(funky organ music)
- I guess we're ready to play ball.
- What do you mean by ready?
- Well, I'm not hurt.
(laughing)
- Batter up!
- Bob Ruhland has spent a lot of sunny
summer days on a baseball diamond.
- [Bob] I played ball all my life basically.
- And he's not ready to give it up yet.
- [Bob] You gotta love it, so
I wouldn't be here if I didn't love it, right?
- That's why he was one of the co-founders
of the Greater Madison Senior Softball League.
- Here's my 80-year-old guy, soon to be.
How's vacation, Larry?
- Wonderful, wonderful.
- Go, go, go, go, go. Get at her.
- Exclusively for players over the age of 55.
(cheering)
- The average age is now 67,
because most of the guys...
We don't get a lot of guys in their 50s
'cause they're still working.
- All right, let's go.
(electric guitar music)
- The League was an overnight success,
(athletes shouting)
with people calling non-stop to sign up.
- [Bob] We had eight teams that first year.
We thought we'd get three.
The second year, we ended up with 10.
Atta boy.
- Now more than 200 players
show up in Middleton every Wednesday in the summer...
to swing the bat and stretch a single into a double.
(athletes shouting)
- [Bob] They come from all over.
And they drive in, they'll carpool
just for that hour and 10 minutes of fun.
They wanna play.
- Of course, some of them don't run
as well as they used to.
- [Bob] You have to know your limits, you know?
You can't, again, play like you did 40 years ago
when you were kids.
- While the games and the players
are still competitive,
- Tear the cover off!
- Bob says the guys know
they're here to stay active
and get out of housework for a day.
- All right, Keith.
- It's not always about winning or losing.
It's about having fun at the old ballpark.
And you never know when it's your last day on the diamond.
- With that perspective, even if you lose,
it's still a good day.
(athletes shouting and clapping)
- What nicer way to spend a Wednesday morning
at the ballpark,
playing with people that have played the game and enjoy it?
We're here to have a good time and be able to participate,
just be thankful that we can come out and play ball
at our age.
That's the big thing I think people realize.
- Go hard. Go hard! Yah!
- Good game, guys. Good game. Good game.
- Nice game, guys.