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However, he will soon say goodbye to one of them as he finishes his 11th and final season as the coach of his son George’s baseball team. His players are graduating from Little League this year and Goldstein will hang up his playbook, but not before taking a moment to reflect on their growth.
“When they got to around fifth grade, I got to see the kids I worked with become starting pitchers and catchers, and as a coach that’s what you get pleasure out of,” he said.
It might come as a surprise that when Goldstein walked onto the baseball diamond for the first time, he had little experience playing the game. But he didn’t let that stop him from learning how to coach it.
To improve his players' skills, Goldstein attended clinics and bought baseball training books on how to teach players to pitch, hit and build endurance. He also watched coaching DVDs, which he downloaded to his iPad. To this day, that’s where Goldstein gets many of his ideas for the drills he uses with his players at practice.
Still, he said he is looking forward to watching George from the bleachers when he starts pitching for the Westport travel baseball team.
“Watching as a parent is a different experience than as a coach,” Goldstein said. “I will miss coaching dearly, though."
He will also be watching from behind his camera lens as the team's photographer.
“I’ll still be taking photos, which is one of my other loves, and I have tons of photos I’ve taken of the kids over the years,” he said.
