Age No Problem for MN Lumberjacks 75 Senior Softball Team

Anyone who says you’re too old to be playing sports hasn’t met the old men playing slow-pitch softball in Bemidji. The 75 AAA travel softball team known as the Minnesota Lumberjacks have proven as much.

The team competes under the Senior Softball-USA governing body, and every member of the team must be 75 years or older. They typically play in tournaments across the Midwest but occasionally travel farther for events like the World Championships in Las Vegas, which they won most recently in 2021, or the Tournament of Champions in Florida, which they won in 2022.

But it’s not just the championships that keep the men coming back.

“I guess I just can’t stop,” laughed captain Jon Thomson. “I’ve had back surgery, I’ve had a knee replaced, and I still can’t stop playing it. It’s fun. The camaraderie with the players, the teammates, and even the opponents. Because at this level, in this age, we all get along. We’re not fighting each other, we’re not giving each other a hard time. We’re having fun, and that’s what keeps you coming [back].”

“We went to a couple tournaments and they had this guy pitching who was 84 years old, and he was wearing a chest protector, and he was pitching,” explained Art Glidden. “And I thought, ‘Holy crap, if this guy can do it when he’s 84, I should be able to play for a while anyway.’ But a lot of it is with the guys you’re playing with, the camaraderie, and it’s so much fun getting together with the guys.”

Much like youth sports, senior softball teams use age as a minimum threshold to ensure an even playing field in both competitiveness and ability. Many from this group have been teammates for nearly 20 years when they began playing together on the 60+ team, but as the old men grow older, the Minnesota Lumberjacks numbers have dwindled, making it harder to field a team.

“It’s tough. It really is,” said Glidden. “A lot of the guys that I played fastpitch with were good ballplayers, but I couldn’t get them to come and play. They said, ‘Well, my shoulders hurt. My knees hurt. I like to play golf and all this other stuff.’ So it was just really tough to get guys to come home and play.”

“I thought I would still be playing, but not at a competitive level,” admitted Rich Majcin. “I never dreamed of that. You know, I try to stay in shape. I’m not [in] the greatest shape, but again, at least I’m active every day and I still want to pursue that.”

“And one other thing I like is my wife enjoys the company of the fellas’ wives who come to the tournaments as well,” he continued. “So it’s really, it’s a family thing for us. It really is. And like today, after we practice, we’ll go shoot the breeze over at a restaurant and we just have a lot of fun out there.”

The Minnesota Lumberjacks currently fields a 60, 70, 75, and 80-plus team. They are comprised of guys from Bemidji and surrounding areas like Park Rapids and Laporte, as well as players from the Twin Cities metro.