September 23 Recap
By Marc Brafman
What a night of softball last night on Triple Creek. We had an upset win, and two walk-off hits including one in extra innings. Let’s get to the action.
On Field 1 it was Team Weisser vs. Team Lefton:
Mark Weisser reports in:
Team Weisser jumped out to a 5-1 lead as a result of stringing several hits together including a solo HR by rookie of the year candidate, Josh Rosen. Team Lefton, with Eppy on the mound, struck back to tie the game at 5-5 with timely hitting by Brandon Guttman, Jimmy Lefton and Michael Rothstein. In the top of the 6th Team Lefton took the lead with a big double by sub Jeff Finkelstein. The lead stayed at 8-5 due to tremendous catch in deep RC by Griffin Harris off of the bat of Jimmy Lefton.
In the bottom of the 6th, Team Weisser tied the game at 8-8 as a result of a two-out bases loaded double over the left fielder’s head by Evan Weisser. “I couldn’t be more proud of my son,” Mark said. It almost makes me feel bad for trying to trade him to Team Fogel for Brad Gallop earlier this year…almost.
Team Lefton failed to score in the top of the 7th due to Weisser’s new hand sanitizer pitch. “Look, Eppy and I are older and we can’t have this ball being touched by all the young guys all game. So now instead of hiding it I just squirt some on my hands on the mound and boy does that make the ball dance.” In the bottom of the seventh David “8 Mile” Wertheim (3 for 3 last night) singled and was driven in by a GW triple by Griffin “Benedict Arnold” Harris to deep LCF for the 9-8 win.
It was a well-played game by both teams. Team Weisser moves on to play Team Loon on Sunday.
On Field 3 it was Team Schwartz vs. Team Groh
Pinch hitting for Taylor “May the” Schwartz be with you is Adam Cronstein:
In the top of the first Team Schwartz came out hot. The game started off with 5 straight reaching base including super subs Mitchell Evans and Mark Tenenholtz who went a combined 6 for 9 on the night. The rally was capped off by a 2-RBI double off the bat of pitcher, Randy Broyles.
In the bottom of the inning Team Groh came out and scored 2 runs of their own but were stymied by solid defense highlighted by an excellent over the shoulder, running snow cone grab on a DEEP shot to left field by sub Dan Green making an appearance for team Groh. Cronstein remarked that he needed to remind the young outfielders that we middle aged guys can still chase down balls with the best of them, and that he was doing everything he could to maintain his status in the field since he was pushed out of his normal position by Mark T who was subbing for captain Taylor Schwartz who was enjoying a nice little vacation in the Arizona desert. Dan Green, who was making his first appearance of the season was heard saying that he just wasn’t interested in coming out to sub until the playoffs when the games actually mattered.
In the top of the 2nd, Team Schwartz mashed another 6 runs starting off with hits by Eric Goldstein and Corey Schwartz along with Harry Meisner bashing a ball that almost left the park until the team batted around in the inning. Pitcher Randy Broyles kept team Groh off balance in the bottom half of the inning and holding them for no runs.
Ken Groh held Schwartz scoreless in the next 2 frames and got off the mat scoring 1 in the 3rd before exploding for 7 runs in the bottom of the 4th.
Both teams were held scoreless in the 5th in part due to Corey Schwartz making a gutsy throw home to nail a runner at the plate with a great tag placed by catcher David Solomon.
Team Schwartz then plated 3 in the top of the 6th. Mark Tenenholtz and Randy had RBIs in the inning but the big hit in the inning came off the bat of Eric Zied to knock in a streaking Broyles who slid in just under the tag at home to give the team a much-needed insurance run putting them up 12-10.
Closing out the game in the 6th and 7th inning was no small feat. The play of the night came in the 6th inning by 1B Todd Wasserman, who had 2 huge hits himself on the evening including a smashed double that rolled to the wall in center field. On the play Wasserman made a back handed scoop that Joey Votto would have been proud of on a 1 hopper by Mitchell Evans to end the inning.
The victors held on in the 7th holding 2nd half champs Team Groh scoreless to earn a spot in the semifinals Sunday morning where they will meet Team Brafman. “I’m just glad that me not being there and having a “true” #1 like Mark Tenenholtz there helped us win,” Captain Schwartz said. I’ve been telling everyone for 3 years now that I’m not a 1, never mind that I’m hitting over .600 this season or playing an amazing SS week in and week out.”
Finally, in the game of the night on Field 4 Team Fogel and Team Brafman clashed
In a game that started late due to no umps (A huge shout out to Gary Grefer and the Commish for helping out), Team Brafman won on a walk-off single in the bottom of the 8th by Andy “Speedy” Heldman 10-9 or maybe 9-8 one of those two.
