Pre-Season Notes
April 6, 2022
By Marc Brafman
After a long and sad off-season, it’s time to get back out to Triple Creek. The first order of business every year is the annual player draft. Let’s take a look at each team and preview the season.
We’ll start with Team Weisser. Before the draft, Capt. Mark Weisser was his normal cheerful self and seemed pretty excited to have a high draft slot. “I have been reading my draft guides, listening to ESPN8 (The Ocho) podcast and everyone has been giving me their advice on who I should take.” When he selected the Wolf family no one seemed all that surprised in the room. “I see Scott every day at work. Why not on the softball field?” Weisser said. With the Wolfs, Brad “The Human Rain delay” Wagner and Pete “The Straw that Stirs the Drink” Soltesz in the middle of the order, Team Weisser will definitely bring the thunder each week. They also might lead the league in inter-team arguing and bickering, which will also be fun to watch. “I think having ‘Easy’ Eddie Gallop and ‘The Dr. of Style,’ David Weil on my team will help ease the friction that some of the guys might feel this year,” Weisser said. ”I’m excited to see how many bombs (both f and real) we hit this year.” Fun fact that may only interest me: in the history of JCC softball no team has ever had as many guys with the same last letter of their name on the same team. Nine of the 12 guys on Team Weisser start with “W.”
Continuing their theme from last year, the Lefton’s once again employed the “WE are family” approach to drafting taking the Harris (Griff and Dee) group along with the Kirzners (Reigning rookie of the year, Cam and the ageless wonder, Jerry “Doc” Kirzner). “Nothing wrong with half our team being related to each other,” Rick said post draft. “Remember in the mid-90’s when the Reds started an infield of the Boones and Larkins? They won, didn’t they?” Didn’t they? “This is an interesting team I’ve got,” Jimmy said post draft. I have three of the fastest guys in the league in Griff, Cam and Zach “The Wild Horse” Zakem and some big-time hitters like Ryan “The Hebrew Hammer” Baum and Matt Brodof. But we also have station to station guys like myself, “The Special One” Mike Rothstein and Alan “Sauce” Lessure. A special bonus for all of us this year will be listening to Rothstein direct Alan on where to play in the field this year.
Fun prediction that may only interest me: Jeremy Fogel will throw out at least one, if not two of Team Lefton’s runners from the outfield trying to get to 1st base when they play this year.
Moving along to Team Kamrass…the out of the blue winners of the second half of the season last year are back for more this year. “We proved we could win with Eppy last year so why not try again?” So for the second year in a row, Eppy and the Brothers Kamrass will be partners. “I’ve been in the pool, in the weight room and in the wing eating contests all winter to prepare,” Eppy said. I’m looking forward to beating the odds once again. Eppy has a lot of help around him with Mark “Big Blue” Tenenholtz coming back this year along with Danny Gilbert, Jason Esterkamp and Adam Heldman. “We hope our big hitters and the rookie Scott Raskin can blossom into a star for us,” Micah said. Plus, it’s always fun to play with Riley “The Big Man” Able once again.
Fun random game that would only interest me: We need to time Eppy this year running from first to home, then take that time and see if he could polish off a plate of wings faster post game.
The first rookie captain makes his appearance next. After spending a number of seasons as one of the chattier catchers in the league, Steve “Z” Zawatsky has stepped up to captain. “I got tired of always listening to guys talk about their teams and I figured it was time for me to step up and captain my own team. I wanted to get youth and speed at the top of my order which I did by drafting David “Slim Shady” Wertheim and Harry ‘Hood’ Meisner. I just have to keep Wertheim off his phone and focused. He’s so all in on OSU that I need to make sure he can stop covering the 4-5 best team in college football each year long enough for him to hit and field. I’ve caught Ken Groh before and I know what a solid player he (and not being a captain will help him this year), plus I got the new Commish, Ryan and his crew (Phil and Oren). When you toss in Rabbi Yitz, new/old Rookie Bradley “Monkey” Swillinger and the rest of my team I’m ready to go!” Most of the talk around the draft room was that Z did very well for his first time drafting and has a well-prepared team.
