The Author As Jock
By Hal Urban - November 16, 2008
Many people think authors spend most of their time reading and writing. Not so. We actually do other things, all of them a lot more fun than writing. I’ve been asked to write about “something special that makes my heart sing.” Playing softball does that for me. In fact, I’ve already told my wife Cathy that after I die, I’d like my ashes to be spread at the softball field. Well, not all of them. I want some of them spread at Nordstrom so I know she’ll come to visit me at least once a week.
I was blessed with good size and some athletic ability, so sports have always been a big part of my life. My two favorites growing up were baseball and basketball. I was better at the latter, and it led to a four-year “full ride” basketball scholarship at the University of San Francisco. As a result, I gave up baseball when I went away to college at age 17.
Twenty-three years later I rediscovered my first love – baseball – in another form. It was called “Over 40 Softball.” It was both competitive and FUN!
That went on for 10 years, and then I discovered “Senior Softball” when I was about to turn 50. It’s even more competitive and more fun, and the rules allow you to be a rookie again every five years. The first age group is 50-54, the second group is 55-59, and so on. Believe it or not, there’s an Over 80 Softball World Championship played every year. What an incentive to keep in shape. Alas, there is no 85-89 division – not enough players.
Please don’t conclude, “Oh, how cute, a bunch of grandpas playing a kids game.” These are world-class athletes in their age brackets, no different than Senior Golf or Senior Tennis. And the season is long. In northern California, where I play, there’s a tournament every weekend from March 1 to the end of October. Then we play “winter league” from November through February.
One of my goals is to be on a team that wins the Over 80 World Championship some day. But that’s a ways off. For now I have to keep playing with the youngsters. And as I said, it’s a lot more fun than writing.
I was blessed with good size and some athletic ability, so sports have always been a big part of my life. My two favorites growing up were baseball and basketball. I was better at the latter, and it led to a four-year “full ride” basketball scholarship at the University of San Francisco. As a result, I gave up baseball when I went away to college at age 17.
Twenty-three years later I rediscovered my first love – baseball – in another form. It was called “Over 40 Softball.” It was both competitive and FUN!
That went on for 10 years, and then I discovered “Senior Softball” when I was about to turn 50. It’s even more competitive and more fun, and the rules allow you to be a rookie again every five years. The first age group is 50-54, the second group is 55-59, and so on. Believe it or not, there’s an Over 80 Softball World Championship played every year. What an incentive to keep in shape. Alas, there is no 85-89 division – not enough players.
Please don’t conclude, “Oh, how cute, a bunch of grandpas playing a kids game.” These are world-class athletes in their age brackets, no different than Senior Golf or Senior Tennis. And the season is long. In northern California, where I play, there’s a tournament every weekend from March 1 to the end of October. Then we play “winter league” from November through February.
One of my goals is to be on a team that wins the Over 80 World Championship some day. But that’s a ways off. For now I have to keep playing with the youngsters. And as I said, it’s a lot more fun than writing.
