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To Life!
SPORTS
Baseball Trivia
Holocaust Center docent once played
in the big leagues.
Hollywood. Gable was
at the top of his game
at the age of 57 and was
starring in two movies
that day. playing around
the major and minor
league circuit..Besides
Gable, Run Silent, Run
Deep featured Burt •
Lancaster and Teacher's
Pet co-starred Doris Day.
On Foreman's great
day, music maker Irving
Berlin celebrated his
70th birthday. Former
Detroit Tigers Hall of
Fame second baseman
and executive Charlie
Richard Foreman as a shortstop for a Philadelphia
Gehringer turned 55.
Phillies minor league team in 1958.
Entertainer Red Skelton
was mourning the loss of
his 10-year-old son to leu-
kemia. CBS announced Milton Berle would
Irwin Cohen
pinch hit for Skelton until he was ready to
Special to the Jewish News •
return to his.television show.
Foreman sowed his baseball talent
while playing in several youth leagues, for
here are many accomplished
Redford High School and on numerous
and interesting docents at the
Detroit sandlot teams. The native Detroiter
Holocaust Memorial Center
attended and played baseball at Olivet
in Farmington Hills. But only Richard
Foreman can say that he hit two homeruns College in 1957 at the age of 19 and caught
the eye of atop Phillies scout. Signed to
with the bases loaded in the same profes-
a professional contract and assigned to
sional baseball game.
Class C Salt Lake City, the young shortstop
Foreman's feat came on May 11,
earned a promotion to Highpoint, N.C.,
1958, while playing for Brunswick, a
in the Class B Carolina Le- ague later in the
Philadelphia Phillies affiliate in the
season.
Georgia-Florida League. His two grand
In 1958, Foreman wore the uniform
slams in one game were good enough to
of the Brunswick Phillies before being
receive national attention in the Sporting
assigned to Olean, another Phillies farm
News.
club in•the NY-Penn League where he
On the day Foreman was king of the
played third base. After totaling nine
diamond , Clark Gable was still king of
Yoga And You
The Jewish Meditation with Yoga Asana
Practice is an opportunity to study Torah
through a meditative yoga asana (pos-
, tore) practice.
The meditation, in .the meeting rooms
at Congregation Beth Shalom, will begin
at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 6. Participants
are advised to wear comfortable clothes
that allow them to sit or lie on the floor
as well as enter the sanctuary to join in
36
April 20 • 2006
the concluding Shabbat prayers with the
Oak Park congregation.
This program has been made possible
by a grant from the Muriel & George ..
Tarnoff Special. Needs Fund. For infor-
mation, call the synagogue office, (248)
547-7970.
Arthritis Help
An arthritis self-help course will
be offered at Adat Shalom Synagogue
homeruns, 74 runs batted in and compil-
ing a .250 batting average for 1958, he
returned to Olivet College.
Foreman decided to play college football
before preparing for the next professional
baseball season. It would be a career-end-
ing decision. A knee injury resulted in the
loss of baseball mobility.
In 1959, Foreman watched with -inter-
est as the Philadelphia Phillies brought
up a minor league infielder by the name
of George Anderson — the future Sparky.
Foreman had to be content with might
have been 'and the memories of play-
ing in the same league as several future
Major Leaguers, including Dick McAuliffe
and Don Wert, who played for Detroit. He
watched as Earl Weaver, one of the rival
managers in his league, rose to the Majors
and Hall of Fame status.
Foreman had baseball in his DNA. •
His grandfather, Gus "Happy" Foreman,
dreidled around the minor leagues. Happy
pitched for too many teams irr too many
towns for too many years. However, he
appeared in three Major League games
for the 1924 Chicago White Sox and three
more two years later for the Boston Red
Sox.
Instead of baseball, Richard hit the
books, got his degree and began a 32-year
career with Michigan public schools. In
1996, two years before his retirement,
Foreman began volunteering as a guide at
the Holocaust Memorial Center.
Married to his Olivet College sweet-
heart, Pat, for more than 42 years, Richard
wants friends to call him "Hap," as a
remembrance to his grandfather's baseball
accomplishments. Pat and Hap are mem-
bers of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield
and enjoy learning about Judaism, wheth-
Mondays, May 1, 8, 15, 22 and June 5 and
12. The sessions will run from 10 a.m. to
noon.
Adat Shalom member Doreen
Lichtman and Sandra L. Falk-Michaels
will teach the program, which also offers
individuals the chance to meet others
with the same challenges.
Both leaders are trained instructors
with the Arthritis Foundation. The pro-
gram is co-sponsored. by the foundation,
Pat and Richard Foreman have been
married more than 42 years.
er at the temple's adult education classes
or at Ohr Somayach lunch and learn pro-
grams.
Pat volunteers' at the West Bloomfield
JCC, while Hap gives well-researched tours
at the Holocaust Memorial Center. "Every
time, I take a group through the HMC:'
Foreman related, "I feel I speak for the Six
Million whose voices can no longer be
heard."
Not one to toot his own horn, Hap can
use a voice on his behalf for enshrinement
in the Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of
Fame. 0
Irwin Cohen of Oak Park published the national
Baseball Bulletin from 1975-980 and was a
front office associate of the Detroit Tigers for
nine years, earning a World Series ring in 1984.
He has authored several books on Detroit's
Jewish community.
the Jewish Fund and the L'Chaim Project
Arthritis Foundation.
Participants will learn basic arthritis
information, strategies for decreasing
pain, how to relax and deal with stress,
the proper use of exercise, how to talk to
your doctor, and much more.
For information, call Nancy Wilhelm,
(248)- 851-5100, or e-mail nwilhelm@
adatshaloni..org.