Pt. 3: Mid-season Observations
Rain, Rain, F*cking Go Away!
Meteorologist Jeremy Reiner of ABC News said that this is the 2nd most rainy summer in recorded history in the Boston area — and Numero Uno had a hurricane. Take the hurricane totals away and 2023 would be the wettest in recorded history. Oh goodie.
And for some inexplicable reason, it seemed to rain the most often on Mondays — the very day our team in the Atlantic league was scheduled to play.
So we had a number of rain-outs and reschedules this years. Then the rescheduled rain-out games got rained out. Are you freakin’ kidding me?
So the top brass in EMASS came up with an idea to cancel the “Fall Ball” season for the Atlantic league and simply extend the current season. With all the rain-outs, the schedule lasted into early November. The EMASS brass said no more rescheduled games — having to play in down parkas just cuts into the magic that is senior softball.
Climate Change, A Possible Solution
So that got me to thinking — with all of these rain-outs on Mondays — for anywhere in the world where there’s a drought, we simply schedule an Atlantic League senior softball game.
Boom, drought solved.
Lefty! The Agony and the Ecstasy
I’m an unabashedly proud left hander. So much so, when I see someone left handed in a TV show or movie, I yell “LEFTY!”. My wife has gotten used to it.
And ditto on the baseball field. In our team lineup, I’m one of 3 left handed batters, and when I get up to the plate, the cry goes out “LEFTY!”, and all the fields start shifting to the right, loading up right field.
It seems, no matter the league, lefties generally have a more difficult time going to the opposite field than righties. As for myself, having not played for decades, I find it difficult to go to left, but my ability to go up the middle improved over the weeks.
Being a lefty can cut both ways.
It is no secret that the more inexperienced, older, less agile, poorer fielding guys play on the right side (which includes me!) — which makes sense, as in the usual righty dominated teams, mostly the action is on the other side. (except for the Marauders, 6 lefties!)
I’ve hit a number of close grounders to either side of the 2nd baseman that have gone for hits, in addition to a few bobbles.
It seems that in our advanced age, I now have some serious wheels in comparison to my softball brethren (as long as I’m not hurt). Despite that, if I hit the ball right to the 2nd baseman, which I’ve done a lot, easy out. But if I can get opposite field hitting down, I think I can leg a lot of grounders to the left side.
My pic for the best lefties in baseball history: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr. Stan Musial. With nods to: Willie McCovey, Ty Cobb, Tony Gwynn, Ichiro, and of course, Big Papi!
Factoid: In 1927 Lou Gehrig had 175 RBIs, he got these after Babe Ruth cleared the bases 60 times (batted after the Babe). Yow!
Batting Practice
As fun as the games themselves are, the batting practice sessions held every Friday morning at the Wayland fields turned out to be a joyful, stressless activity. Lasting from 10AM up to 1PM, each person has the opportunity to get in at least two swinging sessions of a basket full of softballs.
I can tell you, after hitting 2 or 3 baskets of softballs, it can be a workout!
Batting practice is where you can smash the ball around and feel good about your swing, in the hope that it will carry through till the next ballgame. It’s enjoyable to meet a bunch of other guys from other teams and leagues. Many of them live within a mile or two of my home, I learned.
Then there’s this guy I met one day, unfrozen and brought back to life from the 1912 Cincinnati Redlegs team. Don’t even wanna know what he puts in his mustache to get it that way…
Fielding Practice!
Equally important as tweaking one’s batting swing is the opportunity to get in some serious fielding work. As a right fielder, I don’t have as much action as other players, so batting practice becomes most helpful to get in reps for fly balls — but if it’s out of reach, then f*ck it, let it drop, no pressure here!
Batty about a Bat
For most of the season, I haven’t owned a bat and used other player’s bat — which helped me to get a feel on the type and weight of bats that would work best for me. Senior bats, both alloy and composite, have to meet a specific set of standards in order to be legal for senior softball. One of these is the speed from which a softball can exit the bat, which is dumbed down for seniors, lest we’d have possible fatalities in the field.
In one batting practice I picked out a Demarini Ultimate Weapon 27oz bat and wow, the balls were flying off the bat. It felt so right! So, in the middle of my batting session, I stopped the pitcher and yelled,
“HEY, WHOSE BAT IS THIS, I WANNA BUY IT!!!”
I meant it as a joke, but it turned to be owned by a teammate of mine, John Clancy, who had no problem selling it to me. A few days later, I owned my first softball bat. Beware all senior softball pitchers, you are doomed!
The standard senior softball bat size is 34 inches and range in weight from 25 to 30 oz., either alloy or composite materials. Additionally the weight of the bat can be distributed evenly along the bat or weighted towards the end.
Initially I was trying out mostly 25 and 26 oz bats, because I’m not that big and assume the lighter the better.
One bat that I liked was a 25.5 oz composite bat owned by Paul Costa. Now Paul is a pretty big dude who can send the ball for a ride, but he likes the lighter bat, which is in line with current MLB sentiment. For example. Babe Ruth used a 42 oz. bat (or more!), Barry Bonds used a 31 oz’er — and he choked up! Looked like a match stick in his hands.
So this Demarini flies in the face of the current sentiment, being 27 oz for a lighter fellow such as myself. One test to see if a bat works well for you is to hold it out from one arm. If you can hold it out for 30 seconds, it’s good for you, and this bat passed that test.
Eventually Paul convinced me to buy a 25 ounce composite bat, which I am in the process of breaking in. Apparently it takes about 100–200 smacks to be “broken in” and reach its maximum exit velocity. When I first started using it, I could feel the softness of the strike off the bat, but now after a 100 or so smacks, it is definitely livelier.
