We’re not getting older, we’re just getting better?

I use to scoff at such a saying. Now it’s time to start believing it.

Yours truly is turning 60 this weekend.

It’s hard to believe I haven’t played competitive softball in 20 years. My last football game (touch, not tackle) was a few years ago when I joined my fellow Eagle sports guys for a “friendly” game.

We all turned up lame, couldn’t finish the game and never played again.

I’ll still shoot basketball occasionally — though it’s been a while — bowl once a week, try to get at least decent at golf, though that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

Regardless, age is not an excuse.

Too many people have proven that.

I’ve bowled with people in their 90’s. While my average has slipped in recent years, there are guys in my league older than me who carry a much higher average.

Sandy Wishnev, a youth baseball player from Butler decades ago, is still a catcher in a senior baseball league in California. He’s 78.

Ron Wissinger is still pounding the crap out of a softball while collecting world championships and MVP awards. He’s 66.

Ed Cypher is still pitching horseshoes at a high ringer rate in the Butler County Horseshoe League. He’s 84.

On the women’s side, Marilyn Hilliard was over 80 and still playing basketball for the Seniors group that convenes at the Butler Cubs Hall. Carol McCollough is 73 and has been directing that group for years now.

These people — and others like them — are exceptional in what they do.

But they send a message to all of us.

Get off your duffs and stay off your duffs.

Given the time I sink into working sports at the Butler Eagle, there are times I forget that.

The pounds add on and I get a little more lazy with each one.

I’m not one of those guys bothered by turning 40, 50, 60, 70 or whatever. As they say, just getting there beats the alternative.

But it does make me think back to my younger years, when I played whatever sport was in season, lost a whole lot more than I won, and loved every minute of it.

The entertainment of the sport itself does it for me.

Watching and writing about sports is a blast. Always will be. Being part of a game is what I miss.

My goal moving forward is to get back into the game.

A Wishnev or a Wissinger is something I’ll never be. That doesn’t mean the thrill of a competition and the satisfaction of physically active effort can’t return to my life.

Giving up softball at 40?

Big mistake.

If my 60th birthday does anything for me, it serves as a wake-up call.

Get up and stay up.

It’s time to play.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle