Al Nachreiner, curious, had an immediate question when I called. He’s a devout follower of the Buffalo Bills, a guy born in Buffalo in the same year that the original Bills joined the old All-America Football Conference, and he’s followed the team with passion since the revived Bills were a cha rter member of the American Football League, in 1960. Shortly into our conversation, he asked me: “Would you have gone for it?” He was talking about the conclusion of last week’s National Football League game between the Bills and the visiting Philadelphia Eagles, defending NFL champions, a subject of debate among the legions who are loyal to the Bills. With seconds left, Buffalo scored a touchdown to pull within 13-12. Head coach Sean McDermott, rather than asking his kicker to try and tie up the game, chose to go for a two-point conversion. It didn’t work. Yeah, I told Nachreiner. I agreed with the decision. “Me too,” he said, noting wistfully how wide receiver Khalil Shakir was open as he cut across the end zone on the play. Nachreiner admires Bills quarterback Josh Allen, and for Allen to throw the football and miss Shakir was “very, very unusual,” Nachreiner said — and also, as Nachreiner added, a part of being human. “Nobody’s perfect,” said Nachreiner, though he does to admit to a great wish: Since his life lines up precisely with the history of the Bills — the AAFC version began play in the year he was born — he would love to see the team finally win one Super Bowl championship. Newspaper articles on Al Nachreiner’s walls recall the extraordinary timing of his birth, including one that calls him “Mr. 1946.” Credit: Mark Mulville | Special to Central Current He carries that hope with particular intensity. Newspapers of the time reported that Nachreiner was born one second after midnight at Buffalo’s Sisters Hospital in 1946, making him one of the absolute first, if not THE first, infants born in the nation on that New Year’s Day – since that timing didn’t leave much room for anyone to be born sooner. That milestone carries extraordinary significance: Chronologically, he’s a guy who led the entire American Baby Boom into existence, since most historians say that nation-changing postwar surge of infants began in ’46. This morning, he became the first Baby Boomer to reach 80. For Nachreiner, that threshold also comes with a reason for reflection. A year ago, he found out he has lung cancer. It was a complete surprise. He had no symptoms, he said. He hadn’t smoked in 33 years. His first doctor told him that if Nachreiner went through chemotherapy, it would cause major damage to his kidneys — which meant the only other option was basically to accept things as they were. Nachreiner decided, well, not to kneel the ball out on fourth down. He went to another oncologist, who was far more hopeful: The cancer hadn’t spread and there were ways to attack it that wouldn’t damage other organs. That was it: Nachreiner was in. For months, he’s been receiving chemotherapy at Buffalo’s Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, a place he appreciates for its ambiance and for the warmth and kindness of the staff. Nachreiner, all told, is feeling pretty good. Actually, he said, with a laugh, he loves everything about Roswell except for the reason that he goes there. “They’re really nice people,” he said. In his long life, he’s learned one thing for sure: In hard times, truly nice people can mean as much as any treasure on Earth. But Nachreiner – clearly worried about spending too much time talking about his own concerns — immediately shifted the conversation to all the reasons he is grateful. He has a 12-year-old Pomeranian and terrier mix named Sophia — “I’ve always had dogs for my whole life,” Nachreiner said — who provides constant joy and company. Nachreiner is also deeply appreciative of how some sprawling combination of his kids and grandkids and great-grandkids will show up today for his birthday at the Buffalo home where he’s lived for 36 years, and he figures just making it to 80 is a significant victory in itself. Al Nachreiner – a skilled fast-pitch softball pitcher who played for 40 years -with his softball glove at his home in Buffalo on Wednesday, December 31, 2025. (Photo by Mark Mulville) Credit: Mark Mulville | Special to Central Current He’s got his Christmas tree up, including the 17 ornaments from Hospice Buffalo — he adds one every year — that he buys in appreciation of the care and kindness that Buffalo Hospice staff showed for his wife Alice before she died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease, in 2008. In summary? “I’m happy,” said Nachreiner, who makes an intentional effort to keep his focus on today and getting ready for tomorrow. His story is not the classic Baby Boom tale, stories that typically begin with a World War II-era couple that had a big family in the 10 or 15 years after the war. Nachreiner’s dad — also named Aloysius — was wounded while serving in World War I. Al, his youngest son, was born when his father was 56. The story goes that Al’s mom did everything she could to hold off childbirth so that she could give birth an instant after the New Year began, understanding her child could be the city’s New Year’s baby. Nachreiner still has the old clipping in which the old Buffalo Courier-Express described the newborn as “Mr. 1946,” a title that only takes on greater meaning with every year. Still, none of the