"Next game, you guys bring your birth certificates."

To be on the ball field that morning of May 6, all had to be at least 60. Like Emmi, who is 70.

Or older. Older? You bet.

James Winfield, the first baseman who got two singles for Emmi's team that day, is 90.

It was the opening morning for four of the eight teams in the 60-and-over Brandywine Valley Senior Softball League at two fields off Westtown Road, between the Chester County government center and Route 202.

It was also the opening morning for the gentle display of alpha-male abuse.

"If you didn't have that big gut," someone yelled at a teammate, "you could have made it home."

Can you believe it?

The runner at whom he was yelling had sprinted from first to third on a single to the outfield.

Chase Utley couldn't have done better. These guys were merciless.

The league's morning division has been playing since 1997. And Al Golub, who lives in Birmingham Township, is in his third year as its commissioner - the one who keeps the wheels from falling off.

In that division, he said, "we play a 24-game schedule, with a playoff."

There's also an evening division and other diamonds. But those are other stories.

On that opening morning, Golub was at third base in one of the two games, the one farther away from the hum of Route 202 traffic.

In an earlier interview, Golub, now 75, laid out his life like a good statistician, as if he were sorting scorecards on a kitchen table.

"I worked for 37 years for AT&T. Sales rep. Married. Four children. Widower.

"Lost my wife in September. After 52 years of marriage. My biggest cheerleader."

A graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Golub grew up near 32d and Dickinson Streets in the Grays Ferry section of Philadelphia and, in his interview, still sounded like a scrappy, street-corner kid.

He didn't play for Penn, but was varsity third baseman for Bok Technical High School. Batted .454 as a senior.

More important to him, Golub was a two-inning relief pitcher in the 1949 all-star game of the Philadelphia Sandlot Sports Association.

The game was at nothing less than Shibe Park, where both the Phillies and the Athletics played that year.

"I came in from the bullpen," he said, in about the fifth inning.

"Bases loaded with two out. And I was shaking and trembling. Nervous as can be.

"I thought I was standing on top of the Empire State Building. I looked down [at home plate] and thought it was miles away.

"I looked in the stands. My family was there. My mom and dad and older brother.

"I think I threw the [first] ball in the dirt.

"Anyway, I struck the batter out. My parents were standing, cheering, buttons popping. I was 16."

With the ghost of that moment alive in the very bones of his memory, why wouldn't he play into his 70s?

On that opening morning earlier this month, it was the final at-bat for John Shelsy's team, trailing 20-6.

"Lockman, Dark, Mueller," Shelsy said, calling off the players who, he hoped, would be the first three batters for his team.

It would take a fan of a certain age to remember that first baseman Whitey Lockman, shortstop Alvin Dark and rightfielder Don Mueller were in the everyday lineup for the legendary National League pennant winner, the 1951 New York Giants.

And following them?

"Irvin, Thompson, Mays," Shelsy told a questioner, without missing a beat. Leftfielder Monte Irvin, third baseman Hank Thompson and centerfielder Willie Mays, if you had to ask.

Shelsy, 72, a retired human-resources vice president from Wayne, was on the varsity team at Troy (N.Y.) High School, Class of '53.

Joe Peta, 77, who retired as a language-arts teacher at West Chester University, played left field for Allentown High, Class of '47, and for Kutztown State, '55.

But more common among the dozen players interviewed that morning were sandlot hardball memories, like that of Marty McCormick, 72, of Glen Mills, who retired as the plant manager at Peco Energy's nuclear power plant in Limerick.

Didn't play for the varsity at North Catholic High in Philadelphia. Did play American Legion ball.

"Almost all the other players," on the field on opening morning, just like him, "will be playing on other teams in a night league tonight.

"Two days a week," through the summer, he said, each day two games.

"Everybody," McCormick said, "is 17 on the ball field."

'Put Me In, Coach'

"We always have injuries. We're always looking for substitutes," said commissioner Al Golub.

For information on playing opportunities, or game dates, call Golub at 610-455-0868.