Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)
60-and-over baseball
Tools of ignorance.
It's been documented that catcher Herold "Muddy" Ruel coined the above phrase around 1915 when he pointed out the intelligence needed to be effective behind the plate and foolish enough to don all the safety equipment necessary to get the job done -- the final spoke in the wheel, if you will, which allows the game of baseball to commence.
Ruel, pictured below, never played for the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers, but he certainly would have been a welcome addition. Instead, in 1923, he played in the Majors for the Washington Senators, played in 136 games, and batted .316 with 54 RBI and 24 doubles. Behind the plate, his fielding percentage was a remarkable .980.
Connie Mack said, during the 1923 season, "Ruel is the best catcher in the major leagues. He's tireless, the type of catcher that makes every player on the club perk up."
Fast forward 100 years, and the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers take the field and play their own brand of baseball every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday...and they have plenty of Muddy Ruel types strapping on the tools of ignorance and run the show in a two-hour game, braving the heat, the wind, the rain and snow (well, maybe not snow) to see the job gets done.
Current TOTS players, pictured below, Bill Mishler, Sam Dean, Mike Steele, and Bobby Daliege, wear the "tools of ignorance" now. From the first pitch to the final out, they battle foul balls off the fingertips, blows to the noggin', wild pitches, and their share of passed balls...all in a day's work as the TOTS live on, now just months away from completing the amateur baseball organization's 55th season (since 1968).
