Another picture perfect night for softball last night. What’s more amazing, the Reds winning 11 in a row or not having a single Wednesday postponed by rain and it’s June 22?
On Field 1, we had Team Stu vs Team Z
Stu for the winners:
It was a great day to be a sports fan in Cincinnati. All 3 of America’s teams, Reds, FCC and Team Solomon, won yesterday. What a time to be alive!
Team Solomon defeated Team Zawatsky 15-7 in a game that never felt in doubt. The team really had their hard hats on and went to work on Team Z. It was great overall defensive effort helping Stuart “MVP” Solomon to his first pitching win. Solomon was quoted after the game ” I really just tried to hit spots and keep the team off-balance.”
Stuart “Captain of the Year” Solomon went 4-5 and scored 5 times. He was robbed of an inside-the-park homer by the ball taking a fortuitous bounce over the fence in left for a ground-rule double. Tyler ” The Natural” Stansbury went 4-5 with several hard hit balls. Andrew ” Mr. 5th Round” Solomon finally showed why he was wrongly rated a 5 going 3-3. Some people are saying his captain and blood relative made a batting stance change which propelled him to make better contact. Additionally, Evan “Logan aka Kevin” Weisser had two big hits along with Oren “Best Basketball Player in the League Yes, better than Mayer” Shmoel was on base twice. Special thanks to Landon ” Everyone’s Favorite Doctor” Krantz for subbing and helping with the win.
We caught up with Commish Ryan Silverman after the game. “I knew this team had it in them. We have the talent to make some noise in the second half.”
Lastly Andrew Solomon had this to say to the ratings committee channeling his inner Kirk Cousins after his 3-3 performance “YOU LIKE THAT!”
On Field 2 we had Team Brafman vs. Team Wolf Machine
Once again Team Wolf found a way to win 11-7. With some timely hitting by Matt Brodof, Pete “The Straw that Stirs the Drink” Soltesz and Tyler “Big Bad” Wolf they did just enough to get the win. With a makeshift infield Mike Gray pitched a great game getting Team Brafman to put the ball in the air time and time again. The game-winning JCC “hit” was off the bat of Daniel “The Stache” LaCerva, which scored the two go-ahead runs for Team Wolf.
Not to be overlooked, super-sub Jacob “JZ” Zeidenstein hit two homers over the fence, a double and made at least 3 fantastic catches in LC. Ryan “The Hebrew Hammer” Baum would like to thank all of Team Wolf for his workout in LF. At least 10 balls were hit foul or out of play last night. Ryan can now cross training for the Flying Pig off his bucket list.
On Field 3 it was Team Kamrass vs the short handed Team Fogel
Micah for the winners:
A complete team effort was turned in by Team Kamrass in a 20 – 5 victory against Team Fogel. There was some pregame apprehension with the team missing “Captain Phillips” Micah Kamrass, “Super” James Swan, and Michael “Fear the Deer” Margolis. But the team responded well powered by a 14-run 3rd inning. Everyone scored at least once in the game with Adam “Laundromat Billionaire” Heldman scoring 3 times and Zach “I’m a father now” Mayer crossing the plate 4 times. Ace Jeff “Fink” Finkelstein turned in a beauty on a sore knee with the defense playing a super clean game in support.
and Roger for Team Fogel
This is going to be short and to the point…..we stunk!
Not only did we lose in a one sided affair, COREY “I DON’T NEED WARM-UPS” NORRIS took a shot on his hand and had to leave the game. By then the game was in hand for TEAM KAMRASS. No report at press time on his availability for Sunday’s game.
Two notes of interest in the game:
1. The game was delayed about 15 minutes while the second base bag was being fixed. I’ve never seen that in my years in the JCC league.
2. Another oddity that I’ve never seen in the league was when I was at the plate and the ball hit me on the inside of my foot and the umpire asked me if the ball hit me. I said “yes” which it did and he said to go to first base.
