With a rumble of thunder around 6:05 it looked like we might be dodging some rain all night, but the sun stayed out and it was a picture perfect night for softball.
Let’s get to the action on the field.
On Field 1 we had Fogel taking on Kamrass. Jeremy’s team won a tight game. He is travelling to Tampa to cheer on the Reds and Rays so his update will be coming. This will make 30 ballparks visited for Jeremy and 29 for Jeremy and Joel seeing a game together. Very cool.
On Field 2 it was Team Wagner vs. Team Tenenholtz. Brad for the winners:
Team Wagner took down Team Tenenholtz by the score of 13-6 on Wednesday. Team Tenenholtz jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, but Team Wagner tied it at the bottom of the opening frame and scored five more runs before Tenenholtz cut it to 8-6. Team Wagner went on to get some much-needed Great American Insurance runs by plating five more runs in the bottom of the 6th before closing it out with a 1-2-3 7th inning.
After being on vacation, Corey Norris returned to the team by going 3-3 and pitching a great game. The Hiudt duo of Daniel and Zac played flawless defense at catcher and third, respectively. Daniel made a great catch on an infield pop-up late in the game to save a few runs. The game ball went to Michael Askin, who had key hits and played a tremendous LCF with a few running catches to his left side and another close to the LCF fence. His father, former JCC Softball player Gary Askin, was in attendance and had too many reporters around him to get a word in.
Wagner takes on Team Kamrass next week, and Vince Coleman and Vinny Johnson will be on the call.
Tenenholtz takes on Team Solomon next week, and Blaine Edwards and Antoine Merryweather are on the call.
Field 3 had Team Brafman and Team Wolf
In a close back-and-forth game, Team Wolf won in the end to keep Team Brafman winless on the season 17-15. Team Wolf won despite Harry “Hood” Meisner hitting for the cycle (including a grand slam) and the return of Jeff “The Natural” Weisbrot for team Brafman. The big blow for Team Wolf was after an error by Team Brafman that would have ended the inning. Team Wolf then batted around. In the bottom of the 6th, Mike Gray and one of the other Team Wolf players (I can’t remember who) both hit moon shots to left to drive in 4 runs. Eddie Gallop also had a couple of hits to help Team Wolf win. Shout out to Scott “Dire” Wolf on a nifty stolen base and Steve Zawatsky for throwing out a runner trying to steal. (it should be noted that on Sunday when I pulled into Camp Livingston to pick up my daughter, Maya, Abby Solomon said, “I heard you haven’t won a game yet.” Man good news travels far and wide in JCC softball world.
Finally on Field 4 we had Team Grefer vs. Team Harris
Kyle for the winners:
Team Grefer beat Team Harris 7-6 in a close battle. We played consistent defense and our hitting did just enough to get the win. We were fortunate that Team Harris’ 3 home runs were all solo shots, with Griff hitting 2 and JZ hitting one out as well. Zach Mayer anchored our team on defense and offense, and the game ball went to Oren with the go ahead RBI hit in the bottom of the 6th. This one was another total team effort with nearly everyone contributing.
And roger for Team Harris:
TEAM HARRIS lost a tough one this evening, 7-6, to TEAM GREFER.
Trailing 5-1, they battled back to eventually take a 6-5 lead, only to give up two runs in the bottom of the 6th inning.
They had chances all over the place, but just couldn’t come up with the BIG hit, once again leaving a bunch of runners on base including the top of the 7th when they had two on and two outs.
This has been a problem all year, not getting that BIG hit and it reared its ugly head again.
KUDOS go to……..GRIFF HARRIS, who hit two solo homeruns and made all the plays in LCF…….JACOB “JZ” ZEIDENSTEIN also blasted a solo dinger……finally, DAN BERNSTEIN collected three hits……
PLEASE NOTE…….The media wasn’t allowed to talk to players/coaches after the game as a closed door meeting went on……rumor has it that heads are ready to roll if things don’t change and it might start at the top and end at the bottom……STAY TUNED!!!!
TEAM HARRIS will try to right the ship next week vs. TEAM BRAFMAN…….
TIDBITS…….
*JZ and ROGER ROSENTHAL exchanged caps before the contest with JZ wearing a XAVIER UNIVERSITY cap and ROSENTHAL wearing a University of Cincinnati cap……
“It was really tough wearing that piece of garbage, but at the end of the day, it was done in fun. I just hope the photo doesn’t go viral,” ROSENTHAL said after the game.
**If anyone wants two tickets to the FC CINCINNATI game on 8/1, please contact me.
League notes:
A lot of alumni birthdays this week
Jacob Stadiem
Joel “The Wrath of Kahn”
Dan Gilbert
This is a pretty cool story: Todd “The Mayor” Wasserman’s cousin is a writer out west and wrote this story about his love of the Dodgers.
When I get the Dodger blues, I remember, baseball is the perfect game (desertsun.com)
The Pete Rose doc on MAX is interesting if for no other reason than you once again get to see what an ass Pete is. As Al Michaels says in the first episode it’s just a sad story that we keep talking about. But you do get to see some great Reds of the 80’s in there: Andy McGaffigan, Dann Bilardello and my man, Gary Redus.
You guys all know my love of music and in the next couple of months some major league box sets are coming out. First, Bob Dylan and The Band are releasing their ENTIRE 1974 tour on CD. IT’s something like 45 CD’s and over 400 songs. Not to be outdone Neil Young is releasing his third Archives box set which is 17 CD’s and 5 DVD’s plus a 175 page book. My question is, besides me who A) has a CD player and B) that much time to listen to this stuff?
Anyone excited by the Olympics starting this weekend? I’ll tell you what I’m not excited by. Yesterday I wanted to watch a little of the US women’s soccer team and it took me longer to log into the app and figure out what channel they were on than the game itself (Rose LaVelle, by the way, is still the best player on the team in my opinion). Speaking of women’s soccer, the story about the Canadian team using a drone to fly over the other teams practice is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cheating at these games, I’m afraid.
I did catch the 2nd half of the US/Germany men’s basketball game on Tuesday. Its a good thing we have LBJ since he took over down the stretch.
I’m all about the Reds being sellers at the deadline this week but I don’t think it’s smart to trade India. He is a TERRIBLE second basemen but when/if Matt McClain gets healthy I’d like to see him DH or play 1st. But can we end the nonsense about the Reds making the playoffs please?
I don’t give a hoot about Joe Burrow’s haircut. I do care how his wrist is.
See everyone next week
Marc