Some old friends schedule dinners.
Larry Leonard, Terry Sexton and Doug Smith draw a court in the sand, grab a bat and spend a July weekend playing a game they’ve loved since they were teenagers.
They have staged this reunion every summer since Gerald Ford was president.
Now in their 70s, they return to Fiesta Island this weekend for their 50th year together in one of San Diego’s signature summer rituals.
The OMBAC World Championship Over-the-Line Tournament begins its second weekend Saturday, when the opening round’s beach party energy gives way to sharper competition.
The costumes, double-entendre team names and packed beach tents remain, but the games begin to carry more weight.
For DB Sports Lounge, they always have.
Leonard and Sexton are 75. Smith is the youngster at 73. Their partnership has outlasted marriages, jobs, moves, injuries, family obligations and five decades of wear.
It has never broken apart.
“Most teams in Over-the-Line switch all the time,” Leonard said. “They’re always trying to find the new guy. We were never about winning the whole thing. For us, it’s three good buddies playing a sport we grew up with in San Diego.”
The tournament is celebrating its 73rd year, and few teams are better connected to its history.
Over-the-Line was born on San Diego beaches in the 1950s, a stripped-down bat-and-ball game with three players per side, no bases and no running. A teammate delivers the pitch. The batter tries to drive the orange softball beyond a line 55 feet away and between the ropes before one of three defenders can catch it.
Three consecutive hits produce a run. Every hit after that adds another. A ball struck beyond the deepest fielder can become a home run.
The rules are simple, but the strategy isn’t.
Smith still speaks about the game like a chess player studying angles.
“You can’t just go up, hit a fly ball and hope he doesn’t catch it,” Smith said. “These guys are pretty good. So you have to hit it where they’re not, right? And you get to see, you know, after an inning or two, you see where these guys move.”
DB Sports Lounge has aged through every division OMBAC created for generations that refused to stop playing, from Open to Century, Canardley and Cadaver.
Their current opponents are 70 or older, but there are few easy outs.
“Everybody can still hit,” Sexton said. “They don’t move as much, but it’s not an easy division. Everybody has played a long time.”
Leonard first played OTL in 1968, filling in for his brother’s team at South Mission Beach. Sexton and Smith played pickup games there and at Mariners Point. The three also shared the field in city league softball.
Leonard and Sexton met at age 13 and attended University High School, now Cathedral Catholic. Smith graduated from Kearny High School. All three later attended San Diego State.
When Leonard’s teammates moved away and Sexton and Smith needed a third, the solution was obvious.
“We were already friends,” Sexton said. “It worked out well.”
They paid the entry fee in 1976 and never stopped.
In the early years, the three practiced two or three times a week. They would meet near Leonard’s home in La Mesa, draw courts at a nearby high school and hit hundreds of balls until the tournament arrived.
They played warmup events throughout the summer and once finished 13th in the Open division, still their best showing.
They were never among the tournament’s elite teams, but they were close enough to take it seriously.
“We used to be pretty good,” Sexton said. “We were always competitive.”
They remain competitive, even if the preparation has changed.
This year, they planned only a few practices. Leonard describes their defensive range with the “3-by-3-by-3-by-3 rule” — 3 feet left, 3 feet right, 3 feet forward and 3 feet back.
“Other than that, it’s a hit,” Leonard said. “We’re 75. If you’ve ever watched someone over 70 play, it’s a little like slow motion.”
Their wives offer a simple request each year: Please don’t dive.
The tournament has changed as well. OMBAC eventually allowed gloves for players over 60, a concession Leonard appreciates.
“It’s about being out there and playing over 70,” Leonard said. “Win, lose or draw, we all laugh. We try to catch the ball, but the wives tell us, ‘We don’t want you hurt.’ ”
The early editions were smaller, looser and considerably more unruly. DB Sports Lounge began as a tent for friends, wives and girlfriends seeking some protection from the chaos.
Leonard remembers one year when a gentleman’s club’s tent appeared directly next to theirs.
“Just what we needed,” he said.
The team’s name honors Dave Boynton, a friend and fellow player who was killed in a plane crash. The tent became known for its Saturday buffet and, Leonard recalled, won repeated awards after organizers were granted first access to the food.
The modern event is more organized, with sponsors, charities, extensive operations and OMBAC’s famous “No B’s” rule: no bottles, bicycles, bowzers (pets), babies, boas, bad attitudes or battles.
“It was a lot more bawdy back then,” Sexton said. “They had to tame it down.”
The friendship stretches far beyond the sand.
Leonard built a restaurant career that took him to Maui for 15 years, yet he often returned for the tournament. He now lives in Murrieta.
Smith spent four decades in retail, rising through management and recruiting before retiring to Mexico.
Sexton, a retired graphic designer, lives in San Carlos and has remained connected to the group through golf and other local athletic circles.
Leonard and Sexton estimate they have played roughly 1,000 rounds together. Smith makes the trip from Rosarito a few times a month to join them at Mission Trails Golf Course.
Last week, all three played golf. This week, they make their return to the beach.
Substitutes were rare over the years.
A trip to Europe, an anniversary or a funeral occasionally pulled one of them away, but Leonard estimates the original trio has played together 85% to 90% of the time.
Sexton said the roster has always carried the same three names.
“Even when we had substitutes, it was us three,” he said.
Their goal was to reach 50 years together. They have.
What happens after Saturday is less certain.
“We take it one year at a time,” Leonard said. “We’ll see what next year brings.”
Smith is more direct.
“We’re going to play until we can’t,” he said.
For now, they can still swing and they can still move through the sand.
More importantly, they can still meet again next July.
Same beach. Same team. Same three friends.
73rd annual OMBAC Over-the-Line World Championship
When: Saturday and Sunday, all day
Where: Fiesta Island Park, 1590 East Mission Bay Dr.
Admission: Free
How it’s played: Born on Mission Beach in the 1950s, Over-the-Line is a 3-on-3, team-pitch bat-and-ball game similar to softball — only with no baserunning. Hits are any ball that lands in fair territory without being caught. Three hits in an inning count for one run. Each additional hit in the same inning scores one more run. Home runs, defined as any ball hit over the last defender in fair territory, clear the bases. Batted balls that are caught in the air are outs; strikeouts occur when a batter swings through one pitch or fouls off two of them.
Note: No glass, kegs or Styrofoam coolers allowed. No drones. No public nudity. Because of crowds, noise and salty language, tournament organizers recommend against bringing children.