Senior softball league makes pitch for its own field

The agreement expires in September, which is the deadline for the project to break ground. For the senior league, the ball field is expected to cost roughly $400,000, which includes adding more parking at the county’s request.

“The overall budget is pretty daunting,” said Leon Speroff, a member of the senior softball association. “That’s pretty stiff. But we’re enthusiastic and optimistic.”

Stepping up efforts

With only a year to get money in the bank and put contractors to work, the senior softball association is stepping up its attempts to raise funds. Both Miracle League and the senior softball association are fundraising independent of each other’s efforts.

The softball association hopes to collect $100,000 from its 150 or so members, with the rest of the money coming from the community and corporate sponsors. One idea that’s been floated calls for renaming the field after a sponsor, if one emerges with a sizable donation.

Speroff said the association has identified five potential major donors. A committee of association members is drafting a proposal for the project, which can be used to apply for grants.

Time is of the essence, with less than a year to secure financing.

“That doesn’t give us much time to raise money,” Speroff said, “especially from granting agencies that have deadlines.”

The association’s fundraising committee hopes to submit its plans for county permits by January. It wants to start accepting bids in February or March.

Health benefits

Speroff, a retired professor at Oregon Health & Science University, has been playing for the association since 2006, when he joined as a 71-year-old rookie. Members of the association are passionate about the sport, he said, with some, including himself, playing in more than one league. Some players are in their 80s.

So invested is Speroff in senior softball that he’s written two e-books on the topic: one about his first year playing and another about the therapeutic benefits of softball.

He said he’s seen the health benefits firsthand.

In 2012, he was fighting lymphoma. Despite the effects of the illness, which left him anemic, he still made time for league games, even though he was occasionally too tired to play.

He eventually beat the disease. And when he did, his wife turned to him and said, “Do you think you could have done this without softball?”

He didn’t. The camaraderie between the other players kept his spirits high, he said.