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53-year-old knuckleballer tries out for St. Paul Saints
"There's nothing crueler than the passage of time. "I used to be a handsome guy," 53-year-old Jon Secrist said, looking over the St. Paul Saints home field at Midway Stadium. Secrist is in town looking for a job, as a player, on a baseball team filled with players fresh out of school. "I'll either be here for five days or five months," he said. Secrist was invited to try out by the team's owner. He may be two and a half decades older than just about every player, but Secrist throws a mean knuckleball known to baffle opposing batters. It was on display Thursday at Hamline University's field house. Saints players watched with interest as Secrist floated balls towards home plate. When the balls reached home plate they seemed to "drop off the table." "I want to come back and just give it one more try. I don't expect to be their best pitcher, but I plan to be one of the most effective if they give me a chance," Secrist explained. His chance was rained out on Thursday so he'll hit the hill Friday morning. "I'm facing guys; I'm not quite their granddad, maybe their dad." The Saint have seen Secrist before. He tried out for the team several times in the 90's. In 1997, he was so close. He was 42 when he had a frank conversation with the Saints' batting coach. "He goes Jon, it's between you and Ila Borders and I went oh no!" Secrist recalls. Borders, the first female to pitch professionally, got the job. Two years later, Secrist got a call telling him to get to St. Paul immediately. He pitched two games as the oldest rookie ever to sign a contract. "A couple of people asked me, what's it feel like to be the oldest player? My response was somebody has to be," Secrist said. He didn't have a great first game and pitched in one more after that. "They said, it's over, we've released you. But it was still the greatest 10 days of my life. The problem is, I've been thinking about it ever since." So now he's back in the Twin Cities. His mortgage business hasn't been busy in these tough economic times so the tryout timing was impeccable. He says he feels great, and he's glad when some of the guys kid around with him. "It's the first time I had been called pops. But you know, I look at myself in the mirror and it's like, I can see where they see that," Secrist said with a laugh. The Saints will keep either 10 or 11 pitchers on their roster. They'll play an exhibition game at home on Monday before opening the regular season at home, on May 8th.
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