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7/14 — The golden boys of summer
Local seniors play the game they love in Roseville Senior Softball Association
by Michael Earle
Sports Intern
ROSEVILLE —When Dennis Borndale, 68, first descended over the hill on Victoria and turned into the Victoria Ballfields at Central Park, he didn’t expect what he found;a mass of men his age gathered to play softball. He was coming to play in the Roseville Senior Softball Association.
The league, which started with just six players in 1988, now boasts a roster of 270 men on 19 teams in three divisions;A (70+), AA (65+), and AAA (55+). The players come from all over the region;as far north as Boy River, as far south as Kasson, and some even come from Wisconsin. The league, however, is most heavily populated with men closer to home. Twenty-one of the league’s members reside in White Bear Lake while another 15 come from Shoreview and still more come from Mahtomedi, Arden Hills, and Forest Lake as well as other metropolitan areas.
The league’s documented purpose is to provide "friendly competition." As current commissioner Jerry Otto Sr. puts it, "it’s about 50 percent competition and 50 percent social." This is clear at the end of the day’s games when the men all gather around picnic tables and spend about as much time sharing tales of their big catches and bigger hits as they did playing the games.
The players’ love of the game in undeniable. The season spans the entire summer, beginning with practice games as soon as the weather allows, before the official start in May and it doesn’t end until September. By that time they’ve played 40 games and a playoff as well, a schedule that prompted one passing player to remark that the members play more games now than they did when they were kids.
One of the highlights of the year is the annual all-star game. At the midpoint of every season, the team currently in first place plays a team made up of two or three players from each of the other teams. One player joked in passing that the all-star game is mostly a bunch of teasing.
For the most part though, the league is just something these guys love to do.
"All these people could be home watching TV on their couch," Borndale said.
Instead, every Tuesday and Thursday the fields at Roseville’s Central Park come to life with the spirit of sport. The long season brings with it aches and pains, but no one here seems to care.
"Everybody’s got pains, everybody’s got sores, but everybody plays every game," Borndale said.
League secretary Doug Shilson said that injuries aren’t much of a concern, but they do have an emergency protocol and a league insurance policy just in case.
The original league, with only six players, was founded by Jerry Kelley in 1988 under the name "Old Timers League." Kelley worked hard to generate more members, placing ads in local papers every spring. In Sept. 1991, Kelley held a meeting with representatives from Shoreview and Blaine teams to discuss the expansion of the league and the new "Saintly Seniors Senior Slow Pitch Softball League" was born.
The new version of the league had four teams that competed against each other over the next three years. The league originally played games in each of the new team’s home towns. This didn’t last long. It soon became clear that in order to make the league more accessible for the players a central location needed to be found that everyone could come to for games. Chuck Cullen and Bob Abel took it upon themselves to find that location. Cullen and Abel secured three fields in St. Paul that the teams could play on for free. By creating a central location for all the games, the league was able to grow even further.
In 1994 two more teams were added and it wouldn’t be long before the league out-grew its home in St. Paul. In 1996, as the league grew in popularity and more "younger players," as Shilson called them, wanted to join, it became impossible to continue playing on just three fields. Vince Deter discovered the Victoria Ballfields, and Roseville has been home to the league ever since.
This season marks year two since Otto took over the commissioner duties. As a player himself, he said he prefers that his role as commissioner stays in the background.
"If the league’s running smoothly, I try to stay out of it," Otto said.
Still, it does take a lot of work to maintain a league of this size. There’s equipment to be ordered, schedules to be made, memberships to be handled, rules to be created, and occasional disputes to be settled among other duties, but luckily for Otto he has some good help. Each team has its own manager and the league has a board of seven directors to help carry the load.
"We have such efficient people," Otto said. "But it’s a lot of work. We’re all volunteers."
The league, which started with just six players in 1988, now boasts a roster of 270 men on 19 teams in three divisions;A (70+), AA (65+), and AAA (55+). The players come from all over the region;as far north as Boy River, as far south as Kasson, and some even come from Wisconsin. The league, however, is most heavily populated with men closer to home. Twenty-one of the league’s members reside in White Bear Lake while another 15 come from Shoreview and still more come from Mahtomedi, Arden Hills, and Forest Lake as well as other metropolitan areas.
The league’s documented purpose is to provide "friendly competition." As current commissioner Jerry Otto Sr. puts it, "it’s about 50 percent competition and 50 percent social." This is clear at the end of the day’s games when the men all gather around picnic tables and spend about as much time sharing tales of their big catches and bigger hits as they did playing the games.
The players’ love of the game in undeniable. The season spans the entire summer, beginning with practice games as soon as the weather allows, before the official start in May and it doesn’t end until September. By that time they’ve played 40 games and a playoff as well, a schedule that prompted one passing player to remark that the members play more games now than they did when they were kids.
One of the highlights of the year is the annual all-star game. At the midpoint of every season, the team currently in first place plays a team made up of two or three players from each of the other teams. One player joked in passing that the all-star game is mostly a bunch of teasing.
For the most part though, the league is just something these guys love to do.
"All these people could be home watching TV on their couch," Borndale said.
Instead, every Tuesday and Thursday the fields at Roseville’s Central Park come to life with the spirit of sport. The long season brings with it aches and pains, but no one here seems to care.
"Everybody’s got pains, everybody’s got sores, but everybody plays every game," Borndale said.
League secretary Doug Shilson said that injuries aren’t much of a concern, but they do have an emergency protocol and a league insurance policy just in case.
The original league, with only six players, was founded by Jerry Kelley in 1988 under the name "Old Timers League." Kelley worked hard to generate more members, placing ads in local papers every spring. In Sept. 1991, Kelley held a meeting with representatives from Shoreview and Blaine teams to discuss the expansion of the league and the new "Saintly Seniors Senior Slow Pitch Softball League" was born.
The new version of the league had four teams that competed against each other over the next three years. The league originally played games in each of the new team’s home towns. This didn’t last long. It soon became clear that in order to make the league more accessible for the players a central location needed to be found that everyone could come to for games. Chuck Cullen and Bob Abel took it upon themselves to find that location. Cullen and Abel secured three fields in St. Paul that the teams could play on for free. By creating a central location for all the games, the league was able to grow even further.
In 1994 two more teams were added and it wouldn’t be long before the league out-grew its home in St. Paul. In 1996, as the league grew in popularity and more "younger players," as Shilson called them, wanted to join, it became impossible to continue playing on just three fields. Vince Deter discovered the Victoria Ballfields, and Roseville has been home to the league ever since.
This season marks year two since Otto took over the commissioner duties. As a player himself, he said he prefers that his role as commissioner stays in the background.
"If the league’s running smoothly, I try to stay out of it," Otto said.
Still, it does take a lot of work to maintain a league of this size. There’s equipment to be ordered, schedules to be made, memberships to be handled, rules to be created, and occasional disputes to be settled among other duties, but luckily for Otto he has some good help. Each team has its own manager and the league has a board of seven directors to help carry the load.
"We have such efficient people," Otto said. "But it’s a lot of work. We’re all volunteers."
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| 7/14 — A Day on the Lake |