RECREATION : Senior Softball Players Live Out Their Dreams on the Diamond

Some journeys begin later than others. A group of softball players from Thousand Oaks have made up for lost time, however. They hit the ground at age 55 and didn’t stop until they qualified for a national tournament.

The Panthers, a team of men 55 and over, played in the Senior Softball World Series last weekend, winning two games and losing four. The tournament culminated five years of effort, transforming a team that was winless in 1988 into one that from 1991 to 1993 racked up 44 consecutive victories.

You’re never too old for dreams to come true.

“When I started, our objective was to win a championship of any kind,” said Glenn Krupp, a player-coach since 1989 who at 62 is the same age as one of his heroes, Mickey Mantle. “Then our goal was to win a league. Then it became getting to the world championships.

“Our next goal is to win that darn thing. Then we can say we’ve done it all.”

The World Series, held in Scottsdale, Ariz., ended in disappointing fashion. After going 2-2 in pool play, the Panthers advanced to the double-elimination phase and lost two in a row.

The second loss was the toughest. Trailing, 5-0, in the fourth inning, the Panthers rallied to score four runs with two out. A bases-loaded triple by Herb Jellander, who at 58 is the same age as Bill Mazeroski, appeared to give the Panthers a 7-5 lead, but the first runner was called out for not crossing the finish line.

Finish line? In Senior Softball, a runner does not have to touch home plate to score a run, but merely must cross a line much as a sprinter does in a race.

Confounded rule.

“That took the heart out of us,” said Krupp, who watched the team lose, 10-4.

The Panthers are pumped up again, though. They are preparing for the Gold Coast Senior Olympics Oct. 1-2 in Oxnard, a tournament they won last season.

Later in the fall, the team will split into two squads--one for players 60 and over, the other for those 55-59.

“This is like when the seniors golf tour started. It resurrected all these old golfers,” said Jerry DeGennaro, a third baseman who at 57 is the same age as Brooks Robinson.

Krupp began building in 1989 with cronies Bob Evans, Frank Pavone and Jim Tate. They added Billy Swartz, Larry Brown and Ron Ellen a year later, Don DeMello and Jim Cratty in ’91 and Dan Jones, Bob Biel and Jellander in ’92.

By that time the Panthers were roaring, winning back-to-back championships in the Gold Coast League, composed of teams from Santa Barbara to Simi Valley.

“I was looking for recreation and friendship and I got more than I bargained for,” said Brown, at 62 the same age as Eddie Mathews. “I played hardball and basketball as a young man. Athletics helps your mind as well as your body. It helps me keep a positive attitude.”

With the addition of DeGennaro in ’93 and Jessie Washington and Joe Palmintiero this year, the World Series roster was complete. As players are added, others inevitably are dropped.

“When you are younger, you get better every year, but with us, the opposite is true,” Krupp said. “We owe so much to the guys who are no longer with us. They helped turn this team into a winner.”

Notes

The Gold Coast Senior Olympics will take place the first two weekends in October at several sites in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Aquatics will be held at Rancho Simi pool in Simi Valley, a golf tournament will be held in Ojai, a 5k run will be held in Ventura, and several events will be held at community centers in Santa Paula and in Oxnard.