The ‘Batter Up!’ bond

“Runner!” can be heard as someone trots back to the bench, sometimes before even reaching first base.

A faster guy with better knees and hips takes his place.

They’re a little older, a little slower and a lot sorer, but their gusto for the game and accompanying fellowship has never waned.

The senior softball leagues in Grafton are going stronger than ever with two to choose from. This is the second year of the 65-and-older league while the 55-and-older league keeps thriving. Some players compete in both. To a man, camaraderie is repeated as the best part of playing.

“Good bunch of guys,” Dan Micha, 68, of Saukville said. “Camaraderie, recreation and reminding yourself of what you used to do really well.”

Micha, who still works as an independent investment adviser, played for years in a Cedarburg over-30 league when he became too old to keep up.

“We were really good back then and we’re OK today,” he said, noting he was a member of the 2017 team that was the only one to go 12-0. “Guys are as competitive as can possibly be. They just can’t run like they used to.”

The best of the best gathered on Saturday for all-star games for both leagues during the Lions Family Fun at Centennial Park in Grafton. Wisconsin Softball Coaches Association Hall of Fame coach Rod Wilterdink pitched both games.

He started the 65-and-older league last year. It already has 65 players and five teams.

“I can only compete with my age,” the 81-year-old said. “That’s the big thing. Fifty-five is getting a little young for me.”

Wilterdink, unlike many of the players, didn’t play baseball while growing up on a farm in Sheboygan Falls.

“I was a farmer,” he said. “Work before play, dad said.”

Wilterdink coached softball for 26 years at Cedarburg High School, amassing a 363-156 record with nine conference titles and nine state tournament appearances. The Bulldogs’ softball field is named after him.

He played fast-pitch softball and once got a hit off Eddie Feigner, the pitcher of the King and His Court traveling softball team — similar to basketball’s Harlem Globetrotters — that fielded only four players because Feigner threw so hard.

Wilterdink later came to appreciate slow-pitch.

“I didn’t like fast-pitch because I only barely touched the ball on defense,” he said. “Our pitcher would strike out 14.”

The attraction to the older slow-pitch league is the same as others for the former middle school math teacher who now lives most of the year in a suburb of Phoenix.

“You saw us having fun. I still have competitive juices at my age. I play to win, but when I’m done I sit with the guys from the other team,” he said as a group gathered on picnic tables while enjoying beverages and food under the park’s shelter.

Wilterdink recruited Bob Sinnen of Grafton to join the 55-and-older league years ago while biking on the Ozaukee Interurban Trail, and the two learned they have a few things in common.

Both were born on July 24 — Sinnen six years later — grew up on dairy farms, batted leadoff for opposing softball teams and taught middle school math.

Sinnen, a Random Lake High grad who built a house two miles north of Dacada, moved to Grafton 14 years ago.

“I didn’t know a dozen people,” he said.

Now, he knows 100, in part because of the nature of the leagues. Managers draft teams each season in a snake format, so no two teams are ever the same.

“You get to know everybody that way. You could be on the last-place team one year and championship team the next year, and vice versa,” Sinnen said.

He has played 16 years in the younger league and two in the older one. His wife died four years ago, and “now I’m really glad I got softball,” Sinnen said.

“It’s such a great social time. They say as you get older you need to keep up your social life.”

They do what’s required to keep up their bodies. Sinnen wears a wristband after getting it bruised and having it swell up, keeps his elbow warm and ready to throw with a band, wears knee pads and usually wraps one of his thighs but it was too warm on Saturday.

The league attraction crosses state lines. Sinnen has a college fraternity brother who comes to play from northern Illinois, picking up Paul Pujanauski, another frat brother and Port Washington native, in Mount Pleasant, .

Dave Armstrong, president of the 55-and-older league, was recruited to play at an NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament party several years ago. He had been playing in a city league in Milwaukee and said the fields kept moving farther south.

The 68-year-old former Grafton High School first baseman found a new home closer to home.

“It’s such a fun league. You’ve almost got 100 new friends right off the bat. I consider winning to be a bonus,” he said.

He was concerned at first that the formation of the older league would steal players from the younger one, but both have enough.

“For the most part there are still guys playing in both leagues,” he said. “Our league did get younger and the competition increased a little bit with it.”

But rules allow overrunning bases and there’s an alternate home plate for runners several feet from the original one. If the ball beats a runner, he’s out — there’s no sliding and tagging a runner isn’t necessary.

“It’s supposed to be a fun league. We’re not trying to be ultra competitive,” Armstrong said.

The league is ultra diverse when it comes to careers, however. Armstrong is a vice president for Capital First Trust Co. in Milwaukee. Carl D’Amato of Fredonia worked in production at Miller Brewery for 43 years.

He joined the league because “I’m nuts,” he said with a laugh. “People great group of guys. All of ’em. It’s fun. It keeps me out of the house.”

Retired Milwaukee Lutheran High School principal Paul Bahr of Jackson grew up playing fast-pitch in Cleveland and Buffalo since his father was a minister and the family often moved. Bahr, who is 74 and a half, played football and basketball in college.

“You just want to keep playing. It’s fun to watch guys our age who can run and throw. Some of the guys can hit the snot out of the ball,” he said.

Joel Cielak, 61, of Grafton, knew two of the league’s players growing up. They were his teachers when he was 13.

The 1982 Nicolet graduate remembers Grafton High killing his team in football and still bumps into former star Tim Fullington and reminisces about him scoring six touchdowns in one half.

Cielak, a former multi-sport athlete himself and an industrial auctioneer who just worked a Grafton Gridiron Club event, said the friendships are why he has stayed in the league for five years.

“It’s great camaraderie,” he said. “That’s the reason.”

It’s the same for former sports editor Pat Tierney of Port Washington, who is over 70 years old.

“The camaraderie. That’s the biggest thing. Sitting around after the game talking with the guys,” he said.

It comes with its fair share of ribbing. Someone joked that he watched game film and would buy a guy a beer and a hot dog if he hit the ball to him.

“They shovel it out,” Micha said. “After the game, it pains me to compliment you on going 4-for-4.”

Players also caution each other not to take it too far.

“Take two. Don’t pull anything. We need you this week,” one teammate told another after a smash for extra bases.

The all-star games were competitive but a little more casual. Chris Bucholz, a player from Thiensville, held a can of Miller High Life while umping the 55-and-older game.

The league’s oldest member is Frank Brezovar, 82, of Cedarburg, a former shortstop who moved to third base this year. He played in adult baseball leagues for more than 20 years at the Rock in Franklin until five years ago and has played softball since he was 65.

The retired stockbroker grew up in the same Milwaukee neighborhood as the umpire for the 65-and-older all-star game, Bob Sehmer, who has been umping for 65 years.

Brezovar confirmed that use of Bengay is a popular post-game tradition, and he had another plan.

“In fact, I might take a nap,” he said.

The 65-and-older league plays Tuesday mornings. For more information, call Wilterdink at (414) 690-4709 or email him at rod553@yahoo.com.

The 55-and-older league plays Thursday nights. For more information, call Armstrong at (262) 352-5117 or email him at armstrong.dave.a@gmail.com.