Detroit Maccabi athletes
including a new baseball
team —will be competing in
Los Angeles, Houston and
Long Island next month.
STEVE STEIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
On The
Road Again
,*" hey wore different color uniforms
4 Al
m because they came from several
"
leagues. But on a recent muggy
Sunday morning on a diamond in
% Franklin, this eclectic group of base-
ball players continued its preparations
to make history.
For the first time since the Metro-
politan Detroit Maccabi Club was
formed in 1982, a baseball team for
boys ages 12-14 will represent Detroit
in the annual Jewish Community Cen-
4 4 ters Maccabi Youth Games.
Coach David Levine's squad will
compete in Los Angeles. Altogether,
nearly 200 Jewish athletes ages 12-16
from Detroit will travel to three re-
gional sites — Los Angeles, Houston
and Long Island — in mid-August.
Columbus (Ohio) and Orlando (Fla.)
round out the largest-ever list of Mac-
cabi regionals.
"This has to be the first time that
a city will be sending athletes to three
regionals in one year," said Metropol-
itan Detroit Maccabi Club president
Alan Horowitz. "Most of our kids will
be going to Los Angeles and Houston.
We'll have a coed volleyball team, and
tennis and table tennis players on
Long Island.
"Los Angeles and Hous-
ton offered only girls vol-
leyball, and we'll have
teams there. Long Island
was the only place among
the five regionals where we
could send our boys volley-
ball players." (They will
play on the coed team.
None of the five sites will
host an all-boys volleyball team.)
The Houston regional is slated for
Sunday, Aug. 13, through Thursday,
Aug. 17. The Los Angeles event will be
held Aug. 13-18. Detroit athletes go-
ing to those two cities will leave from
Metropolitan Airport on Friday, Aug.
11, so they can spend Shabbat with
their host families.
In addition, those in Los Angeles
will visit the Simon Wiesenthal Mu-
seum and those in Houston will tour
NASA space facilities on Sunday, Aug.
13.
The competition on Long Island
will run from Sunday, Aug. 20,
through Thursday, Aug. 24, and the
Detroit athletes will arrive there Aug.
20.
Detroit delegation heads are Jay
Robinson for Los Angeles, Harold
Top: The Detroit Maccabi
bench.
Left: Blake Boesky makes his
pitch.
Below: Peter Osten beats a
throw to first.
Bottom: Safe at second with a
stolen base is Peter Osten.
Friedman for Houston and
Lorie Horowitz (Alan's wife)
for Long Island.
Levine says he hopes his
baseball team will be com-
petitive in Los Angeles be-
cause it is young for its age
group. Of the 15 players on
the roster who made the
squad from approximately
40 who tried out, five are age
12, seven are 13 and just
three are 14.
"Our hitting and fielding
will be fine, but I'm worried
about our pitching depth be-
cause I understand we'll be
playing from four to six
games," Levine said. "This is a grow-
ing year, though. We'll be older next
summer and, with more time to re-
cruit, our team will be better. This isn't
a one-year deal for us. We're in it for
the long haul.
"Right now, the kids are very excit-
ON THE ROAD page 82