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November 11, 2025: Offseason

Good snowy day today guys,

It’s days like today that make me think of hot days on Wednesday nights. Last night we had our postseason dinner and awards night. Big thanks to Mike and Rick at the JCC for making it all happen. Below are the winners of all of the awards. Congrats to everyone who was nominated. 

Ron Rose Rookie of the Year – Ian Segall

MVP – Griffin Harris

Offensive Player of the Year – Cam Kirzner

Defensive Player of the Year – David Wertheim

Comeback Player of the Year – Jimmy Lefton

Tournament MVP – Dan McGrath

All-Star Game MVP – AJ Goldhoff and Stu Solomon

Frank Harkavy Goodwill Ambassador – Ryan Silverman

Marcus Kruke Sportsmanship Award- Bob Pelberg

League Champion – Team Goldhoff

Post-Season Tournament Champion – Team Solomon

On top of that we had a nice Q&A with former JCC Blue Jays player, Charlie Goldsmith. He was very informative on what it’s like to cover the Reds and Bengals.  A couple of the highlights were talking about how the Bengals have denied all the Bengals beat writers the chance to talk to Duke Tobin, that they will continue to operate the way they see fit, wins and losses be damned, and that first round pick Shemar Stewart is currently the worst player on the Bengals, which is saying something.

On the Reds front, he didn’t have an answer for why the Reds won’t spend more money on payroll, that Banana Bob loves the Reds so much he meddles in the front office (but not enough to actually spend money on a winner) and that he agrees with me that the Reds should trade Cam Collier because he has no place to play and won’t be on the Reds for at least two more years. He is worried about the lockout, unfortunately. If he didn’t stop questions I think we (I) would have kept him there all night. 

Finally, he said he knew Mike Youkilis and it was fun to talk to Tito Francona about his connection to him when he was hired. That was very cool to hear..

League notes:

Thanks to all of you who came out for the Oy Vey 5K yesterday. Yes, it was cold but that didn’t stop Adam from defending his title of fastest 5K runner in the league. I beg/implore all of you to come out and try to beat him next year. Once again, ALL of the money goes back to the Blue Jays and softball and basketball league. 

Happy birthday to the following:

Pete “The Straw that Stirs the Drink” Soltesz

Mark Weisser

Steve Z (and get better from your shoulder surgery) 

If I missed your birthday since the end of the season, sorry.

Happy anniversary to Rick and Betsy Lefton

And Congrats to Ryan “The One Man Gang” Marcus on getting married

While OSU looks like the best team in football it will be interesting to see if their schedule and total lack of playing any teams any good (which is a 100% reflection on the lousy Big 10) and not at all on OSU) will come back to bite them in the tournament. I’m not sure what I would like more. to see Bama and UGA struggle to beat teams in the meat grinder of the SEC or to be OSU and just crush everyone without playing as hard a schedule. Again this is not to take anything away from the Buckeyes. You play who you play, but are they as good as the top of the SEC? In a few weeks we will find out. 

After two games, I have no clue if UC is good in basketball. I can tell you I haven’t seen a player like Baba Miller on UC maybe ever. The dude is 6-9 or so, can dribble like a point guard and can throw it down like a power forward. He might be the best player on the team or it could be that they play Little Sisters of the Poor for the first month. Just like with the Buckeyes, we will find out soon if UC and Miller are legit.

I started watching the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame concert the other night. They opened it with a tribute to Sly and the Family Stone (Sly Stone died earlier this year), with Stevie Wonder, Joe Perry, Beck, Flea, Questlove, some other R&B guy and Jennifer Hudson all in the band they didn’t hold a candle to prime Sly. Not even close. One of the greatest bands ever.

On the other hand, Bryan Adams rocked it fronting a couple of Bad Company songs. 

I have not confirmed that Roger camped out over night at Skyline Chili to get the Bengals bobbleheads first but I wouldn’t put it past him.

Stay warm out there. April isn’t that far away, right?

Marc

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September 28, 2025: All-Star Game

A big shout out to Brad Wagner for his help with the recap of the ASG which was two Sundays ago. Sorry for the delay in getting it out to all of you:

Brad, take it away:

JCC All-Star Game Recap – September 28th at Grooms Field

Under perfect fall skies, Team Wagner defeated Team Grefer 17–8 in this year’s JCC All-Star Game.

