Seniors Giving It All on Softball Diamond

They may not run around the bases as fast as they did in their primes, but that doesn’t really matter.

You can tell by the cheers and laughter in the dugout that the members of the Hartland Senior Softball team aren’t concerned about setting any records.

“I love it, it’s fun,” Jim Roth said. “It gives me my youth back. The real fun is the socialization with a bunch of older senior citizens who still like to be active, who are active, and can do healthy things.

“I thought I was the oldest guy on the team at 74, but we’ve got a guy on our team who is a year older than I am and he’s one of our better players.”

This is the first year the Hartland Senior Center has received enough interest to form a team that's made up of players mostly from Hartland.

“We had a rocky start with so many practices rained out,” said executive director Alice Andrews. “We’re hoping by next year to form a four-team league.”

So far, Hartland has played two official games, both losses to Novi (11-10 and 19-11), the most recent this past Thursday at Tag’s Sports Complex in Hartland.

“We’re looking for teams to play,” manager Jim Wallace said. “We’ve got games scheduled against Waterford, Canton and Novi. But we’re looking for teams to play.”

Hartland practices twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. The team was practicing at the Senior Center, but the owners of Tag’s have volunteered a field for the team to use.

“At the first meeting, we had 35 people,” Wallace said. “At the first practice we had 14 people. They all stayed and we’ve slowly picked up more people.

“We’re kind of in the infancy stage of putting this together. We’re looking forward to next year, maybe get in a league or find some more teams to play. Right now, we’re looking for home-and-home games with anyone.”

The program is for seniors 55 years of age and older, but Wallace said the median age for the team is closer to 65.

“We’ve got one player who is 57, but the rest are 62 through 75,” he said. “Some of these people are up in their years, but they’re still good players.”

Sue Cary, who played basketball for the University of Michigan, and her husband, Bob, play softball regularly.

“Seniors now-a-days are a lot more active than they used to be,” she said. “We go to Arizona in the winter and play softball year-round.”

The Hartland team is sponsored by MVP Bar & Grill in Milford.

“He bought us jerseys and if we play well enough maybe next year we’ll get hats,” Wallace said. 

After Thursday’s loss to Novi, the team headed to MVP for a postgame celebration.

“The socialization is really important,” Roth said. “We’re not an individual, as you can see, we yell for each other and cheer for each other. The whole, what’s the word, synergy, is in effect because we really try to help each other and enrich each other.”