Stretched out, that idea is for the league to add enough teams or add spaces on existing teams, so that there's room for everyone who, despite players' ages or skills, still wants to play.
Very likely, those who are advancing in age (ahem! all of us) and still want to play, also believe they can.
Or, they may want to see if they can.
Either condition is good enough to join a team.
So, the idea is that we should try to make room for them.
That's why I wanted to make the Haymakers.
Room for more.
I got the idea to create the team last November, when I learned from commissioner John Reel that the division's draft of over-55 players a month or two earlier had produced only enough players (seven or eight) to help create one more team for the over-62s, the Reds.
Earlier, there had been talk that there might be enough guys coming up to fill out two new over-62 teams. When that didn't happen, I asked John what were the possibilities for an eighth team. He said that for now the league was keeping the eighth spot open, on the table as "a placeholder."
That's when I thought if a team could fill that spot, two things would happen: scheduling would be balanced. Easier to do than for an unbalanced schedule.
And better yet, I knew five guys over 62 who've played in the league for years and are now without a team.
So I thought, hey, let's create a team, and call it the Haymakers.
(Named after the Troy Haymakers, who were, in 1871, one of the original 12 teams of the National League. They stayed here for two years, and then in 1874 moved to New York where they became the Gothams, and then in time the Giants, eventually of Willie Mays fame.
(While in Troy, they set a Major League record that's never been broken: A big league game where only two fans showed up. The game was played in Lansingburgh. In my mind's eye, I can see those two fans sitting in their buckboard wagon. They're wearing overalls, chewing some hay, their horses are munching the grass, and man and beast are, in some measure, taking in the game.)
I knew from past experience that recruiting in the winter would be difficult.
Winter is when most ballplayers, if they're exercising at all, are playing hoops and, now, pickleball, or lifting, running, swimming, all of it indoors. Snow covers the ground, and it blankets thoughts of playing ball on grass.
I also knew I would need at least nine players to go with the five I began with.
The five I knew who would like a spot in the 62s this summer are Frank Montagano, Adam Zafran, Ben Phillips, Jim Costello and me. All are about 71 and older. I have every hope to turn 78 in mid-June.
Over the years, each of those players has proven himself to be a fine member of the league. Each has showed up for nearly all of his scheduled games (Ben had the longest drive; 84 miles each way from Western Massachusetts) and they regularly supported their teammates.
Two of the players, Frank and I, were long-time managers. Frank created and ran the Cougars for 15 years, from 2007 to 2021, and I started and ran the Red Hot Peppers for 16 years from 2002 to 2018.
Contributions from some of those five include getting Albany's print and TV media to cover some of our stories, going to league meetings and there offering considered suggestions, helping to rebuild broken fields, creating teams for the Labor Day Tournament, organizing games at Doubleday Field, and setting up equipment drives for poor, Latin-American kids.
While I imagined that winter recruiting would be the pits, I figured I had some pools of possible players at the three YMCAs I tend to go to. I'd bring along a flyer with photos that I'd made up.
Those Ys are Guilderland, Delmar and E. Greenbush. I would also go to other places, such as Frozen Ropes and All Stars batting cages. And I could paste my recruiting flyer online, with Facebook. So I did that.
The result: After about 40 days of recruiting, I got three guys who said they'd play if the Haymakers turned out to be a team. So those three and my five gave us eight by late March.
I was still six players short and spring was coming. In early April, I notified John Reel and league scheduler Tim Brown that the Haymakers wouldn't be a team for 2025.
I don't see myself recruiting for 2026, but anyone who wants to give it a try should talk to John Reel. I don't know how many players would likely come up from the 55s. Feel free to use the orphaned Haymakers' name if you like.
I'll close with one thought and two funny moments from my recruiting trips.
This was the thought: I imagine that it wasn't only the winter months that made landing players hard. It was that for our baseball, at least, CDMSBL has pretty much cornered the market of available players, certainly those over 62. There just aren't that many older players out there who can play baseball and those who can are playing with us.
Tomorrow's players rise largely from our younger ranks. I felt lucky to get three guys. I'll give those names to anybody who's making a team for next season.
Now, two funny moments:
First, I was surprised to see how many older folks are playing pickleball. There's lots of them: In gyms, men and women, men vs. women, from 7 a.m. till 8 pm, three, four, five days a week. The game's sweeping America.
I asked several men why they liked the game so much. One said, "Here, you can play all year round. The game's a real challenge try it, you'll see it's only an hour long and the shower is right across the hall. You're in, you're out, it's quick, you're exercised and you leave clean."
He thought for a moment, then said, "And when the pickleball hits you, it doesn't hurt and leave a mark. Far as I know, when a hardball hits you, it can leave a red impression, hmmm?" I nodded.
Another guy said he knew someone who broke an ankle, twice, in high school, sliding into second. He asked me if my fellow over-62 players still slid into second?
Sometimes, I said.
"See?" he said, getting all excited, "that's what's so great about pickleball: There's no sliding in pickleball."
Then, while watching a pickleball contest from the bleachers, a player who was resting between games, told me his baseball days were long over.
But, he said, "Have you thought contacting players through Facebook? My wife goes to it every day, talks to all kinds of people there. I'll bet you'd get lots of responses to your flyer on Facebook."
Good idea, I said to him.
When I got home, I asked my wife, a Facebook user, to post my flyer on the site. She did. The next day I asked her: "Anybody respond?"
She smiled small smile: "About a dozen women, I'm afraid. They all pretty much said the same thing, along the lines of: "That's so nice that Mike is still playing baseball at his age. Wish him luck for us."
And how about the men connected to those women?
They were, my wife said, mum.
FIVE AVAILABLE PLAYERS:
The five original Haymakers, 2025 version, who'd be open to playing in the 62s this summer are listed below with their email addresses. The first four are in their early 70s.
The last guy, me, will be 78 in mid-June. ( But! True story: I ran a 5.87 second 90-foot sprint the other day. That's good enough to steal second or third in any of the games. Try it yourselves. See if I'm right.)
Jim Costello: plays all 9 positions; costello.j.t@gmail.com Frank Montagano: p, inf, of. fmont22@hotmail.com Ben Phillips, p, inf, of sundancejake@gmail.com Adam Zafran inf, of azafran2441@gmail.com Mike Hart p., inf, of mhart44@me.com
THANKS, ALL.
-MIKE
-- Edited by mikehart on Wednesday 23rd of April 2025 10:06:02 PM
