These Bay Area seniors aren't letting their age stop them from playing ball: Meet the Pioneers
These Bay Area seniors aren't letting their age stop them from playing ball
The Pioneers, a 65 and over baseball team based in the North Bay, are not letting aging keep them from what they love: baseball.
ALAMEDA, Calif. - The Pioneers, a 65 and over baseball team based in the North Bay, are not letting aging keep them from what they love: baseball.
When the team, which consists of 26 men, takes the field the hands of time are turned back.
The team is a part of the nationwide Mens Senior Baseball League, which has more than 40,000 players. They compete against four other 65 and up teams in the Bay Area and have the chance to go to the Senior Baseball World Series in Arizona.
But make no mistake, they're playing to win.
There's a tryout process, and a draft., and not everyone makes a team.
Manager, Nick Marnell stratagizes, and studies opposing teams and players play through injuries.
"Yesterday, I had two hits and three RBIs. I'm not going to sit down. I had to limp to first base, but I got there," second and third baseman Rich Mangini said.
Almost everyone on the team started playing T-ball at a young age.
None of the players thought they would be playing five or more decades later.
"We're all in pretty good shape. No one is thinking about the end of the line. We're thinking about our next practice and next game," Nick Marnell, the Pioneers' manager, said.
The players prepare just as they did in their prime.
When KTVU was on the field, Mike McKeever, 84, was getting ready to take the mount – something he's done for the better part of the last 75 years.
KTVU asked McKeever what he gets out of the continued practice.
"You have to do it as hard and as well as you can," he said. "It's a constant move forward of what you're doing."
Now in their 60s, 70s and 80s, everyone knows that playing baseball is not guaranteed. While the game hasn't changed, their minds, bodies and what they take from the game has.