Seventy-one-year-old Bud Elwin says he is in as good a shape as he was in his early 20s thanks to fitness classes he has taken at the CLC YMCA in Damariscotta.
Elwin is getting into shape for a return trip to the Red Sox Fantasy Spring Training Camp at City of Palms Park in Fort Meyers, Fla., in late January. “I’m just a young teenager at heart,” Elwin commented on his age.
Last year he prepared for the camp by working on the Nautilus on his own. “I found it gave me the strength I needed, but no agility.”
This year, Elwin took Total Fitness classes with Sarah Plummer. “That has been outstanding. It is like boot camp. The first week I thought she was going to kill me, but she kept telling me to stay within myself. I found out what I couldn’t do the first week I could do the second, and by the third week it was easy. I found working with someone is better than on your own,” Elwin said.
Members of the class work with weights, stairs, stationary bikes, exercise balls and jump ropes. “I’d recommend these classes to anyone, no matter what their age,” Elwin added.
The CLC YMCA offers seven group exercise classes a day Monday through Friday, ranging from spinning, stepping, Fit for Life, intervals, walking and weights, Core & More, Pilates, to Zumba.
At the 2010 Fantasy Camp, trainers kidded Elwin they used more ice on the 119 attendees the week he was there then on all the other teams combined. Elwin feels he is in such good shape, thanks to the YMCA programs, that he will do his part to reduce the amount used this year.
Elwin works with three women at the Y to get ready for camp, including Plummer, Holly Nelson, and Amanda Dowling. He met Dowling at Hair Frolics, where he mentioned his trainer last year was unable to help him this year because of an ankle injury.
“Amanda said, ‘I play softball,'” and agreed to work with Elwin three mornings a week at the Y from 7:45-8:45 a.m. They worked on fielding wild throws at first base, blind throws against a wall, pepper (hitting drill), throwing for distances, and practice stopping short hops.
Elwin thinks it is ironic that he has three women helping him to get in shape, since two women will be attending the Fantasy Camp for the first time in the history of the program. One is from Massachusetts and one from West Virginia.
“One of the women who have helped me is my wife [Janet] of 50 years. She has been a big impact in my life, cooking me good meals and supporting me. Her good cooking has kept me in very good physical shape,” Elwin said. Janet will not be making the trip to Ft. Meyers. “She doesn’t want to be a distraction, and she gets a couple of weeks off from me,” Elwin added.
Elwin did a little research on women in baseball and found out they played pro-baseball in the 1940s when there was a shortage of men due to World War II.
“In 1952 they banned women from playing pro-baseball. There are women in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, and they have their own Hall of Fame,” Elwin said.
There were four women’s teams in 1943 and expanded to 10 teams by 1948. Women’s baseball drew a million fans in 1948.
Last year more than a dozen people came to camp to him.
Anyone in the Fort Meyers area that would like to see Elwin play can contact him at budelwin@gmail.com.
“It is free and you get to meet 21 ex-pros and me,” Elwin added. Tryouts will be on Mon, Jan. 31, then players will be drafted onto different teams. Contact Elwin by email to find out in which park he will be playing.
Part of the Fantasy Camp experience is being able to play a reunion game at Fenway Park in Boston in August. “Last year I had 75 fans there to watch me. It is exciting to take kids into the dugouts, and locker rooms. It’s pretty hard to get on the field, but you can sit in the front row,” Elwin said.
In 2010, Elwin’s three-year-old grandson was allowed on the field and ran from home plate to first. “When he got to first he tried to pick up the bag, and the groundskeeper said he was trying to steal first,” Elwin chuckled.
Elwin also goes to Frozen Ropes in Portland for batting practice once a week. He will be heading south a little early to work outside with a fellow Fantasy Camp attendee.
Every year, Elwin picks an organization to help with fundraising. This year he has picked the American Legion in Damariscotta. He donates baseball items and memorabilia to the Legion for them to raffle off to support Little League and Legion baseball programs. “I played Little League and Legion baseball, and my hero, Ted Williams, played Legion baseball,” Elwin said of his fundraising efforts.
Elwin also gives slide shows on his Red Sox Fantasy Camp experience, and on Ted Williams. While in Florida, he will be doing a Ted Williams show at a nursing home as a Christmas present for a local woman’s father. This will be his second Christmas present show.