June 29 Recap
By Marc Brafman
Wait…what was that you say? An actual nice, normal weather night at softball? I thought Mother Nature had it in for us this year. Let’s hope that is a sign of things to come for the rest of the season.
Let’s get to the action:
On field one it was a battle for First place (in the first half) as team Fogel took on Team Brafman.
Jeremy for the winners:
On a humid June night, Team Fogel swept the doubleheader against Brafman, giving the Men in Navy Blue control of their own destiny as it relates to becoming first half champions. Jamey set down the first ten batters in order in the first game in large part due to the vacuum of an infield positioned behind him. Tait Cunningham continued to do his best Nolan Arenado impression, and Pat Feldman and Andrew Gage held down the fort up the middle. Sparky Fogel showed that there is a little bit of zip left in his right arm after 10 years of throwing batting practice as a coach, throwing behind a runner to nab the leadoff man and start things off on a high note. Bryce Anslinger leads the league in tag plays at home, and honestly might be going for the all-time record in just one season of play. I have never seen a team execute as many relay throws as this one, a testament to the hustle and effort of the Men in Navy Blue.
A lot of positive takeaways, but the overarching one is that this team just keeps on winning. Team Fogel took both games tonight by scores of 6-3 and 4-2.
And Marc for the losers:
I can’t remember two cleaner games being played. With the exception of a couple of balls that might have been caught by the Reds in the outfield there were maybe a combined 2 errors all night. For Team Brafman, Todd “The Mayor” Wasserman had a couple of hits as did Eric “The Mouth of the Midwest” Gruen and of course Anton who might have made his first out of the entire season in the first but then went 3-3 the rest of the night with his usual assortment of line drives. Props to JZ who made a play and throw at SS that would have made Kyle Farmer proud. Team Brafman looks to rebound and get back on the winning side next week.
On field two it was Team Weisser vs. Team Roger
Mark for the winners:
We won two against Team Rosenthal by scores of 4-2 and 9-0.
We played error free ball for both games. The defensive gem of the night was a 4-6-3 double play which went Wolf-Wolf-Wolf off the bat of Raffi Goldfarb.
We had solid hitting including a bases clearing double by David Weil. A great catch in RF by Brad Gallop in game 1. Also timely hitting by Tyler Wolf (yet to show up less than one minute before a game) as well as big hits by Duffy Wolf and Eddie Gallop.
On Field three, Team Kamrass and Team Z split the games that is all the reporting I got from them
Finally on Field 4, it was Team Stu vs. Team Jimmy
Stu for the winners:
Game 1: 12-7
Team Solomon was in a hole early, down 5-1 after 2. In the 3rd, Jeff “Mr. 5th Rounder” Weisbrot, hit an inside the park homer to plate 2. After the next man popped out for the 2nd out, Team Solomon had 6 straight hits, plating 3 more. The next inning, Team Lefton walked team captain Stuart Solomon to bring up Ryan “ROY” Marcus who launched a bases clearing triple. Team Solomon outscored Team Lefton 11-2 in the final 3 innings. A great defensive play by Jeff to rob Griffin on a nice running catch.
Game 2: 5-2
Not as much action in the 2nd game. Team Solomon controlled the whole game. The scoring started on Ryan “ROY” Marcus’ towering home run. It may have been the highest HR I have seen in the league. Matt S. Wagner aka Swagner aka Ms. Wagner had a great catch on a hard-hit ball by Griffin Harris.
In both games Gregg “Triple G” Harris, aka The Fastest Exit Velocity, went 5-6. Big thank you to Mike Gray, Ben Margolis, and Zach Michelson for subbing and playing great.
Next week, Team Fogel plays for the first half title.
League Notes
Since we were rained out last week, I didn’t get a chance to mention the great work Rick Lefton and the JCC staff do each year for the Adams Classic. Well done, guys!
Speaking of which, kudos to the pickleball doubles team winner, Ryan “Hi-Ho” Silverman and Anton Loon. When asked to comment on their big win they said, “Well, we were playing guys who were 60+, so if we didn’t win, we would both retire on the spot.”
Final note from the Adams Classic…sort of. Shorty’s son is a camp counselor at Camp Kawaga where several softball players and/or their kids went to camp. I took Jacob up for father-son weekend last week and Jay (Scott’s son) was the camp DJ. It is a safe bet to say that if he had put on the Grateful Dead live in Europe 72 or any live Phish album the dads would have been happy. But no, he was actively mixing music which prompted the question: If you are a DJ at an all-boys camp and they are there with their dads, is a mix of ABBA “Dancing Queen” into “I will Survive” really the best music?
If you haven’t already check out the artwork of Brandon “Lone” Wolf on his Facebook page, it’s interesting. I like it.
If you missed him and Jodi this weekend let’s all hope Corey Norris is having a great time in Israel. The pictures look amazing.
I’m not here to spread any rumors, but Eric “Jeter” Goldstein and Sam “The Hitman” Hecht’s daughter and son are on the same Israel trip through Livingston. Crazier things have happened than kids getting cozy in Israel, right?
Big time congrats go out to Kyle Grefer on the birth of his daughter and Ryan Small on the birth of his son, Barrett. Rumor has it that Barrett Small’s nickname is Biggie.
While I tease him about this a lot, it’s a shame that Doc is retiring from the Enquirer since David “Slim Shady” Wertheim can’t write for The Morning Line anymore. Make sure you keep up with everything going on in Cincy on Cincyfest.com.
As the summer rolls on make sure you hit up Sweet Butter Bakery for all your summer pool party baked goods.
This has nothing to do with softball, but I thought it was interesting. A guy in Indiana last week bowled 3 straight perfect games. He became only the 46th person in HISTORY To do that. This isn’t some PBA mainstay, this is a guy like us who happened to have an amazing night.
Roger is selling a New York Rangers hat if anyone is interested.
And finally, while we were at the Spring House on Wednesday night toasting the good news about Kyle Grefer, Brad Wagner commented that when Ron Rose was playing, he always told guys that they had to vacation between Thursday to Tuesday to get back in time for the game. Brad is also convinced that Ron planned his kids’ birthdays (meaning the day they were born) around softball. He’d get a calendar out and say, “OK, we can’t go tonight, honey because softball starts in 9 and a half months. We have to wait till we are out of the softball window.” We miss ya, Ronnie!
See ya next week!