About Us


“Still Playin’ Baseball 55+” was launched in the early months of 2016 by a group of players who’d competed in the then-defunct Veterans League all the way back to 2000.   Led by Chatham Recreation Director Vince Gulotta, fellow pitchers Dusty Eldredge and Rick Marvin, catchers Gene Smith and Steve Montoya, the idea was to become a one-game-per-week haven for ex-Veterans League players and those who’d been reduced to benchwarmers in the 40+ Division of the Baseball Clubs of Cape Cod (BCCC).

 

Like the BCCC, we were fortunate to acquire permits to play on Cape Cod League ballfields in the spring and fall, bookending the June-August season of those college all-stars.   Unlike the BCCC, which employs two umpires for each game, our two 55+ clubs — the Blues and the Maroons — sought more of a “sandlot” feel, with catchers calling balls-and-strikes instead of umpires.

Our first few seasons were split between games at Veterans Field (Chatham) and Eldredge Park (Orleans).   The COVID pandemic of 2020 knocked out our spring season, but we were able to enjoy a few daytime scrimmages that autumn at Whitehouse Field in Harwich.   In lieu of a post-season get-together — the pandemic was still raging — players were mailed medals attesting to their spirit in keeping our baseball alive.

Spring 2021 began our current custom of “Spring Training” at Whitehouse Field, on Sunday afternoons in April and May.   Besides giving hibernating arms an opportunity to loosen up in reasonable temperatures, it provides a wonderful opportunity for “rookies” to showcase their abilities and meet their eventual teammates before the fall season.   And we all welcome the annual participation of “Gizmo”, Dan Smith’s plug-in workhorse, who never tires of delivering BP to our awakening bats.

The fun really begins in mid-August when the Cape League wraps up its playoffs, and our 55+ bunch begins its 12-game season at beautiful Eldredge Park in Orleans, under the lights every Wednesday evening through the end of October.   We occasionally attract some unaware fans in August who notice the illuminated ballfield, conclude that there must be a Cape League game underway, and hustle over for a good seat.   It doesn’t take them long to realize that the Blues and Maroons play a distinctly slower-paced brand of baseball, and that the only colleges we’d be part of are of the correspondence variety!

Several of us did indeed play varsity high school and college baseball many moons ago.   Others haven’t played on any organized team since Little League.   But we’re all alike in that we crave one more game, one more at-bat, one more chance to make a play on a manicured diamond.   So we compete, not so much against each other, but against that ogre Father Time, who relentlessly seeks to curtail our boyhood fun.

And each Wednesday night, we win.