Jimmy Lefton took the mound for Team Wagner and battled through a challenging first inning as Team Grefer jumped out to an early lead. Team Wagner’s offense came alive in the middle innings—plating two runs in the third and exploding for nine runs in the fourth to seize control of the game.

Stu Solomon entered in relief and delivered four outstanding innings, allowing just one run and helping secure the victory.

Leading Hitters for Team Wagner:

  • Zach Mayer: 3 hits
  • AJ Goldhoff: 3 hits
  • Joel Fogel: 3 hits
  • Ken Groh: 3 hits

Defensive Standouts:
David Wertheim, Jeremy Fogel, Brad Wagner, and Matt Brodoff each made key plays in the field that kept Team Grefer’s offense in check.

Co-MVPs:
AJ Goldhoff and Stu Solomon

Attendance was strong, with the ticket booth noting it was the most well-attended All-Star Game in many years.

A big thank-you to all players, fans, and families who made the evening such a success. We look forward to celebrating together at the upcoming banquet!

League notes:

A lot of birthdays since the end of the season

Evan Gildenblatt

Nick DePiano

“the Special One” Mike Rothstein

Brandon LeBeau 

Brad Wagner

Zach Mayer

Bryce Anslinger

Speaking of Bryce big props to him for rooting on the Redlegs from Milwaukee last weekend. I did not plan ahead and missed the boat on that. 

As for the Reds, I know the Dodgers are the Dodgers and it would have been tough sledding no matter what but man I just can’t figure out why we did what we did with the pitching staff. If Nick Lodolo was good enough to pitch two+ innings in game two, why did he not start or at the very least come in for the 4th inning on Wednesday night. Tito made some really bad moves both on Sunday vs. the Brewers and in game 2 vs. the Dodgers. Would it have mattered? Who knows, but I don’t think he gave us the best chance to win and that is surprising. 

I have nothing to add about the Bengals other than it’s like watching the Lost Decade all over again. 

If any of you guys come down for a UC game let me know. An open invite to our tailgate. Cam, AJ, Brad and Corey Norris have all come by to say hi. Just let me know before hand and I’ll send you the map to where it is. We aren’t OSU but UC is having a nice season thus far, so I hope to see ya at a game.

Reminder the Oy Vey 5K is coming up the week of the Bungles bye week. Please sign up.

We will announce the date and time of the banquet soon so keep your eyes open.

Finally, join us for a special event, a behind-the-scenes look at the Israeli Olympic Baseball team, Israel Swings for Gold, at UC on Friday, October 24.

The event will take place at 7:30 PM in Lindner Center Room 450 and will include the following:

7:30 PM: Shabbat candle lighting (pending approval for real candles; otherwise, we’ll use fake tea lights)

7:45 PM: Film screening (approximately 78 minutes)

Following the film: Q&A with Nate Fish, CEO of Israel Baseball Americas and Israel National Team Manager, and potentially Kevin Youkilis.

Marc

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September 10, 2025: Tournament Championship

On another picture perfect night for softball, we crowned our 2025 Youk Post season tournament champ. Once again it was Team Stu vs. Team Ken

Stu with the recap:

Stu Solomon walked off the mound and looked up into the sun-kissed sky tracking an infield pop-up. After the ball landed in the first baseman’s glove for the final out, Stu took off his pitcher’s mask and squatted as his teammates ambushed him from all angles.

Team Solomon powered past Team Groh for the 11-10 win to capture the 2025 Youk Award in thrilling fashion Wednesday night on Field 2 at Triple Creek.

Stu’s Blues were the visitors in every postseason game, and we came out swinging every time. Lead off man Cam “Run” Kirzner, Jeremy “Strong” Dock and Captain Stu got aboard and scored early, then Will “The Thrill” Coleman brought in 3 more on a JCC triple-turned-home run to right center.

Six runs on 7 hits is a great way to start out the championship game, but it was no walk in the park from there. Groh’s guy got a few hits, then a sequence of walks loaded the bases and plated their first 2 runs. 

