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81 year old John Fournier reflects on his recent SSUSA Hall of Fame induction

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Posted at 5:19 PM, Dec 09, 2021
and last updated 2021-12-09 19:59:06-05

FORT MYERS, Florida — You learned in school that a body in motion tends to stay in motion.

But John Fournier, goes by a different saying.

"That old cliché line, keep moving or they throw dirt on you, said John Fournier."

And out here it's the moving they're focused on.

And the laughs they share along the way.

"The comradery is huge and fun. Like some of the guys that are here, they're just terrific human beings."

Out here, no one is really looking for anything more than a few runs.

So, when John, an 81-year-old got the call that he was being inducted into the SSUSA Hall of Fame, he almost didn't believe it.

"My first reaction was, is this a joke. What, who is this?"

But if you ask his teammates, they'll say, they're not surprised at all.

"John is an excellent ball player I'll tell you that," said catcher Peter Cecchini. "I ain't never seen a man his age move like he does."

"We have our draft coming up next week, he'll be our number 1 draft pick, said Steve Fratzke."

But for John, this was never the plan when he first joined a senior softball league back when he lived in California.

"I asked, I said, is there a senior softball league around here," said John. "And he said, oh yeah right over the hill in Encino. and I went there and it's like, it changed my life."

John and his teammates knew this game would take them all over the globe.

But they never knew, the friendships they'd make along the way.

"To meet all these terrific people here and in California. yeah, that's the best part for me, said John."