Category Archives: Sports

Sports Activities

Senior Softball In Columbus, Ohio

Early Sunday morning, Layla and I will be catching a plane in Killeen and heading to Columbus, Ohio for the National Senior Softball Championships. Layla will be running the tournament and my team, the Texans, will be playing 3 games on Monday, (no special favors for us either), then double elimination.

We, the Texans haven’t got it all together this year, but maybe in Columbus? Five years ago we won it all, but age tells. We’ll be way up for this one, but, alas, our opponents will be way up too!

Senior Softball, 2011

We’ve already heard around town that the old guys are at it again. Even though the Senior Softball season doesn’t officially start until February 18th (weather permitting) in Pasadena, Texas, for Mickey Donahoo and I our season started yesterday. Last year our seasons ended in October, so we’ve had a 90 day, respite from our avocation.

At 1:15 PM we met at the high school baseball park and kicked off, (a poor choice of words, but this is a football town), our Senior Softball season for 2011 and were greeted by temps in the high 60’s, very little wind and a bright clear sky. Today the weatherman is smiling on us with more of the same except the temp will reach 75. Based on our ten day, weather forecast, it’ll be raining tomorrow, but Sunday and Monday look OK for workouts, then the cold and rain start up for 5 days.

We warmed up, stretched, played catch, then took 30 swings apiece and for the first day, our timing wasn’t that bad! This morning when I got up and rode my stationary bike, I wasn’t too sore, my right arm felt good, but the “swinging muscles” in my back were a little tight.

This year our season will again run until mid October, with a 2 week, break until deer season. We do have a 6 week overlap with Goldthwaite’s high school football season, but, being dedicated football fans, we’ll both work around it!

Something Was Missing

Last Friday morning’s deer hunt, “[The Annual Doe Hunt]”, was exciting, we supplied a needy family with meat for a year, but something was missing. We saw a lot of deer, shot a nice doe, saw two big bucks and I wrote a post about it all, but something was missing. What was missing?

The thing that was missing was video, my camera will take video, but I was frozen on the deer that I saw, they’d spied me, I did turn on the camera, but it automatically turned itself off. Friday morning I needed a cameraman!

What cemented video and the application of it, was an e-mail conversation that I had last week with a representative of VERSUS Country. On Disk Satellite they’re on channel 151 and their show will come on this Friday night, 7:00 PM CST. He even sent me a funny clip by Benny Spies, “[Holiday Merchandise]”. It’s good stuff!

Last Friday night I was able to watch the shows on VERSUS Country because my Grandson’s Team, The Goldthwaite Eagles, State semi-finals playoff game, was Saturday evening. They overwhelmed a huge, Garrison team, 35-7. Garrison was the biggest high school football team that I’ve ever seen! They looked like a college team running on to the field! I’ll get to watch this Friday night’s shows too because Saturday at noon, the Eagles take on Mart for the Class 1A, State championship. Earlier in the season, by a scheduling quirk, the Eagles trailed Mart 23-7 at the half, but came back to beat ‘em 29-27! It should be some game!

Using “You Tube” I can post videos, but that won’t put any meat on the table. Maybe Layla will volunteer to be my cameraman? Maybe for the rest of this season I’ll just try to video the deer? Maybe the big deer knew that I’d punched my buck ticket already?

Yesterday, Mickey and I went out to bag another doe and this was a perfect spot for me to do a video clip of the hunt, however, I forgot the camera!

Off To Paris

Paris, Texas that is. Today I’m beginning a journey that will take me, eventually, to the northeast part of our fine State, Paris, Texas.

This morning I’ll be driving to Austin to pick up Layla’s new Suburban, then up I-35, the scene of serious flooding this past Tuesday and Wednesday, to Alvarado, a neutral field, to watch Goldthwaite play Callisburg in football this evening. My Grandson, Colton, won’t be playing in this ones since three weeks ago, in Goldthwaite’s first scrimmage against Bangs, he suffered a broken, forearm. But, it’ll be a good game!

Back to the flooding, the stretch of I-35 from Austin to the Dallas metro got swamped this week. Thanks to tropical storm, Hermoine, up to 13” of rain, that was badly needed, fell, across the area. In Goldthwaite, the eye passed over near us and we only got slightly over 3”.

Why Paris? On Saturday morning, another Grandson, Wesley, age 11 will be playing in his first football game. Last I heard he was playing fullback. This past summer, Wesley finished fourth overall, nationally, in the 11 and 12 year old, tumbling events in the Junior Olympics, held in Virginia Beach, Va.! This is the same Wesley, that in my January 3, 2010 post, [“Wesley Breaks The Ice]”, shot his first deer on our place.

When I was younger, and gasoline was under $.35 per gallon, we thought nothing of driving half way across our fine, State to watch multiple football games in one day, now I’m watching Grandsons!

Gone For More Softball

Today, Stumpy and his Texans will be in Irving, Texas, playing in the Southwest Regional Championships. We’ll be playing against our instate rivals, the Greyhounds, finally getting to play Oklahoma who we haven’t faced since Irving in March, 2009 and we’ll get to square things with Kansas City, a team that, in an earlier tournament, in two innings, scored ten runs on us, with the ball being hit out of the infield, only twice. This was in my July 6 post of, “[Been To Kansas City]”

As we get ready for the Nationals in Dalton, Georgia, we’ll be only missing two of our players, so we should make a good showing, but who knows, what will take place. Who knows, since we’ll be playing on a square field, using a round ball and a round bat? But, like General Lee said in 1864, “Texans always move them!” We’ll try to move them, win the tournament and get prepared for Dalton on September 2.

