SPORTS

RI Senior Softball starts season

By ALEX SPONSELLER
Posted 7/23/20

The Rhode Island Senior Softball League is back in action and has hit local fields recently to squeeze in another summer tournament despite a late start. The league, which typically begins in early May, was pushed off until July due to

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SPORTS

RI Senior Softball starts season

Posted

The Rhode Island Senior Softball League is back in action and has hit local fields recently to squeeze in another summer tournament despite a late start.

The league, which typically begins in early May, was pushed off until July due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. However, games have begun and players are once again competing for a state championship in the state’s largest men’s softball organization.

Like all other sports leagues that have been competing this summer, the RI Senior Softball League has undergone a few changes to cooperate with the COVID guidelines put in place by the CDC, the state, and local parks and recreation departments. Some of those adjustments include refraining from handshakes and high fives, maintaining distance between players in and around the dugout, as well as cycling through equipment and regularly sanitizing items between innings.

Although things are not completely back to usual, league members are excited to provide senior adults the chance to hit the field for another summer.

“We missed all of May and all of June, eight or nine weeks. We’re hoping to play all of July, all of August and all of September. We’re hoping to get 12 weeks. We have been observing social distancing, we haven’t been doing high fives or handshakes after games. We have conformed with what the state and town recreation departments. We are just trying to do the right thing,” said Joe Giordano, who was one of the founding league members 38 years ago and turned 91 years old earlier this month.

Giordano is excited to bring his Blue Cross Blue Shield team together once again, and thanks the league for keeping him active over the course of the past four decades.

“It’s the same thing, the way we play the game has not changed. There are some differences, we’re spread out and things like that, but we are happy to be out there and we appreciate having that normalcy,” said Giordano. “We have had a tough three or four months, it hasn’t been easy, but I attribute my health to senior softball. My wife and I are active, but the fun of going to many of these places is not there, many places are closed or things are just different. Right now, softball is as close to normal as our lives used to be. We are happy to be able to do it.”

The Rhode Island Senior Softball league is split between four divisions based on age, 50 and over and 60 and over. The league always accepts and seeks new players. For more information, visit the league’s website at www.leaguelineup.com/welcome.asp?url=riseniorsoftball.

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