Henando Times, December 16, 2006
I Came To Florida to Die

This is a story about dying or should I say living.  When I moved to Florida last April, I was told by the northerners that I was moving to Florida to die.  What I found was something totally different; in fact I was kind of shocked.  I was introduced to a group of gentleman known as the WHACS.  I was asked by one of my newly made friends to join him in going to a softball practice.  Now slow pitch softball was something I had given up on 18 years earlier because I was too old and I missed playing greatly.  I should explain the W.H.A.C.S stands for the West Hernando Athletic Club for Seniors.  So I went to this softball practice not knowing what to expect, after all, I was going to this practice with a gentleman that was 64 years old, so how good could this be.  I am 59 years old and was a competitor when I played, so I thought this should be a joke.  I went there just to take a look and advised everyone that I was not interested in playing.  It was just a practice so I said what the heck and joined in.  I took it pretty slow and found myself enjoying what I had missed very much.  I hadn?t realized just how much I missed playing softball.  I was meeting players one by one as I passed them in the field while shagging balls.  What a bunch of nice guys I thought to myself.  Then there was this one gentleman that had heard about a new guy out there that was from his home state.  He walked up to me very slowly and introduced himself to me as Joey D.  We talked about our home state a couple minutes and then I just had to ask this guy a personal question.  Joey I said, just   how old you are?  He replied that he was 82 years old.  Now this gentleman is out in the field shagging flies with me and he can still hit the ball pretty well.  I was really impressed and I am now ecstatic.  I realized that I now have another 20 years of softball playing in me, how great is that I thought?  Once the season started I was shocked once again, a 54 game schedule, up north you are lucky to play 3 months.  In the W.H.A.C.S. they play an 8 month season.  There are 6 teams of 16 players on each team.  Now they do have two first bases side by side, one for the fielder and the other for the runner.  Safety being the number one priority in this league.  They also have two different home plates that are about 10 feet apart, again, one for the runner and the other for the fielder.  Only force outs are allowed at home plate and since there are two plates there is no contact.  Again, safety being our first priority.  Now, since we are a little old which makes us a little slower than we used to be and we can?t bend over as far as we used to, we have 5 infielders and 4 outfielders.  What a difference this softball league makes to so many lives.  This league plays at Veterans Park on Spring Hill Drive.  There are 2 other senior softball leagues in the area as well.  There is the Senior Softball Invitational League (SSIL?s) and the Anderson Snow Softball League.  All of these leagues are for those of us over 55 and 60 years of age that want to live.  So as a new person to Florida, I believe I found heaven in Herando County, Florida.  They can say I came to Florida to die, but if they only knew.  I am living my dream all over again and so are 100?s of our men.  I feel like I have been born again and I am having the time of my life.  So I say to Herando County and to all of the sponsors of these senior softball leagues a hearty thank you for caring and supporting your seniors.