Senior All-Stars beat the heat with softball, welcome first female player

High heat and humidity weren't enough to keep Long Island seniors off of the ballfield on Wednesday, as they welcomed the first female player to their all-star game.

"I just love softball, it's my passion," Patricia Klammer, 80, a former professional softball player and the first woman to play in the New York Senior Softball Association’s annual Bristal All-Star Game, which showcased seniors 80 years or older, at Cantiague Park in Hicksville.

"I love the game," said Klammer, of Merrick, who taught physical education in the Seaford school district for 36 years, "and it's a much more complex game when you play it at a higher level."

For roughly one year, Klammer played with the Buffalo Breskis in a professional women’s softball league during the mid-1970s. Although her professional career was short, after the age of 55, Klammer played in senior softball divisions across the country. In 1997, she was inducted into the Long Island Softball Hall of Fame.

By the early 2000s, she started playing softball with seniors at the NYSSA and says she enjoys the competitiveness of playing against the men in the NYSSA.

"The men have always been very respectful, and I play with them because they've made me better," Klammer said. "I like to compete and these gentlemen in our age group are the best players."

This year’s all-star matchup was themed in commemoration of the 55th anniversary of the 1969 World Series between the New York Mets and the Baltimore Orioles.

Due to the heat Wednesday, the all-star game was shortened to four innings instead of its traditional seven-inning format. The game was sponsored by The Bristal Assisted Living, which provided the seniors with cold water during the game and lunch afterward. An ambulance was also on standby.

Klammer, who played for the senior Orioles, said she can play any position. But her versatility was not enough to help her team pull through, as the senior Mets took a 4-0 victory.

For many of the seniors, playing softball at the NYSSA provides them an opportunity to stay active in a sport that they loved but didn't always have time for.

"I worked for 45 years, I didn't play [softball] much. When I retired in 2002 was when I picked it up again," said Joe Prinzivalli, 85, of Point Lookout.

Prinzivalli worked on Wall Street as a fixed-income trader for 40 years. Playing third base for the senior Orioles, he said he cherishes the chance to play softball in his retirement.

"It was always my dream when I was working and as a kid to play softball in my retirement," Prinzivalli said. "Here I am living the dream, and we are blessed."

Mike Dieguez, 80, of New Hyde Park, former athletic director of the Oceanside school district, says playing softball at his age takes him back to his childhood. 

"We become little kids again," Dieguez said. "We’re getting a chance to do it at an age I never thought I’d be doing it."

Dieguez, a father of two and grandfather to four, pitched a hitless bottom of the second inning for the senior Mets on Wednesday.

His son Mike Dieguez Jr. played two seasons of Minor League Baseball with the Mets and the Cubs during the mid-1990s, and his grandson Matt Dieguez plays baseball for Fordham University. 

Throughout the second week of May to September, senior citizens 70 years and older compete in the NYSSA with 10 teams in a league of more than 170 players, coaches and managers.

The seniors compete Mondays and Wednesdays in two seven-inning doubleheaders throughout parks across Nassau County during a 56-game season.

At the start of every season, the rosters are reset as the teams draft new players, increasing the bond of the seniors. 

And while friendships are developed, it's all business during the games.

"When you get on the field, all the friendships are off. You're there to win the game and play as best you can," said Sam Quaglierini, 84, of Brooklyn, manager of the senior Orioles. "And then when you're off the field, you're friends and comrades."