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MAY 22, 2024 • Vol. 21, No. 11
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West Bloomfield senior pitcher Jon Beard delivers a pitch during a matchup against Rochester High School May 15 at Rochester High School. Photo by Patricia O’Blenes
Photo by Patricia O’Blenes
After an approximately 38-year career in law enforcement, Keego Harbor Police Chief John Fitzgerald is set to retire.
Calling it a career KEEGO POLICE CHIEF SET TO RETIRE BY MARK VEST mvest@candgnews.com
WB baseball’s ‘lethal combination’ of arms looks to make some noise in state tournament BY JONATHAN SZCZEPANIAK
jszczepaniak@candgnews.com
WEST BLOOMFIELD — At this point, West Bloomfield baseball head coach Josh Birnberg must think the full-circle feeling is never-ending. A 2014 West Bloomfield graduate, Birnberg was a standout shortstop for a Lakers baseball squad that surprised everyone in 2014, knocking off Bloomfield Hills
See RETIRE on page 16A
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Brother Rice, one of the top teams in the state at the time, and reaching the regional championship game under head coach Eric Pierce, now the athletic director at West Bloomfield. “I always told him (Pierce) when he was coaching at the time that I’d come back and coach,” Birnberg said. “I was half serious and half joking, but it was always something I wanted to do at some point. I didn’t necessarily See BASEBALL on page 17A
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KEEGO HARBOR — Keego Harbor Police Chief John Fitzgerald recently reflected on avoiding having to make a tough call approximately four decades ago. After playing football at Grand Valley State University, Fitzgerald recalls getting a phone call one morning when he was in the police academy. An average, mundane phone call this was not, as on the other end of the phone was “one of the player personnel people from the Detroit Lions.” The call was in regard to a potential try-out with the Lions. For as fantastic of an opportunity as that might seem like, Fitzgerald said that he was torn.