By Gary Curreri, Special Correspondent
Deerfield Beach’s Jim Eddy enjoys playing baseball on the weekends.
Eddy, 47, plays for the Cardinals in the Liberty Hardball Men’s Baseball League based out of Coral Springs. He leads the league with a .571 batting average and said he looks forward to playing in the Sunday games all week.
“You want to have some competition, so that’s why I don’t play softball,” said Eddy, who is an athletic trainer and coaches football at Highlands Christian Academy.
“I wouldn’t play in a league if there wasn’t any competition,” added Eddy, who had played with the Federal League since 1995, and has been with the Cardinals for the past three years. Eddy was a 1989 draft pick of the Montreal Expos.
“I don’t get nervous anymore and you don’t have that adrenaline. I think I am too old for adrenaline.” The Cardinals have won two out of the past three years of the league. There are many former professional players in addition to Eddy in the league. The Liberty Hardball league features players 28 and older on seven teams.
There are a couple of players in their 60s still swinging for the fences. The league plays on Sunday mornings at Mullins Park, Cypress Park in Coral Springs and Sabal Pines Field in Coconut Creek.
The present, three-yearold circuit is an offshoot of the Coral Springs Men’s Senior Baseball League that folded after the 2009 season. There are seven teams in the league that play a 20- game season that begins in March and typically runs through October following the playoffs. Because the league had four weeks of rainouts this season, the season may extend into November.
The Top 2 teams get a bye and the remaining teams make the playoffs and play in a 2 out of 3 format. The top seeded team gets to choose the venue to play in.
Powell paces Bucks
Running back Brandon Powell rushed for 184 yards and two touchdowns as host Deerfield Beach (2-3) stunned Blanche Ely, 19-0, in a non-district contest on Saturday night. Aeron McNeal also had a stellar game for the Bucks as he scored on a 14-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter. McNeal finished with 114 rushing yards against the Tigers (4-2).
