Fathers and sons, a baseball heritage in Senior Softball

       By Bill Tarrant  

Sy Badener’s father, Abraham Zeitz was a tough guy. A Russian immigrant, he was one of the only Jewish longshoremen working the dockyards in New York’s Lower East Side. In the early 20^th century, the Lower East Side was the starting point for hundreds of thousands of new arrivals from Russia and Eastern Europe, turning the densely packed district of tenements, factories, and docklands into the capital of Jewish America.

     Abraham was a burly guy “with blacksmith arms and eagle tattoos,” Sy tells me. “Everybody called him ‘fish’ because wise guys knew he’d clam up when the heat got bad. (Abraham’s brother got the electric chair at Sing-Sing in 1939 - one of 15 executions there that year - for killing his loan shark when he couldn’t pay the outrageous vigorish)

     “He drank whiskey every day and he smoked,” Sy says. Abraham got a job as an extra in the Elia Kazan boxing and crime drama, “On the Waterfront”, starring Marlon Brando because he looked the part. He lived to be 93.

     The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

     Bucco first baseman and catcher Sy Badener at 91 is the ironman of the Los Angeles Senior County League, one of the oldest adults still playing competitive softball in SoCal. He catches and throws the ball as well as ever, though his running game has slowed to a shuffling trot. He pushed himself to keep running well into his late 80s because, he said, he was afraid to stop – he wanted to stay competitive as long as possible. Sy’s mind, on the other hand ,is quick-witted and razor-sharp as he freely dispenses advice on strategy during games to his manager.

     Sy hung up his pitching mask after last season, when he got fed up chasing errant throws back to the rubber from his catcher in the heat.

     Asked if he ever feels like scolding his son Eric, the Buccos elite shortshop, for firing the occasional ball to first base at his feet , Sy said: “No. he knows it. I don’t need to say anything. He tells me afterward.”

     Sy and Eric are one of three extraordinary father-son duos in the Los Angeles County Senior Softball League. There’s Marv Berson, 88, and his 64-year-old son Keith playing for the Dukes, and Barry Freeman, 85, playing with his son Bill, 60, on the Yanks.

     Keith and Bill, like Eric, are among the top shortstops in the league – a tribute to their father-son childhood bonds and training regime.

     Like Sy, Marv Berson said he kept pushing himself to stay athletic well into his 80s. “But then you get a hip replacement, and now you can’t turn into the ball at the plate; you get shoulder surgery and now you can’t throw as well; a torn Achilles and bad knees, you can’t run.”

     Barry Freeman coached his son in leagues throughout Bill’s boyhood and started playing with him five years ago in the Senior league. “There’s no greater privilege than having your kid playing shortstop and you’re at first. That’s how it was 50 years ago.”

     Not surprisingly, Bill is a banking lawyer – same profession as his father.

     Sy began playing senior softball for ages 55 and up when he was 58 and looking for something to do while living Palm Springs. Along the way, he has won three ‘rings’ (league championships). The latest was three years ago when he pitched for the Killabrews

     “The game isn’t the important thing,” Sy says. “It’s having a group, a community of that size, and someone to talk to. Some of them live alone, widowers who need someone to talk to.

     “And look at how many interesting people you meet. I have a picture of a guy we played with who won the Medal of Honor and no one knew until Obama gave it to him.

     “It’s a privilege to get to know these people from all walks of life. One thing about softball and athletics. It’s not about how much money you make. It equalizes everything.”

     But for Sy it’s above all the opportunity to play ball with Eric. They’ve been doing that since Eric was two years old, Sy says.

     “If he didn’t play, I would seriously consider stopping.”

     It’s a family affair with the Badeners. His wife of 66 years, Sidonia, comes to almost all of his games, often seen clutching the cyclone fence separating the dugouts from the bleachers, looking at her husband with concern. His other son Ronald and three grandchildren also come at times.

     Sy put himself through night school getting a business degree at City College of New York (where he met Sidonia at a frat party). He had jobs as a stock trader and in pharmaceutical sales before moving to Southern California.

     He had a car wash for years, back before they were automated. “The stories there. I could have written that movie “Car Wash” (starring Richard Pryor and George Carlin). There’s no better place to steal a car than at a car wash. Go up and ask for the keys like you work there and just drive it away.”

     He owned a car dealership, Star Automobiles, where he had a great deal for you. And now enjoys a great deal in the Senior Softball League.

     Barry Freeman says Amen to that.

     “To be 85, or even Sy’s age, just to be out there is a blessing from God. And to be half-assed competitive, too!”