I’ve spent 70 years chasing the game I love. I played every weekend, vacation and summer until I was 85. I collected memories, trophies and battle scars. And then, in one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made. I walked away. I felt certain that it was the best for me and on most days, I believed I was right.
One day you will step out on the field for the last time. One day you will unite your shoes for the last time. One day you’ll put a glove into your bag and it will be there for rest of time. One day your tan will fade. You’ll forget about the feeling of the seams under your fingers. You’ll struggle to remember what it feels like to hit the perfect pitch. You will meet the teammates once or twice a year instead of every day. You will not slide into second. One day you will be on the other side of the fence.
One day, this won’t be your life anymore. And when you don’t, you won’t remember what you thought. You won’t know how many errors of mistakes you’ve made. You won’t be impressed with how many home runs you hit. You won’t care about your average or your ERA. For the most part, you won’t remember the wins or the losses.
After your last has come and gone, you’ll recall the times when you wanted to give up-but didn’t. You’ll miss the teammates (and family) you’ve loved along the way. You’ll remember playing in the cold, driving rain, snow and the unbearably hot days. You’ll remember the hotels and the eight-hour rides to get there. You’ll remember the early practices and the late games. You will miss the coaches who never gave up on you. But most of all you’ll remember the happiness that comes only from being in between the two chalk lines, the batters box. You will remember the moments when you did more than you believed you could. You will remember the times when you used every little bit of your God-given talent.
One day, this won’t be your life anymore. So for today, run as fast as your feet will take you. Whether it was a bouncer to the pitcher or it jumped of the fence in the field to the left. Today, swing as hard as you can. Commit to each pitch and give it all you have. For today, make all plays as if this were your last chance. Today, play because you want to. Play because you need to play. Play for the boy you used to be that loves this game all those years ago.
In today’ day, do not stop until the last pitch is thrown. Play with pieces of your heart and drop them all on the pitch. One day, this won’t be your life anymore. When that day comes, make sure you don’t change or regret anything.

Here is a picture of the Smokem team that took second in the ‘50s AAA in the Western Nationals in Sacramento.
Local members Chongo Diaz, Robert Maldonado, Marcel Ramirez, and Ned Barton all play in the Fresno Senior Softball league.
Congratulations gentlemen.
Correction it wasn’t the rock and Reno it was a cancer tournament in Sacramento

Talk with my son Shane and Don Westbrook and I believe John Phillips Field is damp but very playable so all games are a go tonight at schedule times Good luck to all teams. Wished I was there.

St George was not very good to the local teams. Party Time 65’s lost their three practice games then lost their first game 17 to 11 won their second game 9 to 8 and lost their third game 13 to 9. The Party Time 60’s lost their three practice games and then they lost there first game in bracket play in extra innings 12 to 10 and then we’re eliminated by the score of 15 to 12. Party Time 74’s lost their first two games in the practice round and then destroyed a team from Calgary Canada 20 to 1 .
The first out was made in the 4th inning. They lost to the eventual winner from Oregon (with Ed Daniels and Bob Nicklason) in bootom of 7th by the score of 13 to 12 and were knocked out of the tournament by Pals 74 from California 18 to 17. Triple Play won all three practice games but then lost 13 to 9 and 13 to 6 to be sent home packing. So all in all it was not a good week for the Fresno teams.

Next week Party Time ‘70s and Cut Loose ’70s will start playing on Monday and then on Wednesday Party Time 50’s ( Lee Perez’s) group will be playing, I’ll keep you informed on what goes on.

Due to the City not allowing the lights to be on after 10:00 PM it change the format of the games for the 63 division on the night. We were forced to go to a 45 minute game time, and in a few of them we called open inning with time still on the clock. Thank you to the managers that agreed to go with the open inning which saved a lot of time and allowed all to get the practice games in.
We will be doing that next week when we have 4 more practice games we will be going back to regular timed games the following week as the league games start.