By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
For some, it’s a chance to once again take the field for the game they loved in Little League, or high school, or college.
For others, it’s the first taste of what it’s like to round the bases for home.
Whatever it is that brings them to the diamond, the Valley Wheel over-30 baseball league almost always has a place for them.
“I played baseball every year from age 4 to age 18,” said Jerold Duquette of Longmeadow, now in his fourth season with the league. “It was always my favorite sport, though not necessarily my best sport.
“Valley Wheel is my first chance to play competitive baseball in 25 years,” the 50-year-old Central Connecticut State College political science professor added.
Put me in coach
The Valley Wheel League, now in it’s 13th season, is a labor of love for founder, League Commissioner and Orioles team manager Jim Nason. A Red Sox fan from the age of eight, Nason said his passion for the game was fueled by early play with the East Springfield Athletics Association during a time when he and the other young ballplayers “would have a parade [to Marshall Field] when we got our uniforms.”
After a brief stint as a freshman ballplayer at Classical High School, the former Springfield native – he now lives in Somers, CT. – said he took a hiatus from ballplaying while attending college and nurturing his career. He returned to the sport of his youth about 22 years ago, spending nine years playing in adult leagues in Belchertown and Northampton.
Eventually, Nason said, he “got tired of driving to Northampton” to play ball, and looked to form an over-30 baseball league closer to home.
From the beginning, Nason said he wanted his league to be run differently.
“In most leagues a manager forms the team and steals the best players. The result is you have one team that is 14-1, the other is 1-14 and that’s no fun for anyone,” he said. His idea was to have a league based on a modified draft – a combination of the experience a potential player listed on the registration form, and how the players actually looked on the field during early spring tryouts.
His overall goal was to “keep the league even” so every team had a chance, and every player had a good time out on the field.
“I started recruiting in October of 2005 and by Christmas I had 100 interested players,” he said. “But by the time it came to fund the league fee, I only had 30 [guys] that paid.”
Nason struggled to get a roster of 60 players for the first season.
Among those early recruits were a father and son – Robert Jacques Sr. and Robert Jacques Jr.
“I used to run a softball team and I got sick and tired of trying to collect league dues from those guys,” Robert Sr. said. “My wife saw an advertisement about a Valley Wheel Baseball League – a brand new league – and I joined it.”
Robert Jr. – who was just 29 at the beginning that first season – said, “Jim made an exception for me – I was going to turn 30 in July.”
Robert Jr. – who’s last time on the diamond had been during high school – admitted at first he was “a little hesitant” to sign up “because I hadn’t played in a long time.
“I tried out, and I’m still doing it,” he said.
The father and son team spent the first five years playing together on the Leagues’ Orioles team – where Robert Sr. was catcher and Robert Jr. played first base.
“Believe it or not I didn’t play catcher until I joined the [over 30] league,” Robert Sr. said. “They needed a catcher, and I thought it was the only way I could get into the league.”
When Nason looked to grow the league in 2010, he tapped Robert Sr. to manage one of his expansion teams. Robert Sr. said he’d do it, but only if he could take his son along with him to the new team.
“My dad called and said, ‘I’ve got some bad news, you’ve been traded,’ and I said ‘You can trade in this league?’” Robert Jr. remembered.
Robert Sr. managed the Tigers – named after his son’s favorite America League team, the Detroit Tigers – until 2015, then returned to regular players status, covering second base.
“If you’re over 30 and you want to play baseball, it’s a great league,” the now 65-year-old Robert Sr. said. “We play once a week – If somebody makes an error, nobody gets on their back. We’re all amateurs out there playing our best and trying to win.”
A true Valley league
Nason said the 2018 roster for Valley Wheel lists 84 players, which equates to six 14-man teams that meet for 13 Sunday games and two weeknight games under the lights from the end of April through July.
“We don’t play Memorial Day Weekend or on the 4th of July [if it falls on a game day],” Nason said. In August, the teams play single elimination games with a final championship in mid-August.
The players, he said, come from all over, with all levels of skill, from college teams to never having played organized ball. The average age is 42 years old, but he has guys as young as 30 and those who won’t admit to being any older than 60.
“I have players from Greenfield to below Hartford, from west of Westfield to east of Palmer. I’ve got one guy who was originally from Chicopee who now drives in from Marlborough” to play with Valley Wheel, Nason said.
They play on one of six teams – the Angels, the Athletics, the Cubs, the Orioles, the Tigers and the Twins. For their league fee each player gets a shirt, cap, belt and sox (players supply their own pants, cleats and glove), as well as the services of two board-certified umpires per game, plus use of one of the fields in the area that works with the league and most equipment necessary to play a game, including bats, balls, bases and catcher’s gear.
In keeping with his league’s structure, Nason said he always tries to keep parity between the teams so every player and every team feels like they have a chance to be a pennant winner. The 2017 season, he said, was one of his best yet.
Last year’s pennant winner “had the worst finishing record of any first-place team,” at 10 wins and 5 losses Nason remarked. “The fourth place team finished two games back, at 8 and 7.”
According to Duquette, Valley Wheel offers league players “nine innings of fast pitch baseball” and a chance to meet and make friends with guys who come from all walks of life.
“It’s a nice combination of competitive play and gentleman’s play,” he said, adding the teams often get together to tailgate after a Sunday afternoon game.
According to Nason, many of the team members also get together for occasions like birthday celebrations, Halloween parties and New Year’s Eve.
It’s also great way to stay in shape, according to Dan Baker, who at 47 has been with Valley Wheel for nine seasons.
“It’s an incentive to lose a few pounds and get a little faster when your team is relying on you,” Baker said. “I can’t push myself as hard for myself as I push myself for my teammates.
“It’s hard to recreate that competitive spirit at the gym, or outside a league [like this],” he added.
And for Duquette, who still coaches young players in a local baseball league, playing with Valley Wheel helps him with patience, and perspective.
“It’s a lot harder to be harsh with a kid you think is doing something wrong, when you just did the same thing an hour ago,” he said.
And though this season is already underway, Nason said he’d still be willing to talk to guys who might be interested the league.
For more information about the Valley Wheel Over-30 Baseball League, including its schedule of games for the season and contact info for Jim Nason, visit valleywheelbaseball.org
