85 and going strong

Times Reporter     

 

Strathmore’s Carl Ikert is 85-years-old, but still pitches every Tuesday for his Landscape Plus team at the Ag Grounds, even though his teammates range from their 20’s to their 40’s.

“I find it difficult to throw overhand – my right shoulder bothers me that way, but underhand I can throw,” Ikert said. “I can still run and all that kind of stuff. I have no problem that way.”

Ikert stays healthy, below 200 pounds, with simple “keeping-fit” routines. 

“I do at least 25 minutes every day of walking. I do that religiously,” Ikert said. “I don’t eat any of the sweet stuff I’d love to live off of; I watch my diet. That’s really all there is to it.”

Ikert lost his sense of smell in 2004, and describes it as a blessing in disguise.

I still get hungry, and I still eat, but I don’t have the longing for all the stuff people usually indulge in,” he said. “I have to discipline myself with diet concerns.”

Ikert pitches the first couple of innings for Landscape Plus’s games, then watches the younger men take over – not that he couldn’t play the entire game, he says. Ikert also used to travel to the United States to play in the winter; in 2009, he was the oldest player at a tournament in Palm Springs.

“You had to be over 50 to play,” he said. “I was the oldest one there. They took pictures of me.”

Ikert previously trained horses, but considers baseball his only athletic hobby now.

When asked if he practices, he responded, “I think I should,” jokingly. Ikert hopes to keep up the sport as long as he can.

“I have no pain,” he said. “I enjoy the game.”