After you reach 60 years of age, there is very little likelihood that you will ever swing a baseball bat at a pitched ball.

Chances are if you are athletically inclined, you will swing a graphite tennis racket and chase that chartreuse, fuzzy ball. If you are allergic to perspiration and more sedentary, you may swing a variety of sticks called golf clubs. Basketball for seniors is usually meant for viewing and rooting, not for slam-dunking. (Leave that to Shaq!)

About six years ago I took a course in writing at the New School on 12th Street near Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. My instructor was a lovely man named Marvin Cohen. His comments and critiques were usually dead on target. He had already published a book on baseball and he was a real fan.

I submitted an essay on baseball. It was later printed in the Syosset-Jericho Tribune. It was called Ted Kuzsewski and Milty. It was about a childhood friend who had rippling muscles, but couldn't hit a pitched ball. Ted Williams said, "Hitting a thrown ball was the hardest thing in all sports."

Marvin and I talked about baseball and our different upbringings. He was a Yankee fan living in Brooklyn and I was a Dodger fan living in The Bronx. We empathized with each other over those difficult times.

He lives in Manhattan and we decided to meet at the Hicksville train station and take spring training. I brought a bat and a glove. Marvin brought a bunch of used softballs.

We drove to Cantiague Field and warmed up our arms. We then started pitching (overhand) to each other. Throwing the softballs over a newspaper home-plate evolved into a game that we used to play in the schoolyards of New York City. If you hit the ball a certain distance it was a single, further a double, even further a triple and if you really belted it, it was a home run. We batted in front of a cyclone fence as a back stop.

Marvin is 5 years older than I, but he has a quick bat and a great swing. Our seven-inning games were great fun. It felt wonderful to swing a bat again after 40 years of lay-off. The scores were sometimes "astronomical." After the game we retired to the Empire Diner and the loser paid for lunch. Marvin then took the LIRR back to the city.

Last week we resumed our rivalry. We even found two more sexagenarians and so we had a pitcher and an outfielder. Thanks Stu and Bert.

The game has changed slightly from our humble beginnings. After I beaned Marvin with a curve that didn't break about two years ago, we outlawed softballs. Softballs are not that soft as Marvin will testify. Now we use tennis balls as they are much safer.

Some morning if you see a couple of old guys playing baseball at Cantiague Park with an aluminum bat and a load of tennis balls, come over and say hello.

Chances are it will be Marvin and me!

A typographical error occurred along with an actual error in my column called "Crying." Let me list the dates as taken from the World Book Encyclopedia:

Aug. 6, 1945 - Enola Gay drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima

Aug. 8, 1945 - Russia declares war on Japan

Aug. 9, 1945 - Another atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki

Aug. 10, 1945 - Japan asks to save Emperor Hirohito's throne

Aug. 14, 1945 - Japan surrenders to the Allies, accepting the terms of the Potsdam Conference. Allies appoint General MacArthur Supreme Commander for the Allied powers.

Sept. 2, 1945 - On the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, the Allies and Japan sign the surrender agreement.

President Truman proclaims Sept. 2, 1945 - V.J. Day.

Thank you to Niels J. Zussblett who found the typo and corrected the mistakes. Good reading!