Old-timers baseball in 2025

 What will 2025 bring to the table? Will my body hang in there and allow me to play another year of baseball? I'll start my 18th season as a Tucson Old Timers (TOTS) Baseball Club member and probably my 74th season overall. I was six years old when I first started playing organized baseball. I'll be 80 in July, but my New Year's resolution is to play smart. Less diving...less running, and, more importantly, I'll try to remember I'm an old guy. That's hard to do sometimes.

Once you take the field, step over the white line, and head for your position, we oldtimers forget about age and have one common purpose: make the play.

Yes, it is more of an adventure now. Those high-fly balls off an aluminum bat become harder and harder to camp under. Getting in front of a sizzling one-hopper becomes a 50-50 proposition. Throwing to a target more than sixty feet away seems futile at times. But there we are week after week, month after month, doing our best to make the play.

Hats off to the TOTS, the MSBL (Men's Senior Baseball League), and all the organizations that promote baseball for guys and gals in their senior years.

Let's play ball!

The photos below were taken at our home field at Udall Park. There's a happening going on there every morning on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Photo #1 of a little one (name unknown) diving across home plate at Udall. In 60 years, he'll be able to join the TOTS. The second and third photos of a great-grandchild receiving a gift after Grandpa hit a homer. Next, a TOTS baseball is hiding in the cactus. The following image of the first-ever TOTS team from 1968...and the last photo in more current times, is of Big John Mathews blasting the ball to center on a Monday morning at Udall. Mike Steele is the catcher.