WOODLAND/DAVIS ROY HOBBS BASEBALL LEAGUE
A member of the
National Men’s Senior Baseball League
League History and
Information
The Roy Hobbs Baseball League was born in March 1987.
Woodland had a team, the Tigers, playing in the Sacramento Veterans League.
Each year there was more requests from local residents to join the Tigers than
the team could support. With the loss of competition among the teams
participating in the Veterans League and the growing interest in over 30
baseball in Woodland, the idea of starting our own league evolved.
The idea was first tested by placing an ad in the local
newspaper. The ad simply stated “if you are 30 years of age or older and want
to play real baseball (hardball)
please attend tryouts at Woodland High School baseball field at 12:00 noon of
Saturday.” We were amazed and delighted at the turn out. Over 60 eager and
aging athletes responded to the newspaper ad. We were able to field 6 teams the
first year, two more than we had anticipated. This un-expected turnout sparked
the Roy Hobbs Baseball League success.
The next task was to name the newly formed teams. We wanted
to avoid terms such as “Old Timers, Seniors, Mature, etc.” One of the founding
members, Don Franz, had just seen The Natural. In this movie there is a
scene where the coach asks Roy Hobbs “what’s a 36 year old rookie doing here?”
Since we were all 36-year-old rookies, more or less, the league became known as
the Roy Hobbs Baseball League and later became the Woodland/Davis Roy Hobbs
Baseball League, as many of our members reside in our sister city, Davis, CA.
In 1988 the league continued to grow, we now had 8 teams.
The league started to discuss new baseball facilities as Woodland/Davis had a
very limited number if fields to support school, youth, and adult baseball
programs. With the problem of field accessibility the league started thinking
of building its own facility, two fields, one a stadium with locker rooms. An
architect was hired and plans drawn, an area was located and the plans
presented to the City of Woodland. Although the city would have profited by the
addition of two new baseball fields, at no cost to the city, the plan was
rejected for unknown reasons. This rejection caused us to locate a neglected,
almost abandoned junior high field. The field was no more than an uneven green
space due to the lack of school system money caused by budget cuts. We soon
came to an agreement with the school district to completely renovate the field
and accept the responsibility of maintaining and improving the field. In return
we received control and priority use of the field. Now the schools baseball
team as well as Roy Hobbs Baseball league had a quality home field. Lanny
Ropke, Tag Demment, and Lee Jackson headed the project. The building of Lee
Field took nine month, with thousands of hours of labor by our member, and over
$70,000 cost to our league. Now in our thirteenth year of play at Lee Field,
the league has expended and additional $150,000 in improvements and up-keep.
The renovation of Lee Jr. High’s baseball field proved to be
a success for our league and for Lee Jr. High School. We now have the best
baseball facility in town. The field was built from the sprinklers up. It was
the combined efforts of many who love the game of baseball and still have the
fire to play the game.
The highlight of the Roy Hobbs league came in November of
1988. We were invited in late August to attend the first ever Men’s senior
Baseball World Series. Organized by Ron Monks and managed by Lanny Ropke, a
team was put together of our league members. After a month of practice at Clark
Field we departed for Phoenix, Arizona. The team went with no high
expectations, just to play more baseball in the Phoenix warm sun and have fun.
The trip was capped off with a record of six wins, one tie (6-0-1). To achieve
this record the team had to defeat the Sacramento Giants twice, once to qualify
for the championship game and once to win the championship game. The Sacramento
Giants had several ex-major league players, including Jim Barr, Lowell Palmer,
Bob Gibson, and Ron Brand. At the championship meeting of our two teams we
overcame the strong pitching of Jim Barr and Lowell Palmer for the World Series
Title. Woodland/Davis Roy Hobbs became
the first MSBL World Series Champions
Woodland/Davis Roy Hobbs host the one largest regional
tournament held in the United States.
“The Carl Flowers Best in the West
Tournament” held over the Labor Day weekend. Started in 1990, the event
is named as a memorial to one of our original members and a former league
president.
The league is a nonprofit organization that organizes
baseball for adults 28 years and older. The league is committed to providing a
real and rich baseball experience using facilities in Woodland and Davis
California. In recent years the league has varied from 8-12 teams that play a
22-24 game season. The league starts in June and runs through October. The
league emphasizes competitive play, family oriented activities, and community
service. The league has sent one or more teams each year since 1988 to the
World Series in Phoenix as well as many other tournaments throughout the
country. We are also committed to turning the old into the young, at least at
heart. Our unofficial motto is “Baseball from Tee-ball to the grave.”
Registration is open until about May 15th. of
each year. To obtain an Application just down load it from this web site. For
information and questions regarding our league or the Labor Day tournament,
call:
Jeff Kunz,
Woodland/Davis MSBL, at (530) 383-4666
