June 23 Recap
By Marc Brafman
What a great night for our first double header of the year. All we need now is for Triple Creek to build a big tarp over field 1 so we can see the ball when we stare into the sun. Let’s get to the action on the field:
Over on field one it was Team Kamrass vs. Team Brafman
Team Kamrass continued its march for the second half title by sweeping a doubleheader against Team Brafman. The first game ended by mercy rule, and the second was a one-run margin. The team was led by the dynamic duo on the hill of Eppy and Keith Kombrinck. They pounded the strike zone and were supported by a strong defense. Key defensive plays came from Zach Mayer and Jared Kamrass.
The biggest hits of the night were a home run for David Solomon and a triple from Rafi Goldfarb. Adam Heldman also reached base in every one of his plate appearances in both games.
The MVP for Team Kamrass was Keith Kombrinck who did a little bit of everything to help the team win. He pitched, played great first base, and smoked a ball over the left fielder’s head that led to Keith tagging up to score the game winning run.
Kombrinck and Eppy also pulled off perhaps the most improbable double steal in JCC softball history.
“I wouldn’t want to face our team right now,” said captain Micah Kamrass. “We have two great pitchers and a great defense. We shook off the rust from a lot of guys taking a year off, and now we are dangerous. It feels good to see us at the top of the standings for the second half.”
Team Brafman chimes in. Not much went well for us last night but it should be noted that Mark “Big Blue” Tenenholtz hit a homer over the fence with some help from Adam Heldman (the ball hit his glove and went over the fence) and Fink continues his gold glove play at pitcher. “Tip of the cap to Team Kamrass as they kicked our butt from start to finish last night,” Brafman said. the less said about these two games the better…
On field two it was Team Solomon vs. Team Grefer:
Kyle reports in:
We beat Team Solomon 5-1 in the first game and 16-8 in the second. In the first game Howard Schwartz pitched a great game, only allowing 3 hits. He also had a great day at the plate, going 5 for 5 across both games. Scott Wolf played great as well, hitting 5 for 6 on the day and creating havoc on the basepaths. He had 3 total steals and stole home twice. Duff Wolf went a combined 4 for 5 including a triple to left field. Bob Pelberg had a nice game behind the plate and went 3 for 5 with some key hits. Sub Marc Simons also played a great left field running down everything that went his way and went 5 for 6 at the plate.
The team has shown incredible fight this year. After starting the season 1-2, we’ve rattled off 5 straight wins to turn our season around.
On field three it was a split as Team Taylor vs Team Lefton
Team Taylor reports from the first game winners:
We creamed Lefton in the first game by scoring 9 runs in the first and 6 in the 3rd. This seemed to really upset both Jimmy and Ricky Lefton who had a brothers’ spat on the field. We need to check on Jimmy’s hand because Rick was zinging the ball back to him pretty hard. Eric “Jeter” Goldstein hit a triple, and B-Rod continues to hit the ball well for us.
In game two using the new extra innings rule Team Lefton won the game by scoring the runner from 2nd base. From what we understand Sean Doolittle was brought in to pitch the 6th inning last night for Team Taylor which led to the loss.
Finally on field 4 Team Weisser took on Team Loon
Roger with the update
GAME 1……
TEAM WEISSER…….10
TEAM LOON…………..5
GAME 2…..
TEAM LOON………….16
TEAM WEISSER…….20
After the worst game of the season, TEAM WEISSER could only get better, and they did in a big way!
They swept TEAM LOON in a pair of five inning games, winning the opener, 10-5, and the nightcap, 20-16.
The stars were plentiful in the doubleheader as everyone contributed in a total team effort. Whether it was on defense or offense or both, they set the tone early and never looked back.
Captain MARK WEISSER was back on the mound after a week in Nevada (ask him what he was doing there) and pitched and fielded his position well.
“I don’t know what the f— happened when I was gone, but I wasn’t going to put up with that kind of performance again. I’ve been in this league a long time and I just won’t tolerate another performance like last week,” he stated in the winner’s locker room afterward. “I made sure that was not going to happen again or else heads would roll.”
The million-dollar players stepped up in a big way as DAVID WERTHEIM, HARRY MEISNER, JOSH ROSEN and SAM CASTELLINI all contributed with big hits and stellar play in the field. It included a monster blast over the centerfield fence by MEISNER and some key run scoring hits.
“I had my Wheaties today and it paid off. I didn’t think it was going out, but I guess I’m more powerful than I thought,” the Wyoming graduate MEISNER said afterwards.
Kudos also go out to NORM FRANKEL….STEVE ZAWATSKY…..LARRY NEWMAN….HOWARD GOLDWASSER and ROGER ROSENTHAL who also contributed in the field and at the plate.
