‘Spring Training’ in Florida at Softball Winter Camp VI

It’s the bottom of the ninth and the bases are loaded. The batter hits a powerful line drive and the base runners sprint around the diamond. The players are exuberant moving with agility and lightning speed. As four players run home, the crowd cheers the first grand slam of the day. Unless you look closely, you’d never notice that the team is comprised of players old enough to be our parents and grandparents. And they’re having the time of their lives.

No, this is not a scene from the movie Cocoon. It’s real life. Today’s senior population is sharper, healthier and more dynamic than any prior generation. Seniors of the 21^st century are leading active, healthy lifestyles, which include competitive team sports like softball.

Today, seniors in retirement have the opportunity for a second childhood – for many of the players, senior softball has afforded them a new lease on life.

In South Florida, Al Schneider is on a mission: to educate the senior population about their opportunity to experience the youthful exhilaration of team spirit, regardless of their age, physical condition or experience.

“Anyone can play,” Schneider emphasizes, “no matter what level or skill. Only desire necessary. Anybody who wants to play will play.” Though the games can be highly competitive, rules are modified to meet safety requirements for senior citizens (no sliding into home plate, for example). Players are grouped into age brackets in five-year increments level the playing field and promote healthy and fair competition. Both women and men can play the game, though they are usually assigned to separate teams.

Al Schneider always knew that age is only a number, and we really are only as old as we feel. A lifelong athlete, Schneider played high school baseball and softball, and was a collegiate junior middleweight boxer in his home state of New Jersey. Always passionate about the great American pastime, Schneider fondly remembers the glory days of the New York Yankees, when Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra reigned supreme as the ultimate “boys of summer.”

Schneider married and started a family, worked for General Electric and started his own computer technology business in the 1970’s, “but I never stopped playing ball,” he says. He joined an amateur softball team at Randall’s Island near the Tri-Borough Bridge and continued to play throughout his adulthood. As the years went by, Schneider noticed that he was playing with men young enough to be his own children and resigned himself to hanging up his cleats when he could no longer compete.

Then everything changed. Inspired by an article in Modern Maturity magazine about a senior softball organization in Sacramento, California, Schneider eagerly contacted its founder, Bob Mitchell, and soon established the New Jersey Senior Softball Association. Today, the association boasts 2,400 players on 140 teams.

Extending the field of dreams to his new permanent home in South Florida, the energetic Schneider is getting his act together and taking it on the road, addressing “active lifestyles” senior communities and sharing his passion with a whole new crop of sports enthusiasts.

Schneider hosts a four-day camp in Orlando to prepare the team for tournament play. The instructional camps are mandatory prior to tournament competitions, just like in the major leagues. The camp puts players through a rigorous physical training program including daily calisthenics led by statuesque Katrina Rich.

Softball is more than a hobby for many of these retirees. There is even a softball world Series and opportunities for travel. Participants insist they’ve been given a new lease on life. They are truly as young as they feel. They are living proof of the Senior Softball Association’s philosophy: “You don’t stop playing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop playing.”

Locally, the senior softball movement is well on its way. Games are held each Monday afternoon at 4:00 pm at the South County Civic Center in Delray Beach. Non-playing ball fans also have the opportunity to participate as umpires, team mangers, and coaches and, of course, fans to cheer on the team.

Al Schneider urges his fellow seniors to “get off the couch. You’ll enjoy the great outdoors, get in shape, feel better, add a lot of years to your life and make dozens of new friends.”