By ROBERT L. LEE

I don’t know how else to put it, but sometimes athletes can actually touch your heart from the field, or bowling alley, or big screen. What do I mean?

A couple things. I am not a person to get teary eyed very often, but I have to admit there is a heart in there somewhere, it moves quite a bit. A few things happened this week which were a little different and in many ways special.

For one, I learned more about an unusually large number, about 6,000, senior citizens who compete whole-heartedly for the gold at district and state and even national senior olympics. How can anyone not think retired citizens running track, knocking down more strikes than I could and playing countless other sports, is not simply great. When you stop to think about it, or especially watch, the event takes on its own meaning, whether you know one of the competitors or not.

Through the close of this month, area seniors are battling it out, in an adult manner, for the gold, silver and bronze at different sites in Luling. To be a part of this and show support for your elders, who would probably repeat the world “elder” while racking up points against me in some sport, check with almost any council on aging and find out where the next competition will be held, that’s probably the best way.

Secondly, a few days ago I wandered into the movie theater and bought a ticket for the only non-animated movie that wasn’t an hour from starting and figured it would be at least half-way decent because it was based on baseball. I hadn’t seen many, if any, previews for it, so when I watched the begining few minutes with nuns walking in the desert scattering rose petals, I shook my head and leaned back in the seat.

However, they must have also blessed the movie because “The Rookie” quickly developed into an interesting, down-to-earth plot which began to tug on the heart strings a little, especially toward the end. I am not switching my title to professional movie critic any time soon, but pure and simple, the movie was pretty darn good. It’s a pretty common type of story, about a kid who plays baseball and dreams, constantly of the big league, but it has a couple real-world problems mixed in. It’s a kind of story you would here from a neighbor and actually, begins and ends as a narrated story being told to you from the past. I won’t give away the ending, but again, it had me wondering if the words “based on a true story” were going to appear before the credits. Not many people may know me enough to value my opinion, my for a good movie you could take your wife and kids to, this would be a good choice.