So now I’ll intuitively choose which bat to use at the plate…
Bat Identification
There can be a lot of bats hanging around the cage, some being duplicates owned by other players. A teammate, John Clancy, suggested putting an id tag on the bat to indicate it is yours, and that it’ll still be there when the game is over. Some guys put colored bands on their bats for rapid identification. So I did that too.
Camaraderie and Belonging
We very likely have spent our working lives on teams, groups, having co-workers all focused on the same goal. Retirement takes that away. Senior softball brings back that sense of belonging.
The camaraderie feels great, nice to hear guys yelling my name when I’m at bat “C’mon Phil, hit a rocket” or “Let’s go Phil, all we need is a single”. It brings with it a defined sense of purpose and focus, namely: “smash the sh*t out the ball, kid!”.
Human beings are social animals; “no man is an island” as the saying goes (even for those of us who are introverts, which includes myself). Something clicks in when we’re part of a team, a subconscious alignment towards a shared goal, such as, “let’s kick butt on the other team”, which somehow feeds us in a deep way. More than just a team, being part of senior softball defines and reinforces the group who are my peeps: these guys, in all their gray hair, baldness, paunchiness, wrinkles, reduced athletic skills, etc., but still can hella ball.
Ok, softball is not war, but you get the idea, Band of Brothers. That’s my dad, top right.
And the Winner of the Extroverted Person of the Year Is…
Senior softball contains a varied group of characters, ranging from a bunch of very quiet guys to the other end of the spectrum, extroverted dudes who can really jaw off, joke around with each other on the same team, the other team, or even with guys in the adjoining game in Wayland! And of course, being elders, there is no shortage of stories to be shared. Lots of extroverts who can really mouth off. And often so funny!
But, I believe my team, The Cochituates may have the most extroverted person in the league, Let’s call him “Bob”. In a league of outspoken characters, “Bob”, a seasoned multi-league veteran, is on a whole other level. You know when he arrives at a ball game. He likes fast cars too, apparently.
One day at Friday batting practice, a low rider passed by the Wayland ball fields, massively rumbling out of its tailpipe. An outfielder next to me, whom I’ve never met, yells out, “Looks like Bob just arrived!”. Cracked me up.
Another day, “Bob” was jawing when he got into the batters box over something, which held up the game for a bit. The pitcher, a touch annoyed at having to wait, exclaimed, “Bob, the human rain delay!”.
That may have been the best one-liner I heard all year.
Unusual Conversations In Senior Softball
One day after batting practice, a couple of guys were talking. One said to the other, “Did you hear, Skip died”. “Oh man, well, he didn’t take care of himself that well”.
I thought, yes, a dose of reality as we play a boys’ game, trying to squeeze out as much youthful energy and vigor as we can from our well-used bodies.
The Madness of Slow Pitch Softball
One reason for the popularity of softball, IMO, is its quick and easy rewards (especially so with these zippy bats). A pitcher lobs a big, fat ball at you at a very slow speed, almost exactly as in batting practice. Sometimes that yellow softball looks like a juicy big beach ball, ripe for smacking. Thus, one can feel pretty damn good about one’s hitting ability.
Additionally, in senior softball, any play that doesn’t result in an out is considered a ‘hit’ — that means, actual hits and errors (which are numerous!), etc.
But, as in baseball, one is still trying to hit a spherical object with tubular bat; timing is everything. They say hitting a ball is the hardest thing in sport (though, having played hockey, there’s that…). And it is quite frustrating when someone, expecting to blast the hell out of the ball, hits a sad, slow dribbler to short (or in my case, second). Guys come back to the bench mumbling or cursing to themselves. It’s all part of the game.
But if that happens, remember the immortal words of Ted Lasso:
But softball can be quite maddening: someone is lobbing you a large yellow ball about as slow as possible and you may ask yourself, “Why don’t I smash it every time?”. The simple answer is: timing, stance, alertness, patience, consistency.
I mean, look at the difference between batting practice in hardball versus softball. In hardball, the batting practice pitcher throws you a 60 MPH fat one over the plate. Then you get into the game and face a split-fingered fastball from Mariano Rivera, a 100+ MPH killer from Aroldis Chapman, or some paint-the-black off-speed filth from Greg Maddox. Oy.
In contrast, a softball pitch in a game is not a whole lot different than in batting practice. So it can be very frustrating at times (see muttering comments, above). But even with hardened major league ballplayers, slow ones are not necessarily a gimme.
In the 1960s there was a relief pitcher on the New York Yankees named Steve Hamilton. When games were no longer on the line, Steve would take the opportunity to throw “the folly floater”, a slow hugely arcing pitch that looked tremendously tantalizing. Now, the height of the arc is likely to be illegal for senior softball, but in real life, the folly floater was harder to hit than expected. I actually was at this game when this player, Tony Horton, was humbled, and I’ll never going to forget him literally crawling back to the dugout:
Birthday Surprises
Later in the season, someone informed me that a teammate Jesse’s birthday was happening the next week and we were going to get him a cake. So I asked what was so special about this one. The answer:
Jesse was about to turn 80!
I couldn’t believe it, someone having the capacity to still play this game at 80 years of age. Clearly he was taking lesson from Joe Salzano! So in-between games on a late summer day, we had celebrated with cake. But what is worth mentioning here is that the team picture from this article was transposed into icing. Didn’t know you could do that!
In Part 4, I’ll sum up the season and once again expound upon the joy of playing senior softball.