I fully understand the many dangers facing our world: a nuclear Iran, Hamas threatening innocent Israelis, and the realization of a no-win situation in Iraq which will embolden al-Qaida. Right here in our local Jewish community, of late we’ve written about teen parties involving drinking and drugs. We’ve also chronicled significant sexual abuses by local leaders.
Andrew Buerger

It’s important that everyone, including me, get away from it all to decompress.

I was doing just that the other day when I donned my baseball hat and sunglasses. I plugged my ears with my iPod and went for a run. I turned up my music and tuned out the world.

As I cruised through Gilman School, I made my usual glance over at the football field to recall my exploits from the early 1980s. Just then I ran past Frank Goldman, who was a year behind me at Gilman. Frank was there to coach his twelve-year-old son, Nick, in the Roland Park Little League. That didn’t make sense to me. He shattered my inner peace.

Frank can’t be the coach of a 12-year-old Little Leaguer. It was just yesterday that he and I were locked on opposite sides of one of the fiercest games every played in Wellwood Little League. For the next few miles I tried to do the math about how many years ago it could have been. I realized “The Game” was 30 years ago. It would have been less stressful to contemplate Israel’s future when Iran gets the bomb. Man, Frank is now 41.

So I phoned Frank to see if he remembered the famous World Series. Not only did he vividly recall the match, but he also reminded me that it wasn’t the 30th anniversary of “The Game.” That was last year. In fact, it’s been 31 years, and he told me my former teammate Richard Pachino was trying to get a reunion. Frank even forwarded me a PDF from the Baltimore Jewish Times article from 1976.

Re-reading the piece jarred my memory of the spectacular event. The World Series game between the Twins, managed by Frank’s father Howard, battled our Reds, skippered by Michael Yerman, to a tie after 6 innings, the length of a full game. After two extra innings, the score remained locked at 2-2, and the game was called for darkness. They decided to let us battle it out two nights later for the official Wellwood Minor League World Series.

The two teams of 10- and 11-year-old boys were living their dreams of a big time world series. We were able to play a multi-game series filled with drama and tension.

The second game was equally close. In the bottom of the sixth and last inning, Danny Feiken ripped one of my pitches into the outfield scoring Mark Leuterman from second base, finally sending our Reds down to defeat 6-5. My teammates Richard Pachino, Jimmy Yerman, and I still haven’t gotten over the heart breaking loss.

Jewish Times writer Tom Gorman noted, “The unfortunate thing about the game, played before a large crowd, was that there had to be a loser. For 14 innings both teams did exceptional jobs with pressure all the way. For either team it would have been a tough loss. On the other hand, it was a great victory. That’s baseball.”

Michael Yerman has gone on to teach me a lot about business and life. But his comforting words helped shape my psyche at a very fragile time, and I’ll never forget that. I was mad that I let up the winning run and thought I should have let Richard Pachino pitch last. Michael Yerman reminded me that one inning didn’t define our season. We had all hustled and given our all during the entire spring. Since then, I’ve tried to put all losses into perspective.

There were bigger and more important things in 1976 as well: threats of a Russian nuclear attack; Israel being overrun by Arabs; and drug issues at Pikesville High School. Yet, this childhood game of baseball was more important for two dozen kids and their parents.

As I ran past Frank and Nick Goldman, I saw their bond over the childhood game. That’s baseball. Let’s not forget that.

To view the original story, click here: http://www.jewishtimes.com/ccount/rp_news_article.pdf

To get in touch with Richard Pachino, he can be emailed at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)