Senior softball league continues love of the game
By: Megan DeMarco
MONROE – A group of about 20 men crowded around first base on Field One in Thompson Park one hot Saturday morning.
Although at first they seem disorganized, each man eventually picks a card from a fanned deck, telling him which team he’ll play on.
The red team jogs out onto the field as the black team tries to put together a batting order. They have no numbers or uniforms, and the catcher is equipped with only a mask and a glove. In addition, the players, who are all older than 50, don’t bunt, slide or steal, and the inning ends if the batting team scores five runs before there are three outs.
The players come from different cultures and professions, blue collar and white collar, Jewish and Italian. The youngest is 56 and the oldest, 86, and they meet every Saturday from April through October to play.
While they may be up there in years, these players behave like any other team of baseball or softball players. They are superstitious, they encourage each other, they taunt each other, they root for their team and yell at the umpire.
And they don’t come every Saturday morning from towns as far away as Trenton and Roebling simply to win. They come for something much deeper, a magnetic pull of the one thing that has kept them coming back since they were kids, the one thing that unites them all: love of the game.
For many of the players, baseball, and now softball, has been a constant throughout their lives.
Former player and current umpire Ben Edelson, an 86-year-old resident of Concordia, helped found the games about 20 years ago, but stopped playing three years ago because it was too physically painful.
"After 18 years of playing I had to retire," he said. "But I can’t stay away from the game so I do the next best thing, I umpire."
Mr. Edelson played professionally before World War II, but went into the service. It was too late to restart a baseball career when he came out.
When the league formed, Mr. Edelson and his partners advertised on local access television and in newspapers to recruit players. In the beginning, nearly 60 players showed up each week, splitting up into four squads and holding games on two fields at the same time. Nowadays, there is usually enough for two teams.
Unlike other adult leagues, which use arc pitching, this league uses modified fast pitch, meaning the pitcher can throw the ball underhand at any speed as long as he does not use the windmill windup.
"The old guys like it because it reminds them of baseball, but they’re still playing softball," said the 57-year-old first baseman Eddie Belding, of South Brunswick.
The players honored Mr. Edelson’s accomplishments Saturday morning before the game started, presenting him with a T-shirt that said: "Monroe senior softball umpire."
Mr. Newmark, co-captain along with Norm Oshrin, is a 67-year-old resident of Greenbriar at Whittingham who has been playing center field every Saturday morning for eight years.
"It’s great exercise, a lot of fun, and it gives the guys something to do," he said.
Richard Conte comes from Hamilton every week to play, and has been a regular for 15 years.
"I love it," he said. "If you make an error no one cares."
Mr. Conte said it reminds him of playing when he was younger.
Harlan Marcus, 64, agreed.
"It brings back all the good feelings," Mr. Marcus said. "It’s just like it was when we were kids.
Bringing back childhood memories, however, does not stop the players from cracking "old" jokes.
"He’s not supposed to catch that, he’s old," a batter grumbled while jogging off the field after the pitcher caught his line drive.
"We’re so old we can’t remember the batting order," another player joked in response to the chorus of "who’s up next?" coming from his teammates.
Mr. Marcus said he wears an NYPD hat that his son gave him after 9/11 to every game for good luck. He said it has worked for him so far because he has not gotten hurt.
Mr. Marcus said the games are more about winning.
"It’s not about winning or losing," he said. "Next week is a new week, we start all over."
"It’s not cutthroat," said Doug DiSalle, a 64-year-old resident of Monroe. "It’s just a bunch of old men playing ball. It’s like field of dreams."
Anyone interested in playing should call Mr. Oshrin at (609) 409-4384 or Mr. Newmark at (609) 655-8051.

