Yet it's not just a love of sports that bonds these men. Most endured childhoods during the Great Depression, only to be sent off a fewyears later to a war of epic proportions, World War II. Another commonality is that they all have the "Pufferettes" behind them, wives and friends who hold luncheons and social events for themselves and the teams. Benjamin Rose staff recently visited with a few of the Huff-n-Puffers. We spoke to: Chester Novak, age 80, a founding member of the Huff-n-Puffers. Chet was with the 68th fighter's squadron in World War II and earned Marine and Air Force Presidential Citations. A retired salesman, Chet and his wife have two children and four grandchildren. Ed Hrubey, age 75, president of the Huff-n-Puffers for four years. A retired teacher and coach who started out as a carpenter, Ed who participated in the war's invasion of Leyte in the Philippines and in the invasion of Okinawa. His wife JoAnne is president of the Huff-n-Pufferettes. They have six children and nine grandchildren. Gene Neale, age 81, a founding member and first President of the Huff-n-Puffers. Gene is a retired mutual funds and life insurance agent who served in the U.S. Navy, reaching the rank of SKT2c. A widower, he has five children, 11 grandchildren and six great grandchildren. Gene Gizzi, age 74, a corporal in the Air Force who was in the occupation of Italy after the war. He was a mill clerk, a postal carrier and mobile home remodeler. He and his wife have four children, nine grandchildren, four step-grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren. Mike Tedesco, age 75, a retired meat cutter. He served in the war on a destroyer escort where his captain was former Ohio State University football coach Woody Hayes. A member of the Cleveland Slow Pitch Hall of Fame, Mike manages a junior division team, which won four out of the last five years championship. He has three children and five grandchildren. Len Thasho, age 76, a former sergeant in the army and retired project engineer for Ohio Bell Telephone. A graduate of West Technical High School, he attended the University of Tennessee. He and his wife have one child and two grandchildren. John Urban, age 75, co-manager of the Huff-n-Puffers' senior league's traveling team with Mike Tedesco as well as a team backed by Emerald City Jewelers for young men aged 20 to 25 years oldófour of whom are his grandsons. He played baseball for the Navy, where he was a firefighter on Whidbey Island. A retired semi truck driver, John and his wife have two children and six grandchildren. How did you start the Huff-n-Puffers?

The Huff-n-Puffers logo illustrates the league's upbeat attitude toward aging: Father Time opting for a bat, mitt and ball instead of his scythe. Gene N: Frank Yaroshak, who's now deceased had been playing on the east side with the "Babes of Solon," and thought there should be a west side team. He planted the seed and a group of others and myself helped organize the first team. Chester "Chet" Novak: A couple of guys knew each other from high school, or college. We advertised in all the churches, all the bars. The wives loved it. They'd call up and say, "My husband just retired and played baseball at one time. Get him out of the house, he's driving me crazy!" Gene Neale came up with the name. Gene N: We based the name on the "Little Engine That Could." As he huffed and puffed up the hill, he keeps

saying, "I can do it, I can do it, I CAN DO IT!" And he did. We are the same because we keep telling ourselves we can do it. We huffed and we puffed when we first started playing, but we know the exercise has helped many heart and stroke patients. Even our logo stresses exercise; Father Time has laid down his scythe and taken up a bat, ball and glove. Ed: The guys wanted to play ball, and they wanted to play it at this age. It works out very well. Mike: We made two leagues. The junior division is ages 60 to 68. The senior league is 68 and over. Gene N: We separated because when you're 75 and 80 you don't play the same kind of ball as you do when you're 60. Our oldest players are 84 years of age. Speaking of age, what exactly does it mean to you? Gene G: To all these guys it's just a number. Attitude, that's a good part of it, too. Len: As long as you can get out there and try. Give it your best. Gene G: He won't tell you, but Lenny was on the Cleveland farm team … Len: Yeah, I went and tried out, and was on for a little while, many moons ago. Gene G: Then the war took over … Len: … yeah, then I got traded to Uncle Sam! [laughs] Do you have any philosophy on successful aging? Ed: When we were kids, when we were 15, 20 years old, a 50-year-old man was on his way. He was beat up, exhausted. As long as we keep our minds and bodies active, we will continue to stay young. Gene G: And we remember that attitude. But now, with medicine the way it is and more knowledge of attitude and conditioning and positive thinking, it's different. Here the average age is 72, 73. Mike: We even still play with the young guys, 20, 25 years old. John and I have to play if they don't show up. So it's safe to say you give the other teams a run for their money. Mike: We do. I don't think you've got enough ink for what we do. John: I'll say… Mike: We've won the senior leagues 75 and over, worldwide. We've won 14 championship rings. Our 75 and over team has an average of 730 years of softball experience. Gene N: We've played exhibition games in Galion, Ohio, and against the Babes of Solon and the Huffers+Puffers of Willoughby. We continue to grow, we have 196 already signed up for this year. We have a draft. Our current players are from 35 communities. But we play for the fun of it. This is the game we remember from our youth. What would you say to someone whose attitude is "I'm too old to play ball"? Mike: We don't have any of that here. I'm in good health and that's why I play the game. Len: I've seen people that I retired with 20 years ago. Gone. They were couch potatoes. Mike: You hear about other guys on the other side of the fence saying, "Why do you play that game?" Next week you hear about them dying. Len: That's not saying we won't die someday, but … Mike: …we're gonna go down in the batter's box… [laughs] John and I still get calls from the young leagues to manage. We've got 50 years on those guys. Len: I wanna die rounding third, heading home! What advice would you give to someone asking about successful aging? Gene G: Stay active. Len : Yes, be thankful, at all times. Do what you can do. Mike: Don't smoke. None of our guys smoke. Some of them used to, but not now. John: Think young. Try to do the best you can. And try to be with younger people. Mike and I like to play ball with the younger