It's Monday, and you know what that means. It's time for the Sports Buzz, the fastest three minutes in Brookline sports coming your way right now:

This past week, we featured a story on a Brookline weekly softball game that has been going strongly for 34 years and counting.

Yes, part of any legacy is measured by time. People and things come and go, some remain, some return, but the main event or attraction still stays. Think baseball and the Red Sox, The Tonight Show, or the Price is Right. They change, yet they don’t.

And so it goes for this weekly game that has etched its signature into this town since 1978. For 34 years, it has seen players come and go, some remain, some return, but the main event stays.

While the scenery is a far cry from cornfields with players walking through fences romanticizing the game, it is, for all of them, their own field of dreams.

“Ahhh, what was that,” grumbles longtime pitcher Harry Sears, after he throws a pitch he thought was a strike but was called a ball (umpiring is done on the honor system by a member of the hitting team) on a recent Sunday at Brookline High, one of several fields at which the group plays.

“Ah, a bad pitch,” deadpans catcher Izzy Zuber, a CPA, who has made his own legacy with his dry humor, and has been playing since it all started.

“Oh since the 1890’s,” joked Joel Shoner, whose retired, when asked how long he’s been playing.

“Thirty years,” replied ace shortstop Stan Quint. “I was walking past the game, and asked if I can play, and they asked ‘Did you bring a glove?’ Six weeks in, we were married.”

Ah yes, the good ol’ days.

“The way I remember it, there was an existing game in the late 1970s that met at Amory [Field], but mostly at Devotion Playground, which Steve Bingyou informally headed,” said the group’s most recent and only other organizer Joel Leeman, a lawyer, who has manned left field for all 34 years. “A core of our present personnel came from that game, including Izzy, Stan, and Joel, and of course others who have long ago fallen away from the game. While only three or four of our players have been with us for 30 years, there are many who've played for 20 years.” 

“Today’s crowd…one,” Izzy notes, as a man walks by taking a morning stroll, before Sears delivers his next pitch. Actually, if you include the two people chatting by the trees on the sidewalk near left field, the attendance was three.

“I’ve been playing [with this group] for 17 years, since 1994,” Sears says, adding he didn’t get the opportunity until not enough players showed up one week. “They asked, ‘Do you pitch?’ I said, ‘yes.’ They said, ‘Here’s your chance.’ Sears, who has played in competitive leagues, has been firing fastballs that act like morning wake-up calls ever since.

Mike Mufson, meanwhile, was walking by Amory Field attending to his eight-week old daughter in 1981. 

“Can you hit?” he recalled Leeman shouting to him. “We need an extra player.” Mufson joined the game and hit the game-winning two-run homer. The rest, as they say, is history: Mufson was playing third base last week. 

It’s the same now as it was then. The passing of time has not impaired the stability of this weekly game. Players range from ages 17 to 70, and are always being brought on board. Fred Nazarro, for example, has been playing since 1998. On this Sunday, his teenage son, Alex, was playing centerfield on the opposing team.

Other regulars include John Bookston, a math teacher, who has played since 1985, and more recently Ronnie Aquino, a health inspector for the city of Boston. On this day, Bookston is the opposing pitcher to Sears. Aquino, known for his steady offense and solid play in the outfield, has already lined a couple of base hits to left field.

Technology has made it easier to keep the group together.

“The communication we had before the advent of email, to encourage turnout or to announce a change of venue, 20 to 30 phone calls had to be made,” Leeman said. “I occasionally did this myself and sometimes asked others to make a few calls. What a relief the new technology brought.”

The passing of time also hasn’t diminished the competiveness. While they say it’s all for fun, it may as well be the World Series every game for these guys. They’ll take it into November or later as long as the fields are playable. But one would have to wonder if even during a hurricane, the legends – and often captains – such as Leeman, Zuber, Quint, and Shoner would care more about canceling a game than choosing a player who could smack the ball through the wind. 

