the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers since 2010. Arnie was born in Fulton, New York, a long time ago. Well,  not so long ago if you consider his teammates on the TOTS  range in age from 60 to 94.

Like so many members of the TOTS, White has had a career which borders on the unbelievable. A fighter pilot, a commercial pilot, a retired professor from the University of Arizona, a golf instructor, and a rancher who lives with his wife, Michelle, on 85 acres, outside of Red Lodge, Montana.

Like all TOTS, Arnie loves to play the game of baseball and he's back on the field at Udall Park this fall and winter playing one of the games he loves. Golf may be a close second or just may be No. 1 on his list. Arnie is and has always been a well-conditioned athlete.

Arnie turned 79 on November 11, 2020 and he can still pull a baseball with the best of them.

Today, Arnie was back on the field at Udall and on his first at bat in a TOTS' game in more than six months, he drills a shot to left field on the first pitch off Team Blue's hard-throwing, right-hander Reed Palmer.

Like so many others on the TOTS, Arnie is forced into battling health issues. White has developed Parkinson's, but it hasn't stopped him from playing ball or riding horses. Today, Arnie came down off the saddle and stepped into the batter's box.

"It's frustrating," says White. "I just can't be as mobile as I used to be."

Like all the TOTS, White has no quit in him and he plans to make a trip to Montana soon to pick up his horses and bring them to Tucson for the winter...and, of course,  he will continue to step into the batter's box and play ball with the Tucson Old Timers.

Arnie is right at home on a golf course, ramrodding his ranch or at Udall Park swinging for the fences. He's also at home in the air as well. White has pretty much done it all.

Happy Birthday, Arnie.

Photo: Arnie White

TOTS note: Team White edged Team Blue 6-4 today at Udall. Mike Dawson picked up the win and Palmer was saddled with the loss. Palmer blasted his second home run in 10 days, but both homers were unofficial. Both teams were short a player today and last Friday and both games did not count in the regular monthly statistics. Palmer has 11 homers this year, officially.

What's an old man to do in such trying times?

A covid-19 update (It's been a few months since one of my priceless updates)

No pun intended. Well, maybe so.

The numbers are now staggering. Nine months have come and gone. Six weeks are left in 2020. Good riddance! The year 2021 may be more of the same. Let's hope for a vaccine soon.

It feels like many of us are heading for a quarantine once again...well, self quarantine, as we all do our best to get through the day. Some are risk takers, but many are not and those individuals settle for a trip outside to feed the dog or the cat... or grab the daily newspaper...and that's it. Heck you can get the groceries delivered, if you want to take it a step further. Of course, most people apply a mask to their face and get on with the grocery shopping. It could work to your advantage if there is a certain someone you'd rather not run into.

Anything but tune in to the cable news channels. As for us old people! In my case, I'm 75 years of age and the news channels predict my demise sooner than later. Until then, it's full speed ahead for Pigpen Price, that's a nickname bestowed on me by teammates many years ago. As you can see my name is Dan Price. I'm not the only Dan Price in the world. I know for a fact at least two authors by the same name and it does get confusing from time to time. I even have a son named Dan Price and a grandson named Dan Price, although we refer to him as Daniel Price. Enough of that. I have, as a hobby, found a way to get five of my books out amongst the English. I heard that in a movie once. It was called Witness and the star was Harrison Ford. Of course, I'm no Hemingway and I no longer wait for royalty checks to show up in my mailbox. Occasional, but I give away most of my masterpieces, anyway. So if you're so inclined take a stroll at the Kindle store...my books are all on Amazon. The Loner is probably my best effort...and maybe my book, Billy's Victory, for the younger set. You can pick all five up for less than $20.00. As I said, I had a day job. No worries. As you can see in the video clips below, I love baseball, the Arizona sun...and writing. I love to dance, but with covid-19 and all, dance partners are kinda scarce. My old-timers baseball team keeps me busy. In Arizona, you can play year around. That's if you can find twenty guys over the age of 60 who are willing to band together and play America's Favorite Pastime. And we have no problem there. We have 45 active members.The Tucson Old Timers have been around since 1968. Heck I've played with the amateur organization for 13 years. I'm now an old-timer in an old-timer's league. I'm not sure, but if I couldn't venture to our home field at Tucson Udall Park three times a week and play baseball for two to three hours at a time, then chances are I just might be ready to check with Jack Nicholson and fly over the cuckoo's nest and be done with it. Just kidding. I have too much to do. Besides playing baseball and writing books, I'm ready to open a mask business. Once again, just kidding. And, I'm learning how to do videos on YouTube. If a 75-year-old broken down sportswriter (I did that for a living, too) can do it, anyone can! As you can see in the videos, playing and existing in Arizona is not too bad. Once in a while, a two-day trip to the beaches in California will do wonders for your mind and body. Yes, 2020, is good for some people who have no need for eye glasses, but as a year, it sucks, so my advice: stay busy. This too will pass.