After each team went down in order the second inning and we got one more run in the third, our opponents in orange wasted no time cutting in our lead. Four runs in the bottom half, including a no-doubt shot over the fence from “Pistol Pete” Soltesz, and all of a sudden it’s a one-run game.

Dock got on and scored his second of three runs to make it 8-6, then Kirzner and Coleman turned a crucial 6-3 double play across the infield with the tying run at the plate to end the fifth inning. Dan “The Man” McGrath and “Buffalo Ben” Charlton were anchors for us in left and right center as they have been all season.

Our defensive heroics could only last for so long as Groh’s bats came alive once more in the sixth to flip the game on its head, scoring 4 runs to give them a 10-8 lead and a chance to close it out in the top of the seventh. Down to our final out with Jeremy on base, Stu put the team on his back and extended the game with an RBI single. Dan added another hit to advance Stu, then Ben knocked them both in on the go-ahead two-out base hit to make it 11-10.

We made three quick outs, including an ultra clutch running grab from Eli “Ghost” Gould in shallow right field, to hang on for the dramatic one-run win. Team Solomon won 10 of its final 12 games to rebound from a 2-6 first half and finish the season on top.

So there you have it. Congrats to Team Stu and the guys. After they whooped Team Brafman last week, Captain Brafman told them he thought they were one of the better teams he’d seen over the last couple of years and they proved him right. 

Thanks to everyone for another great season. Please be on the lookout for the ASG announcement coming up soon and word on the end-of-the-year banquet.

League notes 

Happy birthday to Ryan “The One Man Gang” Marcus. Looking forward to having you back next year.

The Oy Vey 5K is back. please sign up here: Oy Vey 5K

Somehow the Reds are still in the playoff hunt. (Well that somehow is that the 300 million dollar Mets are going into the tank). Elly could be the second coming of Willie Mays and I won’t sign him or anyone to Juan Soto money. At least the Reds are keeping it interesting. But one has to wonder how many games they would be up in the wildcard or even the NL Central if management had signed a bat in the offseason like we all knew they needed. The Reds, when healthy, have 3 legit aces plus Singer who has been fantastic the second half and yet they are only 2 games over 500. Maybe they will pull it off, but again it’s on the front office this offseason to for once go all in (smartly) and get us some bats.

If you need New Years plans I’m sure that Roger will be happy to celebrate with you at the Cintas Center as it was announced yesterday that XU will host UCONN on Dec. 31. Who doesn’t want to ring in the New Year with Roger and the Muskies?

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September 7, 2025: Game Recap

On a sun-splashed Sunday morning Team Solomon took on Team Brafman on Field 2 for a chance to face Ken Groh in the finals.

Unfortunately for me, Captain Stu for the winners:

Team Solomon made JCC Softball history Sunday on Field 2 when we defeated Team Brafman 18-8, advancing to our second championship game of the season.

The winning recipe has been simple for us this year: score early and often. We led off the top of the first inning with five straight hits and runs, capped by an inside the park homer from Dan “Marino” McGrath. Team Brafman returned the favor with 3 runs in the bottom half and 1 in the second before we jumped on Jimmy “Garoppolo” Lefton again with 4 runs to open the third. Stu “King” Solomon showed off his speed around the basepaths on a fourth inning JCC home run, and Will “Keon” Coleman brought in 2 insurance runs on a big fifth inning triple. Matt “Stafford” Brodof, Jeremy “Duck Duck” Dock and Alex “Sauer” Kraus added three hits each in the wire-to-wire win.

Shoutout to Brafman’s Corey “Flying Squirrel” Myers for going full extension in foul territory beyond the left field fence line to come down with an unbelievable diving catch despite being ruled out of play. Captain Brafman would add “this was the single best catch I have seen in my 8+ years in the league, even if it didn’t count.” 

Team Solomon returns to Field 2 on Wednesday at 6pm to meet Groh in the postseason title game.

I’d like to thank my team for a great season. Coming off an 0-16 regular season last year it was great to play and win a lot of games this year. Kudos to Jimmy Lefton for coming back strong from surgery last year to both pitch and finally hit like we know he can. Also good luck to Stu and Kenny this Wednesday.

So there you have it guys. It’s down to Capt. Groh vs. Capt. Solomon for the Youk award on Wednesday night. If you want to come out and watch, please remember it starts at 6:00.

