Mike Pearl, a 2015 Foresters Hall of Famer inductee and a part of the organization from nearly the first pitch, passed away early Monday morning, January 21, from complications of prostate cancer. He was 75. Few people had a more direct effect on the birth, growth, and success of the current era of the Foresters than Mike. He was hands-on and a hand up whenever the team needed help, especially in the early years. As the longtime president of the board of directors, he worked with the team’s staff, coaches, players, volunteers, and fans in just about every capacity off the field. Mike was such an integral part of the ’Sters that when he traveled to Wichita for the annual NBC World Series, fans there assumed he owned the team!
Mike will be missed by his amazing wife Gail and his extended family, as well as the many people he touched through his years of work as a real estate agent and broker, helping families find their homes just as he helped the Foresters find championships. Mike was also a longtime member of the Bishop Diego baseball family and he had an impact on hundreds of young men as one of their coaches.
We will always remember Mike, standing behind home plate at Caesar Uyesaka, wearing his Foresters vest, a toothpick bouncing in his mouth, as he cooked hot dogs, took tickets, berated umpires, or grumbled about the state of the team’s finances. But more vivid than those memories will be the one of his great, broad, hairy smile of greeting and enthusiasm for everyone he met as they came to take part in the game he loved. We will miss you, Mike, and never forget you and what you meant to us.
Information about memorial services will be forthcoming and we will make sure the Foresters family knows the details.
