by Dave DeMars
news@thenewsleaders.com
A local Rice softball team sponsored by O’Brien’s Pub and C & L Excavating recently won the Minnesota Sports Federation 2016 Class E Men’s Slowpitch East State Championships Aug. 13-14 held in Stacy. The team also won the Minnesota Sports Federation 2016 Masters M 35-Over Slowpitch State Championships July 30 at Bob Cross Field in Sauk Rapids.
What makes the wins even more remarkable is the team is comprised mainly of players who are more than 35 years old. In fact, a few of them are more than 50, said Chuck Ackerman, a spokesperson for the team.
“We’ve got a mixture of some young guys and some old guys,” Ackerman said. “We’ve been playing for a number of years out here – 20-plus years.”
Make up of a team
What makes them want to play a boys’ game at age 35 and older?
“It’s the competitive juices,” Ackerman said. “Guys just don’t want to hang it up yet. I’m a 44-year-old softball player and I still want to. I think I can play like a sophomore in high school. But really the draw is to win, and your teammates (have) got your back, and when that happens you want to do it for the next guy. So that’s part of the draw.”
Kyle Wehrs, who coaches with Ackerman, echoed that same idea. Wehrs, who is also 44, said he retired from active playing two years ago but found he couldn’t stay away.
“It’s just getting together with the guys, and I’m kind of competitive,” he said.
The team is part of a league that operates in and around the Rice area and plays throughout the summer practicing and honing the skills they learned when they were in high school. The games are weekly and call for dedication throughout the late spring and into latter part of summer. That’s when tournament time rolls around, and that stretches the season to Labor Day and a bit beyond.
Championship caliber
To be good enough to win at the state level tournaments takes dedication.
“It takes a lot of practice and lots of get-togethers,” Ackerman said. “All the guys have to be on the same page, and each guy has got to love playing ball. It takes a lot of sacrifice being committed to ball and having fun with the guys. If you got that, you’ll probably have a pretty good team.”
Ackerman said in the latest tournament, they brought in a couple of ringers. It’s not unusual since occasionally a team may have too many injuries or players who can’t commit to a weekend tournament. Then it’s important to be able to borrow a player or two from another team.
That happened when the team competed in the Sauk Rapids 35-and-over tournament, and it helped the team to win the Minnesota Sports Federation 2016 Masters M 35-Over Slowpitch State Championships July 30.
“We combined with another team and they helped us win,” Ackerman said.
Slow-pitch changes
Slow pitch has changed throughout the years, Ackerman said. It used to be a team would load up with power hitters and when they got up to bat they could hit 10 or 15 home runs. A single or a double was almost laughable. To prevent that kind of boring slaughter ball, a new rule was installed. Now a team may be allowed two or three home runs for the entire game. Anymore than the allowed number counts as an out.
The idea is to get teams to play good ball and not simply pound the ball over the fence. Not every guy can do that, Ackerman noted. But most guys can hit singles and doubles, and now they have to run and play the game the way it was meant to be played, he said.
“In the Class E tournament, we were allowed only one home run,” he said. “So now, you have to have good defense and you have to have guys that can base-hit. It’s done so teams don’t sandbag and only bring home-run hitters. It’s a good rule because it keeps a level playing field.”
Tournament play is not as simple as playing a game one night a week during the regular season. Tournaments are a kind of endurance trial with teams playing three back-to-back games on Saturdays and returning on Sundays for three more back-to-back games. Six games in two days makes for sore muscles and lots of bruises and injuries. Winning a tournament is really an accomplishment.
Winning two tournaments in a season, as the guys from Rice did, is remarkable.
