Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)
60-and-over baseball
Ray Garcia, 69, hails for New York City and he spends his winters in Tucson playing baseball for the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers (TOTS), an amateur baseball organization that has been swinging for the fences in the Old Pueblo since 1968.
Garcia (photo below) is one of many winter visitors over the years that has donned a TOTS' uniform and has enjoyed mixing it up with a bunch of fellow old-timers from 60 to 80 who refuse to give up the game. Garcia, who grew up playing sandlot ball in the da bronx, plays third base for the TOTS and is also a member of the 60-and-over Tucson Aces, an off-shoot of the main organization, which consists mostly of the younger TOTS, ranging in age from 60 to 69, and travel across town once or twice a month to take on the Old Pueblo Club and the Arizona Rattlers.
Ray finished the month with 20 hits in 32 at bats, a .625 batting average. He played in nine of the 11 games, scored seven runs and knocked in seven runs. His 20 hits led the club, one more than regular Mike Dawson, who ended up with 19 hits in 35 at bats, a .543 average. Dawson scored the most runs (16) for the month and collected the most doubles (7).
Finishing third in hits for the month was Joe Opocensky, who went 18 for 39 (.362) and also led the club in RBI with 14.
Newcomer John Cooke went 15 for 24, a .625 average, Tim Tolson went 14 for 23, a .609 average and Danny Boxberger, a winter visitor from Vancouver, went 14 for 31, a .452 average.
Three players belted out triples for the month -- Bob Daliege, Cooke and Sam Dean. Reed Palmer hit the only home run for the month.
Next up was Mike Steele with 13 hits in 30 at bats, a .433 average, while three players Dennis Crowley, Palmer and 76-year-old Danny "Pigpen" Price chipped in 12 hits apiece.
Price, (bottom photo) who came out of retirement (again!) went 12 for 34 and led the players over the age of 75 with a .353 batting average.
Other notables who reached double figures in hits were Daliege (11), Bobby Long (11), David Byars (10), Jesse Ochoa (10), John Mathews (10) and Dean (10).
On the mound, it was Pete Maldonado (below photo), 69, leading the way with a 3-0 record, while Dawson finished with a 2-2 record and Palmer made the most of his two starts with two wins.
Thirty-five players took their cuts in February. There were 283 hits in 690 at bats with 142 runs scored.
Way to go, TOTS!
TOTS' Info Line: Garcia and Maldonado are both 69 years of age and they are both from da Bronx and they went to the same high school in New York -- Dewitt Clinton High School.
