Berens, Edward “Eddie”

 

Edward “Eddie” Berens – (2001)

 

The United States was in the throes of a devastating depression when Lorain native Edward (Eddie/Lefty) Berens launched his lifetime dream of a career in baseball. It actually was part of his life since childhood. Unfortunately, Lorain High School did not have baseball then. Following graduation in 1939 and with little opportunity for work, Eddie joined the CCC (Civlion Conservation Corps) in 1940 and was assigned to its Superior camp near Missoula, Montana.

He was a pitching and hitting mainstay on the camp championship baseball team when a major league scout, Nick Mariana of the Brooklyn Dodgers, liked what he saw of this southpaw hurler. Upon his discharge from the CCC in 1941, the Dodgers invited him to spring training (then held at Reading, Pa.). He pitched professionally at Olean, New York, in the Class D PONY League where he was 5-2 as a starting pitcher, then at Fremont in the Ohio State League.

But by then World War Two was in full swing and this sadly interrupted Eddie’s baseball dream when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942. Even then he was able to keep alive his baseball dream when, while stationed in Austria, he helped organize a baseball team that played literally on a virtual cow pasture.

His major league ambition suffered a major blow in September, 1944, when he a bullet struck him in his left (pitching) arm and right foot. Following a long recovery period, he was awarded the Purple Heart, four battle stars and was honorably discharged in 1945. He did recover from his injuries to resume his baseball activity on a milltary team. In 1946, Eddie pitched in the National Amateur Baseball Federation in Youngstown.

Berens was employed at Lake Terminal Railroad in Lorain and where he continued to pitch and play first base with the Kirby Cleaners, Kulup and Lawson teams. Also big on the bowling lanes, Eddie was a top kegler with such teams as VFW, PLAV, UPC, Leidertafel Local 2186 and was a key member of the 1948 championship Kraka’s Cafe bowling team.

Eddie and his late wife, Suzanne, had three daughters, Vanessa Kucirek, Candace Edgel and Monica Berens, and two granddaughters. Berens died April 16, 2001, at age 80.