Age is only a number for the Boys of Summer at the Canadian National Oldtimers Baseball Championships.
The elder statesmen of the diamond will showcase their skills in the 35-plus, 44-plus and 50-plus tournament next weekend in the metro Edmonton area.
“We’re pretty pumped about it. We’ve been looking forward to it all year,” said Jeff Calkins, a 45-year-old first baseman/pitcher for the St. Albert Senior Cardinals in the 35-plus division. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. Hopefully we’ll get a lot of people out to watch us.”
Thirty-one teams will play 77 games over four days at Legion Memorial Park, Telus Field, Footz Field, Spruce Grove, Stony Pain and Sherwood Park.
“You’re going to get an understanding of just how competitive we still are in these age groups,” said 48-year-old catcher/infielder Paul Radchenko of the Cardinals. “What you will see in the 35-plus is pretty much all-star teams from across Canada so with that particular age group people will be impressed with the calibre of play.”
In round robin action the Cardinals play Kindersley, Lloydminster Twins and the Tillsonburg (Ont.) Oldsox in pool D.
The Capital Tiger Padres – a collection of former senior AAA St. Albert Tigers from their run of national championships – are in pool C with the Regina Drifters, Brampton (Ont.) Pioneers and Fort Saskatchewan A's.
Pool A consists of the Grimshaw Huskies, Medicine Hat Tigers, Westlock Red Lions and Woodslee (Ont.) Orioles.
The Bardo Athletics, Calgary Chinook, Lougheed Wildcats and Scarborough (Ont.) Maroons round out pool B.
Visit www.cnobf2013.ca for tournament schedules.
“In the 35-plus age group you’re going to see some good ball. We’ve got two or three guys on this team that if they wanted to could still possibly be playing with the Tigers,” said third baseman Greg Reiniger, the second oldest Cardinal at age 50. “But, of course, every year you get a little older and a little slower. That ball you used to get to 20 years ago, you don’t quite get there anymore. It’s a little frustrating but that’s the way it is.”
Radchenko will appear in his third oldtimers nationals and it’s the second for Calkins.
“It’s a fun atmosphere and I was impressed with the calibre of players I saw,” said Radchenko, who played two seasons for the Arizona State University Sun Devils in the 1980s.
“It’s good baseball. You’re going to get a few older guys that are maybe a little bit long in the tooth but every team has at least one or two pitchers that are fantastic and there are good hitters throughout the line-ups,” added Calkins. “For the most part there are probably four or five teams that are coming loaded to win. Hopefully we can count ourselves in as one of those four or five.”
The team’s 16-player roster for nationals includes pickups Harold Northcott of Rocky Mountain House and Mike Morgan, a former Cardinal.
A pair of longtime Cardinals – Gary Tater and Don Litven, the oldest player on the team at age 54 – will hook up with the Edmonton Expos in the 44-plus division.
Several of the Cardinals will be making their national debuts at any level of baseball.
“For some of us the national scene isn’t new but I would suspect there is a large number of guys that are playing on this team that have never had that experience before playing in the national championship and being lucky enough to have it at home, so they will be thrilled,” said Reiniger, a former Tigers’ outfielder. “Hosting does have its upside and downside. The upside is you get to sleep in your bed. The downside is you rarely get to sleep because you’re always working the beer garden or some other thing but it’s still nice having it in our own back yard. We play most of our games, if not all of them here (in St. Albert), so that’s nice.”
The division finals at Legion park on holiday Monday is 50-plus B at 9 a.m. and 35-plus B at 12 p.m. The 35-plus A final is 3 p.m. at Telus Field.
“Playing on Monday would be fantastic, either on the A or B side,” Calkins said. “Obviously we would like to win.”
The top two teams in each pool in the 16-team 35-plus division advance to the A playoff bracket and the remaining teams will challenge for the B title.
“We want to come out either second or first in our pool for the crossover,” Radchenko said. “We expect there is going to be some good teams here and I hope we can compete in the playoffs.”
The Cardinals are a confident bunch going into their first tournament of the season based on their performance in the 35-plus Alberta West Central Baseball Association. With one game left until playoffs the Grey Birds are 9-5 for fourth place in the eight-team standings.
“We’ve done OK in terms of wins and losses but it’s been a tough year with all the rain,” said Reiniger, who played all nine positions for the Cardinals in a seven-inning game this year. “In any age category if you get good defence and good pitching you should be OK.”
Last year’s league finalists are 2-3 in their last five games prior to a pair of rainout dates after winning four in a row. The team’s last game before nationals is Monday against the first-place Spruce Grove Eagles (9-2) at 6:45 p.m. at Henry Singer Ball Park.
“We’ve done pretty good. We lost a couple of games we probably shouldn’t have and won one or two that maybe we got a little fortunate in winning,” Calkins said.
There are more Cardinals on the roster than in previous years.
“We’re averaging 15, 16, 17 guys out to a ball game and a couple of years ago you’re fighting to get 10 or 11,” Reiniger said. “We’ve been able to work a couple of extra arms into the rotation we didn’t have last year. We’ve got a couple of guys throwing a little bit this year that haven’t thrown a whole bunch in the past and we hope they will be able to throw more in the future so that has impacted a little bit.
“As long as our pitching holds up we should be OK.”
The rotation revolves around the Edwards brothers, Dave and Matt.
“Our hitting has not come around as well as we would’ve liked but definitely our pitching is our strength. Our top two pitchers have really kept us in games and allowed us to win games this year,” Calkins said.
The calibre of the AWCBA is better than Reiniger expected when he joined the Cardinals a few years ago.
“It’s decent baseball. There are a couple of teams that are still kind of weak but for the vast majority – Westlock, Fort Saskatchewan, ourselves and Spruce Grove – are all very competitive. You can come out and expect to be in a ball game but the odd time it will get out of hand a little bit,” Reiniger said. “It’s surprising how many one and two run ball games we’ve had this year and when you’re having close games like that it means your pitchers are doing their job.”
Reiniger hadn’t played in 22 years before returning to the diamond with the Cardinals.
“When Mark Spector (senior columnist for Sportsnet and host of the Mark Spector Show on Team 1260) ran this team he bugged me for years to come out and play and I wasn’t there yet. If it wasn’t real competitive I don’t know if I would be playing because I still have that little bit of a competitive edge. But you know what? It’s ball. It’s a competitive league. It’s a good group of guys and the team is doing all right. It’s fun to get out to the ball park, eat spits and do whatever you do when you play ball,” said Reiniger, who’s father, Dave, was a driving force behind the Tigers in the team’s early years in St. Albert.
