Benjamin Lerner of the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas was profiled by The Inquirer about his lifelong love of baseball and his close relationship with his brother Alan, who died in 2010.
The following is an excerpt from the article,
When Judge Ben Lerner, pushing 80, steps into the batting cage, the mantra is always running through his mind.
“Don’t turn your head. Keep your eye on the ball. Keep your weight back. Don’t embarrass me.”
The hitting mantra was given to him — well, foisted upon him — by his younger brother Alan, and the last instruction is the most important. After all, Alan was the one who taught his older brother how to hit, well into his middle age, and long after Lerner had assumed he’d never play the sport he loved, not in a real way.
It was a rare gift for a baseball nut. One that for Lerner, a judge in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, still sparks to life every spring, when he returns to his over-65 hardball league and hits the way his brother taught him.
Read the full piece here.