May 5, 2021 Recap
By Marc Brafman
What turned out to be a nice evening at Triple Creek saw plenty of close games and one blowout. Let’s get right to the action.
On Field One, Team Lefton beat Team Brafman (and the sun) 13-9. In a game marked by some very good defense from Griff Harris and Scott ” Why can’t we be” Friend(s) it was the hitting of Team Lefton that carried the day. Jimmy and Brad “The Human Rain Delay” Wagner both beat the shift to get key hits. Dee Harris and the Brothers Kunkel (who moonlight as a juggling act (or at least they should)) each contributed key hits in a 6-run inning that Lefton never gave back. “With the sun I was just trying to put the ball over the plate,” Lefton said post game. Jimmy also is going to advocate for a zero-strike zone in the future meaning hitters will have to come to the plate ready to swing with a 2×4 or an ironing board. He didn’t like that he walked me last night I guess. For Team Brafman big shout out to Eric “the fastest man in the league” Zied for stepping in to pitch. He did a great job. He also contributed a couple of knocks. Brafman, “Playboy” Mitch Evans and Andrew “The Macho Man” Gage also had a couple of hits.
Over on Field Two, Team Groh battled Grefer in a pitching duel for the ages: Ken reports after his 4-3 win:
In a rare JCC pitchers duel, Team Groh etched out a win even though “the living legend” Howie Schwartz pitched like he was 35 again holding Team Groh to 6 total hits. After a scoreless 1st, Duffy Wolf hit a bloop 2 out single that drove in 2 runs. After a lead-off single by Ryan Baum, Bryce Anslinger doubled him to 3rd. An RBI grounder by Jim Beckett and aggressive baserunning by Bryce tied the game up 2-2 after 2. Tyler Wolf had a SF in the 3rd and Jeremy Fogel matched that with a two-out homer and was determined to score as he never stopped running and slid under the tag at home. At 3-3 thru 3 the pitchers and defense took over and the score remained that way until the bottom of the 7th. Groh doubled with one out and after 2 failed bunt attempts, Marc Simons hit a grounder to 2nd and was out on a close play at 1st but it did enough as the old man Groh rumbled around and slid headfirst ahead of the throw for the 4-3 win. Jeremy Fogel had 2 hits and was part of throwing out a runner at the plate and sub Josh Rosen had a triple and a nice diving catch. Todd Wasserman and Marc Simons had a couple of great defensive plays as well as Wes Wolf who probably accounted for half of his teams defensive plays at both ss and at 2b as Team Grefer had an effective shift. It was good to see Jeff Weisbrot and son at the game as he coached 3rd. He is looking to play again in a month or so. Groh also made a great diving catch that all of us on field one felt when he dove for the ball. Nice catch Kenny!
On Field 3, it was Team Schwartz taking on Team Loon and the setting sun 24-12.
Take it away, Taylor.
Team Schwartz battled Team Loon in a high scoring affair. Both teams plated 2 in the first. Schwartz scored 4 in the 2nd, but Team Loon answered with 8 of their own as the whole lineup had solid base hits, to put them up 10-6. At that point, Jamey buckled in and only allowed 2 runs over the next 5 frames. Dan Perlmutter played excellent defense behind the plate. Everyone on Team Schwartz contributed on offense. Mike Rothstein was 5-6, Eric Goldstein with multiple bombs, and Taylor with a cycle. A big moment was in the top of 6 when B Rod hit a bloop 2 RBI single to put the victors up 14-12. Adam Cronstein snagged a screaming liner off the bat of Anton to keep the lead heading to the top of 7. This is when the wheels fell off for Team Loon. Electing to walk Pete Soltesz to load the bases with 2 outs, Corey Schwartz delivered a big knock to extend the lead. Following him, Corey Norris kept the rally alive, and the rest was history. Note: Double Corey hitting back-to-back is an electric duo in the middle of the order. I dare any other team to put forth a set of Corey’s that can compete with ours. Team Schwartz kept raking (along with some shakey defense) and scored 11 in the 7th to win 25-12. The team celebrated the Cinco De Mayo victory with shots of Jose Cuervo and Taco Bell.
Finally on Field 4, it was Team Solomon vs. Team Bachelor Party aka Kamrass 8-4
Stu reports in from the winners:
Great game last night! I thought we played well in all areas of the game.
A few big shout outs;
Mike and Andy- Awesome pitching and catching performance. As someone
who gets scared when the batter swings and misses, Andy, you looked
great back there. it must be the shin guards! Mike, way to keep the
batters off balance and mixing speeds. I think they had two or 3 hard
hit balls all night.
Mark Wolfe- Went 3-3 last night and started the big 5th inning.
Danny- Welcome back to softball. We missed you.
Michael,Tyler, Adam- All played great offensively and defensively.
Let’s continue to string hits together and play great D!
League notes:
Thanks to Ep for buying the wings last night at the Silver Spring house along with plates of chips. the real question is will the king of post-game eating try any cicadas on is chips in a few weeks. Speaking of the cicadas…For those of you who were in the league 17 years ago, what are we in for? The snow, the rain last week, the sun every week and now this. What did we do to make Moses so upset with our league?
Last night it was brought to my attention that David “Slim Shady” Wertheim doesn’t believe that any of us over 30 should be able to root for our college teams. Not only is this one of the dumbest ideas I’ve heard in a while (second only to Tony “I invented baseball don’t forget it” LaRussa pitching to Jessie Winker with a base open and Babe Farmer on deck yesterday) it also doesn’t make sense. Not only would I be out of a job, but I need to ask him why he feels this way. When asked what he would be doing on a college football Saturday in a few years instead of watching OSU, he said cutting his grass or raking leaves. Have fun with that..
Shout out to Howard Goldwasser for being the Soup Nazi of the Kona Ice truck last week at the first in-person event at Adath. Howard made sure that each kid only got one squirt of Tigers blood flavor and if they got any more than that it was NO ICE FOR YOU.
Jimmy Lefton doesn’t believe Clayton Kershaw is a 1st ballot hall of famer because his post season record isn’t that great. I guess pitching your team to all those post seasons doesn’t count, right?
Speaking of the Hall of Fame, it was 46 years ago this week that Pete Rose was moved from LF to 3rd base to make room for George Foster. The Reds who were 500 at the time went 42-11 over their next 53 games won over 100 games and the World Series. So, the next time you read about Nick Senzel or Gino moving spots, remember that Pete was an All Star at 5 spots and always did what is best for the team.
I know we are old and get hurt a lot, but how about A’s pitcher Jesus Luzardo, who broke his pinkie on his pitching hand when he slammed it down on a table while playing video games and had to go on the DL. Nice move!