In a pitchers’ duel from the first inning Mike “Go Cubs Go” Gray and Brandon “The Bird” Wolf kept both teams off the scoreboard. With some very good defense by the tag team of the Fogels (Jeremy who we come to expect each game and Joel who ran about 2 miles to make a great catch in the gap) and Weston “Hungry Like a” Wolf who saved at least two runs with diving plays up the middle the score was close throughout the game. An opposite field home run by Chris Kunkel in the top of the 6th and a Triple by sub Matt Brodof in the top of the 7th gave Fogel a two-run lead heading into the bottom of the 7th. That is where team Brafman came off the mat for the first time. With two outs Jeff “The Natural” Weisbrot doubled. Tyler “Big Bad” Wolf singled him home to cut the lead to 1. After a Brandon Wolf single, Capt. Brafman blooped a single into short center to drive in the tying run but a very heads up play and throw by Rabbi Yitz who made a perfect throw to the plate to nab Wolf to keep the score tied.
After a scoreless top of the 8th, Team Brafman was back up to the plate. As darkness started to fall Team Brafman started their second come back of the night. All season Mike “Flash” Creemer has called the bottom of the Brafman order the “Spleen” and they came up big tonight. With one out Sam “the Hitman” Hecht beat out an infield single. Duffy Wolf then moved him along to second with a clean single of his own. Zach “The Wild Horse” Zakem singled again to load the bases. Andy “Speedy” Heldman then singled up the middle (his second hit of the game) to drive in Hecht with the winning run. “I was just trying to help out my team,” Heldman said post game. I know I’m not Carl Lewis on the bases, but I was running as hard as I could to first and I was just glad that I was able to hit it hard.” This is the first post season win ever for Capt. Brafman and he thanked his team for removing the Marvin Lewis comparison to his coaching record. “Anytime you can remove yourself from being compared to Marvin Lewis that is a huge monkey off my back. I’d like to thank The Wolfs, Rookie of the Year Joel Buckley, and the rest of my team for a great win. As usual it was a total team effort.” In defeat Joel “Sparky” Fogel had this to say to his team: I had a great time being a captain for this group of guys. We had an impressive group of vets and rookies including my own Rookie of the Year candidate in Adam Knecht. We gave it our all every game, but we just came up short tonight. I’m looking forward to next season already.
Team Brafman looks to break their own two game losing streak to Team Schwartz on Sunday.
League Notes:
Once again a huge thank you to Gary Grefer and the Commish, Rick Tenenholtz for being the umps out on Field 4 for the Fogel/Brafman game. Thanks guys.
For the past couple of weeks Jeff “The Natural” Weisbrot has listened to music during warmups. While he claims it is the soundtrack to Rocky IV, I believe it is really a dentist’s podcast hosted by Tim Watley.
I have no idea what type of car Joel “The Wrath of” Kahn drove up in last week but whatever it was it really impressed my 8-year-old son, Jacob. So, Joel if you are trying to impress little boys with your cool car, consider it done.
This has nothing to do with our league but how great was Trevor Bauer last night vs. the Brewers? When is the last time any Cincinnati athlete in any sport backed up his talk with a performance like that? Also, can someone look into the whereabouts of Taylor “Willie Mays Jr.” Trammel is these days? Thanks.
This has nothing do with our league, Part 2: On the flip side, are we seeing AJ Green turn into Joey Votto 2.0? I know he hasn’t played in 2 years but it sure didn’t look like AJ could get rid of his shadow on Thursday night, let alone the Browns. I sure hope I’m wrong about the Votto comparison (who, it should be noted, hit a huge homer last night) but so far not so good.
I Caught up with Dr. Bob this week for Where Are They Now. He told me he has taken up biking, that his favorite current athlete is Tadej Pogarcar and that he is really excited to get back into the league next year. He reminds everyone to keep their mask on and wash their hands.
Finally, in What Roger has learned since he can’t play softball: While Roger grew up in Cincy, he somehow isn’t a huge Reds fan. That hasn’t stopped him from constantly calling the Reds Hall of Fame and the team to produce a line of bobbleheads of some of his favorite players from years past. “How many more Big Red Machine bobbleheads do we need? I’ve been actively trying to get the Reds to make bobbleheads of players the fans really want. So, if you’re with me please continue to call the Hall of Fame for these players:
Eddie Milner
Gary Redus
Brad “The Animal” Leslie
Paul Householder with his arm extended to give Johnny Bench the most awkward high 5 in history after Bench’s homer on JB night
Kal Daniels (with complete DL history included)
Bo Diaz (complete with detachable satellite dish)
Chris Heisey sitting on the bench
Drew Stubbs trying to bunt with the pitch behind him
Jimmy Haynes (OK, no one wants his)
Co-Co Cordero
David “Stormy” Weathers walking the bases loaded
The first 4-person bobblehead in history of a Private Eye, Dusty Baker, Corey Patterson and Willy Taveras, because the only way that those two guys should have been playing is because they had naked pictures of Dusty (or his daughter).
A special Mother’s Day set since the only person that would want any of these guys is their moms:
Chad Mottola
CJ Nitkowski
Brandon Larson
Ty Howington
David Espinosa
Dustin Mosely
Chris Gruler
Kyle Lotzkar
Nick Travieso
Nick Howard
Phil “Bust” Erwin
(Special bonus extra credit if you can name what all of these guys have in common)
And finally…
That Jewish catcher that had one great game last year and then was never heard from again.
Hope to see everyone Sunday.
Stay safe Mask UP!