May 11 Recap
By Marc Brafman
What a great night for softball last night. The temperature was rising right along with Mike Rothstein’s blood pressure. Let’s get right to the action.
On field one we had Team Rosenthal vs. Team Solomon
Roger leads off:
Not much good to say about our game this evening…probably our worst game of the year…plus HOWARD SCHWARTZ got hit by a batted ball in the first at bat of the game…he was not his normal self…here’s to hoping he gets well quickly…
QUOTES……
ROGER ROSENTHAL…..
“Hats off to Stu and his team. They can hit the ball. Their lineup is stacked with left handed bats, but the entire team seemed to get in on the act.”
“We didn’t play a good game and I think part of it was the fact that our veteran pitcher, HOWARD SCHWARTZ, who will go down in the records as the best pitcher in JCC Softball history, wasn’t himself after being hit by a batted ball in the first at bat (Dan Green) of the game.”
“We did make a nice comeback after falling behind by four runs in the opening frame, but we just seemed to never be able to get over the hump.”
“We’re off to a bad start, but I really think if we just stay within ourselves, we’ll be ok. It’s frustrating, but we just have to play through it and not give up.”
And Stu for the winners:
Hello and Welcome to another addition of Team Solomon Game Recap’s:
We pick it up in the 2nd inning. After two quick outs, Dan Green and Adam Cronstein both hit singles with Tyler Stansbury up to bat. Tyler roped a ball oppo to left field clearing the bases on what could have been a stalled inning. Team Solomon continued to play add-on throughout the rest of the game scoring 17 runs. Big games by Dan Green going 4-5 and Adam “The Bad Guy” Cronstein going 5-5.
Let’s talk D:
We start in the bottom of 1. After an error by the SS, Mr. Kroger Himself, Mark “the Bruiser” Wolfe gunned out James “Lynn” Swan trying to steal 2nd. It was reported that Mark gave James the Dikembe Mutombo finger wag after he gunned him out. Let’s move to bottom 4 with runners on 1st and 2nd and two outs…Dan Green made a great diving snag at 2B for the final out of the inning. Later, in the bottom of the 6th up 10 runs, Stuart “El Capitan” Solomon made a nice sliding catch to end the game.
ROY Watch: Ryan “the One-Man Gang” Marcus went 3-4 and played a solid 3B. What is not so solid is his base running. He got picked off again after overrunning 2B. The upper management will be bringing in Willie Mays Hayes as a special base running instructor for the remainder of the season.
On field two, Team Fogel played Team Grefer:
A dog fight from start to finish, Team Fogel got the better of Team Grefer by a final score of 16-11. Down 4-1 early, Team Fogel fought back to tie the game but only to go down again 8-4. Timely hitting and baserunning tied the game back up at 8 in the fourth. The Men in Navy Blue were down again before taking advantage of a few costly errors in the bottom of the sixth and put up a crooked number to take a commanding lead into the seventh inning which they would hold on to.
When asked about the performance from the team, Jeremy had this to say… “Grit, man. This team is all about it. Blow outs are fun, but nothing is more satisfying than battling from behind to become victorious. Top to bottom, catcher to right field, this team exhibits traits of a winning team and battles each and every inning. It makes my job easier when I know I have eleven guys on my team that have my back.”
Stat of the game:
Turning back the clock, Joel “Sparky” Fogel went 5/5 out of the leadoff spot and played a stellar shortstop. Someone may need to test this man as he is playing like its 2002. it is also reported that there are more fans coming for Team Fogel than going to see the Reds. “Where else are you going to go?”
On Field three we had Team Kamrass vs. Team Lefton
Micah reports first:
Team Kamrass lost to Team Lefton 8-2. Jimmy pitched a hell of a game. Team Kamrass played great defense, but couldn’t get the bats going. The highlight of the night was Eric Goldstein one-hopping a foul ball straight into the snack shack window. (there is some dispute to this as it might have been Riley “The Big Man” Able.
We will get back to our winning ways next week.
Jimmy chimes in for the winners:
Last night’s game featured a battle of the unbeatens. Team Lefton outlasted team Kamrass by putting up five runs in the sixth inning off Eppy Eppstein… The game was highlighted by impressive defensive plays, including two diving catches by right centerfielder Dee Harris. Camden Kirzner continues to lead this team both offensively and defensively…he’s an early candidate for MVP playing a fantastic SS and batting leadoff where he has been retired only one time all season!
