53-year-old knuckleballer breaks Roger Clemens' Atlantic League record

The year was 1991, and Vincent Towns was an 18-year-old prospect recently drafted by the Giants playing in the Rookie leagues.

He was known for his fastball, which reached the high 80s, and scouts predicted it could improve as he grew stronger. But, like so many promising players before him, things didn't work out. Towns played one more year in the San Francisco farm system in 1992, and then was out of pro baseball for good.

Well, almost for good ...

Thirty-four years later, on Sunday, Towns was back on a professional mound -- pitching for the MLB Partner League Hagerstown Flying Boxcars.

He wasn't a teenager anymore, slinging fastballs up near 90 mph. This time he was 53 years old, floating a pitch that doesn't seem to discriminate against age: The knuckleball.

“It felt great. I waited a long time,” Towns told Local News 1's Andy Mason. “I was excited, nervous and anxious. But I did my best. I didn’t look too bad today. I just have to make some adjustments and get used to the crowds.”

Even though it seemed that Towns had stopped pitching, he has never given up on his dream. The right-hander has been playing in Maryland-area adult men's leagues for the last few decades, while working a full-time job in construction. And over the last 13 years, he's developed a fleeting, dipsy-diving, unpredictable knuckler. It became good enough that he was drafted first overall in the April 1 Atlantic League Draft, and last week Towns got the emotional call that he'd be "getting the rock" this past Sunday.

On the mound, Towns didn't fare so well: He faced four batters, giving up three singles and hitting a fourth. So goes the story of the knuckleball.

Towns left with his team down, 1-0, and the Boxcars lost the game, 13-5.

Still, Towns hasn't lost hope -- why would he after all these years? How could he? The oldest player in Atlantic League history, older than a 50-year-old Roger Clemens back in 2012, will pitch again. And his incredible tale will continue.

“It wasn’t discouraging. I made history today,” Towns said. “But after today, you’ve got to start winning. That’s how it is with the knuckleball. Some days you have it, some days you don’t. That’s just the way it is. I missed a few pitches, and I had to come with other pitches that were just below average for this level. Other than that, I was fine."