The TOTS 1,000 career hits club...and a few players who are knocking at the door

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

It takes some longevity to become a member of the 1,000 career hits club with the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers -- a club that has been around since 1968, but coming up with yearly statistics prior to the year 2003 are hard to come by.

Floyd Lance, who turns 96 on September 6, 2021 started keeping official statistics in 2003 and he painstakingly used an index card system to get the job done. After each game, Lance would record each players at bats, runs, hits, runs-batted-in, doubles, triples, home runs, and batting average -- by game, by month and finally by the year. Lance also kept track of walks, hit-by-pitches and sacrifices.

The amazing Floyd Lance finally ran out of pencils a couple of years ago and turned all his materials over first to Ron Petersen (before he retired), then to Bill Mishler, a University of Arizona professor, who is currently on a leave of absence and finally into the hands of Mike Steele, 73, who uses his trusty computer after every game to do the calculations and producing, in record time, detailed box scores, which makes all the club members -- who care about that sort of thing -- happy campers.

Of course, there may be a few arguments among the players from time to time and the official scorekeeper Mal Zwolinski, 83, might be called upon to rectify things and offer a few adjustments.

I mean this is an old-timers' baseball club and there are bound to be a few disagreements.

In reality, this is a bunch of old-time ball players who get together at Udall Park three days a week, year in and year out, to play the game of baseball. None of the players are heading for Cooperstown and certainly Mike Trout doesn't have to worry about a hot-hitting TOT overtaking him on the hitting charts.

Below are the career hits leaders since 2003: (through the 2020 season)

1.   Chico Bigham        2,134

2.   Lloyd Barzell         1,854

3.   Tim Tolson             1,834*

4.   Doc Thompson       1,642*

5.   Denny Leonard       1,634

6    Floyd Lance            1,529

7.   Jerry Smarik           1,478

8.   Pete Peters              1,425*

9.   Dennis Crowley      1,418*

10.  Danny Price           1,401*

11.  Ron Petersen          1,393

12.  Ed Rife                    1,357

13.  Jerry Hamelin        1,354

14.  Billy Heiny             1,313

15.  Brad Tolson            1,288

16.  Bob Daliege            1,262*

17.  Dave Rhoades         1,099

18.  Joe Aparicio            1,064

Closing in...

19.  Ron Carlson              958*

20.  Jesse Ochoa             853*

21.  Ted Davis                  784*

22.  Reed Palmer             715*

23.  Mike Steele               684*

24.  Dick Ducklow           681*

25.  Bill Mishler               647*

26.  Joe Opocensky         618*

27.  Arnie White              598*

28.  John Mathews          580*

29.  Mike Dawson            422*

*currently active on the 2021 roster 

*****A special note from TOTS' historian Dan Price -- It must be noted that records are meant to be broken. There are a few major league records that will never be broken, but as far as the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers are concerned all records will likely fall away from the archive books and become just a footprint in time. The TOTS have been around for 54 seasons, another 46 will put them in triple digits. The names above will be replaced by future TOTS' legends. There is one record that will be hard to beat. The Tolson's father and son combination -- Brad Tolson, 92, and Tim Tolson, who turns 69 on August 30, 2021, have amassed, as of this post, over 3, 200 combined hits. Also, many of our legendary players who have fallen short of 1,000 hits are still remembered and a little digging into the archive books show that men like Art Radtke, 83, a plumber from Rhinelander, Wisconsin, who played from 2003-2014,  collected 869 hits during his TOTS' career.*****

***Received a document from Brad Tolson, 92, one of the TOTS who played in both the 20th and the 21st century. Brad logged his stats from 1992 until he retired from the TOTS in 2012 after 21 seasons and gave his uniform #3 to his son, Tim, who continues the family dynasty and currently is just four months away from completing his ninth season and will begin his 10th campaign January/2022.

Brad's phenomenal statistics: Games Played -- 2,143 -- At Bats -- 6, 355 -- Runs -- 1,558 -- Hits -- 3,419 -- Doubles -- 495 -- Triples -- 21 -- Home Runs -- 23 -- Career Batting Average -- .538

Go, TOTS! Carry on and keep swinging!