RENSSELAERVILLE — Jost Nickelsberg loves baseball.

Born in war-torn Germany in the 1940s, he moved to America and found the nation’s pastime and was enamored with the first African-American player in the history of the Major Leeagues.
What transpired was a love affair that still is with him until this day, even though he had his heart broken by "Dem Bums."

Nickelsberg loves the sport so much he wants to share the joy it brings him with as many people as he can, especially young people.

Nickelsberg has made a career out of providing aid to young players, mostly through teaching, coaching, and being an administrator. It started one day in Westchester County.
"About 20 years ago, I was living in Bedford," Nickelsberg said. "There is a high school there called Fox Lane. We were going by to go shopping, and there was a nice looking ball field. But it was empty. It was fall, but I was sure there were a lot of baseballers that didn’t want to play football and would love to play a baseball game. I thought it was the perfect time to start a fall ball team.
"At the time, there were no other teams," Nickelsberg said. "The weather and the fields were perfect. We busted our ass and we got seven teams. But it was also a lot of fun."

Nickelsberg started a fall and summer team for high school-age players in the area, and would later include New York City and Connecticut players. He called it The Baseball Academy.
"It evolved at the end of the season," Nickelsberg said. "We played double headers on Saturday and Sunday."

"Winningest coach in the history of man"

Nickelsberg was inspired by an old friend who made a mark in another sport.

Harry Hopman was a famous tennis coach from Australia who led his native country to many international championships.
"Australia from the late 1930s to the 1960s were the undisputed champions of the tennis world," Nickelsberg said. "At least 17 times. Those teams had one thing in common. They had the same coach for 20 years. Out of 20 attempts he won 17 times.
"He is the winningest coach in the history of man. He was the best man at my wedding and my best friend. And now they have the Hopman Cup in Australia. He taught me things like no two pitches are ever alike and no two teams are alike."

After having a pretty successful fall campaign that first year, Nickelsberg decided to continue to run the academy all year long.
"We specialized all year round in baseball training," he said. "We held the winter baseball academy first in Bedford and then all of Westchester."

The academy and the teams that sprouted from it grew and attracted players who were eager to learn from a good teacher and be able to play baseball all year.
"We got kids from all over," Nickelsberg said. "We got players from Connecticut, the City, and even Georgia. We put the best of the best on our summer teams."

The baseball academy has been successful in producing baseball players that went to the college level and even to the professional level.
"We have gotten about $125 million in scholarship money," Nickelsberg said. "And we have gotten another dozen drafted. We have now evolved today to doing clinics here or there. The one we did here was the largest we put on."

Former players Christian Jung and Frankie Chu both got good scholarhsips, Nickelsberg recalled. He said Chu got a full four-year scholarship that amounted to $1.5 million from Duke University.

Nickelsberg also said that his team has brought home about 125 pounds worth of trophies and traveled all over the world.
"We traveled to places such as Germany, Italy, California, and Arizona," Nickelsberg said. "We also took mini-trips to Long Island and to other local tournaments. We probably did 1.2 million miles of travel. We made it so a kid could be seen quite well."

Baseball lifer
"I’ve been in love with baseball my whole life," Nickelsberg said.

He was born in Berlin, Germany feels giving back is native to him.
"I come from a service-service place," he said. "You help your neighbor if you have to. That whole part of Germany is like that. My mother and my Grandpa volunteered to do this and do that. They wanted to be part of the solution and solve a problem.
"That was easy, the volunteer part," Nickelsberg added. "It was not as easy to volunteer with the baseball part. I had a job I worked until four in the afternoon. And my wife allowed me to do it on weekends."

He is retired now from a career on Wall Street in finance, and lives in Rensselaerville with his wife.

Nickelsberg’s love of baseball grew when he moved out of Germany and into America.

Nickelsberg’s father was a member of the German Army during World War II and was captured by the Russian Army during the war. Nickelsburg’s mother then married an American officer.
"In 1944 we moved to a western part of Germany, because there were no bombs there," Nickelsberg said. "In 1946, my mother married an American officer and I came to America with my stepfather in 1948, when I was 6 years old."

