The question for a senior league to employ a draft system to form the teams is very involved. First, just what is a "draft"? Simply put, it is the method of placing all of the names of the eligible players into a common pool and then drawing names to form teams. The ways in which the names are drawn out is the central point of contention. Various methods can be employed. But even before a draft takes place, the question of whether or not a draft system is even feasible or possible needs addressing.

The concept of drafting originates in an attempt to gain parody for the teams in the league. Normally, leagues start up by managers getting the players the best that they can. It is a grab ‘em up type of system. One or two teams acquire many of the better players. This makes the division unbalanced in team skill levels and causes difficulty for the other teams to win against these stacked teams.

We’ve all seen this situation happen in a division where are only a few teams (i.e. five or six) and that for the bottom three or four teams, there’s not a lot of fun as they are vying for 3rd place at best from the start of the league season.

So what can be done to level the playing field for the average players? A draft system has benefits and drawbacks. The immediate benefit is that the players are dispersed throughout the teams in a more random fashion, making the resulting rosters fairly even in each team. There are ways to control the "draw" of the players that will create a more uniform structure to each team. First, the eligible players are sorted by ages (70+, 65+ and 60+ in this example of a draft for the 60+ division). The managers should be meeting and working together as several refinements can then take place. Let’s say we have five teams. With a roster of 12 players each, that puts the needed number of players at 60. If there are ten 70+ players, each manager gets two; if there are twenty-five 65+ players, each manager gets five; and if there are twenty-five 60+, each manager gets five. This would make up the 12-man roster. The numbers will be odd sometimes, but this can be worked out. There are various ways to move these numbers around, but the general concept remains the same-getting parody in the ages. This is a good start and it can be worked to an even keener level with the managers actually having a list of all of the players before them and being reasonable in sorting the players out. As you can see, cooperation among the managers is important. They can even "trade" players, of the same age division, among each other at the beginning stage for various reasons. As you can also see, the players in general must be willing to accept their team and their fellow teammates when it is all settled.

This seems to be the major drawback of any sort of draft system. The players don’t want to leave their existing team for whatever reason and would not feel comfortable just picking up and beginning with a fresh team that has new and unfamiliar teammates. If this hurtle can be overcome by each player, he just may discover that most of the other players are okay. Anyway, they all know each other to some extent, as they have been playing along with one another in the past. But the real wall to get over remains wanting to continue playing on the same team with the same players. They enjoy the camaraderie of these certain guys. This is a very difficult emotion to get over and is the strongest force of opposition to any sort of draft. But it is an emotion and if it can be set aside for the general good of the senior league, new friends can be made and better quality of ball playing can be achieved for the majority of the players.

This very situation has arisen in our 60+ division in Boise, Idaho. Two teams in the league of five are quite strong, as the other three teams lose to them consistently. Once a team acquires several strong players, it keeps them and may even pick up another outstanding player here and there. The other, weaker teams are hanging on to their average or below average players out of loyalty and all that comes with being on a team. This situation can remain the same for years. The only option a weaker team’s manager has is to drop the weaker players and try and pick up some new stronger players. A real nice way for a manager to treat his players. Reminds us a little bit of the outside business world with that must win at all cost attitude. Of course, the oldest players are dropped first. We have seen several 70+ and even 65+ players fall by the wayside. There must be a way to protect all players who just want to come out and enjoy a fun game of senior softball.

So here is one way that our 60+ managers are looking at approaching this dilemma. Each manager will receive the same number of a certain age player group with this added caveat. The manager can retain a certain number of his existing players, say 3 of them; counting himself, that is a core of 4 players on each team. If 2 of them are 60+ and the other one is 65+, then they are accounted in that age group which each manager receives. The manager must then pick 2 players from the 70+, and etc. as discussed earlier. This would give the manager a chance to keep certain strengths that he feels he needs and also help with keeping the feeling of team unity. This idea has some hitches to it as you can imagine. But it gives each team a sense of stability as it begins each season and protects the manager from losing a few very key players to his team.

For instance, if one of the players happens to be the sponsor of that team, it would be very untenable to lose him and his support of the team’s existence. It also would protect the manager from losing a player that helped the team as much with his chemistry as well as his skills.

However the participating managers attempt to work the draft, either a straight blind draft of taking names out of the hat for each age division, or to get it down to subtle trades among the managers once the basic teams are picked, the draft will do this one big thing. It will even out the ages of the players on each team and set up games with more parody and overall enjoyment for those playing. Even exceptional players get bored of beating up on weaker teams all the time and if they get to look forward to another team that will give them a close game, all the better! Often it can get so lop-sided that just one team dominates a division and they in essence have no one to play against. Everyone loses that way.

Attempting some sort of draft for one season (or even a half of a season as most recreation programs have two halves, a spring and fall league) could bring interesting results. Of course, it will take some organization among the participating managers and the league organization itself.

This is where having forming a small senior league board comes in. Those members can aid in the process and with a board member keeping up to date on names, ages and phone numbers it can be done. Our 60+ division has put out a brief questionnaire regarding players’ interest in trying a draft within our division. The players are handing them in to be tabulated and hopefully if there is a keen interest in trying some kind of draft, our board will get together with the managers and hammer something for future seasons. We seniors do things like this. It keeps our overall league healthy. It even keeps US healthy. Nothing like moving forward and creating better conditions for the game we love so much. Let’s try to bring everybody aboard on this one, especially in the areas where we do not have a large player-base. It will all even out once it gets running. Players will make new friends, the new teams will be playing with a fresher outlook each time and the final payment will be in the exciting games that will be offered almost every time. Do you have any suggestions? Email Jim Johnson at jjohnson36@aol.com