Selling the field of dreams - amateur baseball players

American Demographics, April, 1997 by Brad Edmondson

In the movie The Natural, an aging slugger named Roy Hobbs lifts a tattered team to the World Series. In the annual Roy Hobbs World Series, more than 100 teams of "boys" aged 30 and older, along with their wives and children, travel to Fort Myers, Florida, to chase the same dream. "When I walk onto the field in my uniform, I'm in high school again," says Doug Strachn, 40, owner of Strachn's Bakery in Toledo, Ohio, and a pitcher, outfielder, and shortstop for Toledo's Team Chiropractic.

Hardball is a young man's game, but the young at heart still want to play. Of the 4.4 million Americans who played hardball at least 52 days in 1995, only 1 million were aged 18 and older, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association of North Palm Beach, Florida. About 5 million adults play softball often (25 days plus in 1 995). But to the purists, softball is no substitute. "It's just slugging and lumbering around," says Strachn's teammate Jim Rogers. "With hardball, the whole game can turn on one play. It's a mental challenge."

Men's amateur hardball teams started organizing in the 1980s, says Tom Giffen, executive director of Roy Hobbs Diamond Enterprises in Akron, Ohio. Like Giffen, most players in the series are alumni of high school or college teams who couldn't make the pros. Giffen's business has grown from 54 teams in 1993 to 101 in 1996, organized in leagues for men in their 30s, 40s,and 48 and older. Each team pays Giffen about $2,000 to play. Spending by players and their families brings about $2 million to Lee County's economy.

A competitor, the Men's Senior Baseball League, Inc. in Melville, New York, hosted 260 teams in Phoenix and 85 teams in St. Petersburg last year." We see fantastic growth potential for amateur teams in their 20s," says president Steve Sigler." This is a way for ex-college players to keep playing. They've never had that option before."

For more information, contact Diamond Enterprises, 1864 Deepwood Drive, Akron, OH 44313-4661; telephone (800) 484-7939.