Brief league notes

Happy birthday to:

JCC legend Jeff Cohen

Super-mom Barb Fogel

David “Slim Shady” Wertheim did some research on my claim that OSU had not been #1 in the country in a long time. They have been ranked #1 in the CFP rankings BUT not #1 in the AP poll until last week. So we were both right. Also it’s a shame that colleges charge all of us money to watch OSU play Grambling and Bama play La-Monroe. 

A crazy thing happened yesterday (Sunday) at about 3:45. I was at the Reds game while listening to the Bengals game. When Elly made his 25 E in the top of the 9th and the Bengals went 3 and out again with 2+ minutes to go. I thought I was going to A) see the Reds blow it in the 9th and B) the Bengals lose on a last second FG. Instead you guys know what happened and both teams pulled out the W in a very non-Cincy-Sports-fan way. Do I care that the Bengals played terribly or were “lucky” to win? Nope, not for one second. No such thing as style points in the NFL. And while the Reds are hanging on by a thread, at least we know that Hunter Green is an ace.

Hope to see everyone on Wednesday night at 6PM. 

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September 3, 2025: Games Recap

A picture perfect Wednesday night at TCP last night saw three games being played and the action was hot. But first, a little house cleaning. 

Let’s go back a couple of weeks as Team AJ won the regular season title two weeks ago. Here’s AJ’s recap:

An amazing night at Triple Creek created a great atmosphere for the Goons to walk off Team Solomon 11-10 to win the Regular Season Championship Game.

We jumped on them early with 5 runs in the first off the back of a Griffin Harris triple and a Super Sub Pat Feldman inside-the-parker. We stretched our lead to 8-3 in the 2nd after a Griffin inside-the-park homer. From there Team Solomon chipped away and got good performances from Camden Kirzner, Dan McGrath, Alex Kraus and many others to come back and take the lead against us 10-8 in the top of the 7th. In the bottom half of the 7th I got on, Adam Cronstein brought me in, Jamey Drennan brought him in and we went to the 8th.

After a couple hits, we got quite a scare when Brandon Lindsay hit an absolute rocket to left center, but Griffin was able to track it and made an incredible catch in order to end the inning with no blood. In the bottom half, Ryan Small got on and the wiley veteran Dee Harris hit one out to right field and Ryan De La Cruz came all the way around to score and end it.

Just another incredible team effort with everyone finding a way to contribute as they have all season.

 Way to go team Goldhoff on winning the regular season title

Now onto last night:

First on Field 1 it was Team Groh taking on Team Simons for a trip to the title game for the Youk Award:

Ken with a recap of both last week and last night:

Groh 8 Grefer 4

Grefer scored 4 in the top of the 1st but Tyler Stansbury led off the bottom of the inning with a home run over the center field fence. Bryce Anslinger drove in 2 with the bases loaded to cut the lead to 4-3 after 1. Jon Ruben, Mathew Kraus, Tyler, Sam Castellini, Jack Cohen, Pete Soltesz and Ken Groh all hit singles and Chris Von Holle had a SF to plate 5 runs in the 2nd to take a 8-4 lead. Mike Gray scattered 2 hits over the final 4 innings but Grefer also didn’t score so Groh advanced.

Groh 25 – Simons 23

Groh thought he was a good pitcher this season until Team Simons was just ripping the ball in this semifinal game. Mike Askin and Mr. GOLD himself, Jeff Weisbrot, I believe each went 5-5. I believe Marc Simons, Scott Friend and Mark Weisser all had 3 hits as well. They batted around in the 1st inning going up 6-0. In the bottom of the 1st, Tyler Stansbury singled, Jack Cohen tripled and Pete Soltesz launched a 2-run homer over the RCF wall to cut the lead to 6-3. Simons went up 9-3 but Bryce Anslingervhomered over the fence and Danny Meisterman hit a 3-run homerun with his line drive down the left field line to cut the lead to 2. In the 3rd, Groh scored 5 with a Soltesz double, Anslinger single, Ruben double and David Solomon single. After Simons went up 16-14 team Groh scored 9 runs in the bottom of the 5th. Simons made it interesting getting the tying batter to the plate who hit it to the DPOY Jack Cohen to end the game.