Nachreiners could fully appreciate just how big a deal it would be, much farther down the road: When Nachreiner turned 65 — Boomers reach retirement age! — the great Dan Barry wrote about him in The New York Times, noting how the Associated Press in 1946 listed Nachreiner as being among a few top prospects for an-impossible-to-absolutely-ascertain first U.S. baby of the year. To Nachreiner’s surprise, his name at 65 also appeared in such national newspapers as USA Today, while several television reporters stopped by his house. As for my connection to Al, we first talked in 2016 — when I was writing columns for The Buffalo News and he had just turned 70. That he’s now turning 80 is a matter, for me, of both wonder and disbelief: My own folks were a classic Baby Boom mom and dad – my oldest brother, gone now, was born in October 1946, not even a year after my dad returned from the war – and as the 1959-born youngest in a big family, I’m a close witness as this generation takes each step. This particular birthday, Nachreiner said, has been pretty quiet. Despite this week’s big winter winds, he made it to Roswell Tuesday for his treatments, and he played pinochle Wednesday with some buddies in Cheektowaga, a regular part of his routine. He planned on setting an alarm on New Year’s Eve so he would definitely be up for the stroke of midnight, which marked both his 80th birthday and the second one he’s faced with lung cancer. In conversation, he allows himself no room for melancholy. Al Nachreiner and his dog Sophia on New Year’s Eve; they’d be watching together when Nachreiner turned 80, just after the stroke of midnight. Credit: Mark Mulville | Special to Central Current “I’ve got no choice,” Nachreiner said. His decision, really, is to push forward and keep going, because there’s no way that he will quit. He will always miss Alice, but he looks at it like this: He was lucky they crossed paths, lucky he had her in his life for as long as he did. Alice was a widow when they met, years ago, at a Buffalo restaurant called Pantello’s. She had seven children. Nachreiner embraced them as his own. After they married, they had two more kids together, though one died as an infant — and he notes with sadness that two of their children died, later in their lives. He is blind in one eye, ever since another kid hit him in the face with a wintertime iceball when they were little. He attended high school at Buffalo’s Burgard Vocational, and before long he found the work that would be his career, serving as a machine operator in box factories. For 40 years, at two different plants, he had the same boss. The guy was a good human being, and Nachreiner sees that as as another monumental gift and lesson: He worked until he retired at 68 from the Designer Box Co., and you learn – over a working life like that – how a good boss can be the reason you like going to your job. “I’ve enjoyed myself,” Nachreiner said. A big part of it involved his longtime mastery of an athletic skill no longer in demand, at least not in the way as it was when he was young: Nachreiner was skilled at pitching in men’s fast-pitch softball, once a great passion throughout the region. A lifetime Yankees fan, he was a baseball pitcher as a youth and then pitched fast-pitch softball for 40 years – primarily in leagues at Buffalo’s Houghton Park. His point of pride, he said, was having “pretty good control.” His favorite example: There was one season in which he did not walk a single batter from early May into late August. Yet fast-pitch was eventually overwhelmed culturally by slow-pitch softball, which isn’t as interesting a game — in fast-pitch, players bunt and steal bases and games are often taut and low-scoring. What slow-pitch does provide, as Nachreiner understands, is a much better chance for an everyday person to whale the daylights out of the ball. As for the whole idea that he led a famous generation into existence — and is now leading the Baby Boomers into their 80s — Nachreiner gently laughs the thought away. “It could have been anyone,” he said, which is exactly the same way he describes why he declines to say “Why me?” about how he ended up with lung cancer. A newspaper clipping from USA Today about Al Nachreiner’s monumental birthday. Credit: Mark Mulville | Special to Central Current His own dad died at 71, his mom at 68. He emphasized again: Making it to 80 is pretty good, and he finds many reasons to look forward to each new day. He loved his wife. He loves his kids, his 33 grandchildren, his 22 “greats.” He had a good boss, and he was a good enough pitcher to make a softball go pretty much where he wanted it to go when he pitched. On these winter days — if he needs comfort — he is glad for Sophia, who is more than willing to jump onto his lap. All of it is enough, Al Nachreiner said, that – as he contemplates the cancer – “I just keep on fighting.” From my perspective, despite Nachreiner’s own humility about what he sees as a quiet life, it’s hard to imagine a better guy to lead the Baby Boomers into their 80s, because everything he has loved, witnessed or endured helped him reach this place: After a long season, he understands — game on the line, a cold rain falling — why McDermott went for two. The post Sean Kirst: A reflective ‘Mr. 1946,’ point man as ‘Baby Boomers’ reach their 80s, appreciates why Bills took all-or-nothing chance appeared first on Central Current. ...read more read less