“I didn’t know what it felt like to get on multiple times in one game,” said the Indianapolis native GOLDWASSER said afterwards.
“I didn’t know how it felt to just get on base. I haven’t been doing much of that this year,” ROSENTHAL explained to reporters afterwards.
WERTHEIM played an unbelievable shortstop and made some great plays, however on the throws to first baseman ROSENTHAL, the sun was blinding and he couldn’t come up with the throws.
“I couldn’t see the damn ball and I felt bad for the team, but what was I to do?” he said.
In response, WEISSER said, “You’ve got the money. Don’t be so cheap and go buy yourself a pair of sunglasses.”
Finally, in the final frame in the second game, after another thrown ball to first base in which ROSENTHAL couldn’t see the ball, WEISSER moved him to second base and put NEWMAN at first base.
On the next hitter, a ball was hit to FRANKEL at third base, who fielded it, threw to ROSENTHAL at 2nd base for the force out and then he threw to first base to complete the
double play.
“I’ll do anything to get back to my natural position, but really the sun did get in my eyes at first base.”
League Notes:
This is a super cool story: Griff Harris noticed on Instagram a couple of weeks back that Tejay Antone was doing a contest where you could design a pair of his cleats and if you won he would wear them in a game. Griff drew some up and sent it in. And he WON! So he got a pair of cleats from Antone that were signed and he is going to wear them in a game. Well done, Griff.
Also, congrats go out to Eric “Jeter” Goldstein whose daughter won the life guard of the week at the JCC. “Now that Handsome Sam is gone, I have this award in the bag every week,” she said.
Dr. Bob last night was telling us all about what a great wife he has (Wendy). In the past she has, in no particular order, shoveled the driveway while he was loafing in the shower one morning, cut the grass, and done work around the house all the while Dr. B is out you know saving lives and telling Eppy to stop eating so many wings. But by far the best Dr. Bob story involved a trip to Vegas where Dee Harris had to room with him. I guess Dr. B has a snoring problem and Dee had spent all night tossing shoes, pillows, his poker chips, the “Dancer” in their room and anything else he could think of to get him to stop. Finally, he texted Wendy to ask how she could sleep with him all these years. Wendy picked up the phone and called Bob who was still sleeping and woke him up to yell at him to quit snoring because he was keeping sweet Dee and the “Dancer” in their room awake. (Parts of this story were embellished…allegedly)
Finally, not sure if you guys saw this story but a couple of weeks ago during the Euro Championships. Ronaldo was starting his press conference when he saw two bottles of Coke were on the table. (Coke is one of the title sponsors of the championships) and Ronaldo being a healthy guy asked for water and moved the Coke bottles out of TV range. This set off a storm for Coke who saw their stock prices fall simply because a guy moved the bottles over and asked for water. This got me thinking about our league and the different sponsorships our guys are into:
Jimmy Lefton would be a proud sponsor of Dollar Shave Club’s Swamp Stop Ball Spray (Have you seen that guy post game? He looks like he showered with his clothes on)
Roger Rosenthal who complained all night about not being able to see the ball in the sun would of course be a partner for Cool Dude Sunglasses (the same ones that Dave and Chainsaw wrote about in his favorite 80’s movie, Summer School. FYI Roger…sunglasses were invented in the 12th century by the Chinese so you might want to invest in some.
Mark “Bruiser” Wolf along with many others would be a proud sponsor of Bulldog skin care for bald heads.
Keith Kombrinck uses body armor by Kevlar since he pitches in catchers gear and runs in shin guards.
Alan Lessure who after making a throwing error last night and blamed his lack of grip due to yard work on his hands is of course the sponsor of Spider Tack grip that all of the MLB pitchers are getting dinged about currently. If only I had my tube of Spider Tack last night I would have made that throw to beat that speedster, Eppy.
Duffy “Clap for the Wolf(man),” who was seen sporting a little pony tail last night is a proud sponsor of Soul-vation hair clips for both men and women
Not to be outdone his brother Scott “Dire” Wolf, who added to his all-time JCC steal record last night, works with Tide cleaners since nothing gets dirt out of pants better than Tide.
Rafi Goldfarb, it comes to no surprise to anyone, is a proud partner of Afro Picks from neo curly products. “It’s the only brand I use,” Rafi said last night.
David “Slim Shady” Wertheim is known to use the same “energy” powder that turned Barry Bonds’ head three sizes too big. It was last seen on the bench last week on field 4 if anyone is looking for it.
Pete “The straw that stirs the drink” Soltesz has a deal with Half Price Books so he can read up on baseball 101, which states you walk the other team’s best hitter with an open base and a one run lead.
And finally, 90% of us in the league today need some sort of sports cream since we are sore from playing 10 innings last night.
See ya on the field next week!