August 18 Recap
By Marc Brafman
Sorry for the delay in getting this up. Just in case you didn’t see Rick’s e-mail here is the address to the fields on Sunday morning:
1223 N. State Route 741 Lebanon, Ohio 45036
Make sure you bring $3 per person in cash if you are over the age of 16.
The matchups are set for the post season
Team Loon vs. Team Solomon in the play-in game
#1 seed Team Grefer vs. the Winner of the play-in
#2 seed Team Brafman vs. Team Groh
#3 seed Team Kamrass vs. Team Weisser
#4 seed Team Lefton vs. Team Schwartz
Good luck to everyone.
Now onto the brief recaps:
On field 1 it was Team Grefer vs. Team Schwartz
Kyle chimes in:
We beat Taylor Schwartz’ team 18-13 in an offensive showdown. Wes Wolf led the way offensively with 4 hits including a home run to right field. Everyone contributed offensively (except me), with key hits coming from Howard Schwartz, Dan Grefer, Scott Wolf, Duff Wolf, Eddie Gallop and Brad Gallop. Defensively, we played a solid game, and I was able to help out the team with a couple nice catches in right center. (Editor’s note: I saw one of Kyle’s catches from field 2 he is selling himself short it was a great diving catch complete with a somersault finish that would have made Simone Biles proud)
I’m incredibly proud of my team this season finishing at 12-4, with three of our losses coming by a combined margin of 4 runs. Time to see if we can carry that success into the tournament. Team Grefer had the best overall record this season. Well done, fellas.
On field two it was Team Brafman vs. Team Weisser
Team Brafman bounced back well in a very clean 10-4 win over Team Weisser. The offense was paced as usual by Mark “Big Blue” Tenenholtz, Pat “Sunshine” Feldman and the “Macho Man” Andrew Gage who had a couple of big hits. On defense, Fink, Rick the Commish and Ben “Raindance” Rosenberg all kept the Weisser squad off the bases with nice catches. A special note on Eric “The fastest guy in the league” Zied who hustled himself into asking to be taken out of the game for an inning to catch his breath. “I don’t know what happened to me out there,” Zied said. “I just got so winded” It should be noted that Zied goes all out no matter if it’s BP, playing first base or running out a pop up. We should all hustle like him. Team Brafman finished the year 10-6, and clinched the 2nd seed in the post season. On a side note, Team Brafman’s kid-friendly team policy might need to be revised for next season as there were more kids on the bench than players on the field.
On field 3, it was the best game of the night as Team Kamrass took on Team Groh in a game to decide who would win the 2nd-half title. The game was played in front of a packed set of bleachers since it was the last to end. Here is the recap:
In a wild game, Team Kamrass came back from an 8-run deficit to beat Team Groh and to lock up the second half championship. Team Kamrass came storming back to a 5-run lead heading into the top of the 6th and managed to hold on to win by 1.
Eppy and Kombrink continued the run of being the dynamic duo in the mound. Eppy also had some great hitting and added to his stolen base total this season. Riley Able was the player of the game with some timely hits and a few nice plays in right field. Adam Heldman made a nice barehanded play to throw out a runner at first from the outfield.
“It was not our prettiest game of the season, but we got the job done,” said captain Micah Kamrass. “Champions know how to grind out tough wins, and that’s what we did tonight.”
It was a remarkable comeback for Team Kamrass, who finished 8th in the first half. Winning the second half and locking up the 3 seed were both major accomplishments. It’s been a fun season playing with this group of guys. Now we’re ready for a little tournament magic. Well done Team Bachelor Party on an amazing 2nd half.
Finally on field 4 it was Team Solomon vs. Team Lefton
Stu reports in:
Team Solomon was victorious last night to the tune of 13-10.
We shook up the line-up a little bit and got some great production from Zander Wold. He went 4-5 after being moved to the 2 hole. Tyler Stansbury had another great game both offensively and defensively. Mark Wolfe and Evan Gildenblatt had some huge hits, and both made some very nice defensive plays in the field.
As always, Mike Gray had a great day on the mound. He capped it off with a stellar play in the field for the last out of the game. A sharp grounder hit off Mike. In one motion, he slid, got to his feet, and threw a dart to first.
With all that fun and excitement, we had the opportunity to draw a card to be out of the play-in game. I failed to produce the right card and now we are playing in the playoff game. If we win, there will be Orange Slices.
Once again, the first round is Sunday. It’s on different fields and please bring $3 (this is what Rick is going to do to you if you don’t (Start the clip at 1:17)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z9Cg46Nktw
Congrats to Jared Kamrass who once again was quoted in the paper talking about the Mayor race. Now if only he can fix the Reds’ front office.
A HUGE shout out to Mr. Mike “Flash” Creemer on his 20 years working at the JCC. Any of us who have kids who have ever played a sport or gone to camp at the J over that time know how great Mr. Mike is. Congrats again.
I keep forgetting but please e-mail me at mbrafman14@gmail.com if you are going to Dead and Co. next month. We’ll meet up and take a picture for the record (whatever record that is).
On another music note…for those of you with HBO, watch the doc on Woodstock 99. First the music is beyond awful but man I forgot what a shit show that concert really was. A very interesting movie.
You’d think after being married to me for 20 years, Shana would know a little bit about sports but earlier this week when the AP college football poll came out and UC was ranked 8th she asked if that was in fact the same poll that had Alabama #1. As in no way UC and Alabama could both be in the same top 10 poll right? I’ve still got work to do, I guess.
Reminder that the JCC Oy Vey 5k is this Nov. Get those running and walking shoes on fellas and help out the J.
Finally, the other night post game we were debating the hot topic of the day…if Joey Votto is a Hall of Famer. He is, but for those of you who still think that he isn’t take a look at these stats provided by Jason Stark:
Hall of famers with 3000 hits – 25
Hall of famers with under 3000 hits – 135.
So far just this season Votto has passed Bill Dickey, Lou Boudreau, The Great Hank Greenberg and Hack Wilson.
This is my favorite stat. Vintage Votto led the league in OBP 7 times and missed an 8th by 1 point. Here is the total list of guys that have led the league in OBP more than Votto
Ted Williams – 12
Babe Ruth – 10
Barry Bonds – 10
Rogers Hornsby – 9
If the name of the game is not to make outs that is a pretty good list to be on.
Finally, one for those that think he walked too much. Here is the TOTAL list of players that have 2000+ hits with the most times reaching base per game since 1900
Ted Williams – 2.06
Lou Gehrig – 1.98
Ty Cobb – 1.823
Wade Boggs – 1.822
Tris Speaker – 1.792
Joey Votto – 1.789
So, Jimmy Lefton, take your “He’s in the Reds Hall of Fame and maybe Cooperstown” and shove it. Because I feel with the DH coming to the NL next year Votto could break the team record of homers (outside shot, but he might) and hit well enough to get his other numbers up. Plus, he is going to finish in the top 3 in the MVP voting which would be his 4-5 top 5 finish.
Last but not least it was a slow week for Roger (well, they are all slow with him) but to his credit he did find a Nick Senzel knee ligament that may or may not be injured. It depends on the source and the day of the week. Roger plans on selling that along with a combined Shogo Hamilton Bobblehead at next year’s Redsfest
See you Sunday, and don’t forget $3 dollars
Marc