Jul 30, 2021 4 min read

Indulge me a moment as I engage in some idle sports idolatry: In 1957, Ted Williams, the Boston Red Sox slugger, batted an American League-best .388.

Can you guess his batting average for the second half of the ’57 season – from the first game after the all-star break to the last pitch in the last inning of what was then a 154-game schedule?

Time’s up. It was, brace for it, .453. Astonishing. Remarkable. Otherworldly.

Now here’s the point: Williams turned 39 in August of 1957. Approaching middle age, sort of, he was old for a ballplayer, though Satchel Paige threw three scoreless big league innings in 1965. Satchel was 59.

The fact is that while age is not nothing, it’s not always a barrier to high achievement, or, more to the point, living a satisfying and fulfilling life, a life of ordinary indulgences. I’m 73, not exactly young but I know guys who are 90 or so and still play golf, and argue about it.

This matter of age takes many permutations.

One fella in my golf league who is approaching 90 once dated a stripper, a burlesque queen. (The stripper worked for Jack Ruby in Dallas, Texas, in the 1950s. My friend knew Jack Ruby, drank with him, hoisted a beer with the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald – imagine! But that’s another story.)

This guy recently began to clean out his house, discarding decades of accumulated treasures, or not. He came across photos of his former stripper-girlfriend. He fretted, “I got to get rid of the pictures before my wife finds them.”

That’s the spirit.

Last week, a woman by the name of Wally Funk flew into space aboard the Jeff Bezos Blue Origin rocket.

In the papers and on television, Funk was rightly celebrated as a woman. A pilot, she had dreamed of this moment, had worked for this moment, despite the fact that the men who ran NASA in the early days of space exploration turned aside her efforts to join the astronaut corps, the brotherhood of space pioneers, which included the likes of Alan Shepard and John Glenn.

Do you get what I’m getting at? Wally Funk is old – 82 years old. She said of her brief trip into space, “I loved every minute of it. I just wish it had lasted longer … and (I) could do more (weightless) rolls and twists…. I can hardly wait to go again.”

Again, that’s the spirit.

The Olympics are underway. The Olympics are a showcase for the young and strong and agile, for obvious reasons. You probably don’t know, however, that Oscar Swahn won an Olympic medal at the 1920 Games at the age of 72. Swahn claimed his first Olympic honor in 1912, a gold medal. He was then youngster of 64.

A 64- and a 72-year old Olympian. Geez.

Judi Dench, the British thespian and television star, has been nominated for six Academy Awards. All after she turned 60. She won the best actress Oscar in 1999 at age 65. Still working, Dench is now 87.

Harland Sanders was 65 when he ventured into the fast-food business with his recipe for fried chicken. “Finger licking’ good” Sanders became a multi-millionaire late in life. I mean late. He was in his 80s.

In February, The Guardian newspaper profiled a 90-year old nun, Sister Madonna Buder, who became a marathon runner, an Iron Man (she was called the Iron Nun) competitor, and a triathlon, all after her 75th birthday. She was still competing, as of February, at age 90.

The Guardian also spoke with Natalie Levant, a stand-up comic from Philadelphia. Her first gig, at a gay bar, took place several years after her husband’s death, when she was lonely and bereft. The 89-year old tells audiences, “Don’t bother calling 911. I know where I am.”

Explaining herself to 20- and 30-year olds, Levant says, “Wherever you are, you belong.”

Celebrating his 80th birthday in May, columnist George Will wrote, “Surrendering to recurring things is optional. Among the abundant pleasures of turning 80 … is this: Having been skillful at ignoring the many recurring things, you have more brain cells to devote to other things worth noticing and trying.”

Harry Bernstein, whose debut novel appeared when he was four years shy of 100, took a practical approach. “If I had not waited until I was 90, I would not have been able to write this book…. I wasn’t ready.”

Grandma Moses was still painting at age 100. “Life is what we make it,” she said.

Mick Jagger is still touring. The Rolling Stones will be at Heinz Field on Oct. 4. Jagger will be 78.

Rock on.

Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.