The (Middle-Aged) Boys of Summer : The Call of ‘Play Ball’ and Love of the Game Keeps Older Players Coming to Bat

If the pitcher’s beard, which was sprinkled with flecks of gray, did not reveal the era when the pin-striped Gems learned to play baseball, then the catcher’s comment was a sure giveaway.

Gems pitcher Wayne Craw, 40, had retired the side by striking out a batter with a waist-high pitch that dived suddenly toward the plate.

“Geez, Wayner that was a hell-of-a-pitch,” said the center fielder who had watched in awe. “Your pitches are sharp tonight.”

“Yeah, that drop is working beautifully,” said the bespectacled catcher, Dave Glassey, 40, who was methodically taking off his equipment.

In this age of pitchers who throw “overhand curve balls,” “sinker balls” and “split-fingered” fastballs, the Gems’ pitchers and others in the American Diamond Adult Baseball Assn. 33-and-Over Division are still throwing “drops” and “forkballs.”

Baseball Anachronisms

Outside of a group of aging ballplayers, most young players today probably think that a drop is what the stock market takes every week. The Gems, like the drop, are a baseball anachronism, playing a kid’s game that in the professional ranks today is baited with incentive-filled contracts and blackened with mandatory drug tests.

On this cold January night in El Centro, the old ballpark provided a perfect setting for the veteran Giant Jewelry Gems, who had traveled from San Diego to play a twilight double-header with a younger, local team. The ancient grandstand with corrugated roofing and hard, wooden seats could have passed for the home field of the mythical New York Knights and Roy Hobbs of the novel and movie “The Natural.”

Although the baggy, flannel uniforms of yesterday are but a memory, the older Gems nevertheless looked quite at home on the aging diamond, in their polyester uniforms that, mercifully for some, had spandex waists.

While most players their age are playing slow pitch softball, the Gems and the players in the other 15 teams in their division are still playing baseball, good old country hard ball. They spend their weekends--summer and winter--chasing that elusive boyhood dream on local diamonds, playing on real grass, under the sun, with umpires and wooden bats.

The major leagues may be an illusion, but love for the game is very real.

“We’re a very traditional division. Baseball is nostalgic,” said Mike Micheli, a founder of the ADABA and commissioner of the 33-and-Over Division. “Baseball is wooden bats. Baseball is broken wooden bats. You won’t hear the ping of an aluminum bat in this division. Our motto is ‘Stamp out softball in our lifetime.’ ”

Managed by Phil Lowry, an engineer at General Dynamics, the Gems carry an 18-man roster whose players range in age from mid-30’s to mid-’40s. Tom Eversole, chairman of the science department at Francis Parker’s Upper School, is--at age 45--the team elder.

Speed Has Faded Away

Despite wearing the tools of ignorance behind the plate, Glassey (the “Sultan of Squat”) is dean of students at Francis Parker’s Lower School and also managed five CIF baseball championship teams at the school.

Tim Collins, a left-hander who can pitch, catch, play third base, the outfield and hit, is perhaps the best all-around player on the team. However, Jerry Encoe, who produces short films, is the team’s best hitter. Encoe batted .540 in the 1987 Winter League.

His teammates say that Encoe can stand at the plate blindfolded and still hit the ball. But if there is one complaint about Encoe, it is that he runs like a piano with a bad leg.

Speed is something that is not found in abundance on the the team. Last year, outfielder Charlie Jacobs hit a ball so hard that if it had been hit in Jack Murphy Stadium the ball would have landed 10 or 12 rows deep in the left field bleachers. Unfortunately, the field where Jacobs hit the ball is not fenced.

The opposing team’s left fielder retrieved the ball after running for what seemed to be an eternity. The ball was hit so far that the return throw was relayed twice before it reached the infield. Twenty years ago Jacobs could have rounded the bases twice and still beat the relay throw. But in this case, a huffing and puffing “CJ” barely reached third base, a microsecond ahead of the throw.

