Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)
60-and-over baseball
There's no quit in the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers, but it looks like covid-19 may get the last word for a few weeks. The TOTS, an organization that has played through rainstorms, an occasional snow flurry, excessive heat, swirling dust storms...well...you name it.
One time the sprinkling system had a leek, another time it was four below zero. No! Let me back up. Sometimes I get carried away, but you get the idea. It's tough to keep a TOT quarantined. I mean back in March the TOTS shut down for two weeks and they didn't play a game in April.
It's tough telling a senior citizen anything. I know I'm not only a senior citizen, but I'm a middle-aged TOT. That means I've lived for three quarters of a century.
With the virus swirling across this great country of ours, it is amazing the TOTS are just 28 days away from completing yet another season -- the organization's 53rd to be exact.
The TOTS have kept on plugging, despite canceling their annual luncheon and awards ceremony, while being forced, due to covid-19, to cancel their upcoming Christmas party. Things are really going to get tough if Santa decides to take the year off.
Of course, covid-19 is no joking matter. Forget politics. Let's just beat this thing and return to life as we know it. I mean for a diehard baseball fan another year without spring training, another shortened Major League season, no Williamsport for the youngsters, no baseball at the parks, leaving us with nothing more than a few leaves rolling aimlessly across our TOTS' home field at Udall Park.
Normally, we have close to 150 games at Udall Park, if you include not only the TOTS schedule, but the Tucson Aces, a team made up mostly of the younger set from the TOTS. The Aces take on the other two 60-and-over teams in the city -- the Arizona Rattlers and the Old Pueblo Club.
The TOTS and the Aces have played close to 80 games this season. A few players ventured north to Phoenix in October to play in the 33rd annual Men's Senior Baseball League World Series. Normally 330 teams and 5,000 players are on hand for the prestigious amateur tournament -- including teams from Australia, Canada and the Virgin Islands. This year only 202 teams participated.
The bad news for the TOTS is the fact two members of the team have tested positive for the covid-19 virus. The TOTS battled through eleven months virus-free. The TOTS all adhered to the safety precautions ...wore mask, stayed six feet apart, used sanitizer...even separated the home team from the visiting team by using both dugouts...normally one dugout would be sufficient. After all, part of being a TOT is the ability to communicate, joke around...and tell a story or two...some true, some not.
The TOTS may take the rest of December off or maybe just a couple of weeks. The jury is still out as the committee will take a poll of sorts to gather enough information to make a uniformed decision.
As of today, there's a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Luckily, the TOTS only play in the early mornings. Since most old-timers are up with the birds anyway, it has worked out pretty well for 53 years.
But this is 2020. A year we'll soon be rid of.
From the desk of club historian Dan Price
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