Stevie Robbins is 96-years old, legally blind and a bit hard of hearing. But he can recall baseball events and statistics from over 50 years ago with ease, the evidence of a dedication to the game and the Wareham Gatemen that has garnered him a spot in the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame.

"I can't get over it.  I'm so thankful, and grateful to this boy," Robbins said, acknowledging Al Mestieri, his former centerfielder who has advocated for Robbins' induction.

"He did a lot for me, so I wanted to do something for him," Mestieri explained. Robbins had given him his first job, shagging fly balls during batting practice for a quarter - equivalent to "a matinee and three big candy bars!," as Mestieri remembered. "I started as a batboy at 13. At 15, I was given a uniform, it was the best day of my life."

But the Gatemen of Robbins' day was a very different team from the crew that takes the field this summer. While today's players must play ball in college, Robbins passed an opportunity at college because it would have required that he repeat his senior year to take algebra...and as a nontraditional student, he wouldn't have been able to play baseball.

So, Robbins began working in the Postal Service while participating in the town's adult baseball league, called the Twilight League.  It was the predecessor to today's Cape League team.

But as Robbins gradually transitioned from guarding third base (where for three consecutive years he was voted best third basemen in the league) to managerial duties, baseball was struggling in Wareham. One by one, the teams in the Wareham Twilight League faded into the dusk until just one team remained and they had to play teams in other towns.

But Robbins kept that remaining Wareham team alive.

"He never missed a game," Mestieri remembered. "He may have missed an inning, but he'd be there eventually, with the rubber on his tires still smoking."

In 1946, he accepted the offer for the team to officially become part of the Cape Cod Baseball League.  They held raffles and country-western dances. Players were the host families back then, entertaining visiting Red Sox stars who would make an appearance. They were nicknamed the "Gatemen" by the sports writer at the Wareham Courier.

After winning the championship in 1957, they lighted the High School field so that they could play night games, and they built a dugout to replace the wooden bench.

"He put a lot of his own money, out of pocket, to get us in the league," Mestieri said. We had to pay the umps, buy balls, it's only because of this guy that we're in the league."

For all of this, Robbins will be recognized in November, inducted as a member of the 2010 class into the Cape League Hall of Fame.  The ceremony will be a month after his 97th birthday.

It's an honor that he's thrilled and surprised to accept.

"I just can't believe it," he said. "We had a lot of fun in those days.  And I think we played just as well as they play today."