As a child, Sinclair Community College Professor Robert Obach’s father used to hit him fly balls for softball practice, but when Obach was 15 and his father was 45, that all stopped. Obach’s father told him he was too old and stiff to do it anymore.
“The thing I took away from that was I didn’t want to quit playing when I was 45,” Obach said. “So here I am,70 years old, and I’m still playing ball. I talk to my dad and I say ‘Dad, I got you beat now by 25 years.”
Obach participates in the Cuny Zink Senior League of Dayton. Obach has been a player/manager for the Northern Reds team since 2002. All players in the CLSL are between the ages of 60 and 85.
Obach said the senior league got started by him and some other “old guys” that just liked to play softball.
“We would meet on Sundays, have batting practice and then we’d have a game,” Obach said. “Then a couple of the guys said ‘Why don’t we form a league for us old guys?’ So by 1991 we had the league. We would pay the City of Dayton something like $360 and they would provide us with umpires and ball fields for us to play on.”
After finishing the 2009 regular season 4-6, the Northern Reds came together at tournament time and won the CLSL championship, Obach’s third tournament championship in nine seasons as a player/manager.
“Being a philosophy professor helps me as a manager because I have to recognize the things that are under my control and the things that are not under my control,” Obach said. “So if a guy makes an error, I never get mad at him because that’s not under my control.”
Still trying to improve his playing ability, Obach is taking a weight training class at Sinclair in hopes it will improve his speed. At his age, Obach said there are many advantages of playing softball.
“For old guys, softball gives us something to do,” Obach said. “It’s good exercise, it keeps us healthy and it keeps us young.”