Don Runcie has played ball all his life.

A childhood member of his own neighborhood "Knothole Gang," Runcie remembers being taken out to the ballgame to watch his beloved Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. All he needed to get a seat inside Wrigley Field in south central L.A. was a Wheaties box top.

"Those guys were my heroes," Runcie said. "We didn't have major leagues out here back then."

But they did have the game. And whether he was playing in vacant sandlots or full stadiums - as a teammate of Gene Mauch or an opponent of Yogi Berra in his American Legion baseball days - Runcie says he always "got a kick out of the game."

As long as he's able to be around a ball diamond, he's happy.

Even now, as he sits on the sidelines for the first time, the 81-year-old Hall of Fame softball player says just watching the guys get their cuts in the Gold Country Senior Softball Association is enough for him.

"This is the first year I haven't played," Runcie said. "I go to the games quite often, but I know I'm not ready to play. There are a lot of favorite guys I like, and I just like going to watch the games.

"I thought it might be harder, but I just really enjoy watching them."

Runcie is just one of the many regulars who have reveled in the 25-year history of Gold Country Senior Softball at Western Gateway Park in Penn Valley.

Another is 75-year-old John Lancieri, who has played in the league every season since its inception.

"There were only four teams back then," said Lancieri, who retired from operating equipment for PG&E in 1990. "But then it went to eight, and now there's 10 teams. I really think it just gives the older people something to do instead of sitting and watching TV all day.

"When I quit having fun, that's when I'm not going to play no more."

Fun appears to be the name of the game, made clear through the good-natured ribbing going back and forth between the dugouts:

"You can look all you want, buddy, but it's still a strike!"

"It looks like somebody's grandson over there playing third base!"

"He had two doubles last week. Yeah, he stretched two triples into doubles!"

All joking aside, these guys do take the game seriously. Just ask one of the umpires who has been calling balls and strikes behind the plate for the past four to five years.

""They're as competitive as you get - at all ages," said Phil Caulkins. "But the only flack they give me is good flack. You know what I mean?"

Caulkins and his wife, Karrie, are regulars at the games. Karrie is in her third season as a scorekeeper, a job she shares with Debbie Burnett, who has been keeping the score book at the ballpark since 1999.

"My dad (Bob Hannah) is on this team and my father-in-law (George Caulkins) is, too," Karrie Caulkins said. "When our daughter came out to watch, she said, 'Don't they bend?' It was funny. But they do very well. They take it seriously but also have a lot of fun.

"They get down on themselves, and we're the cheerleaders. We have to perk them up."

More often than not, however, the senior sluggers seem to find more than their fair share of success at the plate.

"They hit like gangbusters," said Burnett. "They're batting at least .500 and up. And as you can see (pointing to a scoreboard reading 23-17), they score a ton.

"They're all just still playing, still hitting, still running ... it keeps them alive."

The range in age among the players hitting the diamond spans three decades. But that doesn't mean the most senior players, such as 81-year-old Tony Martin, give any ground to the 50-year-old "rookies" who join the league each season.

Martin has missed just one season since he joined up in 1987. If it hadn't been for rotator-cuff surgery on a shoulder, he would have been out there playing ball.

Growing up in Massachusetts before joining the Navy at 17 and serving in World War II, Martin was enamored with the way Jim Tabor played the game at third base for the Red Sox.

"They couldn't get anything by him," said Martin, a third baseman who plays a shockingly shallow distance from home plate. "I learned not to be afraid of the ball at young age.

"If it isn't going to kill ya, get in front of it."

After slicing a liner to right field for an RBI single during a recent game, Martin said just being able to take the field is a thrill for him. As a young boy, he wasn't always granted that opportunity.

"I grew up as a kid watching them play. They wouldn't let me play because I was too little," he said. "I was the one who ran home to get them bottles of water."

"I might of had a chip on my shoulder being a little guy, but I can play the game. There are a lot of guys better than me, but I give 'em 200 percent."

In the 21 years that he's played Gold Country Senior Softball, 73-year-old Joe Dawson has missed just one game. Why?

"My mother died," Dawson explained. "Now my son even plays out here, too. Of course, we had him when I was 10 years old. Guess how old he is."

At 51, Rick Dawson is one of the youngsters in the league. And his .600 batting average has his father green with envy. Joe, an 11-time all-star who is hitting .571, said he doesn't much like looking up to his son on the league's list of hitting leaders.

Just as there is a range in age among the players, there's also a disparity in how competitive they are about the game.

"Some people take it seriously," said 63-year-old Bill Johnson, who plays on weekdays, Saturdays and with teams traveling around Northern California. "But you play as well as you can, and you understand that there is a range of proficiency, and that's fine. Every team has a complex cast of characters, and that's part of the fun.

"This league has a lot of good players. One year I was on a team that played at the Senior World Games in St. George, Utah. I looked around and thought I was in Penn Valley. There were three or four teams from Penn Valley and somebody from Penn Valley on half the teams."

One of the top selling points for the league is the fact that it redrafts the teams each year. All players go back into the pool to be selected each season, keeping the competition in check by not allowing one team to dominate each year.

"And that means every year the teams change, so you get an opportunity to play with someone else you haven't met," said Gil Dominguez, playing in his fourth season. "That's probably one of the most fun aspects. You're always playing with new people."

It's the people that keep bringing the likes of Martin back out to the ballpark each spring. Sure, he says, getting in the game is great, but being able to be out there with the guys is just as good.

"I love the game. I love the camaraderie," Martin said. "The great majority of these ballplayers are great people."

"I'm still living. I'm still playing. And the good Lord is responsible for everything. He's blessed me with good health."

Martin also said he's happy to know that his friend, Don Runcie, is having a good time taking in the ballgames, even though he's not currently playing. He knows, like many other members of the league, just how much Runcie relished taking the field.

After all, there's a good reason the Gold Country Senior Softball Association's "most inspirational player" is bestowed the "Don Runcie Award" each season.

"He's six months older than me," Martin said. "Eight or nine years ago, he had a five-way bypass. But even up to four years ago, he was the batting-average king every year. I've dedicated myself to do well for him.

"And he's also just a prince of a man, on and off the field."

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To contact Sports Editor Brian Hamilton, e-mail brianh@theunion.com or call 477-4240.