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COVID Couldn’t Stop a Weekly Ballgame Between Two Old Friends

Octogenarians Buck Paulson and Tom Woodring have met at Elings Park for nearly 20 years.

COVID Couldn’t Stop a Weekly Ballgame Between Two Old Friends
Credit: Max Abrams

Throughout the year that COVID forced a retreat from most playing fields, Buck Paulson and Tom Woodring kept up their weekly ballgame. It was a form of T-ball, customarily played by kids ages 4-6, but in this case, the two participants were a combined 170 years old.

“Oh, sugar!” Paulson shouted when the softball squirted at an angle off his bat.

“Let’s call it a foul,” Woodring said.