T
he North Farmington
High School junior var-
sity baseball team didn’t
win a lot of games this season.
Neither did the West Bloomfield
High School freshman baseball
team.
But at least there was a
season, after spring sports
were canceled last year by the
Michigan High School Athletic
Association because of the rag-
ing COVID-19 pandemic.
And the young men on the
North Farmington and West
Bloomfield teams were able to
begin their quest to make it to
the varsity baseball roster at
their school.
The North Farmington JV
coach was Josh Goldberg, a
2020 Michigan State University
grad whose first season ever as
a coach was at his high school
alma mater.
“Surreal,
” is how Goldberg
described the experience.
“I never intended to be a
coach, at least not at this age
(23),
” he said. “But I really
enjoyed the experience. It was
fun. It was a familiar setting for
me. I knew a lot of the kids and
their families. It felt like I was
back in high school.
“There were lots of learning
experiences for us this season,
both good and bad because of
the pandemic. All will be ben-
eficial.
”
Besides being not being too
many years older than his play-
ers, Goldberg could relate to
some of them in a different way.
He didn’t play much on the
North Farmington varsity base-
ball team when he was a junior.
But he led the team in hitting
when he was a senior, batting
around .400 while catching and
playing centerfield.
The lesson for his young play-
ers who weren’t getting much
playing time was never stop
working and learning.
RAIDERS’ HOT STREAK
North Farmington finished
11-21. But the Raiders won
eight of 11 games during a
stretch in early May.
“We put the ball in play, we
talked on defense, our base
running was good ... We did all
the things we needed to do to
win,
” Goldberg said about the
winning streak.
North Farmington’s top
pitchers were Jason Bedol, Jacob
Berg and Henry Nathan, three
of the seven Jewish players on
the team.
The other Jewish players were
Josh Miller, Sam Melder, Adam
Nothstine and Jack Schultz.
Bedol was 3-2 on the mound
with a 1.32 ERA. He walked
seven and struck out 58 in 26
1/3+ innings. He also was the
team’s leading hitter with a .413
batting average.
Berg was 2-4 with a 4.28 ERA.
He struck out 49 in 36 innings.
Nathan was 3-3 with a 5.77
ERA. He struck out 28 in 26⅔
innings.
So what’s next for Goldberg
after his first foray into coach-
ing?
Armed with a bachelor’s
degree in marketing with a
minor in sports management
from Michigan State, he hopes
to land a job with a professional
sports team, preferably in base-
ball or basketball.
He has a particular interest
in designing and marketing
uniforms.“It’s a niche, but it’s a
passion,
” he said.
LAKERS’ ARMS
Over at West Bloomfield,
the freshman baseball team
went 8-18 this spring, but the
record is a bit deceiving.
Six of the losses were to
powerhouse Orchard Lake St.
Mary’s and the Grosse Pointe
South junior varsity team. And
after starting the season 0-10,
the Lakers turned things around
and went 8-8 the rest of the way.
“The kids stayed positive all
year, even during that tough
start,
” said West Bloomfield
coach Ken Rys. “They brought
energy every day.
”
West Bloomfield’s top pitch-
ers were Ari Klinger and Andre
Landau. Max Gross was the
Lakers’ catcher when he wasn’t
pitching.
The trio combined for all
eight West Bloomfield pitching
victories.
A Tale of Two
Baseball Teams
24 | JUNE 10 • 2021
Coach, pitchers look to the future.
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
SPORTS
“THERE WERE LOTS OF LEARNING
EXPERIENCES FOR US THIS
SEASON, BOTH GOOD AND BAD
BECAUSE OF THE PANDEMIC. ALL
WILL BE BENEFICIAL.”
— RAIDERS’ JOSH GOLDBERG
GARY KLINGER
From left are West Bloomfield
freshman baseball players
Ari Klinger, Andre Landau
and Max Gross.
Josh Goldberg