{"id":54977,"date":"2013-06-25T11:36:24","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T15:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=54977"},"modified":"2013-06-25T13:39:10","modified_gmt":"2013-06-25T17:39:10","slug":"bergtraum-v-beacon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/","title":{"rendered":"Bergtraum v. Beacon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bergtraum-Field-Paris-Review\"<\/a>

Image via Flickr<\/em>.<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The visiting team is already waiting at the fence when\u00a0Murry Bergtraum High School coach Nick Pizza arrives on Cherry Street to open the gates to his field, which are kept locked.\u00a0His players haven\u2019t arrived yet, though the visiting team, Beacon High School, has already dressed on the sidewalk, a cluster of parents standing a few feet away, averting their eyes.\u00a0No metal cleats are allowed in the complex, because the turf and dirt are that nice.\u00a0The backstop opens up toward the Manhattan Bridge, and right field ends at the FDR Drive.\u00a0The Brooklyn Bridge unspools to the south.\u00a0The field is well dragged, and a custodian walks around its edges, using a leafblower to blow stray baseball dirt off the surrounding track.\u00a0Back in October, the field looked different: after Hurricane Sandy, for almost a week, it was under three feet of water.<\/p>\n

By the time Coach Pizza (\u201cBrooklyn born and raised\u201d) has changed into his uniform, his players are beginning to arrive, some of them on rollerblades, from Murry Bergtraum proper, a jail-like facility wedged between the Brooklyn Bridge and City Hall. \u201cI got a good bunch of kids,\u201d Coach Pizza says. \u201cGotta find that balance, get the classroom stuff out of the way.\u201d\u00a0Bergtraum, with a record of 3-10, is a perennial underachiever in Manhattan A West, while Beacon, 10-3, has won the division the past two years.\u00a0One problem for Pizza\u2019s team: eligibility.\u00a0Too many players have failed too many classes to play.\u00a0Hurricane Sandy didn\u2019t help\u2014early games had to be rescheduled, and Bergtraum didn\u2019t have use of their field until mid-April, well into the season: after trucks of clay were redeposited over the infield, the locker rooms dug free of sand by the custodians.<\/p>\n

Bergtraum High School, a once-proud jewel of the city education system that prepared students for practical careers in business, is now perhaps more famous for hallway riots and the fact that it\u2019s one of the few large schools that the DOE hasn\u2019t broken up (more positively, too, for its phenomenal girls\u2019 basketball team).\u00a0The student body, predominantly black and Hispanic, comes from all the far reaches of the boroughs, along the stretch of the J, M, Z, and L lines, necessitating commutes of over an hour in some cases. <\/p>\n

While the hordes of Beacon players assemble in orderly throwing lines, the Bergtraum twelve disperse to their warmup routines.\u00a0One of the twelve, ineligible pitcher and outfielder Jose Rodriguez (\u201cWould go through the wall for a ball,\u201d Pizza says of him), writes down the lineup.\u00a0Rodriguez, who is dressed in jeans and wears small Nike Jumpman earrings, lives a few apartment complexes north of the Manhattan Bridge.\u00a0He had no lights or water for two weeks after Sandy, and had to walk up to the twenty-sixth floor of his building with the elevator out of order. And the Bergtraum field: \u201cComo ondas\u2014waves,\u201d he says, making the motion with his hands.\u00a0The outfield turf, eventually fixed, had buckled.\u00a0Though the team wasn\u2019t doing much better, the big three-hitter Giovanni Pe\u00f1a said.\u00a0\u201cNot so good.\u00a0A lot of little mistakes.\u201d\u00a0He hits grounders to the infielders along with Deion Roberson, first baseman, a junior who travels from Canarsie to avoid Canarsie High School.\u00a0\u201cA lot of people left Canarsie for the hurricane,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u201cBut my father lives on Coney Island. The whole thing got shut down.\u201d\u00a0Pe\u00f1a points his Baum bat at the Manhattan Bridge in left and changes the subject.\u00a0\u201cEverything I see I wanna hit it out,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

