August 11 Recap
By Marc Brafman
It was a HOT night at Triple Creek and the scores reflect it as a lot of runs were scored across the 4 games. Let’s get to the action.
Let’s start on field 1 with Team Lefton taking on Team Weisser.
Roger leads off
In perhaps one of the worst defensive games of the year, TEAM WEISSER fell to TEAM LEFTON, 17-7…..
Leading the way with about 12 (it seemed like that many) dropped balls at first base, was ROGER ROSENTHAL, who had a game for the ages…..in a bad way….
On the positive side, HARRY MEISNER, hit a grand slam in the top of the fifth inning to extend the game, only to be run ruled in the bottom of the inning…..
Enough said about this game…….captain MARK WEISSER was reportedly going to get the video of the game from the ESPN crew filming and having it burned immediately….. Team Lefton has now scored 51 runs in the last two games which might be a large enough number for the Reds bullpen to not blow..
On field 2 it was Team Loon vs. Team Groh
Ken reports:
Team Jekyll and Hyde played like the good doctor today and came back to win tonight’s game. With 2 outs in the 1st, Jeff Weisbrot made his JCC return after missing 13 games and lined a single to RF. He later scored on a wild pitch as Groh took a 1-0 lead. With 1 out in the bottom of the 1st Anton Loon hit a ball to the fence and Jeremy Fogel caught it, but as he hit the fence the ball fell over for a HR. Not to be outdone, Matt Brodof hit a 2-run shot that Fogel had to watch sail way over the fence as Loon led 3-1. In the 3rd inning Team Groh batted around as the first 5 guys all scored with RBI singles by Weisbrot and Groh and Baum’s triple drove them both in. Loon answered with 2 and after 3 it was a 6-5 game. Team Groh scored 3 in the 4th and sent 12 batters up in the 5th to get to the final 16-5 victory. Joel and Jeremy Fogel each scored 3 runs and had 2 hits and 3,4,5 hitters Jeff, Ken and Ryan went 9-9 with 8 runs and 9 RBI’s paced the offense! Bryce Anslinger and Jim Beckett also had 3 hits. Mark Simons had 2 RBI’s and Todd Wasserman had an RBI single and was robbed of extra bases as Stu Solomon made a diving catch in left that was the defensive play of the game. Jason Esterkamp and Loon each had 3 hits to pace Team Loon. “I’m just glad I didn’t have to go to Doolittle or AG in this game,” Groh said. Even with an 11-run lead, I’m not sure those guys could hold it for us.”
On Field three it was Field it was Team Grefer vs. Team Brafman
Marc reports for both teams
Team Grefer won 18-10 in a battle of second place teams. Grefer got hits all up and down the lineup, but big blows came from Weston “Hungry like a” Wolf with a JCC homer and Brad Gallop who smoked one to deep left and beat the relay to the plate. It was a total team hitting night as many balls were hit just out of the reach of the Brafman defense. “When we get rolling we are tough to stop,” Kyle said post game. Plus Howie pitched a great game as usual. Tyler “Big Bad” Wolf also smoked two of the hardest hit balls of the season to Brafman playing short, one of which bounced off his foot resulting in Brafman getting an x-ray post game (not broken… just ice and rest). But the star of the game was Weston who played a great SS and made at least 9 put outs. For team Brafman, Mark “Big Blue” Tenenholtz paced the offense with two JCC homers and one Joey Votto homer that was WAY over the fence for 9 of the 10 RBI’s for team Brafman. He also threw a runner out at the plate for what I can imagine is his league leading 4-5 assist of the year. With a 9-run lead in the bottom of the 7th Howie was able to throw strikes and let his defense do the job for him, something that the Reds bullpen should take note of.
Finally on field 4 it was Team Kamrass vs. Team Schwartz
Micah files this update
Playing with nine guys, Team Kamrass beat Team Schwartz 18-8 in 5 innings. Every player on the team hit the ball well. Adam Heldman had a home run, and Scott Sadler and Keith Kombrinck both blasted doubles over the heads of the outfield. The three-man outfield of Heldman, Ryan Silverman, and Micah Kamrass covered a lot of ground. Eppy shut out Team Schwartz in the final three innings of the game.