The family moved to Long Branch, N.J. and Nickelsberg fell in love with baseball in 1949.

He also fell in love with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
"They had Jackie Robinson, who was the most exciting ball player I’ve ever seen," Nickelsberg said. "He would deliberately get into run downs and he got to the next base about 73 percent of the time."

The Dodgers reached the pinnacle of winning a World Series but then hurt all of their fans by moving to Los Angeles in the late 1950s.
"They broke my heart," Nickelsberg said. "Three or four years later, a new team came in. I’m a Mets fan now."

Nickelsberg moved on to Dennison College in Ohio.
"I played baseball there for three years and got a good education," he said. "My love of baseball never grew cold. It’s like a religion. When you’re young, it’s something that sticks with you. The Dodgers come and go, but the game has always stayed.
"I figured I had so much fun I had to pass that long," Nickelsberg added.

Branch Rickey

He got a job in finance on Wall Street and made a good living for himself. But he wanted to keep baseball in his life and have a direct impact on young lives.

The Baseball Academy gave him plenty of opportunity for that.

Nickelsberg and his small staff of coaches had the only winter baseball facility around the Westchester area. So players flocked to it.
"We had seven teams and each played four games a week and double-headers on weekends," Nickelsberg said. "And there were about 20 players on each team. So that is about 140 players. And, in the winter, we would get about 250 kids of various ages at times. We had a gym and pitching tunnels and batting tunnels.
"It was amazing how fast it grew," he added. "But it didn’t happen overnight. We had those 140 to 250 kids that played probably for 10 years. We had about 1,200 winter participants and then we had 18 to 20 kids on our 18-year-old team and 18 to 20 kids on the 16-year-old team."

Nickelsberg also said that he got great support from many families.
"We had about 20 families over a 20 year period that were the best in the world," he said. "They helped with drinks, they would sell popcorn, plan trips and make reservations, and help with scouts and college coaches."

Nickelsberg had four coaches on his first team. Frank Bartolotta was one of his main coaches and helped him instill what is called the Branch Rickey system for teaching baseball.

Branch Rickey was a former general manager of the Dodgers and is best known for bringing Jackie Robinson to the Major Leagues and integrating baseball.

Rickey also had a style of teaching baseball by breaking things down by half seconds and fractions.
"It is used by St. Louis, the Dodgers, Pirates, and the Yankees," Nickelsberg said. "It teaches every facet of the game by half seconds and fractions. It breaks things down enough to help the kids tremendously."

Bartolotta helped teach the system and it worked as many players have gone on to playing past high school.

Two of the better players to come from the system were Scott Leius and Gene Larkin.

Both were key members of the 1987 Minnesota Twins World Series team.
"It was a seven-game World Series and the Twins won 4-3," Nickelsberg said. "Of the four games that the Twins won, the academy taught kids that had the game-winning hit. They were not the best players we’ve had, but in the World Series that will never happen again. It is statistically not possible."

Former Colorado Rockie Garvin Alston is another former academy player. The pitcher was the first drafted Rockies player to reach the Major League club. He is in the Colorado Rockies Hall of Fame.
"He was on the team for 17 days, but never played again," Nickelsberg said.

Roy Smith had the longest tenure of any academy product.
"He played 50, 60, and 70 games over 10 years," Nickelsberg said. "He probably played the longest."

"Set up kids for success"

But it not professional players that Nickelsberg is most proud of. He is proud of his former players that have gone on to have successful careers in fields such as law, the medicine, and most commonly Nickelsberg’s own world of finance.
"The main goal is to get kids college scholarships," Nickelsberg said. "The odds of making the majors is really tough. The whole world plays baseball and is it very competitive. We want to set up the kids for success. We are all aiming for the majors, but we want to do it via college."

And after three years of college, when players are eligible to be drafted again, know how good they are.
"They have more options," Nickelsberg said. "Maybe they will succeed and get to the majors. We are using baseball to get an education."