Retiree seeks older players for softball

Morris Clark began playing softball 40 years ago and has never been inclined to stop.

The last few years, he’s been playing in a 50-and-over league in Idaho, and in his only concession to age, he wants to quit traveling so much.

Toward that end, Clark is promoting the formation of a similar league in Spokane.

“I’m 68, believe it or not,” said Clark, a retired roofing and siding contractor. “I played many years in the city. I loved playing it so much, a couple years I even played on four teams. It wasn’t unusual to play 80 or 90 games a year.”

He said he has the support of local softball commissioner Fuzzy Buckenberger to form a league for older athletes.

“He said we should have done this several years ago,” said Clark. “It will give some of us old guys who still like to play an opportunity.”

Clark has been an avid local softball booster, sponsoring teams in the Spokane Metro League. He began playing fastpitch in 1966, shifted to recreational (modified) pitch a year later and finally switched to slowpitch about 10 years ago.

Since then he’s been playing in Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene, beginning in leagues for 45 and over. One team over there, he said, is made up entirely of players 60 years or older.

But, he said, he’d been thinking for some time about forming a league in Spokane for older players and finally he and a couple friends decided to go for it.

Anyone interested in playing or forming a team, he said, can call him at 327-4527.

“What I’d like to do is come up with four teams in Spokane,” said Clark. “We need between 55 and 60 players.”

In the interest of safety, the older age league prohibits sliding and there’s an alternate home plate to avoid potential collisions. Some leagues have a “run-by” rule at second and third bases where a player can’t be tagged out if he overruns a base, to help prevent injury.

“The only way I would want it would be for it not to be cutthroat,” Clark said of his proposed league. “You still have to get up the next day.”

Clark has left day-to-day operations of his business to his children, but he still indulges his passion for softball.

The other day, he said, he even converted a couple of double plays as a second-baseman to the delight of those around him.

“I had to laugh,” he said. “I finally had to tell them they were all 60, and it’s not like they were racing down to first base.”

But they’re still competing.