Public Service Announcement

61 yr old grandpas should not cover first for his grand son’s 9U practices a. Stay in the out field or just man the ball bucket when the pitcher runs out. I need some Icy Hot. I wish they still sold Atomic Balm in gallon buckets.

Don’t fill in on the defensive line during football practice either.

I was 46ish last time I played Softball with the church. It appears that I had not lost any of my competitiveness as of then. I have now, and that's part of the reason. Bottom of first, I jumped/dove to catch a line drive and felt it as soon as I hit the ground. I wouldn't let anyone know my shoulder was killing me and finished the game. My right knee was swollen a bit that night also. I'm not sure just when that happened. Two weeks later I was still hurting. Now I watch from the bleachers.

Coaching my daughter's 14U softball team about 8 years ago (I was 44 at the time) and the girls were talking about who the fastest on the team was. I jokingly said it didn't matter who the fastest was because I'd outrun them all. Me and my big mouth...the fastest on the team jumped up and wanted to race me from home plate to the centerfield fence and back. I accepted her challenge. We got to home plate, the asst coach told us go and we took off. I had her beat until we hit the grass and I felt and heard my hamstring give and I pulled up. I limped around for a couple weeks before the pain started to ease up enough that I could walk without it bothering me.

46 and up until last year I was filling in at OT against high school football players. I started going 1/2 line drills to stay out of it if our numbers got low. Still too prideful to get whipped and too old for the hurt the next day.
Also learned when my daughter(16) hit 12yrs old a screen was mandatory for BP regardless if you're wearing a glove.

The parks and rec league held their annual Husky Day when I was around 40. I got recruited to play on the dad's flag football team. I told them no way. They were like "Aw come on, it will be fun!". I told them the heart was still willing but the body wasn't. I think the game ended up with 2 torn ACL's and a heat stroke. Mom's game had about the same. The ambulance made several trips to the ball park that day.