Art of Aging: Senior softball leagues
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd. Those are the sounds of baseball in summer.
And whether it's Little League or Senior Softball, it's All-American and very familiar.
For athletes of a certain age, softball is a sport that can be played well after retirement.
"You're not running around for two hours, you're running around for 10 seconds and that's it, you take a break," said 66-year-old Richard Server from North Wales, Pennsylvania.
Many of these senior sluggers got the baseball bug early on.
Watch previous Art of Aging reports:
"I grew up in a baseball family. Robin Roberts was my families' best friend, we played hours of batting practice and pepper with him," said 64-year-old Dale Hood from Limerick, Pennsylvania.
"I wear number one because Richie Ashburn was my hero as a young kid," said Server.
"When I grew up in Brooklyn, I was an avid Dodgers fan," said 76-year-old Joe Gennarelle from New Hope, Pennsylvania.
It seems that these boys of summer don't age much in baseball years.
"It's like they're like 8th graders. It's like they're like little boys and it's just ridiculous, they'll argue ball and strikes. Some people retire and play golf every day. These guys retire and play softball 6 days a week," said 59-year-old James Weiss from Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.
So why are they in the lineup 6 days a week?
"It keeps you healthy. I think you have a better life, you're out, you meet more people," said 80-year-old Joe Hackman from Ivyland, Pennsylvania.
"The guys that play softball have now become a whole new set of friends that I've developed," said Server.
"We feel that we are extending each other's lives by playing and having the kind of relationship that we have between each other," said Gennarelle.
If you want to get in the swing of things, there are dozens of softball leagues in our area for men and women.
For more information:
- Montgomery County Senior Softball League: http://mcssl.org/
- Senior Softball: https://seniorsoftball.com/northeast
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