In the photo below, I'm trying out my new headphones. Someone just came on the air with a news flash. It's been discovered if gray haired men wear headphones for six hours a day, they'll miss most of the daily news on the cable channels...and will get a good night's sleep.

I paid less than fifty dollars for the headset and accessories. Maybe I'll save some money in the long run and throw away the sleeping pills.

Good night, to all my fans. There are still a few of you out there.

We will get to the rest of the story tomorrow.

I've always wanted to use Paul Harvey's line: "and now for the rest of the story."

We lost Mr. Harvey in 2009. Most of my readers remember him. I'm sure.

Dawson cruises to a 9-2 TOTS win

 Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

The rumor is Mike Dawson was a pretty good baseball player for Tucson Santa Rita High School. Of course, that was many moons ago. The early 1970s to be exact.

Dawson is a littler older now. In fact, he turned 65 last April and is now eligible for the silver sneakers program. As far as baseball goes, he still plays like a young stud who just happens to throw strikes for the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers.

Today at Udall Park, Dawson the starter for Team White, pitched all seven innings en route to a 9-2 win  over Team Blue. The Tucson Santa Rita grad struck out four, walked one and allowed Team Blue only seven hits. He also went 3 for 4, with a double, a triple and knocked in three runs.

Not a bad day for Mr. Dawson.

As for Team Blue, it just wasn't their day. Joe Opocensky and Pete Maldonado combined for four of the seven hits. Team White's Tim Tolson and Jesse Ochoa collected three hits apiece in support of Dawson.

The TOTS will be back in action on Wednesday with a 10 a.m. game at Udall and close out the week with a game on Friday.

TOTS Blue dominates Team White in Veterans Day Game

 Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

The TOTS played a baseball game in honor of our Veterans today at Udall Park.

It turned out to be a lopsided affair as Team Blue came out with guns a blazing and walked away with a 15-3 thumping over Team White. Team Blue displayed plenty of ammo with four players collecting 15 of their 20 hits on the day.

Leading the way was newcomer Rick Blitzer, 65, with a perfect 4 for 4 day, while regulars Bob Daliege went 4 for 5, Tim Tolson went 4 for 5 with four runs-batted-in and Doc Thompson, a perfect 3 for 3, with two walks and four RBI.

It was a good day for a trio of newcomers on Team White as Bobby Long picked up three hits, Mark Capley added two hits and scored one of his team's three runs, while Carl Schwanbeck, 74, added a hit and a sacrifice bunt.

The Catch of the Day came from Team Blue's centerfielder Tim Boyd, who grabbed an over-the-shoulder catch at the warning track off the bat of the hard hitting Reed Palmer. It was just a week ago that Palmer, and Tolson for that matter, had collected the first home runs for the month of November. Tolson's blast last week punctured a hole in the scoreboard (just kidding, maybe a little dent), while Palmer's home run found the trees, as usual, over the right field fence.

The TOTS will close out the week at Udall with a game at 10 a.m. on Friday.

 Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

Attention: All TOTS...and all my readers

To all my TOTS teammates who have a computer in the house and to all my readers as well. Try going to google and search for Bookemdanosports  you'll get 3,000 hits or if you happen to have this post up just click on the following http://bookemdanosports.blogspot.com/ and you end up with a direct line to the blog and you can explore 12 years of posts, most of the posts focusing on our beloved 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers.

If you are successful with your google effort then select Images and close to 600 TOTS photos will pop up.

It's crazy. Even Bookemdanosports is getting old. The sports blog will begin its 13th year in January/2021.

Happy reading!

Note: Of course if you're already here then stay on my sports blog and explore. Click on a year on the right side of my blog...then click on a month...and then click on a post. Easy.

Remembering Jamie Foster

 From the desk of Dan Price

I read the Sunday paper this morning, the Arizona Daily Star. It's a habit I cannot break. A former sports reporter myself, I read Greg Hansen's column regularly. Today, on Greg's This and That, his first lengthy paragraph starts with the headline: Larson, 94, meets up with former players.

Larson was the guest speaker at my sports awards ceremony in 1965 at Eastern Arizona College. I was 20; Larson must have been pushing 40 or at least 39. Where have the years gone? 

As I continued reading the column, the names returned me to the 1963 and 1964 Arizona basketball teams. Listed by Hansen: the names Buddy Doolen, Albert Johnson, Dennis Albright, Tom Lavoy, and Ken Kurtz.

Missing from the group of names was my high school buddy and friend forever, Jamie Foster. We lost Jamie in February of 2020... just weeks before the coronavirus took off like a desert thunderstorm, moving quickly through all our lives.

Jamie was a star player in 1961 at Catalina High School and went on to make the roster in 1963 and 1964 with our beloved Arizona Wildcats. Those two years in particular, he was my crowd-pleaser when he came off the bench late in games. He was my basketball hero. I was just two years behind him in high school. 

We won the prep championship at Catalina High in 1963 with a win in the finale over Phoenix South Mountain. I would always joke with Jamie. "Hey, big fella, you graduated two years too early." 

