Members of the Center for Sight softball team from Venice, Fla., will be competing this week at the Winter National Championships, the first event of the 2010 Senior Softball USA season. The team—members are 80 or older—won the 2009 national championship in its division last month in Phoenix. Photo: Courtesy Ed Eyles

Marilyn Mallery saved her money for months as a child to buy her first softball glove. When she went to the store to purchase it, she was a dollar short.

A friendly clerk saw the disappointment on her face and sold her the glove for the exact amount she had saved—$5.

“I remember to this day how much I appreciated that,” Mallery said. “I really, really wanted that softball glove.”

Fifty-five years after falling in love with the game, Mallery now plays competitive senior softball.

She will be among 2,000 athletes on 168 teams competing Nov. 10-15 in Fort Myers, Fla., in the 50 and older Winter National Championships. This is the first event of the 2010 Senior Softball USA season.

About 2 million Americans over age 50 play recreational softball, including 30,000 tournament players, according to Terry Hennessy, CEO of Senior Softball USA.

That means the players who participate in national tournaments like the Winter National Championships are the best around.

“What you’re looking at is the top pool of talent for seniors in softball in the United States,” Hennessy said. “A lot of the players have played 30 or 40 years, some of them as long as 50 or 60, and they’ve been playing at a high level for a long time.”

Mallery is no exception. She has played softball since her fifth-grade teacher introduced her to the sport and now plays left field for the Golden Girls team based in Vienna, Va.

Mallery, 66, knocked in the winning run in a game in August during the 2009 National Senior Games in San Francisco. The Golden Girls finished third in the 65-and-older division.

Ed Eyles, 81, will manage the oldest team in the Winter National Championships, the Center for Sight 80-and-older team based in Venice, Fla.

Center for Sight won the USA National Championship game and finished second in the World Championships, both of which were held last month in Phoenix. The team is the only “men’s 80” team registered for the tournament in Florida, so it will compete in the 75-and-older division.

Eyles, who usually plays catcher, lived his entire life in the Pittsburgh area before moving to Englewood, Fla., five years ago. He hit .538 in the two events in Phoenix and said people would be impressed with the quality of play if they saw a senior tournament game.

“The guys on our team are unbelievable people,” he said. “They want to play. They’re enthusiastic, and they play well.

“I think we would shock a lot of people.”

Like many senior softball players, Eyles was an accomplished athlete in his younger days. He participated on the football and swim teams for Slippery Rock (Pa.) College before graduating in 1952.

Hennessy said tournament rosters are full of talented, longtime athletes, including a handful of former professionals.

“These are really your top athletes in the country,” he said. “They have to be in order to compete.”

Frank Caliendo, from Waukesha, Wis., never made it to the big leagues, but he went to spring training with the Chicago White Sox three times in the 1960s and played for Single-A teams in Sarasota, Fla., and Clinton, Iowa.

Caliendo, 67, plays second base for The Boys, a 65-and-older team based in Arlington Heights, Ill. He enjoys traveling across the country to play against and meet other athletes.

“It’s amazing to see, at the age some of these players are, how good they can still play,” he said.

Caliendo also is a former competitive table tennis player and is the father of comedian Frank Caliendo, who appears weekly on the Fox Network’s NFL Sunday pregame show.

Steve Keene, 61, has played for 40 years. In 1985, it looked like his competitive career might be over when a work accident cost him two fingers on his left hand—his glove hand.

When he returned to practice, his teammates welcomed him back with good-natured ribbing.

“They told me, ‘If you can’t hit the ball and you can’t field the ball, you can’t play,’ ” he said, laughing.

Nearly 25 years later, he continues to excel in the sport. One of the top hitters on his team, he usually bats third in the lineup. In the field, he plays wherever he’s needed.

“I just don’t make a big thing about it,” Keene said. “It hasn’t stopped me from doing anything. I can do everything I did before.”

Keene travels 180 miles round trip each week from his home in Jacksonville, Ill., to play for the Simmons/Cooper Rhinos, a 55-and-older team based in Troy, Ill., just east of St. Louis.

“I just love to play,” he said.

On the Web

Senior Softball USA holds about 60 tournaments each year in the United States and Canada. To follow teams from your area, visit the results page for the Winter National Softball Championships, one of its largest events. The tournament is also a qualifier for the Senior Softball USA’s 2011 Tournament of Champions to be held in February 2010 in Polk County, Fla.

Senior Softball USA is one of nine softball organizations for older players in America. The National Senior Softball Summit rates teams from the nine organizations.

Chris Iott, a freelance writer in Jackson, Mich., has been covering sports for more than a decade.