By Jesse Serwer
The Bobcats are more than men, though; they¹re all seniors over the age of 60. Together they are one of 29 teams in the Long Island Senior Citizens Softball Association, or LISSA, which commenced play as a three-team league in the late Œ70s. Founded in 1989 by Robert Ludwig, who originally dubbed the team ³Bob¹s Cats², the Bobcats won their first league championship last year after posting a 66-8 record.
³That was the best record anyone has ever had in Nassau County,² according to Niel Rullo, a 75-year-old former player who now serves as the team¹s coach. ³There are two great teams in our division - us and Glen Cove. They have won for the past 13 seasons, so [beating them] was like knocking the Yankees off.²
While Rullo is one of five team members who call Rockville Centre home, players come from as far as Rego Park, Queens and Ronkonkoma to be a part of the Bobcats. Over the years, the team, who play their home games at Mill River Park¹s Pettit Field, have developed a reputation as a fun-loving, wise-cracking group who also know how to win.
³Ask anybody on any other team - they would like to play for us,² Rullo said last Thursday after his team¹s convincing 15-6 and 13-5 victories over the Five Towns Stars last Thursday.
³These guys are a bunch of comedians,² said Robert ³Lefty² McQueen, a 65-year-old former college basketball player from Hempstead who voluntarily left the rival Lynbrook Dodgers to join the Bobcats this year. Playing centerfield at Thursday¹s game, McQueen¹s teammates remarked with astoundment about how, despite his age, he still ³moves like a cat.²
Rullo, a Brooklyn native and a 43-year resident of Rockville Centre, chalks the Bobcats¹ success up to camaraderie. ³We socialize,² he says, pointing out that the team typically spends afternoons after games eating pizza and drinking beer in the park. In recent years, Rullo started a tradition of rewarding good play with lollipops, though he now brings enough to go around even to the players on the bench. But, like all the teams in the league, the Bobcats also take each game very seriously, player-manager Don Maresca said.
³For guys our age, you won¹t believe how competitive we are,² said Maresca, a former principal and newly elected Oceanside school board president who pitched complete games during both of the Bobcats¹ victories Thursday.
There are a few differences between regular softball and the sort played by the seniors in the LISSA league - mostly extra precautions to prevent injury. Unlike baseball or regulation softball, teams put 11 players on the field instead of nine. And, instead of a white square, first base is a white and orange rectangle - the white inner half is for the first baseman, while the orange outer half is for the runner. In order to prevent collisions at home plate, home plate is strictly for the catcher - runners score by touching a ³scoring line² behind the plate, not sliding into base.
League games are typically played in doubleheaders every Tuesday and Thursday, and are six innings a piece. Each team has 20 players on its roster, with an average of 15 or 16 showing up for each game.
³Most of the guys show up most of the time because it is a winning team,² Rullo said. ³Most of them have ailments of one sort or another. Every season we lose one or two guys because they get too old that they can¹t play anymore. In an extreme emergency, I will play.²
The team typically holds tryouts at the beginning of each season to fill vacancies. Chosen players must then commit to two seasons of play before they are allowed to switch to another team, according to Rocco Cambareri, 70, who also functions as the Bobcats¹ general manager.
The Bobcats¹ oldest active player, Cambareri is a long-time Rockville Centre resident who was drafted by the New York Giants in 1955 and played a year of minor league ball with the Sandersville Giants of the Georgia State League. In his younger days, Cambareri played alongside such Hall of Famers as Willie McCovey, Sandy Koufax and Brooks Robinson, and, according to his team, he brings that wisdom and experience to every game.
³He was an unbelievable hitter, he used to hit over .700 and run like a rabbit,² Maresca said of his teammate. Cambareri isn¹t the only Bobcats player with professional sports acumen, though: Just last year, Joe Jacaruso, 65, of Massapequa won a United States Handball Association men¹s doubles tournament in Brooklyn.
While Rullo says he wishes more people in town knew about the team and how well they are doing, he points out that one of its biggest supporters is Mayor Eugene Murray, who gives the Bobcats $500 annually out of his discretionary funds. While each player kicks in $100, the team is able to defray the roughly $3,500 cost of a season thanks to donations from Cablevision as well as local businesses like Paradiso Pizza and the Pantry Diner.
Amazingly, all of the players are still married, a fact pointed out by Rockville Centre village trustee James Sutton after the Bobcats were honored by Mayor Murray at a Board of Trustees meeting last month.
³I can¹t believe they follow the schedule that they do,² said Sutton.
³We prove that you are never too old to dream,² Rullo said.
Comments? JSerwer@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 221.