There is a legend of Manny Ramirez, who played for lordly George Washington High School, coming down to lowly Bergtraum and hitting a home run over the fence, skimming the bottom of the bridge, over the street and past the parking lot and Pathmark a block away.\u00a0\u201cHe has to be on steroids or something,\u201d Pe\u00f1a says.\u00a0\u201cYou know how high that shit is,\u201d Roberson says incredulously.\u00a0When Coach Pizza started working at Bergtraum, he saw some of the old scorebooks\u2014Manny Ramirez, two for two, two home runs and two walks. \u201cMy question is why did they pitch to him twice,\u201d Pizza says.\u00a0He looks over the left field fence toward the bridge.\u00a0\u201cParking lot, maybe,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m sure an extra twenty-five feet get added to that story every year.\u201d\u00a0Once the coach walks away, Pe\u00f1a picks up his bat again.\u00a0\u201cI dunno, he probably did hit the Pathmark,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The game starts. \u201cIt\u2019s hot and<\/i> cold,\u201d Pe\u00f1a complains on the bench.\u00a0\u201cGlobal warming,\u201d he says, kidding.\u00a0In the first, he\u2019ll roll into a well-hit double play, but Bergtraum will surprise everyone by taking a quick lead an inning later, when Roberson cranks a solo shot to center, not quite Ramirez distances.\u00a0Everyone on the bench jumps up and says, \u201cFinally!\u201d\u00a0Roberson, smiling wide, takes his batting gloves off carefully as he sits back on the bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beacon scores solidly, two an inning almost every inning: their big, adolescent muscles pounding line drives in holes, or into errors. \u201cCreatine,\u201d is the muttered joke. Their pitcher is reeling off big reliable curveballs, and his team makes the majority of its plays.\u00a0An empty number 28 jersey, for a senior second basemen who died midseason in 2011, hangs inside their dugout, matching the black number 28 patches on their sleeves.<\/p>\n

