for all

BY SHIFRA DAYAK SDAYAK@NEWSPOST.COM

Adrian Winpigler’s love for sports was born when he was growing up. As a middle child raised with 12 siblings, he always had someone to play ball with.

He carried on that passion for sports as he played baseball on a Little League team, then continued to play while serving in the U.S. military in South Korea and as part of the American Legion nonprofit veterans’ organization.

Now, decades later, he’s still out on the field, along with other adults who fill their Friday nights with softball games at Frederick’s Pinecliff Park.

It’s an unlikely contingent of players, made up of a mix of lifelong softball and baseball enthusiasts and those simply looking for an opportunity to socialize and exercise. Some choose to ask a teammate to run for them during games, instead of running the bases themselves.

But despite varying levels of mobility and experience, they’re all united by the enthusiasm they bring to the county’s senior recreational league.

“We just love to play sports,” Winpigler said. “We just come out, no matter what your skill level is.”

The league has been offering softball since the mid-1990s and is currently in its 29th season. Men over age 50 and women over age 40 are eligible to participate.

Winpigler hasn’t played since he had to get a knee replacement a few years ago, but he still coaches the senior recreational league’s B-team. For him, the biggest highlight of his past 20 years

A-Team coach, Paul Welsh Jr., practices at Pinecliff Park. with the league’s softball program has been the people.

“You meet a lot of really nice people. You make new friends,” he said. “We’re not playing for trophies or anything like that.”

Softball is also a great selfdevelopment exercise, according to Paul Welsh, who coaches one of the teams in the league and, like Winpigler, has played softball since the program began almost 30 years ago.

“It’s a dicey proposition of sort of people management and interpersonal skills,” he said of coaching. “it’s a big job as a coach is to pick people and really say, ‘Look, when you join a team, we expect you to show up.’”

For some of the league’s softball players, Wednesday night practices and Friday night games are a family affair. Welsh recruited his daughter, Julie Ray, to join the league, and she also plays for the Nutter’s team. The two are hopeful that Ray’s brother, who will be eligible to play when he turns 50 next year, will also join.

Ray said she knows another father-daughter pair that play in the league as well, and that she’s enjoyed mingling with players of a variety of ages.

“This activity keeps you young,” she said.

For Ray Wojcik, who plays on and coaches the league’s Nutter’s team, senior softball is a memorable way to bond with longtime friends. About two-thirds of the players on the Nutter’s team in 2015 still play in the league, he said.

“It shows that people who are still playing at that age want to keep playing,” he said.

Wojcik added that he grew up playing baseball and felt like moving to softball as he got older was a “natural transition.” He’s been playing at Pinecliff Park for almost 50 years, since softball fields were first constructed there, and he joined the senior rec league in its early days.

The league’s softball program has downsized because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Winpigler. In the past, the league has had up to eight softball teams per season, but there are only three this year. About 45 people participate in the league, with each team made up of around 15 players, he said.

But despite lower numbers, those who have stuck with the league since its start have enjoyed the season so far, they said.

Welsh said he’s looking forward to many more games with his teammates in the future, marked by the same welcoming spirit that the league has offered thus far.

“Unlike the major leagues where if you’re not good, you don’t play, here, everybody plays,” he said.