Blog surpasses 4,500 post

Bookemdansports has been around since the summer of 2009, and today, we have reached over 4,500 posts and are closing in on half of a million views.

Now, in the grand scheme of things, the stats are not overwhelming, but for an unknown 78-year-old blogger who lives in the old southwest in the laid-back town of Tucson, Arizona, well, it seems meaningful.

My stories are not earth-shattering, nor are they for everyone. I write about the local, regional, and sometimes national senior athletes over the age of 50 with an emphasis on baseball. For example, I write about the characters on a local 60-and-over baseball team. The old-time ballplayers play three days a week at a city park. The backstop behind home plate has a sign attached with the words: 'Home of the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers.'

There are stands behind the backstop. The playing field is maintained by city employees with a lot of help from members of the Tucson Old Timers, who drag the field with a motorized tug. The members of the baseball club hose down the infield and line the field before every ball game ( and there are many of those, three days a week -- all 52 weeks -- year after year). The baseball club was founded over fifty years ago, in the summer of 1968.

For a retired sports writer with a lot of time on his hands, I find myself in the right place at the right time, and I have plenty to write about when I focus on a bunch of "crazy old dudes" who play for the love of the game.

There are so many stories out there about these characters. All you have to do, if you know their name, is to google them on the Internet, and you can read about their exploits. Many of them have nicknames, and yes, I plead guilty. I came up with many of the nicknames. Take, for instance, my handle on the team is Pigpen. Type those six letters, and you'll probably get a picture of a pig, but you'll also see a connection to the Tucson Old Timers or the blog https//:bookemdanosports.blogspot.com

There are family members or acquaintances from Los Angeles to North Carolina who tune in, if you will, to follow the exploits of the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers, better known as the TOTS. Now if you google TOTS, you'll get plenty of responses, some about the amateur baseball club, or maybe you'll get a connection to Toys "R" US. Or, you'll hit a site to find a Christmas toy for your grandchild. But, chances are good, you'll hit on a pop-up, which will take you to the blog or the https//:Tucson Old Timers site and put you in a world...a world where old baseball players live.

I recently gave way to a younger teammate, Bobby Robert Daliege Jr., to cover the TOTS’ weekly games. He does a beautiful job, giving the TOTS readers another birdseye view of the Tucson Boys of Summer. Together, we flood the Internet with stories on senior baseball.

The TOTS baseball writers...

Dan Price and Bob Daliege Jr.