October 26 Recap
By Marc Brafman
Sorry, everyone. I got sidetracked yesterday and forgot to post the recap from the games on Tuesday. I think the weed smell was still with me. But enough about that. Let’s get to the action.
On field one it was Team Chico Bailbonds Solomon vs. Team Kamrass
In a stunning turn of events Team Solomon swept a doubleheader from Team Kamrass winning the first game 15-10 and the second game 5-4. “I take full credit for both of our wins,” Stu said post game. “With me being on the IL with a bad ankle I was able to use skills as a manager to lead us to the wins. We had nothing to lose so we used Rick Lefton and Alex Krause as “rovers” on defense. I figured we couldn’t play any worse than we have been going with the traditional defensive spots, so why not? This seemed to flummox the guys on Kamrass (other than the Special One Mike Rothstein) and we kept them off the bases. Plus, not playing permitted me to continue talking smack all game which is really the main reason I’m out here each week.”
Hitting stars were Super sub Kyle Grefer, David “BP” Snyder, Marc Brafman, “The Macho Man” Andrew Gage and Alex Krause in the first game. And in the second Scott “why can’t we be” Friend, Rick Lefton, Eric “Jeter” Goldstein all got big hits. Not to be overlooked the defense led by Harry “Hood” Meisner at SS, Alex Krause as rover and Kyle Grefer in RF saved the day. Kudos for Mike Gray for striking out 4 or 5 guys over the course of the doubleheader. The only downer for Team Solomon is Andrew Gage hurting himself trying to catch a foul popup. Hope your shoulder is ok, Macho Man.
Even in the loss Team Kamrass had a couple of highlights. Commish, Rick Tenenholtz beat the shift for a few hits. The Special One, Mike Rothstein fielded one of the hardest hit grounders of the year at SS off the bat of Meisner to end an inning and save a couple of runs. Also, Mark “Big Blue” Tenenholtz in front of his Mom, his girlfriend and what we can assume is his future Mother-In-Law hit a homer and a triple in his first two at bats. It should be noted that this was the first time that his mom met his girlfriend’s mom, and nothing says love like meeting your future in-laws at a JCC night softball game when the temp was around 50 degrees.
On field 2, it was a battle for first place as Team Fogel took on the ‘27 Yankees Team Leader. Greg took time out from organizing his skeleton displays in his front yard to report in.
Heading into the fifth week of the season, a pattern became recognizable in our league – Team Fogel/Kamrass/Leader would split their doubleheader against other and sweep the doubleheader against Team Solomon. However, change (and the now familiar weed/skunk infused scent) was in the brisk fall air at River City Sports Complex.
After falling behind by four after the top of the first, Team Leader batted through their 12-man lineup, plating seven runs in the inning. The team overcame some errors by their usually sure-handed defense, as well as some incredible outfield play by Team Fogel (highlighted by the captain, himself) to take the first game 16-12.
After hearing the news that Team Solomon had beaten Team Kamrass in their first game of the night, Team Leader knew what was at stake in their second game. A win would ensure at least a tie for first place in the standings with one week to go. In another back-and-forth contest, Team Leader eventually pulled ahead and won 13-9.
Team Solomon beating Team Kamrass in game two, not only broke up the predictable weekly pattern, but meant that, with its own sweep, Team Leader will claim a regular season title in the fall league.
‘This team was built around speed’ said Leader. ‘There’s not a slow guy on the team. Our mindset is – get on base and you’re going to score.’
Leader also noted that he believes every one of the 12 players on the team has hit either a triple or home run this season – something rarely, if ever, accomplished in the illustrious history of the JCC fall softball league.
Leader also congratulated Team Solomon and its skipper, Stu, on their big wins. ‘You just never know in this league. Stu could definitely rally the troops for another pair of wins in the one-night playoff or the league could put ‘Team Solomon – Regular Season Champions’ on Team Leader’s trophies.’
Big shout out goes to Scott “Shorty” Adams on his son making the National Honor Society.
Chiming in from Florida, Dave “The Minister of Fun” Cohen told Roger and I that he is tired of us seeing pictures of our cat (me) and bobbleheads (Roger) on Facebook. I can’t speak for Roger but that is grounds for de-friending there if you can’t appreciate pictures of the legendary Cranberry the cat, Dave.
All time friend to the league and sometime sub, Billy Kahn’s daughter got married last week. Congrats on that and a bigger congrats on getting David Bell to be the official for the ceremony. No word on if Bell took 3 of the groomsmen out of the wedding two hours earlier than they should have been which resulted in him almost getting dropped out of his chair during the hora because the replacement groomsmen couldn’t do the job like the starters.
Continuing the trend of guys in the league being related to people that did great things, Aaron “Straight outta” Compton’s sister-in-law, Danille Minson, was named the new President of the Jewish Federation here in town. She is the first woman in the over 120 years of Federation here.
We are only a couple of weeks away from the Oy Vey 5K at the JCC. Please sign up even if you can’t race or walk it’s for the JCC Blue Jays program: https://mayersonjcc.org/oyvey5k/
Tyler Wolf and his company, Urban Blooms, were profiled on Cincy Live last week. Sorry I can’t find the link, but it was a great look at what he’s doing around town to make our city look pretty.
It’s a weird Cincinnati sports fan mindset when both UC and the Bengals are winning and getting national attention, isn’t it? I suggest we all sit back and enjoy the ride even if it ends on Saturday/Sunday this week.
Speaking of Cincy sports, I find it funny that people are actually complaining that the Reds traded Adam Duvall a few years ago because now he is back and hitting well for the Braves. First of all, we got Lucas Sims, one of the Reds better relief pitchers. But the bigger question is where exactly would Duvall play on the Reds? I guess you could make the case for him in CF but he’s not better than Winker or Nick the Great. So please enough about that trade. I’d still take Sims.
And last but not least this week in college football. After Saturday we can finally start paying attention to the polls since the college football rankings start on Tuesday. What I will be interested in seeing is if OSU is ranked ahead of Oregon if both win on Saturday. If a team has the same record and beat you on the road head to head shouldn’t they be ranked higher? And of course, the big Bearcat in the room, if UC takes care of biz vs. Tulane, where will they come in? No matter what it should make for an interesting last month of the season.