By JOSEPH KELLARD
Throughout his 37 years Jeff Nussbaum took up many sports, but baseball was perhaps the game he played best and enjoyed most, and where his virtues shined. It was only fitting that a celebration of his life take place on the diamond where he often performed.
Arlene and her family and friends gathered at field 1 in Oceanside Park on Sunday, where they remembered Jeff, who died while working as a senior vice president of foreign currency for Carr Futures Associates in Tower One of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
Beneath a cloudless sky, the ceremony was held prior to a game of the Junior Division of Oceanside Little League. With family and friends in the bleachers, Arlene sat with her eldest son, Craig, one of Jeff's best friends, Peter Goldschmidt, and Town Councilman Anthony Santino in chairs beside the pitcher's mound, as the Oceanside Fire Department's color guard stood at attention behind them. Thirteen- and 14-year-old ballplayers filed along the first- and third-base lines wearing No. 11 wrist bands in memory of Jeff.
Too overcome with emotion to speak, Arlene allowed Bob Burns, director of the Oceanside National Little League, to tell tales representative of Jeff's nature. One of them was about how Jeff played for a team as hapless as the Bad News Bears. They nonetheless made it to the championship game, in which Jeff hit a game-winning double with the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth (and last) inning. After the game, the manager of the losing team asked Jeff to join his club the following season.
"But Jeff politely turned him down, preferring to stay with his own team," Burns said. "To me there is something uniquely American about that. Firstly, Jeff showed loyalty of virtue, which we all should aspire to. More importantly, to him victory seemed so much sweeter when you view yourself as the underdog ... America was founded by underdogs, from our founding fathers to every immigrant escaping political and religious persecution or poverty."
Arlene asked Burns to express to the current Little Leaguers a creed Jeff lived by: never give up and keep trying. Burns honored her request.
In his early Little League years, Jeff took to the mound, but he was always a tall kid (who would ultimately grow to 6 feet 5), and he often played the outfield. In his teen years, he even umpired, and when he came home from Oneonta for the summers he played in softball leagues.
Goldschmidt recalled meeting and becoming friends with Jeff while playing baseball at nearby Wrights Field more than 20 years ago. "Jeff was one of the best team players I ever had the opportunity to play with," said Goldschmidt, who played for three years with his friend at field 1. "He was a tremendous person who would go out of his way to do anything for anyone."
Craig, who also played in Little League with his brother, spoke softly when he addressed the crowd, his eyes red with tears. He extolled Jeff's charisma, his sense of humor, his outgoing personality, his kindness and his willingness "to go the extra mile" for the people he cared for. Craig said Jeff was "great and versatile" in all the sports he played throughout his life -- football, tennis, golf and especially baseball.
In right field stands a new scoreboard, donated by the same friends, neighbors and families who knew Jeff and were responsible for making the ceremony a reality. They also donated at plaque the size of four home plates that will be posted on a fence beside the scoreboard and reads: "In memory of Jeffrey Nussbaum and to all the victims of September 11, 2001."
Two relatives of Howard Gallub of the Oceanside Little League were involved in the recovery efforts following the terrorist attacks two Septembers ago. They refused charitable money they were offered for their efforts, but accepted it for the scoreboard and plaque.
"This scoreboard and the plaque dedicated to Jeff," Santino said as Arlene dried her eyes, "will forever be a reminder of a very special young man who spent many, many happy and wonderful hours on this field enjoying Little League baseball. It should not be a memorial to his tragic death ... but a celebration of his life ... [and] of all that he did, all that he achieved and all that he meant to us."
"It was a beautiful ceremony," said Arlene. "It was a wonderful idea to have the ceremony here because we spent many, many years down here."
