“I wanted to jump up and down, but I settled for kicking my legs,” Randy said through the eye reader on his computer. He says his 40th year in the league will be his last, making the win last year all sweeter. She’ll proudly accepts that label, knowing how happy Randy was to win the World Series, after 38 years of playing the game. When Randy and Lisa won the World Series, she had to stand up in front of the guys in the league and say, “I’m the dork.” And I love these guys.”ĪPBA is a game for individuals who not only like baseball, but are passionate about statistics hence Lisa referring to members of the league as baseball dorks. …It gives me a chance to actually talk to somebody.
“He was going to quit and I said, if you want to play, I’ll do whatever I have to so you can play. “I do it because he loves this game,” she says, affectionately referring to herself as one of the dorks. She is not a fan of the game, but plays because her husband enjoys it.
He would tell her which player or pitcher to put in the game.Ī few years later he lost verbal skills and now communicates through an eye reader and computer, body gestures and Lisa can read his lips.
In 2015 Lisa, who married to Randy 12 years in April, started playing APBA with him, a partner in every way.ĭuring the early stages, he could talk, but Lisa needed to be his hands, to roll the dice. Six years ago he started showing symptoms and five years ago Randy Walker was diagnosed with ALS. There, by his side, was his wife, Lisa, who faithfully rolls his dice and watches for him to shake his feet, move his head or blink which pitcher he wants to use. In his 39th year in the league, Walker finally won his first World Series last year, but he did not do it alone. May’s wife, Missy, said the bond between Walker and May is strong. In fact, when May and Walker play each other, the wives role the dice. Their wives are close and the couples enjoy being together. They watched their children grow up together. They played softball together, as did several members in the league. They’ve remained friends after graduating from Ephrata in 1982, staying close through marriage, divorce and remarriages. They estimate that they’ve played more than 15,000 games together.Īs teenagers, May said the two would play APBA from 8 a.m.
May and Walker became friends in seventh grade the same year May introduced Walker to the game of APBA, where players manage a team based on stats and rolling dice. Burkholder is the only original member still in the league. Walker, a childhood friend of May, joined the league and for the last 40 years the Ephrata residents have competed against each other in this league, which turned 50 this year. It was like one of those stories where a fledgling band is short a bass player and recruits one from down the street and the rest is history.
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