October 7 Recap
By Marc Brafman
On a misty warm evening the JCC softball players battled the lights (or lack thereof) the smell of some fine weed and the cement fields to finally get two games in under the lights. Rookie Capt. Jeremy “Hamilton” Fogel leads off:
Game 1: Team Fogel got off to a sluggish defensive start allowing seven runs in the top of the first inning but rookie pitcher Corey Norris locked in afterward, only allowing two runs for the rest of the game. A stellar offensive performance from top to bottom as well as some timely hits carried the team to victory. Super sub Joel Fogel seems to get better with age, Josh Rosen with a pair of triples, Corey Norris going against the shift to drive in a few runs, Zach Michelson with two hustle singles to keep the inning going and a lot of XBH from other contributors propelled Team Fogel in game one…….
Game 2: Jumping out ahead in the top of the first, Team Fogel continued their pattern of implosive innings giving up a 6 spot with two outs in the bottom of the second. Battling back from behind as they’ve proved to do so effectively on the young year, Team Fogel took a 1-run lead into the bottom of the fourth before the wheels fell off. An eleven run bottom of the fourth by Leader & Co. brought Team Fogel their second run-rule defeat of the season.
Stats of the weird: Team Fogel is the only team in modern (soft)ball era to trail by more than 5 runs in the first game of a double-header and then come from behind to win with a subsequent run rule defeat in the second game.
Over on Field Two Team Kamrass swept Team Stu
Both games were close but the bats for Team Kamrass carried the day. In the first game they were led my Mark “Big Blue” Tenenholtz who hit a ball on the fly off the wall and Rabbi Yitz who continued his strong hitting from the summer. The Special One Mike Rothstein also contributed with a couple of knocks as did the birthday Boy Bryce Anslinger. Team Stu was led by Marc Brafman, Harry “Hood” Meisner and David “BP” Snyder. It should be noted in game one Team Kamrass used a ringer for an inning at 3rd base in Rafi’s brother where of course he made all three plays in the inning before he was banished to RF for the rest of the game.
The second game was a back and forth affair with Team Kamrass jumping out to a big lead but Team Stu battled back to take the lead going into the bottom of the 5th. But Kamrass was able to tie the game and send it to extra innings. In the top of the 6th Meisner got the go-ahead RBI on the most JCC play of all time. A dropped 3rd strike missed ball at 1st which let the go-ahead run score from 3rd with two outs. But not to be outdone in the bottom of the 6th Rabbi Yitz tied the game on a single and scored the winning run on an error by Team Stu to win the game by a run.
League Notes:
I think I speak for all 4 teams when I say we all need some practice playing under the lights.
Congrats goes out to Zach Meyer on the birth of his second kid.
For all of you that posted pictures of your kids going to homecoming this past weekend I’m glad to see that the Jewfro is making a comeback..
I’ve been mentioning it for a while but now we have the link and the registration page open for the JCC Oy Vey 5K race that is going to take place this Nov.
Please sign up and spread the word as this is a great fund raiser for Mr. Mike’s Blue Jays program which I know is near and dear to most of your hearts: https://mayersonjcc.org/oyvey5k/?fbclid=IwAR1f8Qv9fLy9jRHqaQkJcPr1taspaCsCZTvBFjCp-4paEgbrP_jYBiEEdbo
If you stayed up to watch the NL Wild Card game last night you saw Chris Taylor beat the Cards with a walk off 2 run homer. I know it must be hard to be a side line reporter but don’t you think they can do a better job than ask the following question: “Chris is this the biggest hit of your career?” Unless he is Bobby Thompson or Joe Carter I’d say the answer is yes.
Since I was in the stands and not on the field last Saturday at Notre Dame I didn’t have much in the way of helping the Bearcats win but since everyone seems to be asking, this is what Bearcats fans need to root for the rest of the way. Bama and UGA to go 12-0 and meet in the SEC championship game (they will both make the final 4 no matter who wins or loses). Oregon to lose again, Oklahoma to lose this weekend to Texas or to anyone in the Big 12 and then for one of the Big 10 teams to win out. Doesn’t matter who. What we don’t want is for their to be a lot of 1 loss Big 12, Big 10 and Pac 12 teams mucking things up for the Bearcats who have to win out. Too much football left to really think about all of this but man it’s fun to dream right? My advice for everyone is to just enjoy the ride that the Bearcats are on..
Finally a brief note on the Reds: What struck me about going to the ND game was that they played a highlight video before the game and just like the one that the Reds play it depressed me more than made me excited. All of the highlights were 20+ years old (give or take) and just like the Reds they rely in the good ol’ days while not really being great now. Sure ND has made the final 4 a couple of times but never a serious threat to OSU, Bama, Clemson etc. It’s been over 9400 days read that again 9400!!!! days since the Reds last won a playoff series and next year doesn’t look like that will change. You saw under-achieving teams like the Mets and the Pads firing their managers this week and, not saying that Bell should have been fired, but at least the message to the Mets and Pads fan base is being “ok” isn’t “ok.” Meanwhile down at GABP being 4 games over .500 and being competitive until Sept is viewed as a positive. Won’t it be nice if instead of that the narrative was we have a good young group of guys and we promise to do everything we can to get better next year. Instead we get, “well we have to see what the budget will permit.” Sounds like another 3rd place finish to me.