TucsonOldTimers: On a Bright Day in June

Dan Lundwall

The Tucson Old Timers
is a baseball club
composed of players
who must be at least
sixty years old.

It takes about sixty years
to evaporate
all the immature juices
of lost youth.

Jesse Ochoa

I first heard
about the Tucson Old Timers
when a graduate student
at the University of Arizona,
while on a lunch hour run
in the University neighborhood.

That was about in 1985.

Pete Maldonado

When, having attained
the necessity seniority,
and having returned
to Tucson, again,
I tried out for the team,
and
it being a time when
talent was not
a first requirement,
I joined the team.

I played for three years,
I think it was,
from about 1999-2002,
when we moved to
Minneapolis

Reed Palmer

for Mari's new job.

I took up boatbuilding.

I also effectively lost sight
in one eye,
and began replacing hip joints,
so I have not played since.

The view finder on my camera
requires . . . no, allows . . .
for only one eye,
so I take pictures.

Most of all,
I admire the faces
of the guys who call themselves,
"TOTs". Tots they aren't.
They are the wonderful faces
of old men,
with a character
that cannot be had
without at least a hint
of ache and pain;
sometimes a direct hit.

I am sure the guys
would trade their
facial grooves
for rippling abs
if they could,