SENIOR CIRCUIT : Softball Players 55 and Over Have Fun, but Performance Is Not Forgotten

EL CAJON —  The conversation was shifting, as it so often does, minutes before a softball game earlier this week at Wells Park in El Cajon.

Among the subjects in the air were the game, girls and Cyndi Lauper.

Reaction No. 1: Didn’t take those crazy high school kids long to get into the swing of summer vacation, did it?

Reaction No. 2: Get a few college guys together on a warm summer day, and nothing ever changes. The subjects are always the same.

But the dugout philosophers were all men, age 55 and older. And what they were doing was loosening up for a Senior Softball League game.

“You’ll meet some of the neatest guys here,” said Bobby Smith, a 59-year-old shortstop for El Cajon. “We’ve got three players on our team who used to be jet pilots--one worked for PSA, one flew in World War II, and another flew in Vietnam. We’ve had guys who played after having open heart surgery.”

Smith was warming up.

“Three years ago, there was this guy named Sam playing for a Carlsbad team,” he said. “He came up to bat with a man on first, and I called out, ‘Easy double play.’ Sam had had bypass surgery a week earlier. He had to miss a game--he had asked his doctor if the surgery could be postponed for a couple of weeks until there was a break in the schedule. ‘You can work on me then,’ he told the doctor. True story.”

The Senior Softball League, of which there are various sub-leagues, runs year-round. Some of the men play in an intracounty league on Tuesdays, which includes teams representing Carlsbad, San Diego, Pacific Beach, La Mesa and El Cajon. Players are not required to live in the district their team represents.

On other days, there are different leagues around the county. For example, there is a four-team El Cajon league that plays its games on Thursday mornings.

Also, some players travel north for leagues in Huntington Beach and Long Beach each Saturday and Sunday.

And then there are tournaments. Already this year, some players have been to tournaments in Reno and Las Vegas; Sun City, Ariz., and Turlock, Calif. Later this year, they will travel to tournaments in Redwood City; Albuquerque, N.M., and, possibly, Alabama.

The players pay their own way to such events. Sponsors often take care of uniforms, and sometimes equipment and tournament entrance fees.

Dave Smiley, 56, and Frank Hecklinger, 67, both play on the Carlsbad team in the intracounty league, and they have more in common than that: Both of their wives travel to every game.

“Charlene says, ‘My husband is too good-looking to let him go by himself,’ ” Donna Smiley said.

Charlene Hecklinger didn’t deny it.

“They’re good ballplayers,” Donna Smiley added. “It’s fun to watch them. And it’s different when your kids all grow up and leave the house. You’re all alone. We’ll go to a game and then out to lunch.”

The rules in senior softball are basically the same as in other leagues and at picnics, with a few twists:

- No sliding.

- You can overrun a base without being tagged out, as long as you don’t make what appears to be a move to the next base.

- On plays at the plate, there is an automatic force out. The catcher doesn’t have to tag the runner.

- There is a limit of seven runs an inning, except in the ninth.

- Runners can lead off as soon as the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand but cannot start running to the next base until the ball is hit.

These special rules were devised in an attempt to lessen the possibility of injury. Of course, nothing is foolproof. El Cajon’s Bob Ryan, 57, is in his second year in the league and has already broken three fingers. Ryan, a bookkeeper, points out that that’s an average of 1 1/2 broken fingers a year.

The rules also result in some interesting plays. Bill Hansen, a 56-year-old rookie, remembers one.

“Bob Ryan was batting once with a runner on first base,” Hansen said. “It looked like a fat pitch coming to him, so, as the ball was still in the air, he yelled at the runner, ‘Run, run, run!’ Well, he swung and missed at the pitch, so next thing you hear is him yelling, ‘Back, back, back!’ All the while, he’s in the batter’s box.”

Hansen flew in the Air Force from 1954-1975, including four years in Vietnam, during which he earned a Silver Star and two Distinguished Flying Crosses. He joined the league a year ago after undergoing quadruple heart bypass surgery. Eight weeks after the surgery, he was playing the outfield.

You would think that, because of his surgery and the fact that he’s playing slow pitch softball for the first time in his life, his teammates would accord him some respect. Not a chance.

“A couple of weeks ago, we were playing in a tournament in Placentia,” Hansen said. “We were winning something like 3-2 in the middle innings, and I hit a three-run home run. As I neared the plate, I expected a big group of my teammates to be waiting to congratulate me, but none were there. One of them had said, ‘Hey, let’s give Hansen the silent treatment.’ I came in and nobody was saying a word to me. I’m looking around like, ‘What the hell’s going on?’ and suddenly they all busted out laughing.

“When you’re a rookie, they treat you like dirt.”

And Hansen loves it.

“It’s a fun group of guys,” he said. “You look out and see players like Jack Lange, who’s 68, playing second base. Isn’t Jack something? We kid each other, but there’s none of that petty stuff. We’re all happy to be here.”

Of course, the seniors are continually looking for a few good men to join the league.

“It’s hard to find players our age in good shape,” said Carlsbad’s Carl Hutzler, 57. “A lot of guys would rather bounce their grandkids on their laps than get out and play ball.”

Said Bobby Ross, 59, also of Carlsbad: “You can’t get in shape playing softball, but you have to be in shape to play softball.”

Both Hutzler and Ross played minor league baseball, and their love of the baseball diamond hasn’t diminished.

“Some people were meant to play golf or throw the javelin,” Ross said. “Others were meant for the camaraderie of team sports. You can jog and get exercise. I enjoy the team play.”

Much of the kidding centers on the players’ ages. A few weeks ago, Hutzler was incorrectly identified in a newspaper article as being 63.

Said Hutzler: “I lost four girlfriends that day.”

Despite the joking, don’t let these guys fool you. Some genuine, old-fashioned baseball talk can be heard on the field as well. Against host El Cajon on Tuesday, Carlsbad scored a couple of first-inning runs, thanks in part to a poor backup on an overthrow to third base. The backup man was a couple of steps behind the third baseman, and the ball skipped by both of them. Before El Cajon came to bat in the bottom of the first, Smith called out to his team: “Hey, anybody backing up, we learned a lesson there: Don’t back up too close.”

And some good ball is played as well as talked. El Cajon defeated Carlsbad Tuesday, 19-5, and turned pitcher-to-shortstop-to-first base double plays in the seventh and eighth innings.

Said Smith: “It’s a lot of fun. Milo Ott (one of Smith’s teammates on the El Cajon team) said to me one day, ‘When we were kids, we all loved to run and play ball. But then we had to go through a stage in our lives when we had to be responsible. Now we’ve returned to our first love.’

“I think that pretty well says it.”