Photograph by Mark Gilliland
Doing anything for 60 years is an achievement. If you can breathe, remain upright and avoid jail for that long, you deserve an award. So the fact that a group of 75-year-old men have been playing the same abbreviated version of baseball in the park, weekly from May through October since age 15, is kinda nuts.
The game is called Indian Ball, and it's a "St. Louis–originated game," explains ballplayer David Golde, 74. "When you talk to people outside of Missouri, no one seems to have heard of it. I think it was developed because we could never get 18 guys together to play a regular game. It's a game you can play with as few as three and as many as 20."
In Indian Ball, the pitcher gently lobs a softball toward a batter from his own team. It's a single if the fielders of the other team fail either to scoop up the grounder before it stops rolling or to catch it (and it's an out if they can do either of those or if the batter hits two fouls to the same side of the plate). There is no catcher, there are no doubles or triples and, in fact, there are no bases; runs are scored by an accumulation of singles and home runs (hits that go over the fence).
It's a simple game that should remind many of street ball games like cork ball, where running the bases can be more trouble than it's worth. For Golde and his gang of septuagenarians, it makes perfect sense. "I used to be a pitcher in a fast pitch softball league," he says. "When I saw a guy slide into third base and break his leg, I decided to do something less dangerous."
The Indian-ballers, who play in Tilles Park in Ladue, are fully aware of their limitations. In fact, they call themselves "the AKs," which, explains Golde, is short for "alte kockers." That's Yiddish for "old men."
"This whole thing started in 1948 with a group of eight guys from U. City High" on a field-hockey field, of all places, adds Golde. Now, there are sons and grandsons playing—anywhere from six to 18 total show up each Sunday. Through marriages, children, wars, deaths and, worst of all, arthritic knees, the Alte Kockers have kept on pitching, hitting and fielding for 60 years. And their equipment is aging gracefully, too.
"I'm using a mitt from 1955," reports Golde. "In fact, I sent it back to Rawlings and had them relace it. They said they couldn't believe what good shape it was in."
