The Man from Wickenburg -- Ted Roberts, 85

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

The Man from Wickenburg, 85-year-old Ted Roberts, is one of the newest Tucson Old Timers (TOTS), an amateur baseball organization for players 60 and over. The TOTS has been around since 1968, and close to 300 players have passed through the turnstiles, so to speak, and played for the club at one time or another.

Yes, they come, and they go, and the old saying 'build it, and they will come' resonates throughout the land, at least at Tucson Udall Park, three days a week, as the old-timers converge on the baseball field just south of the Udall Senior Center. The first pitch during the winter is at 10 a.m. and at 9 a.m. in the summer.

Roberts is now considered the oldest club member, and 78-year-old Danny "Pigpen" Price has been forced to relinquish the old man's title on the ball club. Yes, the TOTS has a couple of winter visitors who play four months of the year. They are a couple of 82-year-olds, Dick Ducklow from Wisconsin and Arnie White from Montana, but Price figures out a way to stumble through all 12 months of the year, braving Tucson's beautiful winters and the grueling hot summers.

"In Ted's case, I do not mind relinquishing my spot as the year-around Guiney Pig,'' Price said. "Ted is a keeper!"

Price, who doubles as the club historian, has seen his share of players come and go over the last two decades. "We've had some amazing men join our club, and they come with plenty of baggage, and I mean the good kind. Doctors, lawyers, judges, and people from all walks of life who bring along resumes from their professional working days that border on the unbelievable."

Ted is no exception or better put, he is exceptional!

The Man from Wickenburg grew up two miles south of Wickenburg in a ranch house surrounded by twenty acres, plenty of room to roam and grow into the man he has become. Ted's parents raised eight children, five boys, and three girls, and Ted was number six.

There, of course, is more to this story. Explaining the entire Roberts clan would take too much time in one sitting. And, after all, this is supposed to be a short TOTS baseball story about the new man on the block, so to speak.

Let's summarize Ted's history for now, but don't fret. Ted is an author, and there's a book about his family entitled The Queen of the Range, which hit the presses in March of this year and can be found on Amazon.

According to the author page of his book, Ted's full name is Theodore Henry Roberts, but he prefers 'Ted.'

The TOTS are always looking to add a nickname or two for the newbies, and this blog's author has decided to call him Mr. Ted with a giant T in honor of a well-lived life. 

Ted was born in 1938 and now lives in Tucson, just south of the BoneYard, near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Back in his high school days, Ted was valedictorian of his senior class at Wickenburg, went off to college and amassed three master's degrees in the field of education (at Arizona and Arizona State), spent three years in the army as a paratrooper, two years in Fort Bragg, North Carolina with one year in Vietnam. He played three sports in high school, played baseball and football for the Fort Bragg post team, and doubled as the quarterback on the University of Guam's football team while working there as a counselor in the public school system.

Mr. T ( sorry, the TOTS historian meant to say Ted) raised five children, three stepchildren, and has nineteen grandchildren. Mr. Roberts (another TOTS nickname we can use) spent nearly forty years as a teacher, counselor, and coach.

Ted taught math at Tucson Catalina High School but was most proud of his accomplishments as a track and cross-country coach at Santa Rita High School. 

The author of this blog, or the TOTS historian, needs help condensing the life of TOTS newcomer Ted Roberts into a few paragraphs. Luckily, we will have Ted around for a while to revisit the life and times of the Man from Wickenburg.

Ted's wife, Joan (Lady J), passed away in 2021. She was his loving partner (see photo above) for twenty years. With the help of Lady J and the rest of the family, Ted and his family released a Christmas book in 2017 about Santa Claus, Santa's wife, Anna Claus, and a fictional story about how Santa chose his eight reindeer.

As I said, there's more to the story of Theodore Henry Roberts.

Stay tuned and keep an eye out for the reindeer on Christmas Eve.

Note: By the way, Ted has logged 32 at-bats as a TOT so far and has seven hits and three runs-batted-in. Welcome aboard, Ted!

Special note regarding Coach Roberts

At 85, we must forgive Mr. Roberts if some of the dates are omitted. Ted's resume as a coach in Arizona and elsewhere is well documented in the archive books at the respective high schools where he coached and taught. But the following synopsis gives examples of the years he's spent educating our youth on and off the field of play. Well done, Coach Roberts!

Hayden High School, Winkelman, Arizona 1965-1968

1 year JV baseball coach

1 year varsity football assistant coach

2 years JV football coach

4 years Head Track coach

4 years Cross Country coach

Guam, the southernmost of the islands in Micronesia

1 year JV basketball coach at JFK High School

1 year JV basketball coach at GW High School

Santa Rita High School, Tucson, Arizona

19 years High Jump/Long Jump coach

-- 11 Girls High Jump Conference Champions

--  1 Girls High Jump State Champion

--  1 Boys High Jump State Champion

15 years Distance Running coach

15 years Cross Country coach

5 Girls Cross Country Conference Champions

2 Girls Cross Country State Champions

**Co-founder of the Old Pueblo (OPI) Cross Country Invitational (18 years)

***Inducted into the OPI Hall of Fame