“Tonight was a total team win,” said Captain Micah Kamrass. “We’re right where we want to be. A win next week against Team Groh makes us the second half champions.” Amazingly, both Eppy and Kombrinck continue to throw more strikes than the Reds bullpen. “We were brought up in an era of making the other team hit the ball and not try to strike everyone out,” Keith said post game. Sure, I look like Phil Niekro out there, but he won 300 games throwing strikes.”
Post game notes from Roger:
1. GRIFF HARRIS, celebrating his 21st birthday with a few ladies of the night afterward, reportedly was going to be taken out on the town by a few close friends…..NO curfew was in place for his special night….
2. It’s always fun listening to DAVID WEIL talk about how bad a manager is for the Reds……really, could he do a better job?
3. JEREMY FOGEL was as patient as could be…..he had to wait and wait for his dinner to be served to him and was one of the last to receive it, but did he get upset…..NO…..”I’m
pretty patient when it comes to service. It was worth the wait.”
4. JEREMY’S father, JOEL FOGEL, had one of the biggest portions of hamburger and fries I’ve ever seen…..I don’t know if he ate the whole thing, but if he did…………
5. STEVE EPPSTEIN’s son, DAVID and daughter in law, NIVEA, are cruise bound to Alaska next week and will miss their father’s possible second half clinching game…..what kind of family is that for you?……a chance to see history or a chance to see eskimos………
And league notes:
Speaking of Alaska our very own Commish Rick was on an Alaskan vacation last week. When asked about the trip he said, and I quote “Alaska is amazing…the cruise not so much. It was filled with 40-50 year old Jewish singles who kept coming up to me asking me if I’d like to go up to the poop deck and watch for whales. I don’t know what it is about me, but I had to beat them off with a frozen seal.” But to be honest to quote my personal guru Bob Ross “God had a good day when he created Alaska.”
Happy 21st birthday to our own Griff “Benedict Arnold” Harris today. It’s good to know Griff can legally drink his disappointment away when OSU loses to Purdue or Northwestern this year.
A couple of happy anniversaries this week. Cory Norris and Bryce Anslinger both have been married a long time (but not to each other).
If you want to donate to a good cause, talk to Eric “Jeter” Goldstein as he is working on raising money for the Jewish National Fund, which if you ask me sounds a lot like the Human Fund from Seinfeld which as we all know is “Money for People.”
For those of you who have caught the pickleball bug, post season Mark “Hello” Newman is starting a pickleball league.
if you remember, a few weeks ago it was reported that at the recently completed Olympics they were providing the athletes with an amazing amount of condoms that they could use even with Covid running wild in Japan. Our friends over at the Israeli baseball team wanted to test to see if the “unbreakable” beds were in fact unbreakable” so instead of inviting Natalie Portman or Wonder Woman or Babs Streisand to test it out, they did this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtWDzRugV_c
One of the nice things about the league that I think we all enjoy is the longevity of the league and how dads, sons and now sons of sons have all played in it. This was brought home last night when Fink and I were talking about how our dads played together. Now we are on a team and our sons have met through the league and are now friends and will one day play as well. Like the Boones and the Bells in baseball, the league also has many three-generational families.
I’d like to get Joel “The Wrath of” Kahn to comment on the recent run that Joey Votto has been on, but he couldn’t be found.
It was nice to see “The Natural” Jeff Weisbrot back on the field last night. He’s been on the DL longer than Senzel (and he hits better than Senzel as well)
Who knew that Billy Preston https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX2bE-OBtwk came back to life in the form of Rafi Goldfarb’s hair…
Finally, if there is a baseball god please, please, please let us enjoy Hunter Green for a long time as a Red. Reds fans don’t ask for much but baseball god we humbly ask that you permit Hunter to have a long Randy Johnson or Roger Clemens like career for the Reds. Why do you ask that we pray to the baseball gods? Because of this. Last week in one START he threw 37 pitches faster than 100 MPH including 73% of them for strikes. Had this been in the majors he would have set the record for most 100 MPH pitches in a single game in history. Let’s hope the Reds are smart enough to keep him down in Louisville until Sept. and then use him only out of the pen from time to time.
Last but not least, this week Roger has some good stuff for sale. Used hockey chewing gum from Gump Worsley, a Martin St. Louis autographed cap when he played for the St. Louis Blues and of course a President Santa Ono bobblehead (he was the former President of UC) because really what dope would want that????
See ya next week for the final week of the season.
Marc