At nearly 61, Hasenfus had almost four decades on his Springfield College teammates. He was their age when his promising baseball career came to a demoralizing end, cut short by an undiagnosed learning disability that left him barely able to read.

That loss had never left him, and he assumed it never would. But now he was back in college, diagnosed late in life with a severe form of dyslexia. And, somehow, he was back on the baseball diamond, driven to make good on a second chance.

“Not being able to play in college killed me,’’ he said. “I never played one inning, because I just couldn’t do the work. That always stuck with me.’’

Hasenfus flunked out of college as a teenager after three semesters and never guessed he would return. But after he lost his job managing a textile plant, Hasenfus decided to give it a second try, and last year enrolled in an adult bachelor’s degree program in human services at Springfield College and was not only good enough to make the team but was one of the best knuckle ball pitcher's in the competition by far even getting a try out with a Minor leauge team after college.