July 15 recap
by Marc Brafman
First from Ken Groh:
Tonight’s game was a pitching duel as both Gray and Groh kept the hitters off balance in this early season matchup. In the bottom of the 1st with one out, Jeremy Fogel legged out a double and Danny Gilbert followed that up with a smash just inside 3rd base to drive him home as Fogel took a 1-0 lead. This held up until the top of the 3rd when Zach Swadner and Pete Soltesz singled to start the inning. Gray pitched the reigning MVP great for three of the four at-bats, but made one mistake pitch that Tyler Stansbury drove over the fence to make it 3-1. The score held into the 5th inning when, with two outs, Team Groh had four straight singles off the bats of Sam Castellini, Ken Groh, Ryan Baum and Joel Kahn that scored two. These runs almost didn’t happen after the two-time Defensive Player of the Year, Jeremy Fogel, threw a dart from left center that beat Sam to the plate, but Sam’s head-first slide was under the tag. Team Groh added an insurance run in the 7th as Groh singled in Stansbury to end the scoring for the day. Defensively it was like good vs evil in game 2 vs game 1 as Stansbury, Swadner, Snyder and Soltesz provided great plays during the contest. A shout out to new pitching coach Gig Franklin for his work behind the plate. Until next week, stay safe! Special team member Jason Faust has some encouraging news as he will be leaving the rehab facility in 8 more days!
and from Team Fogel
Last night was a pitchers’ duel for sure. Ken Groh kept team Fogel off balance all night giving up only one run in the first inning, winning 6-1. Not many highlights for team Fogel. Fogel said after the game “There may be a lineup shakeup next week. The bats need to wake up.” Also, the short shorts my son continues to wear need to change. Who does he think he is out there, John Stockton? The highlight for Groh was a 3 run homer by Tyler Stansbury.
Team Brafman
Over on Field 4 it was also a pitchers’ duel for most of the night, but in the end Team Brafman won their first game of the year 11-9 over Team Weisser. “The key to the win was our balanced offense,” Brafman said post game. We got contributions from all over the lineup. Along with the normal hitting stars of The Wolf Pack (Brandon, Tyler and Weston) it was the crafty vet Scott ‘Shout at the Wolf(Man)’ who had two of the biggest hits of the night, including the game clinching three-run double in the top of the 7th. Sam “The Hit Man” Hecht had his first JCC RBI (but does need a guide dog to find 2nd base), and Andy “The Jet” Heldman legged out a double to help the cause. On defense, Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley, Duffy Wolf and Zach “The Wildhorse” Zakem flashed the leather all night on the infield to keep Team Weisser at bay. Buckley, who thinks of himself as Brooks Robinson at 3rd, was particularly impressive all night. “This is the best rookie class we’ve had in my 6 years in the league,” Brafman said post game. “And I’m sure glad that I’ve got Buckley and Hecht to help us.” Not to be overlooked was the stellar catching and coaching of Mike “Flash” Creemer who like Big Gig helped his pitcher out all game.
A special shout out to David Wertheim on Team Weisser, who had a couple of hits and was outstanding at SS all night. Also of note last night, Mark “Eddie Harris” Weisser was almost kicked out of the game last for putting suntan lotion on the ball in the middle of the game. To set the scene, in the top of the 5th inning his wife Sandy called timeout and instructed Joel Buckley to run out and hand him some sun tan lotion to put on his arms and legs, but it was such a blatant violation of the rules that even the ump had to put a stop to it. “I’ve got to try everything I can to keep the other team off balance,” Weisser said post game. “Like my pitching hero Eddie Harris says, you’ve got to do anything you can to make the ball move and since it was too hot and dry last night for snot, I thought suntan lotion was the next best thing. Of course I need to tell my wife to not call timeout in the middle of the game to remind me next game.”
League notes:
As most of you know it was sad week for the JCC softball league as we lost one of our favorite sons in Mike “Bear” Youkilis over the weekend. Mike was a great 3rd baseman in the 70’s and 80’s and, even more than that, a great guy. As a kid I can remember watching him smoke balls at the old J and, as Scott Wolf said last night, you never met a man who had a better and harder handshake.
Some good news on the injury front as both Anton and Faust are improving from their respective ailments. Anton reports that other than a loss of taste and smell he and his family are doing well. And Faust is finally going home later this week.
When he comes back from the DL give a big congrats to Jerry “Doc” Kirzner on his retirement this week.
Zach Hiudt continues the trend of getting his family a dog this summer. Good luck with that Zach.
In alumni news, Drew “Kung Fu” Hayes must be making a lot of pizza’s at the JCC cafe as he is now the proud owner of a Corvette. When can we get a ride?
This week in facts with Roger, who has busy with all the time on his hands, reports that you can combine 6 lego bricks into 915,103,765 different shapes. So far, he has figured out to do ten.
And finally, in Catching up with…
This week we talked to Dave “The Minister of Fun” Cohen who reported in from the bike path somewhere in Florida. “I’ve been doing a lot of biking and cooking,” Dave reported. “It was nice to see my kids a couple of weeks ago and I have enjoyed spending time not doing much in retirement. My new favorite thing is my Grateful Dead Steal Your Face bike shirt, because when you think of Jerry Garcia you immediately think of health and fitness.”
Stay safe, keep those masks on and see ya on the field next week!