BRAFMAN AND H. SCHWARTZ SPLIT IN A SUNDAY SIZZLER
by Marc Brafman
Team Brafman once again came off the mat to pull out game 1 vs. Team Howie yesterday. Down 8-7 in the bottom of the 7th, Eric “The Mouth of the Midwest” Gruen led off with a perfect bunt single. He was moved to 2nd on a David Wertheim (who was subbing) single and scored on a Griff Harris single (also subbing) to tie the score. As if it wasn’t hot enough, the game went into extra innings thanks to a 5-4-3 double play turned in by Team Howie to keep the score tied.
With two outs in the bottom of the 8th, Jerry “Doc” Kirzner singled, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored the winning run on a single by Zach “The Wild House” Zackem. “Once again I can’t stress enough how amazing it is watching Doc play every week”, Brafman said post game. “Here is the oldest guy in the league scoring the winning run from 2nd base with a great hook slide to beat the throw to the plate. What a way to end the first half.”
Team Brafman couldn’t keep the momentum going in the 2nd game as Ken Groh (subbing for Howie) shut them down with some more fine defense by team Howie. “I tell the guys all the time to hit the ball hard on the ground and good things will happen. Unfortunately the guys playing defense turned a couple of double plays, and hit the ball.” Brafman was led by The Wild Horse who had a couple of hits, Gruen, Aaron “Straight Outta” Compton, Howard “goldie” Goldwasser who hit the ball hard all game and Griff and David.
Next week Team Brafman is very excited to welcome back Dave “The Minister of Fun” Cohen who has had anything but fun this season so far. They look to get back onto the winning side vs. Team Groh
League notes:
Props to former JCC player Jeremy “We’ve got the Meats” Cantor who captained his BBQ team to first place in the Kosher BBQ cookoff last week at Adath Israel.
Not since David “D-Sol” Solomon has a catcher made a bigger splash than new Reds catcher Ryan “The New Sandy Koufax” Lavarnway did on Friday night. Lavarnway had two homers, a double and a walk in a losing effort for the Reds. Said D-Sol yesterday “you know Lavarnway played for Team Israel and he told me when I was there earlier this year to eat this certain type of hummus and boom I’ve started to hit just like him. I hope he can keep it up.”
One way to beat the heat this summer is to go to the pool, and what better pool than the one that “Handsome” Sam Castellini manages at the JCC. Said Sam, “If you are looking for a basic pool that has some great looking Jewish moms (and life guards that look like me) come out to the J. You can even sample the great food offerings of former JCC Softball legend Drew ‘Kung Fu’ Hayes at the café.”
Besides being the tallest guy in the league did you know that Danny “Boogie Shoes” Grefer was once on Soul Train? He once again showed off his dancing moves two weeks ago when he saw KC and the Sunshine Band when they came to town. “It’s a crime that KC isn’t in the Rock Hall,” Danny said yesterday. “Who needs songs like Thunder Road, Yesterday, Brown Sugar and When God’s on Our Side when you can have Boogie Shoes, Shake Shake Shake your Booty, and of course That’s the Way I like It. What a joke!”
The leader in the clubhouse for Captain of the Year is our own Stu Solomon who asked in a group text earlier in the week if any of us would like to play basketball on Sunday (meaning yesterday when we had a game). Keep up the great work Stu (but thanks for the tent)
Maybe Babe Ruth was onto something because in between games yesterday Pete Soltesz drank a beer then went out and hit a homer and the game winning double. Said Soltesz post game “It was hot and I was thirsty. What do you expect me to drink, water?”
While all of you were bitching and complaining about the heat yesterday, the oldest guys in the league just went out and played. Gig was off playing hardball in Arizona where it was 112 earlier in the week and Jerry “Doc” Kirzner, Keith Kombrinck and Mike “Flash” Creemer just put on the gear and played as if they were 20, hell 40, years younger.
Finally, Roger Rosenthal was very disappointed to learn that the Yasiel Puig bobblehead that the Reds released this past week didn’t come with a real horse but instead just had Puig sitting on one. Roger, in preparations for the release, had leased stable space at Traders World to keep all of the horses. “Now what am I going to do with all this hay?” Rosenthal was heard muttering post game yesterday..
See you all at the fields Wed. night