Another hot one out on the fields (but nothing like the action on field 2) more on that below. We are two games away from a perfect weather season and I’m going to keep bringing it up as a reverse jinx.
Let’s head to the fields
On Field 1, we had Team Brafman vs. Team Kamrass
Micah for the winners:
Playing without ace pitcher Jeff Finkelstein, Team Kamrass was still able to cobble together a 13-11 win against Team Brafman by utilizing three pitchers. Michael Margolis served as the opener in the first inning. Dave Solomon was the long man pitching 5 innings of 2 run ball. Zach “Ricky Karcher” Mayer closed it out in the 7th.
Scott Raskin hit a three run homer and also made two great plays in the field. There were lots of stolen bases tonight, including an Elly-like heist of home by Zach Mayer.
Captain Kamrass was pleased with the performance. “This one was a lot of fun,” he said. With the bye on Sunday, Team Kamrass is glad to have Fink back on the hill for the season finale against bitter rival Team Solomon.
For Team Brafman Jamey “The Rookie” Drennan continued his ROY season with a homer. And as usual Griff hit a bases clearing triple. Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley would personally like to thank the ump for inventing rules on the fly last night. “That was a nice treat for us,” Buckley said post game.
On Field 2 we had the game of the season Team Wolf Machine vs. Team Z
Team Wolf prevailed 13-12 today in an instant classic against Team Z. Great play all around, complete with incredible defensive plays on both sides, a bunch of timely hitting, questionable fan interaction, and drama to end the game.
We’ll pick up in the bottom of the seventh after Team Z took an 8-6 lead following a close back-and-forth game. Ty “cut-it-close” Wolf led off the inning with a double to right field and was quickly knocked in by Pete Soltesz. After an out, Bryan Goldberg hit a game-tying triple down the left-field line to tie the game. A couple batters later, Team Z turned a bang-bang double play to send the game to extra innings.
Team Z rallied for 4 two-out runs to take a commanding lead going into the bottom of the eighth. Dan “The Stache” LaCerva led off with a huge infield single, followed by Michael Askin’s third hit of the game. Wes Wolf then hit a liner down the right field line that made it to the wall, resulting in a home run that reduced the deficit to 1. Matt Brodof was finally rewarded with a hit after smashing the ball all game. Before walking to the plate as the winning run, Pete Soltesz said to his teammates “I’m going to pull it, and I’m going to pull it hard”, and he did just that, crushing a home run over the fence in left-center field to walk off the game.
Credit goes to both teams in one of the best games of the season. A huge thank you to Mark Weisser for a gutsy pitching performance – the Wolf boys always love playing behind you! (League notes ads this was a fun game to watch with cheering family members, good coaching and general good play from both teams)
On Field 3 it was team Fogel vs. Team Wagner
Brad for the winners:
Team Wagner took down Team Fogel 18-4 on Wednesday. Wagner scored three in the first and held Fogel to a single tally, then scored five in the second inning before closing it out with nine runs over the last two innings. Howie Schwartz was dominant on the hill, with a couple of strikeouts and strong defensive plays. Cam Kirzner made a great catch going into centerfield to grab a pop-out in the fifth inning. Chris Kunkel, Matt Grindle, and John Spears made solid plays defensively, while Wagner, Super Sub JZ, and Norm Frankel brought out the big sticks at the plate. Wagner takes on Zawatsky on Sunday. Fogel takes on Wolf.
And Roger for Team Fogel
Another game….another loss……
After two tough losses, TEAM FOGEL was never in the game as TEAM WAGNER jumped out early and breezed to the victory……
Kudos go out to BRANDON WRONKER, who went 3 for 3, but hits were far and few for the rest of the team……
Team captain, JEREMY FOGEL, one of the best defensive outfielders in the league had to pitch as both pitchers on the team were out….COREY NORRIS, with an injury and DAN
“DANNY” GREEN missed for personal reasons……he was back home in Philadelphia participating in a cheesesteak eating contest.
Kudos go out to TEAM WAGNER shortstop, CAM KIRZNER, a huge UC men’s basketball fan, who after striking out earlier in the game and getting razzed by ROGER ROSENTHAL, a huge XAVIER UNIVERSITY men’s basketball fan, made a Top Ten Play Of The Year play at shortstop when he made an almost impossible catch in shallow left center field.
ROSENTHAL said after the play, “I can’t believe I’m complementing a UC fan, but that was one hell of a catch. Elly de la Cruz would have been impressed!”
TEAM FOGEL’s locker room was closed off to the media once again, but there was a lot of yelling going on in there. It is believed that there were some words said to certain players and that a near fight broke out, but JOEL “SPARKY” FOGEL, father of JEREMY, calmed things down and said, “NO desserts for you guys for a week!”
TEAM FOGEL will try to break a three game losing streak this coming Sunday when they take on undefeated TEAM WOLF.
Finally on Field 4 a real pitchers duel between Team Grefer and Team Lefton
Jimmy for the winners:
From the “you never know” episode of JCC softball. Team Lefton came back from six runs down in the bottom of the 7th to win against Grefer 22-21.
There were many offensive stars for Team Lefton but none as big as the three “Loony tune clan” Anton, Matt and Peter each went yard. “Not since the Alou brothers have three family members on one team done so well,” Jimmy said post game. Jamie Kurtzer was the game ball winner for perserving through an offensive explosion from Grefer. Jamie also drove in the winning runs with two outs in the bottom of the 7th with a line drive over the CF head.
League notes:
Happy birthday goes out Brandon “gray” Wolf, former player and league sponsor Billy “Wrath of” Kahn and current player Oren Shmoel.
I forgot to mention this last week but a HUGE congrats to Matt Miller for being promoted to chief of staff of UC basketball.
Former JCC all star and now one of the most buff jewish guys you’ll ever meet Jeff Cohen a happy anniversary
Kevin Youkilis has a new coffee to go with Loma beer. Congrats Youk.
Jason Esterkamp became the next liar in our league saying how much he misses his kids while they are away at camp. How come all of the pictures of you empty nesters for the summer say we miss our kids while also on vacation on the beach somewhere?
Last night during the exciting Team Z vs. Team Wolf game Brad Wagner and I were discussing Ryan “the One Man Gang” Marcus and whether he should adopt Akame the African Dream persona moving forward. If any of you know what we are talking about I feel sorry for you.
David Wertheim was on TV yesterday promoting some sort of Irish festival coming to town. Now I know there were river dance type of dancers on the show with him. I hope there is video of him dancing like that
Not to be Debbie Downer on the Reds but let’s remember they could have signed Luis Castillo to a team friendly deal and that none of the players they got for him are currently on the team. So when they trade Arroyo or Marte to some team for a pitcher nowhere close to Castillo’s skill level remember that our ownership team is still awful (Nick Krall is not) and that we could have had a rotation of the 3 young guys, Abbott and Castillo.
Roger informed me that he can price out EDLC baseball cards for any number he wants. $5 bucks 10, 25 he said it doesn’t matter.
See everyone on Sunday