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Over 50 and still hustling
For some area ball players, the game never ends
Don’t call them over-the-hill, just call them over-50.
A recent sports notice in the newspaper harkens men to consider joining a local senior men’s baseball league. It targets men 55-and-older in 2019, but the league would also welcome players starting at age 50.
Although out of season now, the senior league is busy recruiting new or untapped talent.
“My focus was on the league that I represent, which is the older league,” Paul Bevilacqua said of the notice. “However, we’re interested in getting players for both leagues. “As guys get older some of them stop playing or feel that they can’t compete with younger men. We wanted to keep our more-senior league as strong as possible so we lowered the age in that league to 55-and- over.”
The 50-and-over division comprises a dozen teams, while six are in the 55-and-over.
Several choose to play in both leagues, which have varying parameters. Rules allow teams in the 50-and-over up to three players who are ages 47, 48 or 49; in the 55-and-over, a player has to be 58-years-old to pitch.
Some are doctors and lawyers or former YSU hall of famers or ex-minor leaguers.
The players’ baseball backgrounds range from casual to experienced, once they started.
Tom Franken said he played through age 12 and loved it, but could not go on to play the next level (13-15 Babe Ruth League) because the location of the practices, the costs involved and some family issues.
“This didn’t seem fair to me but there wasn’t anything I could do about it,” said Franken, now with the Niles RJS Raiders. “I did not play organized baseball again until age 49.”
Conversely, Jon Wallace of the Boardman Fog team is a baseball lifer.
“We started competitively around 8-years-old and have just kept on playing as we grew older,” Wallace writes in an e-mail. “We didn’t turn 45 and just start playing again. Most guys in our league have been playing for 50 years or more.”
At this time of year, most players try to stay in shape via individual workouts, but some, like Greenville’s Ed Derrick, take advantage of winter league opportunities in Florida.
Derrick will play in Fort Myers with a group of guys from Toledo in a Roy Hobbs tournament.
“I’ll sure miss this weather,” he said.
Wallace, too, is among those seeing winter-ball action.
“For a number of us playing in three senior leagues and the November Roy Hobbs tournament, it added up to about 78 games for the year. Then, right after the holidays, we get back at it, hitting and throwing indoors to get ready for the coming season. The key is to not take too much time off.”
After PONY League with the East Side Merchants, Bevilacqua played four years of Class B, one year of college at YSU and two years in the Class “AA” League.
“After that, I stopped playing for a while,” Bevilacqua said. “A lot of guys at that time were playing slow pitch softball and I got involved in that and played for several years, including Akron, Canton, Detroit and New Jersey where my family moved.”
When he returned to Youngstown, Bevilacqua was busy with his daughter’s activities, but then started umpiring youth and high school games.
“While umpiring a PONY game coached by Jack Hay, a former Class B teammate of mine, he told me about a baseball league for older players and asked if I was interested. Of course, I was and I have been playing ever since.”
George Whittaker with the Chester, W.Va. entry stays busy with his baseball — and more.
“I think the main thing that keeps me going is the opportunity to compete. I’m 66 and have only a few venues where I can still compete. My 55-men’s tennis team out of Pittsburgh and my 40-mixed doubles team from Streetsboro went to the national championship in Orlando this year. I also play in the Youngstown 50-plus baseball league for Chester, which has won five championships in the last eight years. I play in the58-years league for Boardman and have won seven championships in the last eight years. I also enjoy being on a team and trying to accomplish something together.”
Derrick, who plays on Greenville’s 50s team and manages Greenville’s 55s, referred to baseball as “something close to my heart.”
For Tim Cope, a LaBrae High graduate who played at Grace College in Indiana, it’s the love of the game.
“I’ve played and coached and I love having the opportunity to lace ‘em up and play with guys who have the same passion as I do for the game. It makes me feel like a kid again.”
Cope played in the Warren “AA” League for 20 years for Brian Kochunas.
For Wallace, the attraction to baseball started as a kid in the Boardman Little League and continues to this day.
“The fun of cracking a nice hit or making a great play in the field still feels pretty darn good at any age. Staying with baseball keeps you moving and definitely feeling younger. I almost never hear anyone say ‘I think this will be my last year.’“
Sy Rachic with the Springfield team had this tidbit:
“After playing ball as a lad and being involved with coaching our kids in the youth leagues, there is a void when that is all done. Slow-pitch softball is not a viable substitute for a game we all love. What more can a guy ask for than to play seven innings of hardball and share a few beers [for medicinal purposes] along with a few stories on a Sunday afternoon? I just don’t know why the distance between bases seems to get greater every year, not to mention curve balls and bifocals!”
This parting piece from Bevilacqua:
“No matter how bad we might feel, it’s very hard to quit when we look at our teammates or opponents and see guys older than we are who are still playing, hustling, and performing pretty well. The game never ends!”