SABR's 'Baseball Memories' keeps people with memory disorders connected to the game

Our love of baseball is closely entwined with our memories. We remember our first catch with a parent or loved one, we remember the first time we went to the ballpark, and we remember the smell of the grass out on the field.

It's these crucial moments that SABR's (the Society of American Baseball Research) "Baseball Memories" program uses to connect with people -- and their care partners -- who suffer from memory disorders. Led by Jon Leonoudakis, Joe Shaw and Anne Enos, the group has established programs at SABR chapters around the country -- with hopes for more to come.

"I got started in 2018, when a friend of mine who was in the South Central Texas SABR chapter told me that they were using baseball to work with people with Alzheimer's and dementia," Leonoudakis, a filmmaker by trade, said. "I thought, 'What a wonderful idea.' I'm a storyteller for a living. I'm a producer in the entertainment industry and love baseball. I'm a baseball historian. I said, 'What a great marriage.'"

All three not only have a deep connection to the sport, but also with diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia. They've seen up close how the diseases can not only rob people of their memories, but fracture their connection to families and communities. Shaw's mother, a diehard Cleveland baseball fan, passed away from Alzheimer's in 2000. Enos -- whose father was a longtime Red Sox scout and was inducted into the Cape Cod League Hall of Fame -- has worked in hospitals and neurology departments.

"I've continued my love of baseball through SABR, but I'm also a retired registered nurse," Enos said. "I worked at Beth Israel in neurology, neurosurgery, and also in Community Health Nursing Administration. I've worked a lot with people with dementia and related diseases, mainly in the community setting."

The group has partnered with care facilities and Alzheimer's organizations in every city in which they operate. That's helped ensure that not only is the work benefiting baseball fans, but it's good for the participants, as well.

"Structure is very important to people in memory care, so we strive to structure it like a baseball game," Leonoudakis said. "We start with the player introductions: All of the attendees tell us who they are, where they're coming in from, maybe their favorite baseball team. Singing and music is also very important, very therapeutic. So we sing the National Anthem, and then three-fourths of the way through, it's time to sing 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame.' We do try to call back to familiar types of structures, or hallmarks of baseball that are familiar with people."

Each meeting also includes trivia games, presentations, and even visits from former Major League ballplayers like Ross Ohlendorf. It's the reaction from the participants in the program that has made it such an enjoyable activity for the organizers, too.

"We have guys who went to games at Ebbets Field and be like, 'Roy Campanella pulled up next to me at a stoplight,'" Shaw said. "You hear these kinds of things and they'll wear their gear, or we'll have a show-and-tell where they'll bring us a relic and tell us the story behind that. It's all about getting people to socialize and connect. As Anne said, it's not about us talking. Our job is to set the stage and trigger these folks so that they can engage."

When former big leaguer Vern Fuller made an appearance in Cleveland, he shocked the guests into silence.

"He's very good at telling those stories and working the crowd," Shaw said about Fuller. "He's a very personable individual. But the group was a little bit quiet for the first half hour. And about 30 minutes in, one of the individuals said, 'I'm just overwhelmed. I have never talked to a Major League Baseball player before. This is such a great experience that you've given us.' It even took Vern back a little bit, but it was one of those a-ha moments."

"It's not just a presentation. It's not a video. It's not an interactive meeting up with friends," Linda Fleischman, who has joined the group with her husband, Bob, said. "It's learning. It's bringing people together and learning about baseball."

While many of the participants struggle with short-term memory, they don't struggle nearly as much with long-term memory. Get them talking about a favorite moment or player from their past, and it immediately becomes alive and vital again.

"I was at one of [Sandy Koufax's] no-hitters," Bob Fleischman said. "It was unbelievable. I got tired of standing! That's what I remember: Everyone was standing!"

Sheldon Levitt -- an Orioles superfan who still has his baseball card from attending a fantasy camp -- clearly remembers the Hoyt Wilhelm no-hitter he attended as a child in 1958.

"I'm still friends with the person whose birthday party it was," Levitt recalled. "So we went -- his mother took us in a 1957 Saab red station wagon. And we went to the game. His mother took us into Memorial Stadium and we had good seats behind home plate that were low enough to see everything. And we watched the no-hitter thrown by Wilhelm."

The meetings -- usually held monthly, but it varies by chapter -- even tailor their content to specific groups. If you know you have a big Dodgers fan in the group, you make sure that there's something about the team in that month's discussion. Or, perhaps if there's a Pirates fan, you make sure you don't bring up the Yankees ... unless you're talking about the 1960 World Series.

"Somehow we got into it and his eyes lit up and he started talking about Bill Mazeroski," Leonoudakis said. "Okay, well turns out Bill Mazeroski was born and raised not too far away from where my wife was born and raised and so we go back to that area. We started having the Mazeroski conversation and he started talking about Yankee shortstops, and he was just totally engaged."

The meetings are something that care partners and the participants look forward to every month.

"I'm grateful as a caregiver," Levitt's wife, Bonnie, said. "He's smiling. It's another memory. There are all kinds of things that have happened to everybody in their life, but his baseball memories -- even if they lost -- were always good memories."

While the in-person events were exhilarating, Covid changed everything. All of a sudden, these groups couldn't meet in person anymore. Obviously, that was a major loss in some ways: No longer could the groups gather and share a hot dog or play a game of catch. But the group reworked its plans and -- as we all did -- took things online. That had some unexpected benefits.

"The first thing we noticed was a spike in attendance because people didn't have to commute," Leonoudakis said. "And it's a big deal for some people and care partners to bring their person there, depending on what stage they're at, to get them dressed and get them in the car and get them over there. So, for many of them, it was a wonderful change."

Enos echoes that. While the in-person meetings have largely taken place in the cities, the online meetings allow for a greater reach for the attendees, too.

"The beauty of Zoom is that we can see people from rural areas, too," Enos said.

The group hopes to grow more in the future, expanding to more cities and reaching more people. They want baseball fans of all types who could use a program like this to take part.

"I would tell them do it. Give it a try," Sherry Kaplan, who attends with her husband, Ira, said. "If you're interested in baseball and discussing with other people, it's only an hour out of your life. I look forward to it and he does, too."

"It seems that my memories of baseball held with me longer than other memories from my frontal temporal dementia," Sheldon said. "Maybe it was the ballpark and the people and everything was happy and everybody was nice."

If you'd like to take part or learn more information, head to SABRbaseballmemories.org.