Who are the PSSBL Aqua Sox?

Men's Senior Baseball League World Series

Puget Sound Aqua Sox

Just who are the Puget Sound Aqua Sox?

Well, they are a group of men who love to play the game of baseball, especially the MSBL World Series every October in Phoenix.

Close to 80 percent of the roster is from the Seattle area and includes gentlemen from all walks of life. In addition, there must be five fellas with a Ph.D. in one field or another; a writer from Tucson and a Veterinarian from New Jersey. Add to that a first baseman who has been playing the game of baseball since he was knee-high to a grasshopper.

"My dad had me batting left-handed at an early age," said Ken McGruther, the tall first baseman on the Aqua Sox and the only player on the roster from Florida.

McGruther teamed up with third baseman Danny "Pigpen" Price, who lives just over 100 miles away in Tucson, Arizona, for the final out in the top of the ninth in the Aqua Sox win over the Cal Vets yesterday. The Vets had scored three runs and were pulling away from the Aqua Sox.

"Ken (McGruther) did a nice stretch job, and we got the runner out to end the VET's ninth," Price added.

Down 12-8, Aqua Sox put together a furious comeback and scored five runs in the bottom of the ninth for a walk-off 13-12 win.

The Veterinarian, Paul Garbaccio,  provided the game-winning hit with a single to center. 

As for the emblem on the hat of the Aqua Sox: it's a frog. The Aqua Sox indeed went through leaps and bounds at Maryvale Park yesterday to secure a win.

What does PSSBL stand for? Well, that's easy; it stands for the Puget Sound Senior Baseball League, a group of old-timers ages 74 to 85 who live in Washington and play for the love of the game.

The Aqua Sox manager, Lucky Miller, has been playing in the Men's Senior Baseball League since the beginning of time, well, for quite a while, anyway. "It was a great game today, and we came out on top."

Did Miller make all the right moves today, or was he lucky?

We will find out Tuesday at Maryvale Park, the spring training home of the Milwaukee Brewers, as the Aqua Sox return to the scene of the crime, so to speak, to play Canada Red Deer at 2 PM in the second round of the Men's Senior Baseball League World Series.