In a game where captain JEREMY “THE COMET” FOGEL was vacationing in Madison, Wisconsin, home of THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN NCAA WOMEN’S 2023 HOCKEY CHAMPION, his father JOEL couldn’t get his team in the win column.
Asked afterwards if he had contacted him after the awful game, he said, “BARB (JEREMY’S mother and JOEL’S wife) was texting the entire game until he finally said, “Enough is enough.”…..it was pretty ugly.
Jeremy returns Sunday and will try to get the team back on track. Stay tuned!
TIDBITS….
*The oldtimers may remember MARK FAIREMAN…..he recently passed away…..He was always at games with a smile on his face…..one memory stands out…..it was his birthday (the same day as mine) and someone hired a stripper to attend the game……he was all smiles that game!…….
And finally on field 4
Team Wagner vs. Team Lefton
Brad for the winners:
Team Wagner took down Team Lefton 19-17 on Wednesday night. The scoring started early and often for both teams, with Lefton scoring five runs in the top of the 1st and Wagner putting up a six-run bottom of the 1st. Wagner doubled up in the 2nd inning and led 12-5 going into the 3rd. Team Lefton battled back throughout the game with four combined homers by Matt Leader and Anton Loon (2-each) and solid hits from Jimmy Lefton, David Weil, and Peter Brownell. Team Wagner stayed aggressive on the basepaths and had solid hitting contributions from Ian Conwell, Mark Franklin, Jerry Kirzner, Howie Schwartz, and AJ Goldhoff. Cam Kirzner and Brad Wagner also contributed defensively.
Team Wagner takes on Team Kamrass on Sunday. The game will be aired on Fox19 with Deion Sanders and Otis Nixon on the call.
Team Lefton takes on Team Zawatsky on Sunday. The game will be aired on PBS with Skip Bayless and Woody Paige on the call.
League Notes
Once again thanks to league sponsor Big Gig Franklin on sponsoring not only the league, but also Wing Night last night
A huge week for birthdays: Mike Margolis, Marc Brafman, Joel Buckley, Jared Kamrass and Mike Kahan
An assist to Adam Cronstein on my glaring omission on not mentioning the passing of JCC softball legend, The Iron Sheik ,last week. While everyone knows about how he became the WWF champ in 1984 (only to lose it to Hulk Hogan), what isn’t as well known is that he was a star pitcher on some great JCC teams in the early 90s. It was on the softball field that he acquired his love of trash talking which translated to Twitter where he was a fabulous follow. Roger will now be marking up all of his WWF cards to .25 cents
I bumped into both Ryan Small and Bryce Anslinger at the Zoo LaLa fund raiser last weekend. It was great to catch up with both guys but it was a little hard to talk to Bryce since so many people kept trying to feed him leaves and other giraffe food.
Camp Wildbrook has started once again this week. I’m happy to report the camp looks the same as it did when all of us went there.
Joel Fogel and I were both talking about how this week going to Reds games just felt different. Jacob and I went on Monday (The Votto game) while Joel went on Tuesday (The TJ Friedl game) and we both remarked how no one left, the crowd was into it from the jump and even the pizza chant wasn’t as loud as it used to be because people actually cared about the outcome and not just getting pizza. I have no idea if the Reds can keep this up but I can tell you that they sure are fun to watch. “Where ya gonna go”? One other note on the Reds now that they have DFA’d Wil Meyers…is there any position player that you don’t root for? Jon Spears and I were talking about this the other day. I can’t remember a Reds team where if this or that guy came to the plate you’d almost want to boo them for one reason or another. (Moose, Punisher Jr, Brandon Larson, Willie Green, Jim Edmonds come to mind) There is no one that I feel that way about on this team. That might be the first time ever.
It was pointed out to me that currently the City of Cincinnati is on something like a 25 game winning streak if you factor in FCC and the end of the Bengals regular season and the Reds 11 game win streak.
Roger is putting in orders for all current Reds bobbleheads. Get in line he says.
See everyone on Sunday
Marc