They May Not Be Boys of Summer, But They Keep on Swinging : Senior Softball: San Juan Capistrano Angels aren’t the retiring type. They will defend World Series title this summer.

Many of the San Juan Capistrano Angels don’t run fast, although some still can turn a double play or make a basket catch in the outfield.

These Angels are stars who have been able to shine longer than most. They are the defending national champions of the 70-plus age division of senior slow-pitch softball.

Softball may seem an unusual form of recreation for men of that age. But, said 70-year-old Rosco Speak of Costa Mesa, “It’s better than vegetating and sitting in a rocking chair.”

None of the Angels is likely to have considered the rocking chair as an alternative.

“There isn’t a guy around this table that doesn’t have some kind of a (physical) problem that he isn’t living with and playing with,” player/manager Art McConnell said earlier this week as he ate pizza and drank beer after his team’s 25-2 trouncing of the Dodgers, a 65-plus team. “You’ve got to take your hats off to these guys who keep going out there and playing.”

The Angels play every Wednesday at Marshall Park in Anaheim in the seven-team Southern California Senior Softball League’s 65-plus age division. Some of the players also compete on the Angels’ 55-plus team on Sundays at Murdy Park in Huntington Beach. The league is the only of its kind in Orange County.

The Angels go to Scottsdale, Ariz., Sept. 26-30, to defend their national title. Eighty teams--including ones from Canada, Mexico and Australia--will play in the second Senior Softball World Series, according to McConnell.

McConnell, 72, of San Juan Capistrano, played two years of minor league ball for the Boston Braves’ Manchester Blue Sox farm club, which was one level below the major league club, and later played in city league baseball in Denver and Washington D.C. while serving as an officer in the Air Force for 33 years.

McConnell looks for ex-minor leaguers and semi-pro players when he recruits for his team. He finds that they tend to be more motivated than former major leaguers who often seem to find it degrading to be playing slow-pitch softball.

McConnell, who plays second base despite a permanently ruptured biceps in his throwing arm, hadn’t played for 20 years when he became aware of senior league softball in 1981. “I hung up the glove and spikes and thought I was finished,” McConnell said. “Then I came here and saw a blurb in the paper about senior league. . . . It was the best thing that ever happened.”

Third baseman C.E. Brown, 71, once played minor league ball with the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Albany farm club, which was one level below the majors, and with the Red Sox-affiliated Auburn club in the low minors. “I didn’t touch a ball for about 30 years, except playing catch with the kids,” Brown said. “The first time I played (with the Angels), I didn’t know if my arm would be any good or not.”

Brown, a real estate broker from Corona del Mar, hears few complaints from his teammates about his throwing arm. They say he is one of the team’s outstanding fielders. Brown, who has played in the senior league for six years, broke his other arm two years ago while tagging a runner out at third.

Brown said the Southern California Senior Softball League, with its youngest division being 55-plus, takes precautions to prevent injuries. To prevent collisions, there are two first bases, one for the fielder to tag and one for the baserunners. Runners are allowed to over-run second and third bases to make sliding unnecessary. Also, any play at the plate is a force play and runners must run far outside the basepaths.

“Otherwise, you would have all kinds of collisions,” Brown said. “People forget themselves and forget their age.”

Art Perez, 71, of Norwalk may have done just that at a May tournament in Reno, where the safety rules weren’t in effect. Perez slid into second, tearing ligaments in his left knee. Perez is giving himself a lot of time to heal.

“I’ve seen this happen so many times,” Perez said. “They just want to get back in there. They don’t realize when you get older your bones take longer to heal. And they don’t listen to their doctors.”

McConnell has seen players as a old as 75 on his team.

Harold Cromer, 74, of Mission Viejo, has been playing senior league softball for four years. He began playing in his native New Jersey but moved to California and began playing with the Angels three years ago when he found out on a vacation to Orange County that the weather is nice enough to play softball year-round.

“That was 60% of (the reason I moved), I’ll tell you,” Cromer said. “Because in New Jersey, when you retire there’s nothing to do except look out the window, and I sure wasn’t going to do that.”

A few years can be a big advantage in the senior leagues, according to McConnell. “We compete in a 65-plus league pretty well,” he said. “In 60-plus it’s tougher. You can give away five years but not 10.”