83 year old makes baseball history

I heard about this the other day and couldn't believe it. 83 year old Jim Eriotes suited up for Sioux Falls Canaries in a minor league game and led off in the first inning. Though he ended up striking out on 4 pitches, fouling one off, he became the oldest person to play professional baseball.

You gotta love this mans attitude about his only AB and subsequent strikeout, here's what he had to say: "I don't give a damn about that stuff," he said, bothered by his failure to reach base. "If I got a couple more at-bats, I'd get a hit. Easy."

Mr. Eriotes used to play minor league baseball but for an 83 year old man to just be able to swing his stick, the bat I'm talking about, is impressive enough much less fouling one off. He says that he's hit pitches harder than the 83mph stuff he struck out on. He says he's hit 90+ mph pitches off of machine but notes that the real thing is harder than machine pitches.

So this story gives me hope that I can get out there and get my arm strength back up, I think I could get out there and throw at least an inning or so, well at least I'd like to try.

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