For a long time we'd had trouble rounding up kids to play in the local Little League. Best we could do was two teams for my son's age group. Just too much going on these days and for the boys who wanted to play ball, the best players wantrd to play on competitive club teams that cost a lot, and I mean a lot, to join. The hotshots weren't interested in Little League where the "weak" players were allowed to participate.
Two teams playing each other all season isn't much fun and it's not much fun to travel across town all the time to find more competition. My neighbor had an idea. His brother belonged to an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish congregation and he thought they might might have some kids who wanted to play. It turned out that they did... on the condition that there'd be no games on the Sabbath... Friday night and Saturday. I volunteered to coach the Observant team, which had a mix of the Observant and other. The youngsters actually got along very well. The non-Jewish, especially the Mexican kids, were miffed by boys with long curls hanging down next to their ears, yarmulkes instead of baseball hats, and tzitnit tassels (knotted ritual strings) hanging down from the waist. But the boys liked each other... even when the Orthodox said no thanks to yummy snacks.
Everything was going fine until Passover. Some of the Orthodox said they couldn't play. Problem. We didn't have enough players to play without them and Little League, in its infinite wisdom, doesn't allow you to play without nine players and you're not allowed to borrow players from another team. Worse. If we wanted to field a team for the Little League All-Star tournament, our players were required to play a minimum number of games during the regular season. Little League is really too complicated.
Solution. Consult the team rabbi. Thank God one of the parents stepped up. We talked it over and the rabbi gave me a ruling that the observant players would only have to miss one game. Season saved.