fellas, and we hold our own against them. I play ball with my four of my grandsons. They're 26 years old and under. How do you feel about aging? Ed: You kind of take it for granted. Life can be kind of funny. When I got out of the service, I went to college. I even started working on my master's degree, but my wife got pregnant and I had to go to work. I ended up teaching. Twenty years later, I got my master's degree in education and ended up coaching, which was my dream. I told my kids to go to college, get the best background you can get, in case something falls through. Gene N: It's a fact that the older we get, the more our brain deteriorates. You've got to take care of your brain and your body. I've been doing a lot of reading about alternative treatments for medical conditions things like reflexology and aromatherapy. Even though I volunteer in a hospital, I don't think medication is the main answer. Why do you think you're all so appreciative of life? Len: The people you grow up with--if you stick around, they stick around. And you have your old time friends. Though a lot of them have moved out, and a lot of them are gone. Gene G: I think it's the camaraderie. A lot of them played ball together for years. And they knew each other from competition from schools where they were competitors. A lot of them know each other from high school even. Ed: You'd be amazed at how many guys here have had triple bypasses. Mike: See Johnny over there? When he ain't hollering to me, he's sick. He had a blockage, which they fixed. The day he came back, he played third base. George Lizanich and John Urban both played in the world tournament. Both batted .923 and both are three-time All Americans. They set the tone for us. When we go on the field we don't have pain. John: I have strong faith. The good Lord helps me out; he gives me strength to play ball. Tell me some experiences you had overseas during the war. Mike: I was there for the occupation. We took a convoy over, 188 ships. We brought over supplies. We laid smoke screens to protect our ships from the German subs. When we got into North Africa they said we have to leave in a day. That was June 4. My buddy was a radio operator, and said, "We're going to make the invasion." I said, "What the heck is that?" He was talking about Normandy. I was only 16, I'd lied about my age to get in, so I could be with my older brothers. But we didn't make the invasion. They would have blown us out of the water in two minutes. Our walls were too thin, because we were made to be faster than the German subs. They went 10 mph; ours went 30. After that, we went to the Pacific, which was really nice. John: I played ball for the Navy, and I later found out that kept me stateside. I was supposed to get shipped out three times. But I saw some rough things, even though I didn't see combat. I was in the fire department on Whidbey Island, which was a training station. On my second day, a plane crashed as it was coming in for a landing. It was awful. Chet: I was in the 68th Fighters Squadron in World War II. In a couple of months, I'll be going down to a reunion with the others who were in that unit in all the wars: World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm because they're deactivating the unit. There are about 80 living from that unit in WWII. There were 19 million American vets in WWII, and now there are about 6 million alive. They're dying off at 2,000 a day. Gene G: I had a German captain tell me that one thing they didn't count on was the ingenuity of the American GI. He told me, "the GIs came out of drug store soda shops and were elevator operators. The Americans play hard, but they fight hard, too." He told me all this himself. The German soldiers were so well disciplined. Their attitude was so different. They were trained to follow. We were trained to follow as well, but also to think strategically. How did you get to talk to a German captain? Gene G: When I was in the occupation of Italy in '46 after the war. They were getting ready to go back to Germany. So we didn't carry weapons at that time. They were working for the base. They ate well. We took good care of them. There were four Germans in my group, and four Italians. How do you think serving in a war shaped your outlook on life? Ed: The minute you're involved in some kind of incident where somebody's trying to kill you, you change a lot right then. Because you're scared and you have a different feeling. You're a new person. You mature very quickly. Gene G: With the war, it's just like trying to explain to somebody about the Depression. How do you tell them you ate polenta without meat? Ed: Yeah, how would you like somebody to drop the bomb near your house? Gene G: Or seeing your city destroyed. I was at the hospital a while back. I had a male nurse tell me, "I don't know how often you hear this, but I want to thank you guys." His grandfather was a veteran. Maybe younger generations don't have an appreciation for what previous ones went through. Ed: As a parent, you try to make life easier for your children than you had it, but we made it too easy. Gene G: Some of the hard work and stress that you had to go through is good for you. Is there anything you do on a day-to-day basis that bolsters your attitude toward life? Ed: My wife says every morning, "Thank God you're alive and have another day to face." It's true. I've been president of the Huff-n-Puffers now for four years. And I've been overseeing a bowling league now for 18 years. We put it up for election and nobody wants to run because I'm willing. I enjoy these guys. Gene G: But we can't let them know that [laughing]. This Game Called Senior Softball or What is a Huff-n-Puffer? We no longer run like a rabbit, Can no longer turn on a dime, If we try to steal any bases, We'd surely be charged with a crime. We don't swing a bat as well as we did, Our throw may not find its mark; But we're out there doing the best we can, And somehow keep finding the spark. We love to compete, and hope that we beat The other teams, one and all. But hold our breath, whenever we see Somebody trip and fall. On game days we're counting our blessings, (Except when disputing a call.) And try to remember that no one feels worse, Than the player who dropped the ball. Your bones may ache, your back is sore, Of leg pains you will suffer; If that's what it takes, then take it from me, You are a Huff-n-Puffer! - Written by an Anonymous Huff-n-Puffer Special thanks to Gene Neale and Gene Gizzi for providing the resourceful Player Profile Book, and the Huff-n-Puffers who participated in this interview. For information on playing or sponsoring a team in the Huff-n-Puffers league, please call Ed Hrubey at (440) 237-5240.