Down 6-4 in the top of the sixth, Coach Pizza calls in a new pitcher, Miguel Salas, from Bushwick, who had been the third baseman.\u00a0Salas isn\u2019t quite the best player on the team\u2014the most promising might be sophomore catcher Jason Paredes Mora, who came straight from the Dominican Republic in August, to a building near Rodriguez\u2019s twenty-sith floor walkup in the Lower East Side (\u201cJason moved here in August, couple of months later he\u2019s in the dark,\u201d Coach Pizza notes)\u2014but Salas is a ballplayer.\u00a0He\u2019s batting .405 and played for the storied Brooklyn team Youth Service growing up.\u00a0He\u2019s also a joker, keeping everyone alive on the bench.\u00a0After a missed tag at third and a missed pop-up between shortstop and center, right where the turf had buckled back in October, Salas comes back to the bench and holds forth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe suck.\u00a0We\u2019re 3-10.\u00a0As a team we suck.\u00a0As individuals, we\u2019ve got some talent.\u00a0But as a team, we suck.\u201d\u00a0It was now only cold.\u00a0The sun was falling behind the Knickerbocker Houses and the blank Verizon building. \u201cWhy\u2019d I go to Bergtraum?\u201d he says, \u201cIt\u2019s the only high school that accepted me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Bergtraum batter singles to left, a runner scores from second.\u00a0Salas is up and shouting.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s not over,\u201d he says.\u00a0He\u2019s the first one off the bench to congratulate the runner.\u00a0A ground ball scoots through the shortstop\u2019s legs, and the suddenly successful Roberson, whose back has the proverbial piano dropped on it, nevertheless scores from third, and it\u2019s 6-6.\u00a0\u201cVamos ganar,\u201d Salas is screaming.\u00a0A long double to left, and it\u2019s 8-6.\u00a0\u201cLet\u2019s fucking go,\u201d he yells, leaping around the dugout.\u00a0He almost forgets to get a helmet on his own way up to the plate, where he knocks a nice little line drive to right.\u00a0Another run scores, but trying to stretch a single to a double he gets thrown out at second, sliding headfirst.\u00a0\u201cYo we don\u2019t suck,\u201d he says, coming back to the bench unfazed.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re elite.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the rush hour traffic creeps strangely quickly towards the Brooklyn Bridge, Salas slowly gives up three runs, none of them entirely his fault.\u00a0With a tie score, back on the bench, Salas is valiant.\u00a0Beacon changes pitchers.\u00a0\u201cThis man throws everything outside corner,\u201d he says, after watching closely.\u00a0\u201cLet\u2019s go, hit it right field.\u201d\u00a0Nobody does.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m gonna pitch till my arm falls off,\u201d he says, going out to the mound for extras.\u00a0He doesn\u2019t pitch for long.\u00a0Number 18 for Beacon walks.\u00a0Number 2 slips a single past third.\u00a0Finally number 8 homers over center, and Beacon gathers at home plate to celebrate.\u00a0Salas had good movement on his ball.\u00a0He didn\u2019t pitch badly.\u00a0Still, they made their at-bats.\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s it,\u201d Coach Pizza says. A corporate softball team rushes forward to take the field.\u00a0They paid for a permit to avoid the Parks Department, and were glad that the Bergtraum field was open again.\u00a0The players head for their respective train stations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark Chiusano\u2019s collection of stories,<\/em> Marine Park, will be published by Penguin in July 2014. His stories and essays have appeared in <\/em>Narrative Magazine,<\/em> Harvard Review, and online at <\/em>Tin House and <\/em>The Huffington Post, among other places.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The visiting team is already waiting at the fence when\u00a0Murry Bergtraum High School coach Nick Pizza arrives on Cherry Street to open the gates to his field, which are kept locked.\u00a0His players haven\u2019t arrived yet, though the visiting team, Beacon High School, has already dressed on the sidewalk, a cluster of parents standing a few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":554,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[931],"tags":[375,958,1171,11223,11222,85],"class_list":["post-54977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-sports","tag-baseball","tag-brooklyn","tag-high-school","tag-manny-ramirez","tag-murry-bergtraum-high-school","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBergtraum v. Beacon by Mark Chiusano<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"June 25, 2013 \u2013 The visiting team is already waiting at the fence when\u00a0Murry Bergtraum High School coach Nick Pizza arrives on Cherry Street to open the gates to his\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bergtraum v. Beacon by Mark Chiusano\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"June 25, 2013 \u2013 The visiting team is already waiting at the fence when\u00a0Murry Bergtraum High School coach Nick Pizza arrives on Cherry Street to open the gates to his\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-25T15:36:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-06-25T17:39:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Bergtraum-Field-Paris-Review.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"398\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Chiusano\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Chiusano\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark Chiusano\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/70d7b50ceecb9ca0c9218bf4f73c5576\"},\"headline\":\"Bergtraum v. Beacon\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-25T15:36:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-06-25T17:39:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/\"},\"wordCount\":1478,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Bergtraum-Field-Paris-Review.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"baseball\",\"Brooklyn\",\"high school\",\"Manny Ramirez\",\"Murry Bergtraum High School\",\"sports\"],\"articleSection\":[\"On Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/\",\"name\":\"Bergtraum v. Beacon by Mark Chiusano\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Bergtraum-Field-Paris-Review.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-25T15:36:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-06-25T17:39:10+00:00\",\"description\":\"June 25, 2013 \u2013 The visiting team is already waiting at the fence when\u00a0Murry Bergtraum High School coach Nick Pizza arrives on Cherry Street to open the gates to his\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Bergtraum-Field-Paris-Review.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Bergtraum-Field-Paris-Review.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bergtraum v. Beacon\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/70d7b50ceecb9ca0c9218bf4f73c5576\",\"name\":\"Mark Chiusano\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/77db02e469afaf72ce418a0584c0a7a042b8543ce7562354eb4b98704e78bc61?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/77db02e469afaf72ce418a0584c0a7a042b8543ce7562354eb4b98704e78bc61?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Chiusano\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/mchiusano\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bergtraum v. Beacon by Mark Chiusano","description":"June 25, 2013 \u2013 The visiting team is already waiting at the fence when\u00a0Murry Bergtraum High School coach Nick Pizza arrives on Cherry Street to open the gates to his","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bergtraum v. Beacon by Mark Chiusano","og_description":"June 25, 2013 \u2013 The visiting team is already waiting at the fence when\u00a0Murry Bergtraum High School coach Nick Pizza arrives on Cherry Street to open the gates to his","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2013-06-25T15:36:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-06-25T17:39:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":398,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Bergtraum-Field-Paris-Review.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mark Chiusano","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Chiusano","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/"},"author":{"name":"Mark Chiusano","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/70d7b50ceecb9ca0c9218bf4f73c5576"},"headline":"Bergtraum v. Beacon","datePublished":"2013-06-25T15:36:24+00:00","dateModified":"2013-06-25T17:39:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/"},"wordCount":1478,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Bergtraum-Field-Paris-Review.jpg","keywords":["baseball","Brooklyn","high school","Manny Ramirez","Murry Bergtraum High School","sports"],"articleSection":["On Sports"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/","name":"Bergtraum v. Beacon by Mark Chiusano","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Bergtraum-Field-Paris-Review.jpg","datePublished":"2013-06-25T15:36:24+00:00","dateModified":"2013-06-25T17:39:10+00:00","description":"June 25, 2013 \u2013 The visiting team is already waiting at the fence when\u00a0Murry Bergtraum High School coach Nick Pizza arrives on Cherry Street to open the gates to his","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Bergtraum-Field-Paris-Review.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Bergtraum-Field-Paris-Review.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/bergtraum-v-beacon\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bergtraum v. Beacon"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/70d7b50ceecb9ca0c9218bf4f73c5576","name":"Mark Chiusano","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/77db02e469afaf72ce418a0584c0a7a042b8543ce7562354eb4b98704e78bc61?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/77db02e469afaf72ce418a0584c0a7a042b8543ce7562354eb4b98704e78bc61?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark Chiusano"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/mchiusano\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/554"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54977"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54993,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54977\/revisions\/54993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}