For this boy of summer, age is just a number

by Ron Kaplan
NJJN Staff Writer

It’s a muggy Sunday morning at Livingston High School. Congregation B’nai Israel of Millburn is playing against the team from the Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center in Livingston. While his teammates complained about the heat and humidity, Phil Levine patiently waited for his turn to bat for CBI.

After an absence of 40 years, Levine, 85, has returned to the game of his youth, in a fun yet competitive season in the Livingston Temple Softball League.

In the first game of a July 2 doubleheader necessitated by the previous week’s rain-out, Levine walked twice in two plate appearances, giving way to a pinch hitter in the final inning. His mates scored five times to take the lead, but lost the game in the bottom of the final frame.

When the situation allows, Levine also serves as the team’s catcher, the only nod he gives to his place as the most senior member — in terms of age — on the team. “I don’t run out on the field,” he said in a dugout interview with NJ Jewish News. At this stage of the game, he also no longer slides into bases.

Noting the changes in the game since he last took the field during the Johnson administration (Lyndon, not Andrew), Levine said, “When I was playing, the pitcher didn’t throw like this,” referring to the slow, high-arc style used in the leagues. “They threw fast.”

He could say, without fear of contradiction, that he was the only one present who had seen Babe Ruth play…in person. “That was a long time ago,” he said. Although he claimed to be a baseball fan, he admitted he was much more interested in pursuing a career in music. Levine is a former concert violinist who used to play with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. His main concern is not the toll the game could take on his general health, but what it might do to his hands, since he still performs locally on occasion.

Levine and his wife Miriam have four children and eight grandchildren, all of whom think his playing is great.

“They want me to keep busy. It keeps me young.”

Levine sees no special treatment from the opposition in deference to his age. “That’s fine,” he said modestly.

After Levine worked out his second walk and trotted down to first base, Craig Rothman, pitcher and manager of B’nai Israel’s team, said, “Phil has just been an inspiration to our team. The guy gets out here every Sunday with us. As you just saw, he refuses to take a pinch runner. He just loves to play. I hope I can walk when I’m 60.

“He’s an amazing guy.”