Finally, out on Field 4 it was Team Suspended vs. Team Weisser
Team Suspended despite playing with 2 subs beat Team Weisser 13-7. “It goes to show how little my team needs me, Capt. Brafman said post game. Not only did they not miss me on the field but I’m glad they didn’t listen to my strategy on the field.” Hitting stars for Team Brafman were many. Anton as usual led the way as did Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley, and Fink. The big bat of the night came from “The Mayor” Todd Wasserman who legged out two infield singles and scored from first on a bomb from sub Matt “No I’m not related to Wes” Miller, who crushed a triple into RC.
On defense “Handsome” Sam Castellini, Dr. Bob Pelberg (who was on call all game) and still made the plays and Alex Krause helped keep Team Weisser off the board. A special thank you to B-Rod for playing a great LF and getting a couple of clutch hits. For Team Weisser, Brad Wagner smoked a triple, and the Wolf Brothers did their normal things at the plate.
Team Brafman hopes to continue winning in two weeks and Capt. Brafman hopes to keep his one game streak alive of not getting ejected.
League notes:
Congrats goes out to Eric “The Mouth of the Midwest” Gruen’s daughter, Rosie who took home a trophy in her dance competition last week. As she might be my future daughter in law one day I’m glad she will be able to provide for Jacob.
It was good to see David “the ball magnet” Snyder out at the field last night. While he does have a couple of broken bones in his cheek he hopefully will be back on the field in a couple of weeks.
The Who are coming to town for the first time in almost 43 years on Sunday. I asked Mark Weisser if he was going and he told me that not only was he at the concert in 1979 when all the fans died but he himself was in the crush of people. Such a sad story and we are all glad that Mark wasn’t hurt that tragic night. For those of you going to the concert text me and we can meet up during Behind Blue Eyes.
Cam “Mr. Bearcat” Kirzner not only is killing it on the field, but he was recently voted to lead the Rally Cats at UC. Congrats!!
Jewish Night is coming up at the Reds game. I believe the date is June 7th vs. the Hated Arizona Diamondbacks. It’s a fun night at the game and hey, maybe the Reds won’t give up 6 runs in the 9th.
Rick “The Commish” Tenenholtz was down at the Derby last weekend. Since he wasn’t driving up in a Porsche it’s a safe bet he didn’t bet his life savings on Rich Strike to win. (They call the KY Derby the most exciting two minutes in sports and I can say that last week lived up to that)
While I can’t confirm it, even though I was there, if you need an expert Hora dancer, Ryan “Hi Ho” Silverman is your guy. I didn’t know he could move like the bottle dancers in Fiddler on the Roof until I saw him out on the dance floor.
As mentioned above someone on Team Kamrass hit a foul ball that went into the concession stand on one bounce. Rick Lefton said it would have been the craziest thing he saw on the field all night if he hadn’t witnessed Mike “the Special one” Rothstein lose his mind over Alan “Sauce” Lessure trying to hit the ball.
Finally, this week’s Ron Rose story comes to us from “Stormin” Norm Frankel
I had the pleasure of playing with Ron for many years as part of the Howard Schwartz dynasty, and without question Ron was a great teammate for many reasons. While a fierce competitor, win or lose Ron was always encouraging the team to have fun and just play hard. Needless to say, Ron was an amazing inspiration as he demonstrated that age is just a number. Even on the hottest summer nights, when just standing in the field was uncomfortable, Ron would continue to play catcher which was a challenge for a person half his age.
One of my fondest memories occurred when Ron had one of his best hits of the season and probably his career, a deep line drive in left center field that caught everyone by surprise. Ron, who was never that speedy, motored to first base as best he could but then for some inexplicable reason headed to second. Needless to say, a speedier player would have been safe at third, but Ron was out by a country mile.
When Ron returned to the bench, I could not resist and asked him why he continued onto second. Ron looked at me and, in all sincerity, said, “Well, the first base coach didn’t tell me to stop.” I couldn’t help but laugh and thought, “Well, the man is right.” To this day, whenever I think of that moment a smile comes to my face.
I will greatly miss Ron’s special greeting when he saw me, S and N for Stormin’ Norman. No one has ever called me S and N except Ron and this year’s softball season won’t be the same without that greeting and without Ron.
See everyone next week