Take Him Out to the Ball Game

Take Him Out to the Ball Game

Ted Eldredge lovingly maintains the baseball field at The Hill School.

Photo by Vicky Moon

By Leonard Shapiro

For Ted Eldredge, it’s always been about his love of the game. That would be baseball, and in particular the team he founded and now nurtures, manages and, even at age 65, still occasionally plays for—the Middleburg Red Sox.

Maybe you’ve seen him riding a tractor around the regulation Hill School diamond he essentially laid out and now lovingly maintains, with an assist from Hill’s grounds supervisor Bob Dornin. Three times a week, Eldredge drags and smooths out the 20 tons of infield dirt he personally purchased. Last year he built a new pitcher’s mound on a field the school generously agreed to include on its 140-acre campus.

Eldredge, a naive of The Plains. played high school baseball, ran track at the University of Richmond and went back to participating in adult baseball in his mid-30s, joining the Warrenton Orioles 30 years ago.

Eldredge and his friend and teammate Marcus Bulmer had such a good time they spun off from Warrenton and started the Loudoun Yankees, playing home games at Loudoun County High and Mickie Walker Field just outside Middleburg.

Still, the name Yankees never really sat well with Eldredge, who grew up an L.A. Dodger and Boston Red Sox fan. And so, they became the Middleburg Red Sox and began competing in an over-age-28 league under the umbrella of the D.C. Men’s Senior Baseball League.

That organization now has teams in divisions of over 18, over 30, 40, 50 and 60 years old. The Red Sox are in the 18-and-over 12-team division, with15 regular season games and several more if they advance to the postseason. Players pay $250 for the season, which covers the cost of uniforms, baseballs and umpires.

Most of his players range in age from 21 to 31, with experience in high school or college baseball. Pitchers can throw at 80 mph velocity, not quite Max Scherzer speed but still plenty challenging. Aside from Eldredge, the second oldest is a recently recruited 41-year-old from Ashburn. All the players live in Northern Virginia.

Eldredge’s day job is in real estate, and he described his baseball role as “general manager, coach, bill collector and grounds crew.” On game days, he makes out the lineup, does substitutions and even warms up his pitchers. He’s also a reserve right fielder and first baseman and usually plays when the team is a bit shorthanded.

“I can still run,” he said. “I like to bunt and I still have my legs.”

He spends a lot of time recruiting players, seemingly a never-ending task because most don’t last more than five years. They get married, have kids, move away, or get hurt. Women are also welcome to sign up and play.

Years ago, during a kindergarten orientation session at Hill School, a fellow parent told Eldredge he’d pitched in the summer Cape Cod League. He played for Middleburg one season, then snapped a humerus bone in his arm while pitching and never played again.

Eldredge once was chatting with the owner of the old BP gas station in Middleburg and asked him if he knew of any young players. “Ask the guy standing behind you,” Eldredge was told.

“The Guy” was Ivan Montalvo, a smooth shortstop who once played professionally in the Mexican League. He was living with his girlfriend in Middleburg and “was hitting baseballs all over the park.”

Montalvo played several years before breaking up with the girl and moving away. Eldredge has had doctors, lawyers, accountants, mailmen and other government workers on his roster, and his team has won several league championships, the last in 2015.

The winning is always wonderful, but playing the game Eldredge has loved all his life is the true reward.

“If I didn’t have it, I wouldn’t be on this earth,” he said. “It keeps me busy. It keeps me going. I’ll do it until they carry me out.”