Veterans show few signs of age at Bonita Army-Navy softball game

by dave breitenstein • dbreitenstein@news-press.com • February 21, 2010

1:10 A.M. — At his age, 84-year-old Al Kubany should be taking it easy.

With terminal cancer of the throat, one also would assume he’d have a gloomy outlook.

Not a chance.

“I’m supposed to die in six to 15 months,” Kubany said during Saturday’s Army-Navy softball game at Citrus Park in Bonita Spring. “That’s what they told me, but I’m not going to listen to him.”

Kubany, a Merchant Marine who battled German submarines in the North Atlantic, went 2-for-3 at the plate, including a triple, and turned a double play in the field.

He wasn’t the only veteran overachieving Saturday. Veterans of World War II, Vietnam War, Korean War and other conflicts forgot about their bum knees, sore shoulders and aching backs to take part in a community tradition since 1989.

“Softball is what brings everyone together in this park,” said Army veteran Albert Tully, who at 90 is the community’s oldest active player.

The Army-Navy game really is the Army vs. every other branch. The Air Force, Coast Guard, Marines, Merchant Marines and Navy don’t have enough players to field their own teams. The first game featured World War II and Korean War veterans, followed by a Vietnam War contest and a third game for those serving in other conflicts. The Army won two of three games, taking back the series title after losing it last year.

Players are the first to admit they’re past their prime athletically. Ground balls rolled past a few infielders who struggle to reach their toes, and some batters needed courtesy runners because first base doesn’t look as close as it once did.

But that doesn’t mean games weren’t competitive.

Navy veteran Denny Raposa, 82, said his team had just one goal — win. Of course, he wasn’t about to argue calls with the umpire or pick a fight with an opposing player.
“No, not at our age,” Raposa joked.

Several hundred residents of Citrus Park, a 50-plus community, crowded around the neatly manicured Trost Field, but a few younger visitors also watched. Brandy Brown, 31, timed her visit from Michigan to watch her 86-year-old grandfather, Army catcher Harold Green, scoot around the diamond without complaint.