"Have arm, will travel" is Rodney Tafoya's motto. During the week, Mr. Tafoya works as a vice president of a Bank of the West branch in Albuquerque, N.M. On weekends and during vacations, he travels the country as a pitcher for amateur baseball teams in need of one.

Rodney Tafoya practices pitching at the Fort Marcy Ball Field in Santa Fe. Jen Judge for The Wall Street Journal

At 49, Mr. Tafoya would be considered a dinosaur in most professional sports circles. "I can still throw an 86-mile-per-hour fastball," he says.

He is often called on to pitch during games for teams in the affiliated 25-and-over Men's Senior Baseball League and 18-and-over Men's Adult Baseball League. This season he also played for the Taos Blizzards, who are part of the Pecos League, an independent baseball league.

Rodney Tafoya, age 49, is a vice president of the Albuquerque, N.M., branch of Bank of the West who pitches for amateur baseball teams, such as the Albuquerque Athletics, on weekends and during vacations. Jen Judge for The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Tafoya pitched for Newman University in Wichita, Kan., on a baseball scholarship. When he didn't get drafted by a Major League Baseball team after his senior year season in 1986, he left school to play in the Mexican minor leagues.

He returned to Newman in 1988, and a year later he graduated and signed with the Boise Hawks, a Single-A minor-league team. An elbow injury in 1990 forced Mr. Tafoya into retirement from the game and he took a job as a management trainee at a bank in Eugene, Ore.

"I thought my pitching career was finished, but a customer of the bank brought in his kid and we started playing catch outside and the pain in my elbow was gone. I thought maybe I could start over," says Mr. Tafoya.

In 1993, he started playing for the Eugene Rockies in the Men's Senior Baseball League. In 2007, he joined Bank of West and started playing for a Men's Adult Baseball League. "The 18-and-over league is more competitive," says Mr. Tafoya. "It's a faster game. A lot of the players are in college and come home for the summer and play on this league."

Mr. Tafoya, who lives in Santa Fe, N.M., says he uses all of his 4½ weeks of paid vacation for baseball. In the offseason, he keeps his pitching arm in shape by playing in tournaments in the Caribbean. "I try to pitch one game a week if I can," he says.

During a game, Mr. Tafoya says his goal is to pitch all nine innings of a game, which he estimates is about 90 minutes on the mound.

"I let pain dictate how many innings I throw," he says.

The Workout

Mr. Tafoya logs at least 25 miles of cardio a week. Monday through Friday, he walks 5 miles at a brisk pace at 5:30 a.m. with his girlfriend. "We found that walks were a nice way to spend time together during the week," he says.

He starts Saturday and Sunday with a 10-to-12-mile brisk walk. Three days a week he runs 3 miles on the treadmill. On Wednesdays, he does speed work, running five 20-yard sprints, five 30-yard sprints and five 50-yard sprints.

He uses dumbbells to strengthen his arms and shoulders. Jen Judge for The Wall Street Journal

Sometimes Mr. Tafoya will wear a 50-pound backpack and climb some of the peaks in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range near Santa Fe. "My latest climb was Nambe Lake, where I climbed in 5 feet of snow to an elevation of over 11,000 feet," he says. "This workout does wonders for my push-off leg on the mound and for my core. It's core strength that supplies the velocity of a pitch."

He keeps his arm in shape with a conditioning routine that involves 15 to 20 minutes of long-toss throws at a maximum of 350 feet one day a week. On Sundays, he spends 10 minutes before a game doing long-toss throws of about 300 feet. (A long-toss workout for pitchers involves throwing a ball over certain distances, which extends the arm muscles in a way that promotes strength and health.)

The repeated throwing puts wear and tear on Mr. Tafoya's rotator cuff, shoulder and elbow, so he pays close attention to strengthening the muscles around those joints. Two to three days a week he does a strength routine such as lateral and front raises as well as bent-over reverse dumbbell flies using tubing and 1-pound weights.

He also does core exercises on a stability ball.

The Diet

Mr. Tafoya's protein-rich diet includes poached eggs with toast and yogurt and a vegetable and fruit juice he makes in the morning.

He regularly brings lunch to work, often a salad topped with tuna or chicken. Dinner is often chicken, turkey, sardines or tuna with a salad. He keeps almonds on hand for snacking. He has two protein drinks a day, but no alcohol or soda.

To reduce muscle inflammation, Mr. Tafoya takes three to six caplets of fish oil daily and adds fresh pineapple and ginger root to his juices. He also has an amino acid drink twice a day and takes a glutamine supplement twice a day.

Inside Baseball: A Guide to AntiInflammatory Foods to Help Sore Muscles

A massage and a hot bath aren't the only ways to relieve sore muscles after a hard workout. What you eat also can help ease the pain.

"Certain foods can help decrease muscle inflammation and will have long-term benefits," says Jessica Crandall, a Denver dietitian and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Ms. Crandall says a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids, lean proteins, whole grains and fruits and vegetables is ideal for muscle recovery.

"Foods work on a cellular level, so you might not notice a difference in the first hour after eating them," Ms. Crandall says.

Salmon, tuna and sardines are high in omega 3-fatty acids, she says. Antioxidant-rich foods such as beans, berries, pomegranates and nuts also help reduce cellular inflammation.

"Studies have also shown that herbs such as cinnamon, turmeric and even green tea help promote healthy cells and decrease inflammation," she says.

Eating protein is important, as it will assist with muscle repair, says Ms. Crandall.

"Cutting out or cutting back processed refined grains, salt and trans fats and saturated fats will also help, as these things increase inflammation," she says.

Drinking plenty of water also helps to "lubricate your joints and may decrease joint pain," says Ms. Crandall.

"After a hard workout most people reach for a protein shake or a bar," says Jae Berman, a San Francisco sports dietitian, "but the best way to help the body recover is to give it the nutrients it needs from a plate of real food."

Write to Jen Murphy at workout@wsj.com