A Whole New Ballgame

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Players running from base to base, dodging tags, diving into home plate. Spectators shouting, chanting, cheering, and occasionally jeering.  The sights and sounds of summer. Lazy sunny days spent at the ballpark we never want to end.

America’s favorite pastime has a special place in our hearts — a sport that has captured the imagination of both the young and old for generations. Millions of kids grew up playing the game. For many young ballplayers, who played on high school, college, or even pro teams, playing baseball is more than a game — it’s a passion. And even after hanging up their cleats to pursue other paths, they never stopped yearning to play.

Players like Steve Sigler.

Growing up, Sigler played baseball in high school and college and then switched to softball but grew tired of the game. In 1985, he was coaching his sons’ Long Island Little League team when he organized a game for Little League fathers. That one game, he says, “ignited the spark to play baseball again.” But he couldn’t find an organized league, or even a team. Sigler placed a small ad in the local newspaper seeking guys his age who wanted to play baseball. The response was enough to form four teams in 1986 — and, he says, “that is what started the Men’s Senior Baseball League.”

In 1988, Sigler founded the MSBL, which he ran out of his Long Island home, to provide an opportunity for adults eager to get back in the game, stay in shape, and enjoy the camaraderie of a team.

What began as four teams has grown into a national organization, with 3,200 teams, 325 local affiliates, and almost 50,000 members who play in leagues across the country — a number that grows each year. Growth is organic and very word-of-mouth as word spreads about the opportunity to play real baseball, no matter your age. The organization is now headquartered in Melville, New York. Sigler oversees day-to-day operations and may be the guy answering your phone call or email when you contact the MSBL.

For many members, their adult or senior baseball teammates become that rare group of friends who support each other, share stories, and gather together with their families. The true beauty of this league is friendship.

MSBL is a serious sports league with structure, dedicated managers, uniforms, tournaments, travel, fans, stadiums, drafts, and a world series. And, yes, rings — and they are enormous. Play is seasonal. For example, Northern California’s Redwood Empire Baseball League begins with weekly games in each age division in April, and they run through October.

Players come from all walks of life and all levels of baseball experience. MSBL has become a home for many former pros who still enjoy a bit of limelight among their teammates, or for high school or college players who find softball just too soft. And playing in the league is a great way to exercise, get involved in the community, and meet a few friends. Some players end up playing twice a week in two different age divisions — and have to remember which jersey to wear on which day.

The MSBL World Series takes place in Arizona over two weeks every fall, when 6,000 men and their wives, children, grandchildren, neighbors, friends, and fans descend on Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, and Mesa. Teams take over the spring training fields that Major League Baseball won’t start using until February.

This World Series is not a national elimination series of games. Any team that can grab enough players can go to Arizona, families in tow, where they play five or six pool games; then the top teams make the playoffs, and it’s single elimination from there.

With that many tourists traveling to Arizona annually, you would think they grab the attention of the local community and tourism folks, yet the MSBL flies under the radar.

The MSBL motto is “don’t go soft, play hard” and, at 76 years old, Sigler is still playing baseball, although he’s so busy building the league that he usually just finds time to play in the World Series in Arizona.

“Last year, I played a father/son tournament with my son Brian and grandson Wesley,” Sigler says. “I never dreamed [the league] would get to where it is today, but I am so gratified at the mark it has left on tens of thousands of players across the country.”

“The 80+ divisions started as a one-game exhibition, and we will have six teams for 2025,” he points out. “The passion these players have for the game and each other is unmatched.”

Sigler has announced eight new teams of all age levels for 2025.

Players come from across the country, from all walks of life — lawyers, judges, doctors, factory workers, teachers, professors, business leaders, veterinarians, mechanics, among others — and share one thing in common: a love for playing the game.

Paul Katzeff is a baseball-playing hippie and coffee entrepreneur who turned 87 on February 6 — Babe Ruth’s birthday. He played stickball on the streets of the Bronx then moved to Greenwich Village and played guitar in coffee houses around the same time as Bob Dylan. In 1972, Katzeff founded Thanksgiving Coffee in the coastal town of Fort Bragg, California. On the baseball field he plays everything from pitcher to second base and is proud of his 55-second run time from home to first base.

“In MSBL, we judge ourselves against our peers,” says Katzeff, who can drive hours to play in a weekend game in Sonoma County or Sacramento. “We play competitively in a friendly environment.”

I was introduced to MSBL through vintner Allan Green while I was filming a documentary on his mid-century modern home and stumbled on his collection of World Series rings — big, shiny, jewel-encrusted rings much like those given to the pros in the Big Leagues.

An accomplished graphic designer and winemaker, Green, 76, seems to thrive in his baseball world, and that enthusiasm is contagious. Green plays centerfield and manages the 65-and-older Dragons who play on Sunday and the 72+ Dragons playing on Wednesday.

“I do spend a fair amount of time managing; my goal is to do the behind-the-scenes work so the players can just show up and play,” says Green, an MSBL Hall of Famer.

“Like most of us, I had been playing softball until I found out about MSBL,” Green continues. “Taking up baseball again at age 50 was an irresistible challenge; what I didn’t realize was that it would lead to many lifelong friendships with guys I would never have met ­otherwise.”

And the physical benefits are definitely a plus.

“One of the most important collateral effects of playing baseball in your 70s is that it forces you to stay in shape,” Green says. “I’m sure I wouldn’t keep up my stretching and conditioning if I wasn’t playing baseball. People think it’s dangerous, but I’m actually healthier because I’m playing — titanium hip and all.”

Louis Patler credits playing baseball for saving his life.

The 81-year-old business consultant and author played baseball in high school and at 17 was signed by the Detroit Tigers. But a shredded knee sustained during a basketball game shattered his dream of going pro. As an adult, Patler played softball and hated it, then about 30 years ago found MSBL and started pitching in Northern California.

In 2023 at the MSBL World Series in Arizona, he suffered a major heart attack (not while he was playing) and was rushed to the hospital. Two out of the three doctors caring for him thought performing surgery too risky, but the third, a young cardiologist — aware that Patler had been pitching the day before and, apart from this attack, was otherwise quite healthy — gambled that he was strong enough to make it through.

“I went from the gurney to the table in Arizona to ordering my World Series ring,” says Patler. “Baseball saved my life.”

Today, Patler is playing ball again as a starting pitcher for his local Bay Area MSBL 45+ league … and in the 80+ MSBL World Series for the reigning champs the Sacramento Solons. Many players stay valuable to their younger teams even as they age and play down as they move into the older leagues.

Fortunately, there are guys with medical training in the league, like retired internist David “Doc” Charp (65+ division), who are on hand in the event of a medical incident. A pitcher from Santa Rosa, Doc brings “extra water, Band-Aids, and a defibrillator” to every game.

A high point of this octogenarian’s MSBL involvement was throwing out the first pitch at a tournament in Oakland Stadium, then home of the Oakland A’s, with his son-in-law and grandson there — both of whom are in the League. Another was kissing his bride of 50 years at home plate, cheers shaking the bleachers.

To find out more about the MSBL, visit their website at msblnational.com.

 

Barbara Barrielle is a travel and lifestyle writer whose work has appeared in AARP, Garden & Gun, Fodor’s, Passport Magazine, and more. As a filmmaker, she has completed several feature films and documentaries on wine, art, architecture, and baseball.

This article is featured in the July/August 2025 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.