On Field 3 it was Team Solomon vs. Team Wolf for a trip to the semifinals of the post season:

Stu for the winners:

After nearly two hours of action on Field 3, Team Solomon continued its second half surge with a 15-8 win over Team Wolf to advance to the semifinals.

Stu’s Blues took an early 4-0 lead as the visitors before Weston’s Washed Denims tied it up in the bottom of the second inning. We responded with 3 runs in the third and 6 in the fourth to really put the game out of reach.

Big hits from Matt “Bloody Hell” Brodof, Dan “Tim” McGrath and “Buffalo Ben” Charlton jumpstarted the offense, but nobody had a bigger day than Cam “Mr Boombastic” Kirzner. He was 4-4 with a walk, three runs and his first career homer over the fence. Award-winning reggae musician Shaggy had this to say on Cam’s performance: “Fantastic.”

Team Solomon looks to keep its momentum rolling against Team Brafman to clinch its second championship berth of the season.

And finally on Field sun it was Team Fogel vs. Team Brafman for a trip to the semi finals 

Marc for the winners

In a back and forth game Team Brafman scored 8 runs in the bottom of the 6th to pull ahead and win 19-11. For the first time all year Team Brafman had all 12 guys and everyone contributed in one way shape or form. Mike “The Special One” Rothstein, Jimmy and Ricky Lefton, Zach Mayer, Gary “The Coach” Fisher, Corey Meyers, Mike Margolis and Capt Brafman all had multiple hits. The big blow of the game was a 3-run homer by Rabbi Yitz that really broke the game open. Jeff “Oscar Meyer” Wiener, Harry “Hood” Meisner and Zach “The Wild Horse” Zackem also played well in the field to help Team Brafman advance.

“I love team softball and tonight was a perfect example of that,” Brafman said post game. “All 12 guys came to play and each of us continued for the W.”

For team Fogel Jeremy crushed a two-run homer while Landon Kranz, Ryan “The Hebrew Hammer” Braun and Jamey Kurtzer all had multiple hits in a losing effort. A great game by both teams.

Team Brafman looks to continue their hot streak vs Team Stu on Sunday with the winner playing Team Groh next week

League notes

Believe it or not, I didn’t see a single birthday for this week but if I missed you happy birthday, BUT…

Roger did celebrate his wedding anniversary over the last couple of weeks. Shockingly he didn’t have his XU hat on in any pictures

After the game I was talking to Howie and Mark Weisser and they both commented on how lucky they felt to still be in good enough shape to play and that no matter how sore they are it’s still fun. Considering how sore I am, and I play RF and got on base twice last night, the fact that they pitch and do it well is a testament to them. 

Once again the Oy Vey 5K is coming up the first week of November. Please sign up and support the JCC, the Blue Jays and all of the sports programs.

This week in the Reds is pretty much summed up this way. Last night they scored nine runs for the second game in a row at home and lost. That is the first time that has happened since the early days of the Big Red Machine. Until this team actually wants to win, I don’t know why I care so much. But I do and will continue to. “Playing for the future that never comes.” That should be the Reds slogan moving forward

A number of you asked how my trip to KC was last week. First, if you have never been to the Negro League museum, I would suggest you go. An amazing amount of history and somehow Getty Lee (from the band Rush) has autograph balls signed by hundreds of former players. It really is hard to believe that the Reds didn’t have a black player until 1954! Special bonus points if you can name him. Arrowhead is as big and loud as you would expect. With 72,000 Nebraska fans cheering, it was the loudest stadium I have ever been to. I can see why the Chiefs are so good at home.

As David “Slim Shady” Wertheim pointed out to me last night, it is tough to root for the #22 team in the country in Alabama when OSU is #1. God that makes me sick to my stomach to type, but it’s the fact as of now. But this is an amazing stat. This week is the first time that OSU has been ranked #1 in the country in the regular season since 2015! Crazy! Who would have thought that?

Finally, Roger is posting XU bobbleheads. How much would XU fans pay for a Sean Miller bobblehead? $2-3 bucks? 

Just a reminder Team Stu Vs. Team Marc B on Sunday for a chance to play Team Groh next Wednesday for the Youk Award

Marc