It's a time for giving thanks, and a Southwest Floridian is doing so every day. He's thankful to be active and participate in a sport he loves. 

Oh, and we should mention he's 91-years-old!

Tony Esposito of Naples had warmed up to swing away for his amateur baseball game at JetBlue park in Lee County. He was playing in the Roy Hobbs World Series, but at a key moment in the game between Team America and the Mudville Nine, Esposito's manager tells him to bunt. That would, hopefully, advance a base runner.

Esposito laid down a perfect dribbler, moving a teammate into scoring position.

"If the man's on first you put it along the first base line," Tony explained later. "If he's on second or third, you put it along third and make the third baseman field it." 

Words of wisdom from a man who's played ball since he was five years old. And he's still a star player as the oldest ever in the three decades of Roy Hobbs amateur baseball in Southwest Florida. The Hobbs World series draws amateur players from all over the country. Esposito plays in a league called Forever Young, open to players 75 and up.

"I think when I was born, I was born with a baseball.," Esposito said. "It's that way.  And has been ever since."

Esposito was a star player in Chicago, and the St. Louis Browns, later part of the Baltimore Orioles, signed him the same day he graduated high school. That was 1953.

"And they offered my mother $7,500 signing bonus, and I think it was $305 a month to play baseball," Tony recalled.

It was a small fortune in those days, and Esposito said he left Chicago that night on a train to join a minor league team in the Browns organization. But his pro career in the minors lasted only one year. Playing infield every day brought out the worst in an old football knee injury.

"Been bone on bone, grinding away," Tony said.   "And injections — I was getting them every year, every six months, every three months. Until they stopped working."

Esposito said he returned to Chicago and joined the police department. One old photo shows him in uniform, delivering a Thanksgiving pie to the wife of legendary Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.

Later Esposito and his wife founded an electrical contracting business. It still operates in the Chicago area. Tony now has a huge family including great-grandchildren.

For decades, and despite knee pain, Esposito has played amateur baseball, both in Chicago and in Southwest Florida.

"Here, I am the oldest player," he said before the game at JetBlue Park. "Don't know what to say about that, except it is fact.  I just want to be able to play the game I love."

Tony grew up without his father in the home, and said somehow that motivated him to achieve, to never give up.

"Of all the mistakes I've made in my life, I conquered them and kept going," he said. "And baseball is what's helped me."  

For the recent game in the Hobbs World Series, Tony also had warmed up to pitch. And he did so, recording scoreless innings.

And he coached third base for an inning or two, using his deep knowledge of the game to help team-mates on the base paths.

Opponents said Esposito inspires them, and they have great respect for him.

"Well at 91, and I'm 78, that's 13 years," Steve Overt of the Mudville Nine said. "You say: How does he do this?  I mean he's such an incredible athlete. And he has so much understanding of the game, the strategy. I think there's a warrior in every baseball player. It's the little boy in all of us." 

"Age is just a number," Bill Smith of the Mudville team said.   "That's what you see when you see him.   if  I can still play at 91, I'd be so happy."

Esposito said he is scheduling a knee replacement for the winter of 2026, and plans to return to the field next fall.

"I don't ever want to stop," he said. "Growing up, I never wanted to stop.  That comes from my heart."

Mike Walcher is a reporter with WGCU News. He also teaches Journalism at Florida Gulf Coast University. WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.