Sports

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.

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.

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?

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!

“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!

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.

Today, Thursday, June 10, weather permitting since our fine State is under a flash flood warning, Stumpy and his Texans return to Dallas for a try at a three-peat for our State’s, Senior Softball, Championship.  State championships in any sport are a big deal in Texas!  Winning “State” would qualify The Texans for "bragging Rights" and their third go at The Tournament Of Champions in Florida, next February.

Our main competition will be the Texas Greyhounds, who we have handled very well this year.  But, you never know what will happen when you play on a square field, with a round ball and a round bat!

But, Stumpy says, “We’ll bring home the bacon this year too!”

The accommodations were nice and the sea food was excellent, but the softball left much to be desired.  Stumpy, managing the team last week, and his Texans left too many men on base, committed several very, key errors, hence the results weren’t good in Pensacola.  Finishing third behind the Southeastern 70’s, who beat the Georgia Classics 9-7 to win the tournament, Georgia coming in second, The Texans didn’t get the opportune hits, loosing to Georgia 11-10 twice and Southeastern once, 16-11.  Errors were our bane and caused over half the runs we gave up to be unearned!

Georgia and Southeast are two very good teams, so are we, but eliminate the miscues, or we get a couple of hits at the right time, the story would be much different!  But last week’s games are history and we have to look ahead to our next tournament either in Dallas or Baton Rouge, however, who knows how these games will turn out, since we play with a round bat, a round ball, on a square field! We’re just blessed to still be playing at our age!