James Stroker Retirement After 35 Years in Ridgewood Public Schools

It nice to remember that I was in Ridgewood Public Schools and James Stroker was around. Forty years have gone by and while I was away Jimmy Stroker was doing what he had always done: teach life lessons through sports.

I remember him well as an athlete and as an umpire doing the Summer Recreation Softball season. He called a good game, usually alone, but always in command of the diamond, never out of position, or made an errant call. I would have known if he had missed one as I stood in front him pitching, while he called balls and strikes and made the final decisions on all the bases. He was completely impartial and at the same time had a nice smile and demeanor. It was a job for the summer and one he executed with the utmost professionalism.

Yes, life was simpler in those days on the baseball diamonds that are no longer in town. The old dusty ball fields with patches of grass and swamps of mud in the outfield after a good rain have long ago been supplanted by well-cared for fields. In some cases, artificial turf has been installed and no rock strewn infields remain. All we have, as usual, are the memories, and as we grow older a reasonable certainty that our past ways of playing were just as good as that which passes on these new fields. The difference now being we won't have James Stroker on the field as much, and we might not have the opportunity to learn something about life by just watching him doing his job.