@Francis7 posted:@RJM - did you play any baseball from 23 to 44? I find it incredible that someone could go that long and start playing again at such an old age. Softball? Maybe! But baseball? Seems incredible.
I had played in a co-ed adult softball league for a couple of years at the urging of my wife. I liked the people. But I didn’t like losing most of the games. Like I said it mattered during the game. But not when it was over. Once I adapted to slo-pitch pitching I was afraid I was going to kill someone. I still had quality bat speed. I badly injured a pitcher and a second baseman when I didn’t elevate pitches. When the concierge at our CC clubhouse said her brother was looking for one more baseball player I tuned it out. After she bugged me and then her brother asked I caved.
I went to the cages and started hitting. I hadn’t hit off a pitching machine in ten-plus years. I still had decent enough speed to play outfield until I pulled a hammy. After college every three of four years I hit in a cage. I stopped when my oldest was born. After a round of getting my swing and timing down I would be hitting line drives in the 80’s lane. Four years after that one year of playing at forty-four I had my 9/10 team at the batting cages. I went in the 80’s cage and put on a line drive exhibition. At that point I was timing the pitches a little. But my mechanics were still good. I guess it was validation to the parents watching I knew something about hitting. I played D1 ball. I was drafted. But it was in a round so late it hasn’t existed for years.
I’m still reasonably athletic. I could dunk a basketball until I was 42. I’m only 6’1”. I’m still fit. At 66 I weigh 180 and have a 33 inch waist. I usually bike fifteen to twenty miles a day and up to forty to fifty once or twice a month. A few weeks ago I did the sixth-four mile Pan-Mass route for charity. I’ve always been in better shape than a lot of guys significantly younger.
I had an aortic dissection and four strokes in 2013. I beat one in six odds of survival. I’ve completely recovered. While I found people who had dissections whining on a discussion board I decided to push my doctors to allow me to push myself to their approved limit. Three months after getting out of the hospital (five week stay) I was biking five to ten miles a day.** When I woke up five days after surgery I had to learn to walk again. My cardiologist commented she had to find a medical term for “freak’n miracle.” There’s some innate athletic ability in me.
I come from an athletic family. My father played football in the Big Ten until he got injured and switched to baseball. He was lightning quick. At sixteen (he was forty-seven) I took a swing at him. Somewhere in the middle of the swing I ended up on my back on the floor. I had no idea what happened. He was a combat trained Marine.
His twin was a NASCAR driver until he decided it was a lot safer to be a NASCAR official. My son was the fifth generation of college baseball players.
** I couldn’t drive for two years. The meds occasionally made me dizzy. With a bike I could feel the dizziness coming on, stop and put my foot down. A few times the dizziness came on too quickly. I Benny Hill’ed on the bike. Or off the bike. I stopped. But I couldn’t get my foot down. It hurt.