TOTS on a roll in 2024

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

The 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers amateur baseball club has been around since 1968 and here in 2024  they just may be in the midst of its best season ever.

The TOTS just completed play in August and tomorrow on Labor Day, September 2nd, the club will begin its ninth month of their 57th season with an 8:30 game at Tucson Udall Park.

Last month, 74-year-old Joe Opocensky finished atop the batting stats with 21 hits in 39 at-bats for a .538 average and he also led the club in RBI with 13. Right-hander Randy Livingston led the pitching stats in August with a 3-1 record and a club-best 28 innings of work. Livingston tied for the most strikeouts with nine with Reed Palmer, while Mike Dawson, Bob Daliege, and Ernesto Escala logged their share of innings as the trio sported 2-2 records for the month.

Thirty-six players took the field during August and ripped the baseball all over Udall Park, finishing with 237 hits in 686 at-bats. The players combined for 111 RBI in August with Opocensky's 13, besting the 10 runs batted in by Livingston and Escala. The club maintained an overall batting average of .345.

Daliege led the super seniors (75-and-over) with 11 hits in 37 at-bats, a .297 average. Super senior Dave Byars was second among the old-timers with 11 hits in 38 at-bats, a .289 average. Byars, Daliege, and Opocensky were the only players to play in all 12 games as many of the old-timers battled through injuries.

Other notables who excelled at the plate for the month included Dawson (18 for 33), Escala (14 for 26), Livingston (17 for 27), along with Bob Long (11 for 33), J.B. Bulawin (10-31), John Mathews (11 for 29), John Beady (13 for 26), and Tim Tolson (12 for 36). Beady hit the only home run for the month. 

The players took the rainouts in stride in August and put up with the hot summer temperatures and head into September hoping for lower temps as fall approaches.

Of course, October is just around the corner as forty percent of its regulars will be heading for Phoenix (Oct. 13-Nov. 2) to compete in the annual Men's Senior Baseball League World Series. For the second time ever, the TOTS will send an all-TOTS team to compete in the 70-and-over division of the MSBL World Series.

Photo: MSBL 2024 World Series is just around the corner.