Gems shortstop Alex Grim, at 34 the youngster of the team, is arguably the best shortstop in the league. Brothers Sam and Charlie Spindle, owners of the jewelry company that sponsors the club, also play on the team.

While enthusiasm for the game is high among players in the league, it is also true that some skills that were sharpened 20 years ago have become dull in the 20 years since.

“I used to be able to hit the cutoff man every time, but now I’m happy if the ball lands anywhere near him,” joked Gems outfielder Randy Evertsen.

Actually, Evertsen, who is one of the Gems’ power hitters, is like many players in the league who take every game seriously.

During a recent game, Evertsen was grumbling because it was the fifth inning and he had yet to play or get a turn at bat.

Ultimatum From Wife

“Take it easy, Randy, we’re ahead. Be happy for that,” said a teammate.

“Do you think I play this game for fun ?” growled Evertsen.

In fact, some wives complain that the husbands are taking the games too seriously and spend too much of the weekend playing a kid’s game when there are adult things to do with the family and around the house.

The wife of one of the Gems’ outfielders--the journalist who wrote these words--finally gave her husband an ultimatum after watching the family’s spacious front and back yards start to go the way of an ill-kept infield.

“You have a choice, either you start doing yardwork again or pay somebody to do it,” she said.

Pitcher Craw, one of the best players on the team, had to limit his playing time this summer so he can devote more time to his construction business. His company has renovated several buildings in the Gaslamp Quarter and was recently awarded a contract to build a five-story building at Third Avenue and Market Street.

Micheli said that when the 33-and-Over Division was founded last year, most teams simply wanted to have fun. That altruistic attitude quickly changed.

“It’s much more competitive now. Everybody talks about having fun, but now winning is more important. Winning and fun go hand in hand,” said Micheli.

However, the realities of the game occasionally put a damper on the fun. Last year, during a double-header against a team of college kids from United States International University, Eversole was hit in the face with a fastball. The USIU left-hander proved to be a hitter’s worst nightmare--a hard thrower with no control.

The pitch shattered Eversole’s glasses, drawing blood from his nose and mouth. He wasn’t seriously injured, but paramedics were called and he was taken to the hospital, both scaring and pumping up his teammates. The Gems had lost the first game, but rallied to win the second.

As commissioner, Micheli has to settle disputes every week. If he decides that a disputed call or manager’s move was illegal and that it affected a game’s outcome, the contest is either forfeited or replayed.

League’s Top Pitchers

Recently, he had to dismiss the manager of one team because he was under 33 and younger than his players.

For the most part, pitching in the league is pretty decent. But most managers and players agree that the league’s top two hurlers are left-hander Danny Boone, who plays for the Action Video Tigers, and right-hander Steve Oakey, who plays for Berrys.

The 43-year-old Oakey throws an 83 m.p.h. fastball, and can do it almost every day. In the Winter League season playoffs in January, he pitched two complete games on successive days--a total of 18 innings--and won both of them.

He beat the Gems in his second outing, prompting one player to complain that “a guy that old has no business throwing that hard.” When Oakey was warming up before the game, one Gems player asked the manager half-jokingly to check if there was a league rule that prohibited a pitcher from pitching in games on successive days.

Boone, who spent two years in the major leagues (with the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres) in the early 1980s, throws five different curve balls. He will occasionally show a hitter a 70-plus m.p.h fastball, but the hitters complain endlessly about his “junk.”

But it is the junk that has made Boone a successful pitcher in the league.

The Gems will face Boone and Oakey again during the summer and are still looking for ways to beat them. Meanwhile, the team’s “road secretary” is busy scheduling out-of-town games for the team. Recently, the Gems beat a younger team from an Orange and Los Angeles counties league in a Sunday game in Costa Mesa.

Still ahead are games in July against a team of Arizona All Stars in Prescott, Ariz., and participation in a National Baseball Congress tournament in San Bernardino.