Baseball is the Fountain of Youth for Joel Weinstein ‘56
This EHS grad’s New England Red Sox team, led by Bill ‘Spaceman’ Lee, is ready to win the 2021 MSBL World Series and defend their title in the 2021 Roy Hobbs World Series.
2019 Roy Hobbs World Series Champions
After a productive career in sophisticated high-tech assignments, Joel Weinstein, EHS ’56, now finds increased joy in his retirement playing in America’s pastime—baseball. Despite his age Joel continues his career in Senior Baseball teams playing second base in sunny California. “It keeps me very busy and lets me enjoy my friends.” Joel says.
Joel grew up in Dorchester. He remembers first attending English High at the Montgomery St. building in the South End. “It was a long walk to school from Dover Station, sometimes through skid row. And I remember chunks of ceiling falling into a classroom at Montgomery. We used to call that old building the ‘Montgomery Brickworks,’ and parts of the building were condemned.” Fortunately Joel finished his EHS career safely at the Avenue Louis Pasteur, Fenway location.
“My brother went to Latin school, but he insisted I go to English. If I hadn’t gone to English I would have gone to Roxbury Memorial which was closer. Going to English was a good decision. It prepared me for MIT,” he said.
Joel didn’t go out for the baseball team at English but he earned a Lawrence Prize and was also a Manual of Arms Winner. In addition he was the “lead runner in the relay team” for runners 5’ 2” and under at English which competed against Tech, Latin and Trade.”
Joe then went on to a distinguished collegiate academic record. He graduated with a SB in Electrical Engineering from MIT, then earned an MS in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern and eventually got his MBA from Stanford.
His first job out of college was helping to build the Cambridge Electron Accelerator. A joint project of MIT and Harvard, it was aimed to provide for “ research activities of the physics departments of both schools.”
Joel later worked for Raytheon and the U.S Air Force in the US and in Europe building early warning radar and defense systems which was then classified as “secret.” “The Russians were always trying to jam us, but they never stopped us.” He continued his career as a consultant and eventually retired to Carmel with his wife Bonni, from Revere Beach, of 56 years.
Here is the 70+ New England Red Sox team at the 2019 Roy Hobbs World Series in Florida. Weinstein is #2 in the back row and second from left in back is Peter Funt of Candid Camera fame.
Joel is hardly taking it easy. He is now Chair of the Ventana Chapter of the Sierra Club. But the baseball bug, which he had “loved” all his life bit him again when he attended a Red Sox Fantasy camp at the urging of his wife—“you’re not getting any younger,” she said. It was the first time Joel ever played on an organized baseball team.
Since then he has played second base for a variety of teams in the Men’s Senior Baseball League (MSBL) teams with various age limits. The League is a national organization. It has 325 local affiliates, 3,200 teams and 45,000 members who play organized amateur baseball in local leagues, 30 regional tournaments and six national tournaments.
He is also President of the Sea Otter Baseball League. Joel has done well on the field and has been elected to the Men’s Senior Baseball Hall of Fame and the Roy Hobbs Baseball Hall of fame.
Bill “Spaceman” Lee
“We are currently planning on winning the 2021 MSBL World Series Championship 73 division and the Roy Hobbs World Series 75 division as defending champions. Our team is led by Bill ’Spaceman’ Lee of the Red Sox!”
