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The Redwood Empire Baseball League in its 36th season of adult baseball in Sonoma County in 2025.  If you are interested in joining our league, you must fill out a New Player Registration Form to be added to our waiting list of players for this season.  The REBL offers quality and competitive baseball for all skill levels in 6 separate age-defined divisions (Two 18+/25+, 35+, 45+, 55+, 65+).  Our season consists of an 18-21 game schedule, beginning in mid-April and ending in early October, with games played exclusively on Sundays at local fields in Sonoma, Marin, and Napa counties.

54-year-old Redwood Empire Baseball League pitcher Wayne Pelletier returns to form following leg amputation

Back in February, Wayne Pelletier had the lower part of his left leg amputated just below the knee. Four months later, he was back on the pitcher’s mound.|

GUS MORRIS

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

August 3, 2024

As the commissioner of the Redwood Empire Baseball League since 2002, Rick Cantor has seen his fair share of serious injuries.

Broken hips, knee replacements, blown-out rotator cuffs and everything in between are not uncommon in the local men’s baseball league that annually counts dozens of teams and hundreds of players across age divisions that range from 25-over to 65-over.

But for as much as Cantor has seen in his two-plus decades as commissioner, nothing compares to what he watched Wayne Pelletier endure and return from over the last six months.

“It’s unbelievable,” Cantor said. “When I first heard about it, I was incredulous. Like, ‘How could he do that?’”

Back in February, Pelletier, 54, had the lower part of his left leg amputated — just below the knee — following complications from a seemingly minor ankle injury. Doctors gave him months of recovery time, and a long, difficult road to return to baseball. But Pelletier was determined to not let his situation keep him from the game he’s played his entire life.

Just four months after his surgery, Pelletier rejoined his REBL teams on the diamond and has already regained his status as one of the top pitchers in their division — all while wearing a prosthetic he’s still getting the hang of.

Pelletier, a New England native and current Fairfield resident, has spent most of his life around baseball. He played college ball back on the East Coast and then joined a competitive men’s league in San Francisco when he moved to the area in the mid-1990s. He played in that league for another 10 years before taking some time off after relocating to Solano County but took it up again with the REBL about seven years ago.

He currently plays for two teams: the 35-over Tigers and the 45-over Giants.

His teammates say that off the field, Pelletier is a great guy and would give you the shirt off his back - but when it’s game time, he becomes a fierce and relentless competitor.

“When he’s between the lines, he’s out there to kill the other team,” said Skyler Delzel, the manager for the 35-over Tigers. “He jokingly refers to him pitching as going hunting.”

His competitive edge is why most who know him are not surprised he returned to play — it’s the quickness in his recovery that shocked them, especially with how serious his condition was at its worst.

The ordeal that cost him part of his leg started off innocently enough. He rolled his left ankle last November playing in the Men’s Senior Baseball League World Series in Arizona. Pelletier is no stranger to injuries. He was an avid BMX rider growing up — “My mother had a coffee cup at the hospital with her name on it,” he said — only this was different. His ankle didn’t heal. In fact, it got worse.

It was still swollen and tender in January, even after weeks of ice, aspirin and rest, when his doctor diagnosed him with an infection and sent him home with antibiotics. Those also had no effect. So, in late January he returned for an x-ray. His doctor brought him the results looking white as a sheet.

“He put my x-ray up and even I could see there were problems,” Pelletier said. “The bones were jet black.”

The infection had been worse than originally thought. Doctors theorized it might have stemmed from an ankle injury that Pelletier had suffered in his youth, when a chipped fragment caused an initial infection in the bone but healed over before it could get worse or spread.

They believed that his ankle injury in November reopened the wound and reinvigorated the dormant infection, and his older body couldn’t heal as fast as it once did. This time, the infection was highly active and rapidly spreading.

Suddenly, the focus turned from healing a pesky sprained ankle to saving Pelletier’s entire left leg. Doctors gave him two options, neither great: undergo multiple, serious procedures on the ankle that could span more than two years, with high risks of complications - or amputation. Faced with those choices, it was an easy decision, Pelletier said.

On Feb. 7, surgeons removed his left leg just below the knee. The procedure was successful in stopping the infection from spreading any further, but Pelletier left the hospital thinking his baseball career might be over.

However, as his friends and teammates say, he’s not one to give up without a fight.“He’s just such an ultra-competitor and such a driven dude,” said Cantor, “that if there was anyone who could come back, Wayne would be the guy who would do it.”

He attacked rehab as hard as he attacks hitters from the mound during the baseball season. He flew past the benchmarks his physical therapists set for him and was cleared for a prosthetic months ahead of schedule. He got his apparatus in early May even though doctors had originally told him he’d likely get it toward the end of July.

Almost as rapidly as he finished rehab, he was back on the baseball field. He threw batting practice at his first REBL practice just nine days after getting his equipment and threw his first bullpen session three weeks after that.

“It was clunky, it was awkward - I won’t glamorize it, it wasn’t pretty,” he said of his return to the mound. “But the ball was going in the zone.”

On June 9, Pelletier took the mound for his first start since the surgery just four months prior. Facing the 45-over Blacksox - the four-time defending divisions champions - Pelletier tossed a complete nine-inning game and allowed just five hits, two walks and three runs with three strikeouts to help his team win the game 5-4.

Since his return in early June, Pelletier has thrown 54 innings (second most in the entire division and top-10 across all divisions) with a 3.83 earned run average. Additionally, his 56 hits allowed are the third fewest across all divisions among pitchers with all least 50 innings logged.

“I still just can’t wrap my head around the fact that he was able to do this on such a short time frame,” said Cantor, “and not just do it, but do it and be good.”

Pelletier admits there are still hard days. He still can’t run well, his prosthetic needs constant tinkering and he’s nowhere close to what his new 100% will be. But every day he fights to get better, motivated by his love for the game and the camaraderie and friendships he’s made with his REBL teammates.

Their texts and words of encouragement during his recovery were major motivators, he said.

“There’s a debt there that I’ll never be able to repay, but it had a big part to do with me getting off my ass and getting back to work,” he said. “That’s what it came down to. It hurts, but you got to keep moving.”

His biggest takeaway through the ordeal, and the message he hopes resonates with others, is that there’s always a way through.“If somebody finds themselves in a lousy spot like this, I’m a firm believer in that there are always options,” he said. “Your options aren’t great sometimes, but there are always options.”

You can reach Staff Writer Gus Morris at 707-304-9372 or gus.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @JustGusPD.

REBL Bat Policy

The REBL will limit all eligible aluminum bats for the 2018 season to those with a BBCOR certification.  If your bat does not have a BBCOR certification, it is not allowed for use.  The BBCOR certification is stamped right on the barrel of the bat for easy recognition.  Additionally, all wood bats are also allowed for league play.

The 25+ NL and 25+ AL allows the use of these BBCOR aluminum bats.  However, the 35+ CL, the 45+ FL, 55+ ML, and 65+LL are wood bat only divisions, allowing only wood and composite wood bats.