Below are two photos of Jamie: 1) of Jamie, the neighborhood kid, who would sprout into a considerable 6-foot, 5-inch rebounder. He was already a big man on campus, in my mind, long before he enrolled at the University of Arizona and played basketball for Larson. 2)  of Jamie, his beautiful wife, Freddy Wade-Foster, the love of Jamie's life, and yours truly. I had the honor of seeing Freddy and Jamie in November of  2019. Freddy said Jamie felt well enough to come to Udall Park and watch me play for the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers, an amateur baseball organization, now in its 53rd season.

It was the last time I saw my basketball hero, Jamie Foster.

I can still picture in my mind a University of Arizona game in 1964. It was the last minute of the game, and the voice on the loudspeaker roared: "And now entering the game, JAMIE FOSTER."

The Head of Cabbage Incident

From the desk of Dan Price

Pigpen is in a tizzy this week. After all, he's recovering from a knee injury so restraining and uncomfortable that it is keeping him off the playing field.

I mean the poor fella has endured a couple of dives on the baseball diamond, which has put the 75-year-old (remember Pigpen is not a kid anymore)  through two weeks of annoying pain, not to mention a left leg filled with a color pattern only a hippie from 1969 would be able to make sense off -- purple, orange, black and blue.

Although, now there is hope at the end of the tunnel -- a light beginning to glow near the entrance which leads back to Tucson Udall Park and the baseball field (back behind the Senior Center), otherwise known as the home field of the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers -- a group of old men who play for the love of the game.

Patience, Pigpen...patience.

Pigpen has tried everything during his recovery to ease his pain (and I'm not talking about the words from the movie, The Field of Dreams). Ice, ice and more ice and even a head of cabbage. Yes, I said: cabbage.

A doctor, who lives in Pigpen's neighborhood, walked by his house yesterday morning and said: "Have you tried the old cabbage on the knee trick?"

I muttered. "Cabbage on the knee and wrap an ace bandage around it!"

I thought, I mean Pigpen thought, it sounded like it was worth a try. I was a bit skeptical thinking in the long run I would turn into a Cabbage Doll and my goodness I has enough problems without dealing with that.

After all, I'm Pigpen not a doll!

But Pigpen went to the store anyway, bought a newspaper and a head of cabbage and rushed (slowly, I might add) home to read the paper and apply the cabbage to his knee cap.

An hour later, Pigpen eyed his knee cap and could swear the swelling had gone down.

So, it now stands to reason. If Pigpen could dive into a Cabbage Patch his worries from head to toe would be over and he could continue to play baseball until he turned 100 years old!.

I'll be back soon!

I'm back...Bookemdanosports returns!

 

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

Arnold Schwarzenegger has said many times, "I'm back."

Of course, that was one of his famous lines in Expendable 2 back in 2012. Remember the bulldozer scene when "Trench" comes to the rescue?

Well, I'm no Arnold. In fact, the only puffed up part of my body is my left knee which has gone from the size of a grapefruit  two  weeks ago to a slightly oversized apple. I'm making progress with a little help from an urgent care nurse practitioner in Phoenix and maybe a little help from my primary care doctor who explained to me today, "the appointment on the 10th of November will now be a conference call."

Even my doctor has given in to the coronavirus.

All of this is necessary because at the age of 75, I decide to dive for a ball in the first inning and the ninth inning of our second round-robin game at the Men's Senior Baseball League World Series, held in Phoenix  -- an event held every October at all the spring training facilities through out the Valley of the Sun. This year marks the 33rd installment of the prestigious event, which normally has 330 teams and 3,000 players from all over the country descending on the Phoenix area for a month of non-stop baseball. Five weeks if you add the first week of November when the tourney ends with the Father-and-Son MSBL World Series -- one of the more popular divisions.

Due to the coronavirus, no Thursday barbecues were held this year at the MSBL World Series. No meet and greet, if you will. No shaking hands after each game, a mask must be worn in and out of the stadiums and annex fields, while the entry into the ball parks, in some cases, were limited to 30 minutes prior to the game. If a doubleheader was scheduled players were expected to pack up between games and vacate the stadium while workers scurry around and do a deep cleaning. Well, a quick dusting anyway. 

As for me, I've been told many times by my teammates on the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers: "No diving. Stay on your feet!"

Once again I didn't listen.

This year the coronavirus played havoc with the 2020 MSBL World Series as just 202 teams suited up. Missing were teams from Canada, Australia and the Virgin Islands.

Next year the powers to be, who run the MSBL World Series, promise a bigger and better event.

We can only hope.

As for me, the jury is out on whether I'll be back for my 14th MSBL World Series. The 13th didn't go as planned.

But I'll be back with my teammates soon. Because the Tucson Old Timers keep on plugging and are just weeks away from completed yet another season. The amateur baseball organization will begin its 54th season in January.

Soon we can leave 2020 behind us.

Let's play ball!

From the desk of Pigpen Price