Sunday, November 04, 2012

9th year for 2 former BJ Toms' project

Beacon Journal newsroom retiree Tom Moore is in his 9th year of publishing a daily newspaper for the Roy Hobbs Baseball World Series for older players run by former BJ sports editor Tom Giffen in Fort Myers, Florida, in October and November. 
The photo shows Giffen at a staff meeting and in consultation with Moore.

Moore writes stories for "The Inside Pitch," the newsletter published most days with game results and other stuff about the 200+ baseball teams of older players.


The series is divided into age divisions---youngest group is 28-plus and oldest is 70-plus.

Giffen, now 63, in 1990 formed a four-team league of adult men playing out of Akron. The next year the league grew to 11 teams and joined Roy Hobbs Baseball, which was owned by Ron Monks of California. In 1992 Monks sold Roy Hobbs Baseball to Giffen and his wife, Ellen.

For several years, Giffen ran Roy Hobbs Baseball out of his basement and continued to work at the Beacon Journal. In the mid-1990s, as the organization brought in more and more teams, Giffen resigned from the BJ to work fulltime at his business.

Roy Hobbs is the fictional hero of Bernard Malamud's novel, “The Natural,” and the movie starring Robert Redford as Hobbs.

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