Hot Springs Was Hot

Stumpy and his Texans overcame the high heat, 100’s, and high humidity, 80’s to 90’s and won the Senior Softball tournament held this past weekend in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The Texans opened the tournament with a victory over the Texas Greyhounds, making it ten in a row over their rivals, but on Friday The Texans couldn’t overcome a rash of errors and lost a close one to the Greyhounds, 13-12. Both teams had a 5 and 1 record, but the tournament championship was decided on a “runs given up”, tie breaker and resulted in a victory for The Texans!

Here, The Texans, the smiling victors, pose for a championship picture.

In the tournament there was an 80 and over team, The Southwest Stars, pictured below.

Counting the Stars, there are four other 80 and over teams in the U.S. In the Hot Springs tournament, battling the heat and humidity, the Stars played three 75 and over teams and ended up with a record of 4 wins and 2 losses. The losses were both close games, one runners, and could have gone either way. Over the years, I’ve watched these men play, played with some of them on championship teams and still marvel at their skill and endurance!

Over the next two weeks The Texans will decide about their next tournament. They’ll either play in the Southwest National Championships held in Irving, Texas on August 12 and 13 or the SPA National Championships in Dalton, Georgia, September 2 through 5, or both.

Off To Hot Springs

I don’t believe there’s been a song written about going to Hot springs, but Stumpy and his Texans are going up there today for a two day tournament, starting on Thursday. Finally we’ll be getting to play some competitive teams, BUT, we’ll still be missing three of our good players.

The one we will miss most is Eldon Brast, our number one pitcher. He will be at the hospital Friday while his daughter, Debbie, has neck surgery. All should pray that the surgery is successful!

We’ll be better than our effort in Kansas City, but two good teams, The Texas Greyhounds and Oklahoma Blast will be waiting to sneak up on us. Who knows how it’ll turn out because were still playing on a square field, using a round bat and round ball?

Been To Kansas City

Maybe there’s not a sequel to the old song, but Stumpy and his Texans may write one.

Senior Softball is rated according to age groups; 50-54, 55-59, 60-64 and so on. Within the age groups teams are rated Major Plus, Major, AAA, AA and Recreational. This past weekend The Texans, rated a 70-74, Major team, played in a Senior Softball tournament in Liberty, Missouri, a suburb northeast of K.C., and on the opening day, Thursday, stunk up the place!

If someone saw us play last Thursday, they would rate us off the chart probably as a “Get Together” team. We couldn’t hit, couldn’t field the ball, couldn’t run the bases and should have stayed home! Our opening game was a loss to a team from K.C. that we should have run ruled, but after two innings we were behind 10-0 and they had only hit two balls to the outfield and one of those was a fly, that somehow, was caught. Then we barely beat a weak 65, AA team, but got smashed by a strong 65, AAA team, 33-3. If any pictures were taken, the cameras were smashed!

General Lee once said about Hood’s Texas Brigade as they were charging the Federals and changing the course of the battle of the Wilderness, “Texans always move them”! So, on Friday we regrouped and won two games rather convincingly, and somehow, won our division. We offer one excuse. We were missing three outfielders and two infielders. We made do, but it was painful!

Probably, our next tournament will be in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the end of July. We certainly hope for better results!

Goin’ To Kansas City

“Kansas City here I come”, but this is not about the lyrics of the famed song written by W. Harrison, but we, The Texans, are really going to Kansas City to play Senior Softball. I’ll be leaving by plane on June 30th, (“I might catch a plane”) and Layla, driving up from Paris, Texas after a stint keeping Grandkids, then a business trip to Oklahoma City for a softball meeting, will pick me up at the Kansas City airport. Our portion of the tournament will take place on July 1 and 2 and then, she and I will start our drive home after the last game.

This tournament is for the Mid American Championship, The Texans have won this event for the last two years and I believe we’ll play well. I am sure the food will be good!

3peat

This past Thursday and Friday, Stumpy and his Texans, for their age group, won the State Senior Softball, Championship for the third straight time! They beat the Texas Greyhounds two straight to win the laurels.
The Texans have a tradition (folks from Texas have a lot of traditions) that after each game, our shortstop’s wife, Betty Holland, hands out a fresh banana to each one of us. After three or four games in one day, this helps to restore our potassium, keeps us from getting cramps and is quite filling. It really works too! We had Betty pose with us for a team picture and we’re all smiling showing off our bananas and championship trophy!

In the first game against the Greyhounds, Stumpy came to bat in the 6th inning with the score tied 12-12 and the bases loaded. To ice the game for The Texans, he delivered a base clearing triple to the wall in center field. A base hit drove him in giving The Texans a 16-12 win.

In the second game, in the bottom of the 7th, The Texans began the inning behind 12-7. They rallied to tie the game and Stumpy once again came up with the winning run on second, but he was walked on four pitches. The next batter, Ed Bailey delivered a hit driving in the winning run, giving the Texans their “3peat” State Championship.

In this picture, Stumpy is all smiles after he passed through the victory arch (another tradition) made by The Texans’ wives. In the background, Betty can be seen passing out the bananas.