Fun future fact about Team Z-we are only a couple of years away from getting a 10th team in the JCC league made up of Rabbi Yitz and his kids. Forget the Wolf clan. Very soon it will be the Yitz pack ruling our league.
If there is one consistent thing to say about Stu Solomon’s teams year after year it’s that he drafts guys that can hit. This year is no different. Tyler “Bryce Harper” Stansbury, Adam Cronstein, Stu and rookie Ryan “The One Man Gang” Marcus make up the top of his order. (No pressure Ryan, but Mike “Flash” Creemer thinks that he will lead the league in homers). “In our league if you can’t hit you can’t win and this year, I am going ALL in on big boppers. Not only that, I have a pissed off Jeff “The Natural” Weisbrot ready to show that he is all in and back to form this season. Did you guys see Joey Votto last year? Well, that is the level of locked in-ness Jeff is going to bring this year. He is going to forget that his kids have games and come out each Wednesday ready to hit.” With rookie full time pitcher Corey Norris on the hill and a couple of rookies “Mr. Wonderful” Max Orloff and the mysterious Mike Wagner holding down the fort along with Mark “Bruiser” Wolfe, Team Solomon should be a team to be reckoned with this year.
Fun Dad fact that Stu shared with me on Sunday. I bumped into him at Marx Bagels at around 9:10 on Sunday morning. All I did was drop my kids off at Sunday school. Stu informed me that with his kids 2ndbirthday coming up later that day he he already gone to Target, Cosco, Party Source, cut the grass, walked his dog, hired Eric the Clown as entertainment and was now at Marx Bagels picking up food. I don’t miss little kids at all.
Our next captain was following the trends set by first Tony LaRussa coming back to the White Sox, Sean “Nothing to see in Arizona” Miller coming back to XU and finally Thad Motta returning to Butler. We of course are talking about Roger Rosenthal. Roger was a captain so long ago that the Reds weren’t even begging fans to come to games with bobbleheads…they were actually trying to win. Roger wasted no time in making a big statement by grabbing Howie and Rafi. Along with Michael “Chatterbox” Askin and James “Lynn” Swan, this team is going to have a lot of speed in the outfield. D-Sol behind the plate brings a great bat and a good target for Howie. Roger drafted for experience and he sure got it with “Stormin’” Norm Frankel, Jim Beckett, Keith Kombrinck and Gary Fisher. “My team will be ready to take on any and all comers this year,” Roger said. “I’m in the process of ordering team bobbleheads as we speak.”
Random fun contest for team Roger: Will Roger talk more in one inning than Michael Askin talks all season? My money is on Roger
Team Grefer coming off the league title last year picked up right where they left off on draft day. Taking a couple of rookies, Taylor “F$%^ the” Police and AJ Goldhoff were bold moves that I think will pay off for them. Josh Rosen brings team speed and solid defense in the outfield. Mike “Mr. Cub” Gray will keep them in any game, and the recently buff Ben Margolis is poised for another breakout season. “We change with the times,” Kyle Grefer said post draft. Last year it was all about the Wolfs and established players and this year we went with the young guys. Of course, I don’t know half my team but I’ll meet them on Wednesday. I just know they can play. Rounding out the team, Chris Kunkel and Mike Margolis are looking forward to proving their worth this year.
Fun fact about Team Grefer. If we were starting a basketball team Team Grefer would be a great place to start. With Danny and Kyle, Kunkel and Zack Michelson all being well over 6 feet tall this team would give the 69thranked XU team a good run for their money
The last of the three rookies, Jeremy “Hamilton” Fogel took time away from his Ben Roethlisberger shrine to get up to speed on the draft. Like Team Grefer, he took a little gamble by drafting a rookie high when he took Pat “Sunshine” Feldman’s family early. “We are counting on Tait Cunningham (Pat’s cousin) to really be a big-time player for us. If he plays half as well as his girlfriend looks, we have the rookie of the year.” We have a strong team with Scott “why can’t we be” Friend, The “Macho Man” Andrew Gage, and Bryce “The Gunslinger” Aslinger part of the team. After my trade with Team Brafman we now have two quality pitchers in Jamey Kurtzer and Eric “Spuds” Zied along with great quality guys like Scott “Shorty” Adams and Mark Franklin. “Having my dad help me out was a big plus this year. I value his opinion and he’s never steered me wrong (The rest of us disagree with that statement since he did turn you into a Steelers fan).
