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Wednesday, September 6, 2000
Serious Softball
National tournament next stop for Willie’s Wolves
By Mark Zuckerman
Caller-Times
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| David Adame/Caller-Times |
| Members of the over-50 softball team Willie’s Wolves rest in the dugout as coach Willie Ruiz (right) watches the action on the diamond. |
On any given night of the week, you can find hundreds of them around local parks, partaking in the time-honored recreational sport of slow-pitch softball. Men and women of all ages joined by a common bond, be it through work, family or friends.
And, for the most part, it's done for the pure fun of it all. Wins and losses, though recorded for official purposes, really don't matter much as long as everyone has a good time and no one gets hurt.
But for a select few, including one local team, things aren't all fun and games.
This is serious stuff: tournaments, all-star teams, travel around the country.
They call themselves Willie's Wolves, and while they might look like your average over-50 beer-league softball team, these guys are anything but casual players.
"It's very competitive, this senior circuit," said Willie Ruiz, who sponsors, coaches and plays for the team that bears his name. "You'll see gentlemen in their 70s and 80s that are very able, very physically fit. They take the game seriously."
How serious and how good are the Wolves? Serious enough to have formed a traveling squad made up of the state's top softball players. And good enough to qualify for this week's National Senior Players Association Tournament in Panama City, Fla., where Ruiz and his players will join 250 top teams from around the country, all seeking to bring home a national championship.
Teammates, friends
What would possess 14 middle-aged men to devote time, money and energy to a sport that most associate with overweight, balding men who have a hard time running around the bases? Ervin Cooper, the Wolves' 51-year-old starting second baseman, said it's a hunger for competition.
"That, and the camaraderie," Cooper said. "A lot of teams will play and then disperse after the game. We stick around and talk about how we can get better. We're not fanatics. We just enjoy playing."
They may have fun before and after the game, but on the field, the Wolves are all business.
Ruiz, who manages two local teams (an over-50 squad and an over-55 one), has been playing competitive softball for more than 30 years. Over that time, he has met top-notch players from around the state, some of whom he has convinced to join his traveling team.
And with his own dream team of players - three from Corpus Christi, five from San Antonio, the rest from other towns in Texas - he has managed to build a squad good enough to place first in two recent qualifying tournaments, thus earning the berth in the national tournament.
"Finally after all these years, I got together a perfect team," said Ruiz, 65, a cardiovascular technician. "Well, maybe not perfect, but a team where I have a good person at every position."
Three locals, along with Ruiz, are on the squad: Cooper at second base, shortstop Phil Sims and outfielder Art Work. They and their teammates will head to Panama City this week for the six-day national tournament.
Here's the kicker: they don't even practice much.
"No, we don't practice. We just go out and play," said Cooper, who works at a local fitness center. "At our age, practice would probably just make us too sore to play. Besides, when you've been playing together long enough, you know what the other guys are going to do."
Softball honor
Along with the Wolves, local player Robert "Bud" O'Cayce also will make the trip to Florida this week, not to play, but to be honored. O'Cayce, a 56-year-old Army electronics technician, is one of 13 players who will be inducted into the National Senior Softball Hall of Fame.
"It's a great honor for me," said O'Cayce, who plays on the Wolves' over-55 local team and for the traveling Dallas Legends. "I never thought I'd see the day that this would happen to me."
The election process for the Hall of Fame is somewhat complicated, but essentially, O'Cayce was chosen among hundreds of nominees for his outstanding play in all aspects of the game over the last seven years or so. During that time, he has a batting average over .600 and has won 90 percent of the games in which he has played and pitched.
The real reason O'Cayce will be inducted, say his friends, is for his commitment to the game and the manner in which he plays it.
"This guy is all baseball," said Cooper, who will formally induct O'Cayce at the ceremony. "He's the greatest friend any person in this world could have. And he's very good at what he does.
"He doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke. He's for softball what Pete Rose is for baseball . . . take away the gambling part."
Though he will retire from the Army later this year, O'Cayce has no plans on ending his softball career now that he's in the Hall of Fame. He continues to play for three or four teams at a time, including one full of men under the age of 30.
"I've had people come up to me and ask how I do it," O'Cayce said. "I tell them I play with young guys to keep me sharp for when I play with the old guys. I think if I ever stop, I'm going to fall apart."
As for the Wolves, they have no intention of calling it quits any time soon, either. They're hoping to win a few more games this week and bring a national championship back to Corpus Christi.
"We're not going to lose," Cooper said. "We always try to have fun out there, but we don't plan to lose."
Staff writer Mark Zuckerman can be reached at 886-3747 or by e-mail at zuckermanm@caller.com
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