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