It always seems it would take that kind of ferocity for them to even consider not playing. Many of the 20-25 players who show up each Sunday have different professions during the week or have retired,  but on these weekend mornings starting at 8:30, they may as well be quarreling siblings all fighting to win a ballgame or two; doubleheaders are often on the menu. Cold temps in December? Heck, their motto is “Let’s play two.”

“We once played a game on January 3,” said Corey Rosenfield, who rejoined the weekly game, after returning to the area a few years ago. “It’s competitive and spirited. It’s a good bunch of guys.”

He paused and added smiling: “Who want to win.”

Meanwhile, the Brookline 12-and-under baseball team continued its hot play into last weekend and after Tuesday’s loss to East Cambridge, the team brought a 4-1 record into late last week.

On the road at Waltham, Brookline won 15-3 with a 12-hit attack that included an Alex Chin home run, a pair of doubles from Neema Zarrabian and two hits apiece from Max Keating, Koya Matsui, and Leon Yang. Reo Shimbori and Chin each pitched three innings during the win.

The offense was almost as potent on Sunday, as it rode four home runs to an 8-4 victory over Lexington. Zarrabian and Chin (two home runs on the day) hit back-to-back home runs and Shimbori added a long ball as well. On the hill, Matsui and Stewie Silvestri put in three innings of work apiece.

After trailing, 7-1, on Tuesday to East Cambridge, Brookline staged a comeback with five runs in the sixth inning but left runners on second and third to end the game a run short, 7-6.

“I thought we pitched and played well, but East Cambridge played really well and all you can do is tip your hats to them,” head coach Arlen Showstack said.

With a win over Methuen East White, Brookline will gain the top seed for the middle division heading into the upcoming trophy weekend.

Last week, Brookline had improved to 2-0 in the second round of the Tournament of Champions  on the strength of stellar pitching and timely hitting.

Alex Chin, the Brookline starting pitcher, kept the West Cambridge batters off balance with his mix of off-speed pitches and accurate fastballs. Chin struck out the first four batters he faced and ended up punching out six. Brookline jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first but had to generate offense in the late innings to top West Cambridge 5-3.

“I decided before the game that I was going to relax and throw strikes and it worked,” Chin said.

Ryan Leung led off the game with a ground rule double to right, after moving up on a passed ball, scored on Alex Kurtin’s line out to right field. After a Leon Yang single, Neema Zarrabian lined a pitch left over the plate over the center field fence to put Brookline up 3-0.

“I drove the pitch right up the middle; it felt good,” Zarrabian said.

A pair of infield errors, one on a potential double play, allowed West Cambridge to score two runs in the top of the third. Koya Matsui came in to relieve Chin and after a leaping catch in left field by Sammy Feingold-Gardner, gave up a solo home run to center to tie the score at three all.

The Brookline offense, which had been quiet since the first inning, came to life in the bottom of the fifth. Leung and Feingold-Gardner drew a one-out walks that were followed by a Yang single to put Brookline ahead 4-3. Zarrabian padded the lead with a single that scored Feingold-Gardner, with Yang being thrown out at the plate, but Brookline was on top 5-3.

“He had been throwing a lot of outside pitches so I knew I’d have to go with the pitch and I was able to drive it solidly,” Yang said.

After a leadoff double, West Cambridge hurt its chances of a comeback by getting thrown out at third after a wild pitch and Matsui was able to close out the game with a strikeout.

“Our pitching was strong today and kept us in the game all the way through,” Showstack said.

The offense was almost as potent on Sunday, as it rode four home runs to an 8-4 victory over Lexington. Zarrabian and Chin (two home runs on the day) hit back-to-back home runs and Shimbori added a long ball as well. On the hill, Matsui and Stewie Silvestri put in three innings of work apiece.

After going down 7-1 on Tuesday against East Cambridge, Brookline staged a near-comeback with five runs in the sixth inning but left runners on second and third to end the game 7-6.

“I thought we pitched and played well, but East Cambridge played really well and all you can do is tip your hats to the,” Showstack said.

