The Golden Era of Long Beach’s Senior Softball

At parks like Pan American Park and Joe Rodgers Field, generations of players lace up their cleats, take their positions and play for the love of the game. The men’s senior softball league isn’t just about competition – it is about camaraderie and keeping the spirit of the sport alive well into their later years.

The league has its own unwritten rules: no sliding, no hitting up the middle and plenty of good-natured trash talk.

“There’s grumpy old men and then there are grumpier old men,” is how Randy Gomez, a 76-year-old retired L.A. County firefighter from the Joe Jost’s team describes the dugout atmosphere.

The league started playing in 1986 with four teams – Red, Blue, Green and Yellow. Players were picked as needed and there were no playoffs, no tracked batting averages, just the pure joy of playing.

 At its peak, 45 to 50 players showed up every Sunday, but when COVID-19 hit, regular games had mostly faded, though the friendships endured, and the Sunday games never recovered.

The mornings start early, with players arriving at 6:30 a.m. to set up and sip coffee.

In recent years, the league has been split into divisions on–Gold, Silver and Bronze. The Gold Division is for the younger 55-and-up players at Joe Rodgers, while the Silver and Bronze Divisions, which is full of longtime players, plays at Pan American Park every Saturday.

The best part is no matter how bad a season was, everyone makes the playoffs.

“We never lose, we just come in second place,” said Gomez.

The average age of participants is 67, with some still playing in their late 80s and younger recruits are often in their mid-50s.

The field conditions are at times left something to be desired. The infield sometimes develops dangerous bumps and the pitcher’s mound is not always level. Some players opted for masks, a precaution that is not mandatory in this league but has become standard in other seniors’ games. The most important part of playing is safety and contact with the ball and each other on the field is avoided as much as possible.

The league has its gathering spots too, none more important than Joe Jost’s, a Long Beach bar that just celebrated their 100-year anniversary. For decades, players head there after games for a beer and their famous pickled eggs.

The names of past players are memorialized on a bronze plaque at Joe Rodgers field, this “Hall of Fame” ensures their legacy endures next to other legendary Long Beach athletes.

The group of softball lovers encourages more people to come out to the fields and play. At 8 a.m. on Sundays at Joe Rodgers, men and women who are 55 years old and up are able to bring their cleats, bats and gloves to practice or possibly even play in a pick-up game.