Infielder Eddie Castorena, 75, wore two braces under his Old Spice uniform, one for his knee and one for his back.
Big Red catcher Tony Spallino, 67, was moving pretty well behind the plate, hoping he won’t need a second hip replacement.
His teammate Agustin Quezada, 83, limped through the dugout between innings, leaning on his bat as if it were a cane.
“When I first started, it was like, man, it smells like Bengay here,” said Big Red utilityman Ruben Enriquez.
But there is no glory in compromise, and no thrill like blasting a ball into the gap and circling the bases, no matter how many paramedics it might take to get you home. So the games go on every Thursday at Smith Park in Pico Rivera, home of the Go-Getter softball league.
“I never played baseball before. Never. I learned here, and I love it,” said Isabel Enriquez, 73, who plays several positions for Big Red and made a sure-handed catch of a towering fly ball to left in a game against the Force.
Reflexes are generally good and the bats still have some pop in them, for the most part, especially for players closer to 50 than 80. When it comes to chasing after a ball or sprinting the basepaths, the effort is there, even if the feet can’t always deliver what the heart desires.
Big Red hitter Tony Spallino, 67, walks away in frustration after making an out during a game against the Force in the Go-Getter league. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“I hope when I’m their age … I’ll be flexible and be able to run down the basepath like that,” said Pico Rivera Mayor Johnny Garcia, who stopped by to take in some of the action in a league that’s more than 30 years young.
Lorenzo Sanchez, who pitched Rolling Thunder to a 14-2 win over the Warriors, wore a boyish smile and looked nothing like 83. He said that in 15 years of lacing up his cleats, he could only recall one minor muscle pull.
“I’m in good condition,” Sanchez boasted.
“I try to emphasize to my new players, go out with the grandkids, do some running and throw the ball back and forth,” said Rolling Thunder manager Gil Perez, 76. “Some of them do and some of them don’t.”
Perez and his wife, Deborah, 71, who plays catcher, work out regularly.
“I’m doing 2½-minute planks,” said Deborah, referring to the exercise in which you get into a push-up position and hold it for as long as you can. “So my core is pretty tight.”
Several players encouraged me to get out of the press box and onto the field.
I’d love to, I said. But I’ve had two knee replacements.
That drew a sharp, one-word response from Dichosa “Dee” Quezada, Agustin’s wife and a loyal spectator who watches every game from a lawn chair behind the backstop.
“So?” she asked with a withering glare.
A game in the Go-Getter league. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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I wouldn’t be the first, Dichosa told me, saying there was a guy with two knee replacements on a team from Anaheim.
In years past, one former Go-Getter used a walker to get to the field, swung a mean bat, and let a pinch-runner take over after she banged out a hit.
And then there’s Spallino, with the hip replacement, who told me he tried to come back too soon after his 2017 surgery. A little more rest did the trick and that hip is still holding up, Spallino said, “but I’m having problems with the other one now.”
The players have a sense of reassurance in knowing that former softballer Lupe Diaz, a retired registered nurse, comes to all the games with her first aid kit. Once, several years ago, there weren’t enough tools in that kit.
Rolling Thunder pitcher Lorenzo Sanchez, 83, watches the flight of the ball while batting during a Pico Rivera Co-ed Senior Softball League game at Smith Field. Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles TimesDeborah Perez, Rolling Thunder catcher, sets up behind the plate at the Pico Rivera Co-ed Senior Softball League at Smith Field. Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Diaz said. “I was catcher, and I was getting ready to throw the ball back when I saw this player lying on the ground in the outfield.”
Diaz raced out and began CPR on the fallen fielder, whose heart had given out, while someone called 911.
“I brought him back and they carried him to the dugout,” she said.
The player recovered at the hospital but died about two weeks later, as Diaz recalls.
On Thursday, Big Red outfielder Art Montano, 77, swung at a pitch and missed. He ended up hammering a sharp single to right, but he was still frustrated by the earlier whiff.
“My vision’s not like it used to be,” Montano said, and sometimes the brain isn’t reacting quickly enough to messages sent by the eyes. “Let’s say the ball is pitched, and you’re waiting on it, and the brain is telling you it’s right there, but you can’t pull the trigger.”
Big Red pitcher Agustin Quezada, 83, faces off against the Force at Smith Park. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
In the Rolling Thunder rout of the Warriors, outfielder Uvaldo Davila showed off a slick glove and a strong arm, and after banging out a hit, he scampered around the bases to score. But back in the dugout, he said he’s been battling a big challenge.
“I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about eight years ago,” said Davila, 64, who told me his hand tremors are getting worse, and his neurologist told him he may soon have some balance issues.
“I’m taking medicine,” Davila said, and he intends to keep playing as long as he can, because softball is “better than medicine.”
The Force, this season’s strongest team, showed no mercy on Thursday, routing Big Red by a score of 21-1 to improve to 8-0.
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“We have a lot of good hitters and no drama,” said Force journeyman Lee Wabash, 75. “In the past, there were a lot of arguments. But this team has it together.”
At one point, with nobody on base, a Force batter hit a routine grounder. Big Red’s second baseman fielded it cleanly, but threw to second instead of first.
“Senior moment,” a disappointed Big Red teammate muttered in the dugout.
In the sixth inning, several Big Red players noticed that their pitcher had gone missing. They looked around and spotted him in the parking lot, pedaling away on his bicycle.
“Rick!” one player called out, to no avail.
“He’s going home,” said another.
Agustin Quezada often uses his bat as a cane. At 83, he pitches and plays infield in the Go-Getter league. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
But two games remain in the regular season, so there’s still time to find a groove. And then all six teams qualify for the playoffs.
Anything can happen, said Ruben Enriquez, and just showing up to get some exercise and be with friends is a victory in itself.
“Better to play,” he said, “than to rot away at home.”
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