Finally, Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc., is a national non-profit serving youth from ages 5-16 by teaching the sports of football and cheerleading. In addition to developing athletic skills, participants learn about the importance of team work, education and good character. PWLS has teams comprised of Brookline and Jamaica Plain youth, the Brookline-Jamaica Plain Patriots. 

Jamaica Plain Patch spoke with the Brookline-Jamaica Plain Patriots’ Interim President Thomasina Cole about the value of the league and its impact in the community.

Tell us about the history of Pop Warner’s Brookline-Jamaica Plain Patriots.
Pop Warner is a national program, our team here is geared toward children 7-15. It teaches kids the sports of football and cheerleading. It teaches them about healthy competition, goal setting, and there’s also a scholastic component. Kids have to have a certain GPA, and if they don’t, plans are put into place to get them there. We work with their school so that they can participate. They also get national level recognition for having GPAs over the required standard. The Brookline-JP Patriots have been here since at least 2003, teaching kids life skills. They learn how to conduct themselves in a team atmosphere, how to communicate with others, how to express themselves. It also teaches them about self-esteem since the program doesn’t elevate one child above another. All children are celebrated for the team effort.

Why did you decide to serve the Jamaica Plain community?
The way the organization works is that we go into geographic areas where there is need, lots of children are interested, but a lot of times they don’t have outlets because schools may not offer it. We attract all those children in communities that may not have the resources, although children can also come from outside the community. It was created to give these children a place to go to learn the sports that they love and are excited about, like football and cheerleading. We give them a safe way to learn and give parents peace of mind knowing that their kids are safe and treated well.

Why do you promote the sports of football and cheerleading?
They are physical activities and a lot of kids are sitting at home in front of the TV and lack physical activity. These are sports that engage children. They get quite a bit of exercise, they go to practice four times a week, Monday through Thursday, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. It helps them socially by making a lot of new friends, they are able to interact with other children with whom they wouldn’t have a chance to interact with outside the program.

Where do you play?
We play at the Downes Field in Brookline, near Jamaica Pond. We have eight regular games, four at the Downes Field, and we typically field six teams. They are on Sundays at 9 a.m. and open to the community, everyone is encouraged to come and support. But for us it’s about more than winning. It is about the happiness of the children, the response that we get from the parents, the hugs from the children and them saying they can’t wait for next year, that’s what it’s about. It’s all about the children in the program and making sure they have a wonderful experience even if they don’t win a single game.

When does the season start?
The season starts Aug. 1. As of Aug. 1 we will be on the field practicing. They start playing the Sunday after Labor Day, so from September to the end of October. Then it’s the playoffs, from there they can go down to play for the national championship in Orlando. The cheerleaders are cheering at all football games and have competitions in October, then they can go to state and regional competitions, and if they qualify, they can also go down to Florida for the national competition.

How do the Brookline-Jamaica Plain Patriots interact with other non-profits in the area?
In some instances some organizations send children to us. Children's advocacy programs that may have children that need physical activity, they may contact us and send them to us.

How do the Brookline-Jamaica Plain Patriots benefit the community?
We have about 250 children in our field every season, children that have been given a place to go without worry of getting in trouble. They are on the field 10-14 hours a week. For parents that worry terribly about their children, when they enroll in our program they know their kids are learning and having fun. Once children become involved so do their parents. It’s a program run by volunteers, without them we wouldn’t exist. Volunteers help with uniforms, distributing or washing them, or become coaches.

How can the community become involved?
They can contact me at 215-421-5772 or by going to www.brooklinejppatriots.org where we have registration forms. They can register online or on-site Aug. 1. We do have registration fees, but we try to keep them as low as possible so that we are able to serve many kids. The fees include equipment use. There are instances where we offer scholarships for some students, thanks to other very generous families that will pay.

[Editor's note: The Boston Bengals also have several Pop Warner teams of various ages. They play their home games at English High School in JP. Registration is also underway for the Bengals.]

Pat Ouellette and Miriam Valverde contributed to this report.