On this page is a picture of three friends, friends that go way back and between the other two, go all the way to childhood. I have known Mark and Lond since 1973, when I was lucky enough to have moved to Huntington. While Mark and Lond were born here, Price hospital I would guess, I had to finish high school and college and then come here to play with them.
I believe, and since I am not as young as I once was to disprove this notion, that we first played basketball together with softball not far behind. This probably occurred in 1974, and I say probably for the above built in excuse that I am fortunate enough now to use as frequently as needed.
Flash forward now to today, 36 years later. As you can see, we still play softball together. I am proud to say that not only do we play but also we play together on a championship caliber team. We are fortunate to have had the age gods be kind to us.
For you naysayers out there, who might think that we just sit the bench and don’t contribute to our team, I say phooey. Our average batting average for the season was over .500 and every so often we can still muster one out the park. Our defensive play in the field, while not spectacular, was not bad as we each did our job. Our teammates are probably choking right now as they may want to get the truth out but they will have to suffer and let me go on and on.
While our average age in real life is over sixty, I am the youngest of the three and do not have a six in front of my age, our sport age is probably closer to 45. Now what is a sport age? Sport age is when you know that someday you will quit playing but it is not today and probably not tomorrow.
It has been said many times to me to “act your age” and I say why. Why do I have to conform to some rule made up by somebody else? No wonder I was always visiting the deans office in school, I have problems with conforming.
None of us should ever say “I am too old” without at least trying. How would we know? Things are just as fun today as way back when. So come on, get up, get out and play, have some fun. You will ache afterwards but you will be glad you did.
County softball league
"The Carbon/Emery Insurance team won the mens slow pitch league and tournament this season. Players include left to right: Beau Stoker, Ryan Draper, Chris Justice, Tappan Draper, David Justice, Gary Arrington, Mike Justice, Tyson Hackwell, Lon Wakefield and Mark Justice."