When John Zimmerman put together his first softball team in 1986, he never expected that 23 years later most of that team would pick up its biggest victory yet.
The First National Bank of Wyoming team traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area from Aug. 10 to 12 to compete in the 2009 National Senior Olympics, and returned home with a heavy chunk of gold around their necks.
The team of 14 Delaware natives went 3-4 in pool play in the tournament to advance to the championship round for the Men’s 50-to-54 age bracket.
In the best-of-three finals, First National faced Walchometro Flex out of Maine, and disposed of the opposition easily by scores of 21-4 and 11-8 in straight games for the gold medal.
Zimmerman said he was unsure of what to expect heading to his first senior games, but added that the team returned home with the result it went out there to attain.
“When I put this thing together, that was the goal, to go out there and win,” he said. “Talk is cheap. Our guys mesh. They’re a good bunch of guys that play well together. It was a total team effort through defense and timely hitting. Things like that.”
The idea to put a team together for the games started more than a year ago, when team member and pitcher Paul Fleming started urging Zimmerman to organize one.
Fleming, who had been to senior games in the past, said he knew Zimmerman had a group of guys together already that fit the age bracket and knew it’d be a fun idea to go out.
“I was talking about Senior Olympics to John for over a year trying to get him interested and psyched to put a team together, so he entered and built the team,” Fleming said.
Most of the team is made up of the original members of the First National team of 1986, Zimmerman said, with a few add on players such as Fleming.
Getting the old gang back together, he said, was a lot of fun, and while the effects of the aging process were noticeable, those same skill sets were still prevalent.
“The guys on our team are a step slower and the hits are shorter, but they can still play ball,” Zimmerman said.
The Delaware squad was able to manufacture a lot of runs over its six-game appearance in the Bay Area, but it was another aspect of the game that Zimmerman said carried the team to the gold.
“I think all the teams out there could hit, and our top guys hit all over. But you have to play defense,” he said. “And that’s what’s lacking in softball today. The defense isn’t there like it used to be. But we had that.”
On top of that, Zimmerman said that every player contributed in some way and that everyone earned gold.
“We had guys like Bobby Bosco and Jim Donovan that provided excellent defense,” he said. “Then there was Denny Clark, Doc Watson, Eddie Hildreth, Ray Bias and Tom Leonard who provided the bulk of the offense.
“Add in Steve Gordon and Paul Fleming, who split the pitching, and we had a balanced group of guys.”
The First National team did not make things easy on itself however. Even though most players on the team exceeded the age group they were playing in, the rules stated that teams had to play to their youngest players, which put the Delaware squad in the 50 to 54 bracket.
In pool play, the 50 to 54 and 55-59 groups are combined, with the younger of the two required to spot five runs at the beginning of each game.
That meant the Delaware squad was forced to start each of its four pool play games down by five runs, but the group was still able to ring up wins against teams from New Mexico, New York and Ohio.
The lone loss came against an Ohio team, 15-12, meaning without the five-run rule First National would’ve walked away undefeated.
Fleming said while winning the gold was the highlight of the short stay in California, he particularly enjoyed the first-class facilities in which the team competed.
“It was the nicest facility I’ve ever seen,” he said. “They had batting cages, a pitching machine and eight, irrigated softball fields. It was beautiful. And you kind of rise to the conditions that you’re playing in, which is part of why I think we played so well.”
The next senior games will be in Houston in 2011, but Zimmerman said he’s unsure if the squad will return to defend the gold medal.
“Right now, I think we proved what we wanted to prove,” he said. “But I guess all we need to hear is someone tell us that we can’t do it. At that point, nothing would surprise me.”
Email Brian Citino at brian.citino@doverpost.com
