Only a few months after he was married, Sy Spyler (1937-1998) began coaching Little League baseball, and he continued to volunteer for over 35 years. Most of those years he worked as a local coach. Even more than his enthusiasm for baseball, his love of working with children led Spyler to dedicate much of his time to coaching.

After he graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School (P.S. 435) in the Bronx, Spyler became a union plumber. He worked on plumbing aspects of bridge projects before moving on to work for the New York City Housing Authority, where he did inspections and worked on reconstruction projects. Between 1955 and 1957 he was on active military duty in Europe. He was in the Army’s Special Services, where he played baseball and won the All Europe Championship with his team. Returning to the United States, he was drafted by the Chicago White Sox as a catcher, but was not able to play due to an injury. He married his wife Susan in 1963 and moved to Oakland Hills. Together they had two sons, one of whom is also a Little League coach now.