For 82-year-old softball player Roger Gildersleeve, there is no off-season.
The Bloomington resident plays on an over-60s team and an over-80 travel team in the summer and fall, then transitions to a league in Florida where he and his wife spend the winter.
“My goal always is to get a hit, make my plays, not embarrass myself, then have a beer,” the second baseman said.
No hotheads here
Winning matters for his over-80 travel team, but Gildersleeve says the camaraderie among players and their small following of fans matters more.
Another difference, he said, distinguishes the octogenarians from younger players — “In this league, you don’t have hotheads.”
About 14 players gather for games and give it their best. Usually just 13 play.
“One guy has a bad leg, so he keeps the score,” Gildersleeve said.
To join, players must present a birth certificate and a government-issued photo ID. “If somebody tries to cheat to get in, they’re banned for life,” Gildersleeve said.
The team is one of 44 on the Senior Softball USA list of 80+ men’s teams.
“We don’t win as many tournaments as we did two years ago,” he said, “back when we were at our peak.”
His Indianapolis Classics over-60 team plays weekly during the summer and fall season at Indianapolis Sports Park. Six members are older than 80. Gildersleeve and two others on the team play on a travel team also called the Indianapolis Classics that has monthly games in cities from Milwaukee to Louisville. That team has members from Indiana and surrounding states.
During October’s Senior Softball championships in Myrtle Beach, Gildersleeve’s travel team won three games and lost 3. He was 11 for 12 at the plate and made just one error.
“It was a throwing error,” he said. “It was an early-morning game, the ball was wet with dew and slipped out of my hands. It didn’t go anywhere near where I intended.”
A lifetime of baseball
Gildersleeve started playing baseball in Gulf Coast Florida more than seven decades ago when his older cousin taught him the basics. At the age of 8, Gildersleeve was manning first base on a Little League team sponsored by the Dunedin Jaycees.
His father’s military career took the family to the Marshall Islands when he was a fourth grader and Gildersleeve became a batboy for the U.S. Marine team.
“They taught me a lot about playing ball,” he said.
When Gildersleeve was 18, he gave professional baseball a shot during open tryouts at the St. Louis Cardinals farm team’s Florida training site, but it wasn’t for him.
“That tryout convinced me I was not going to play major league baseball,” Gildersleeve said.
He enlisted in the Navy, where he transitioned to fast-pitch softball, playing on teams with other service members who grew up on baseball fields.
“So many of us played Little League or Babe Ruth baseball as young people and didn’t want to give it up, so you move to softball.”
He missed a year of play recovering from rotator cuff surgery in 2011, but his health is good and his game is pretty solid.
“I can throw the ball pretty well, get a hit and I can run a distance since I’m not carrying a lot of extra weight.”
Yoga, which he does with his wife, and balance classes help keep his body in shape for the game. “I’ve convinced myself that getting on the ground and the stretching helps my defensive abilities.”
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FPI News reporter Laura Lane covers the people and issues of rural Indiana. Reach her at 812-760-1540 or laura.lane@fpinews.org.
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