Dick ‘Slick’ Giberti and Paul Katzeff; A Combined 173 Years of Age and Facing Off on the Redwood Empire Mound
By Steve LaMontia, Director of Communications
There is a progression in our baseball lives when the continual promise of ‘OK, honey, I promise this will be my last year’ becomes an annual tradition, while both of you knowing that it is a heapin’ helping of baloney.
It usually starts as you hit 50 years of age when things start to slow just a bit. Then you turn 60 and your fastball goes from 80 miles per hour to 50 and you’re thinking ‘at least I can still hit pretty well.’
Fast forward to the advanced age of 70 and bending over for a grounder becomes a major effort and they time you from home to first with a calendar! At this juncture, hard decisions start to creep in. But the Men’s Senior Baseball League makes your life miserable because they keep providing increasingly older divisions allowing you to compete against, and play alongside, players who have hit a similar baseball wall. You can’t hang them up quite yet!
So, on you go, enjoying every baseball moment, possibly even more than when you were younger because you are so thankful to still be playing a kid’s game.
I bring up this lifetime baseball journey because the Redwood Empire Baseball League in California recently boasted a pitching matchup between two 80-something pitchers that to the best of my memory is unparalleled. Let me explain.
At the end of July, Allan Green, manager of the Dragons of the REBL, sent me a note. My mouth remains open as I type this.
“We started a 72+ division this year but were only able to field two teams, though hoping to expand next year,” explained Allan. “In our last game, the winning pitcher for the Dragons was Paul Katzeff, who is age 86, and the losing pitcher was Dick “Slick” Giberti, who is his senior at 87. The two of them total 173 years of age! Paul pitched two scoreless innings in relief to pick up the win. ‘Slick’ started for the Reds and pitched five innings, giving up only four earned runs.”
I asked Allan for their contact information, as I wanted to dig into what keeps these two guys going on the diamond and continuing to embrace our great game. They were both kind enough to provide their wonderful insights. I slightly edited the body of their stories and the resulting article is quite lengthy. But they have both earned the right to convey their lives and passion so I have left things pretty much in their own words and did very little eliminating. It may take a little bit to absorb but is well worth the time. They certainly have earned our attention. Please enjoy their inspiring and motivational stories!
Paul Katzeff…”I grew up in the Bronx. Playing ball meant playing stickball. None of us could afford a ‘hardball’ and back in the 50s, there wasn’t a little league in the Bronx. There wasn’t a baseball field either. I learned to play on cement.
I began playing senior baseball in 2002 for the Atlanta Cherokees in a different league. I roomed with Bob Jarreau, who is a pitcher and the project director for the Hubble spacecraft. I began my career as a 64-year-old catcher in Fort Myers Beach. I had never caught a game in my life.
I knew I could catch because I coached Little League and always filled in for my catcher when he took batting practice. That’s all the catching knowledge I had. It was trial by fire. But I caught five games in six days and learned quickly!
I live 150 miles north of San Francisco on the Mendocino Coast. Up here everybody plays slow-pitch softball so I had to travel to play. Over the last 22 years, I’ve played three times in October games and other tournaments, and I’ve played in many MSBL World Series in Arizona. Mostly I’ve played for Donny DeCordova and his teams, though we didn’t win many games. I played for the South Dakota Rushmore’s and most recently in Canton, Ohio in 2022 and 2023 in the 80-over tournament organized by George Hughes.
After my first ten years of catching, I decided I wanted to learn the rest of the positions on the field. Donny gave me a chance to play third base, which I did for a couple of years, then moved over to second base. I also played shortstop for John DeBenedictis in the over-75 tournament in Arizona.
I’m really not a pitcher, I’m a wannabe pitcher. When I was 77, I went to a baseball school in San Rafael to learn how to pitch. The school was called, ‘Future Baseball Prospects.’ It was run by an ex-Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher. He taught me some pitching fundamentals, but it cost me $150 an hour!
This year, Donny asked me if I wanted to play on an over-80s team of his that was going to play 10 games during the summer, and the games were going to be 100 miles away from where I live! I decided to do it, but as luck would have it, Donny’s team didn’t form and he recommended me to Alan Green and the Dragons in the Redwood Empire Baseball League. I knew about the Dragons and Alan’s competitive nature. His teams win a lot and I wanted to feel what that experience was like.
It wound up that it was an over 70 league and I would be playing with kids 10-15 years younger!
So, I wound up pitching in a game against ‘Slick’ who is six months older than me. Although I was the winning pitcher, I can say that I was struck out by somebody older than me! It was his 87th birthday a couple of days ago and our Dragons greeted him with four straight hits at the beginning of the game. I pitched the fourth and the fifth innings.
It’s really an adventure to be on the mound and it takes a long time and lots of reps to become ‘a Pitcher’. But I’m gonna keep at it because the 75s will eventually become the 80s and I want to be part of that, as well as an infielder.
Oh yes, one more factoid; I was born on February 6th and you can imagine my delight when I learned that Babe Ruth and I share the same birthday!”
Paul was asked to capsulize his baseball life for our MSBL readers.
“You know, it is a story about the game itself. Although I am part of it, I still am amazed by the sporting experience of playing ball at this age. You become a kid again and for me, I am transported back to the Bronx in a way that no amount of trying to remember can duplicate.
It’s the feel of the game itself that transports one into ‘The Twilight Zone’. To be tested, to get one more chance to make that great catch, or to feel and hear the crack of the ball hitting the sweet spot on the bat. Just one more time, please!”
Dick ‘Slick’ Giberti…”At age 87, waking up is a thrill! I have been playing for the past 22 years with MSBL and the Redwood Empire Baseball League. I have been fortunate to have won 11 World Series rings with six different teams at the MSBL World Series. Over those years I have accumulated 55 wins and four losses.
I achieved one no-hitter against Team Australia when I was 70 in the 50+ division of the World Series. I’ll be playing with the 80+ Cal Vets this year in Arizona. I had a very fulfilling season in 2024 playing with both the 65+ Jazz and the 72+ Reds and have been blessed with no injuries.
My family has grown to 27 great-grandchildren and one Great-great-grandson. Allan (Green) has always been supportive of me and the older players. I continue to look for opportunities. I enjoy being treated like a ballplayer and not an 87-year-old and looking forward to many more years.
Regarding my respect for my pitching counterpart in that memorable game, Paul started working out in his backyard one day with his 61-year-old daughter catching him. He decided he wanted to be a pitcher. So, with no pitching experience, he asked Allan Green if there was a chance to pitch in some of the remaining games and Allen said “Why not?”
In our last two games, Paul got to pitch a few innings and did just fine, holding his own. His dream is now fulfilled and he plans to work over the winter to improve so he can pitch next season in our 72+ division.
Paul is blessed like me with great genes. He can still run and throw and is a decent hitter. Thanks for the interest in us older guys!”