This past weekend in Dallas, The Texans, for this tournament managed by Stumpy, won the Texas Senior Softball Championship for the 70 plus, age bracket. Stumpy filled in for the manager who was celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary. Some things take precedence over softball!

The Texans managed to lose their first game of the double elimination tournament, but put together 5 straight wins to earn the championship. They not only had to overcome the other teams, but also, for their last 3 games, had to overcome 95 degree, temperatures.

Last Saturday, Stumpy happily received the State Championship trophy from a tournament official. It was bright, hot, windy and humid, but after 5 straight wins, they “breezed” to the championship!

Their record now is 31 wins and 9 losses. Two wins and four losses have been to 65, plus teams.

Their next tournament will be in mid July in Kansas City for the Mid America Championship. Stumpy said, “We’re pretty good, but when we go to KC, we’ll see just how good we really are.”

This past Saturday, Layla and I took a traffic filled drive to San Marcos, south of Austin, to see one of our Grandson’s, Sean Bryan, play baseball. He did quite well for a 7 year old, playing in an 8 year old, league! His team won 8-2, finished second in their league and he had 2 hits, scored a run and drove one in!

Here’s Sean getting his first hit and later scoring. Sean’s parents are Randy and Debbie Bryan and Randy is a Baptist Pastor in San Marcos. Randy is a very good ball player, and not before too long, will be playing Senior Softball, too!

Back to the traffic, it was horrible! You’d think with gas almost $4.00 a gallon, somebody might be staying home! Maybe everyone was out for one last trip?

This past weekend, Stumpy’s team, “The Texans”, won the 70+, age division championship, in a senior softball tournament held in Mustang, Oklahoma. The tournament was supposed to have started this past Thursday morning, but great storms and three and one-half inches of rain postponed the start until Friday afternoon.

A soggy field, with temperatures in the 40’s, along with a 40 MPH wind greeted the players. Stumpy, who hit .667 for this one, said, “I have been playing ball all of my life and this was the wettest, coldest, windiest tournament that I have ever played in!” And he added, “We were so bundled up I believe it affected our play.”

Stumpy didn’t let “being bundled up” affect his hitting as he drives a high pitch for a base hit.

Bad conditions aside, “The Texans” won their third straight tournament running their record to 15 wins and 5 losses. Next up is Baytown, Texas on April 25.

On March 28 and 29, Stumpy’s team the Texan 70’s won their second consecutive qualifier tournament, “The Texas Legends Memorial” in Irving, Texas. Friday’s weather was cold temp of 50, drizzle and 25 MPH wind and Saturday improved with no wind or drizzle, but cloudy with a temp of 62.

They lost their first game 19-17 to the Oklahoma Blast, but swept the next 5. Their run to the tournament championship featured 4 “run rule” games where they out scored their opponents 88-9 and they evened things up with the Blast giving them a 15-0 shellacking!

One of the highlights for the Texans was an oddity not seen often in 70+, softball. In the 4th inning of the last game: Keith Mixon led off with a home run, followed by Eldon Brast duplicating the feat, Charley Gamble hit the third and after 2 hard hit outs, Dick Bullock hit the inning’s 4th homer! Howard Hill and Jack Romero also homered in the game.

The “happy homer hitters” are pictured above. Back row is Charley Gamble from Houston, left, Eldon Brast from Dallas and Howard Hill from Houston. Front row is Keith Mixon from Pasadena, left, Jack Romero from Arlington and Dick Bullock from Rockwall.

Stumpy, pictured, contributed with a triple off the wall and hit .625 for the event. He was quoted as saying, “I was awful in this one!” Their next tournament is April 12 and 13 in Mustang, Oklahoma.

The Texan 70’s record after 3 tournaments now stands at 12 wins and 3 losses!

Stumpy’s team, “The Texans”, opened their season on March 13 and 14 in a tournament in Georgetown, Texas, with a 6 and 0 record and a championship! In the 6 games, we scored over 20 runs 4 times and our closest game was 16 to 7!

In this picture, everything, the ball, “Smiley” the opposing catcher, Juan, the first base coach and the umpire’s back came out fine. But, poor Stumpy was blocked out as he drove a sharp single into right field, plating 2 runs! In Senior Softball, the umps are supposed to stand behind the catcher!

Our team was very good in Georgetown! Last year we were “so-so”, but this year, after picking up some new men and filling some key spots we are excited and the Georgetown tournament supports our excitement.

All up and down the order we pounded the ball, and in all but one game, held our errors to less than 3. With so much “hitting” in slow pitch softball, fielders get a lot of hard chances and to play almost error free ball is exceptional!

The next stop is Irving the last of this month and we expect another championship!

Stumpy’s team, The Texans, a group of 70+ men, opened their season last Saturday in Corpus Christi, Texas, taking part in a 65+ tournament. Our record was 1 win and 2 losses, all close games, but it’s hard to beat the “young guys”. Last year, in the 3 national tournaments we participated in, The Texans finished 2nd in one, 4th in another and dead last in the final tournament.

Stumpy is off and running, but to no avail. The catch was made against the right field fence, warning track power, you know! However, Stumpy was 5 for 8, with one sac fly, that happened to be the winning run in The Texans’ only victory!

Hopes are high for us this year with the addition of many new, talented players. That’s the good thing about this time of the year. Each spring, we look forward to the 8 month season, the thrills, the excitement, the injuries and not happily, the frustrations. But, and a big BUT, none of us would miss it for a moment!

Our next tournament will begin tomorrow, March 13 and conclude on the 14th and will be against 70+ teams this time.

More to follow as the season progresses!

This past spring, just before the summer vacation at Copperas Cove (Cove) High School, Copperas Cove, Texas, one of my Grand Daughters, Sara Bryan, a fall semester Freshman, was selected to be a Cheerleader on the Junior Varsity (JV) squad. Quite an accomplishment considering the JV squad performs and supports the Sophomore and Junior Team.

Cove has one of the top football programs in our football crazy State, each year securing major college scholarships to several players. Last year Cove was a state finalist, but lost a close State Championship game. So, being selected a Cheerleader for this school is quite an honor!

In July, the Cheerleading team attended a clinic at Texas A & M University, in College Station, and was selected the number 2 team out of 24 participants.
Sara . on the right, and her Cheerleading friend, Alecia, accept the award for second place.
Sara was also presented an award for “Best At Handling Messed Up Routines”. Sara is a good student, a good Christian girl and a great, Grand Daughter!

As the year progresses, I will post her accomplishments.

A happy team, The Texans, celebrate their second place finish at the International Senior Softball Association’s (ISSA) national championship tournament.

Sluggo had been on the DL since June 25, but this past weekend in Manassas, Va. he came off of it to help his team, The Texans, to a second place finish in their age group.

Sluggo still has to wear a protective shin guard over his skin graft that is healing ever so slowly, but playing each inning of all 7 games and striking the ball very well, it looks like a full recovery is near.

Two more national championship tournaments remain, September in Dalton, Ga. and October in Phoenix, so maybe the Texans can come home with a championship.

We were close this time!