Fun future altercation that might happen. With a member of the First Wives club of JCC softball Barb Fogel coming to watch each week, we now have worry about her getting into arguments with the umps. “My mom is not used to me being in control, so I’d better make sure she controls herself each game.” We don’t want her to get tossed out of Triple Creek arguing plays in the field. She’s been known to curse like a sailor when a call goes against me or my dad, so now we have to try and control that fury.
Finally, we come to Team Brafman. “I feel we have a good mix of speed and power. I’ve got two former Rookie’s of the year in Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley and JZ. Fink with a year under his belt as a pitcher is poised to take that next step up. You know what you are going to get each year with Anton and we have a couple of returning players who missed a year or two in Alex Kraus and “The Mouth of the Midwest” Eric Gruen primed for breakout seasons,” said Brafman post draft. “Joel and I are happy to be back in the league,” Gruen said. “Who wants to play golf when you can swing a softball bat each week?” “With cagey vets like David “BP” Synder, Dr. Bob and “The Mayor” Todd Wasserman we should lead the league in compliments around first base this season as well. I can’t wait for the season to start,” Brafman said. Let’s play ball!
Fun Passover food fact. If you guys are hosting Passover this year or going over to someone’s house and are in the market for baked goods that actually taste amazing, please track down Sam “The Hitman” Hecht and Sweet Butter Bakery. I promise you will not have better baked goods anywhere.
League Notes:
Congrats to Scott Sadler on getting married. Either it happened this week or it’s going to very soon
Some wedding anniversaries over the last couple of weeks…Scott Friend, 13 years and me and my wife, 21.
When he and David Wertheim aren’t talking about the 4thor 5th best football team in the country year in and year out, Griff Harris has found a team at OSU that actually wins National Titles. I’m talking of course about the women’s hockey team. Griff posed for numerous pictures with the ladies (some of whom actually have their own teeth still) and seemed very excited to be whatever a guy groupie would be called. Way to go Buckeyes.
A great article last week in everyone’s favorite weekly newspaper, the Israelite, about Mike “Flash” Creemer and his coaching of girls Blue Jays basketball. We talk about it a lot, but man Mr. Mike really does have a huge influence on all of our kids who have been through the J. (In a similar vain last week my son, Jacob, and Zach Huidt’s son, Noah, played against each other in a select baseball league game. Both of us coached them at the J) So keep up the good work, Mike.
If you can stomach watching the Reds in person for one game come to JCC/Jewish night on June 7th. It’s always a fun night even if the Reds won’t be that much fun.
Congrats to Roger on XU winning the NIT. The game started during the draft and to his credit Roger kept his eyes on the prize and drafted a good team all the while claiming to not want to know how XU was doing. He was surprised, though, to get a cease and desist letter from the Xavier marketing department when he tried to sell We love 69! T-shirts. He didn’t (and still doesn’t) understand why that’s a bad thing.
Ryan sent this out last week but here it is again. If you would like to record a memory of Jason Faust for his kids please click on this link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=jnfLkqeLNE-gEUum5zZplqT8j1Q87klFkPrAWSKljr1URFdJVUY5TExGNkZNT0xVTFJXT0FVVjZDUy4u
And last but not least Roger listed a 2016 Reds team baseball card set for $10 on his web site. This, mind you, is the same Reds team that finished 68-94. I think he should pay us $10 to take them off his hands.
Can’t wait to see everyone later today (if Mother Nature permits it)