Hi, everyone. Sorry for the radio silence from the blog the last couple of weeks. This is going to be a 3-week blog with some captains reporting in and others not. Blame them, not me.
So starting from the week of May 14:
From Team Goldhoff’s win over Team Brafman:
Great win for the Goons this week as we took down a shorthanded Brafman 10-7.
The game started out a little sloppy with errors on both sides bringing in runs, but it tightened up and, even with 9 players, Team Brafman would not go down without a fight. Zach Mayer hit an inside the park homer, and Harry Meisner pounded one over the fence to lead the way for them.
On our side it was another gritty team effort with another one of our players leaving the field with a slight injury. However, we stayed the course and Griffin Harris, the Commish and I each had 3 hits while our super sub for the week, Matt Miller, had a couple hits and drove in 3 runs. Ryan Small and Ian Conwell had multiple hits as well, while helping out immensely in the field.
We will play Team Solomon on Sunday in the first 11:30 game slot we have this year.
Team Wagner defeated Team Groh 17–11 in a high-scoring matchup Wednesday night.
Wagner started steady with a run in each of the first three innings, added two more in both the 4th and 5th, and then exploded for 9 runs in the 6th to pull away. Joel Buckley anchored the defense at shortstop and had a big night at the plate, going 4-for-4 and scoring three times.
Wagner’s offense was a full-team effort, with multi-hit games from Brad Wagner, Eli Zawatsky, Steve Zawatsky, Anton Loon, Matt Leader, Seth Shaifer, Scott Raskin, and Corey Norris.
Defensively, Eli patrolled RCF with precision, Corey made a highlight-reel play on the mound, and Raskin flashed the leather with multiple foul-ball snags at first base.
Next up, Team Wagner takes on Team Grefer this Sunday in a matchup expected to draw big ratings. Catch the action streaming exclusively on Hulu, with Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan in the booth. Team Groh will rest up on their bye week.
What a thrilling VICTORY for Team Solomon 13-12 over Team Simons.
It was a real back and forth affair throughout the game. The highlight of the game was the bottom of 7. Team Solomon was up 5 runs and Stu “pid” Solomon got a quick out. After a triple and three straight bloop singles, the score was 13-9. Eric “Blue Boomer” Gammarino laced a triple scoring 3 to bring the game to 13-12. The next batter grounded sharply to SS. Cam “Bam Thank you Ma’am” Kirzner made the force at first. Will “Ronnie” Coleman threw a dart home where Alex “Kris” Kraus made us want to jump as he tagged Eric out at home for the 6-3-2 double play to win the game. Kraus had a great overall game with another great defensive play on a bunt and 2 hits.
Hits were plenty up and down the line up. The offense was lead by Steven “Seagal” Shapiro going 3-4 with a huge triple in the top of the 7th to score everyone’s favorite captain and spiritual leader of Team Solomon, me. Also, Ben “ny and the Jets” Charlton went 4-4 scoring twice.
Team Solomon looks to keep “Rollin” this Sunday against Team Goldhoff.
Dan McGrath had this to say after the game: “If I had a Hammer, I’d still hit pop ups. But my team picked me up and we got the BIG W”
Wolf defeated Grefer on a walkoff hit by Tyler Wolf.
Onto Sunday the 18th
On Field 2, Team Brafman beat Team Wolf I think 17-12 (Something like that)
Team Brafman was paced by Captain Brafman who continues his best season ever by going 3-5 with a sac fly. Harry Meisner, also had a couple of big hits as did Zach Mayer. Playing in front of his wife for the first time since college Jeff “Oscar Meyer” Wiener had a good game at the plate and in the field. A special shout out to Scott “Why Can’t We Be” Friends for subbing and sacrificing his fingers for the cause. Get better soon, Scott. Rabbi Yitz and Zach “The Wild Horse” Zackem played great defense in the win. And no team Brafman win would be complete without the pitching of Jimmy Lefton who continues to say as long as we make the little plays we will be alright! A special shout out to Shorty Adams for robbing me twice.
Another fun one this week as the Goldhoff Goons took down Team Solomon 24-18 on Field 3.
The game started with a bang as we mounted an early 11-1 lead off hits from pretty much everyone in the lineup, and it seemed like we were headed for a blowout. However, Team Solomon showed plenty of fight and had an 8-run inning highlighted by a Dan McGrath Grand Slam. I will take the blame for this as I walked Matt Brodof to set up a force out, and Dan made us pay. Jamey Drennan came back and hit a grand slam of his own so we did get that one back.
Speaking of Jamey, he not only pitched well, he hit for the cycle for us. He along with super sub Matt Leader, Griffin Harris, Ryan Small, and Adam Cronstein all had big days at the plate. It was also another gritty win for us, as this was our third week in a row that we lost a player to injury. Sam Klinkowitz broke a bone in his hand on a play at the plate, so he will be out a month. We hope for the best for his health, and please say a Mi Shebeirach for our team to get healthy on our bye.
After our bye we will come back to play against Team Fogel.
Grefer run ruled Wagner in the early game on Field 2.
Finally on Wednesday in a night better set for watching the Bengals in November, we had a couple of recaps:
Team Brafman (with 3 subs) beat Team Groh 7-6. The big blow came from Brafman rookie Corey Meyers while subs Jamey Drennan, “Dangerous” Dan Green and Ian Cromwell all played great defense.
Kyle Grefer for the win over team Simons.
We beat team Simons 8-5 in our best defensive game of the year. Game ball went to Billy Bernstein who made around 7-8 catches of varying difficulty in the outfield. Offensively it was a group effort with multi hit games from Landon Hawkins, Gary Grefer, and David Weil.
We’re officially on a win steak and looking to keep the momentum rolling!
Team Fogel evened their record at 3-3 with an 8 to 7 win over Team Solomon. On a cool, drizzly evening, there was some doubt that the games would be played, but a major cloudburst never occurred.
As well as I can recall, Team Solomon scored 2 in the top of the first with lefty leadoff man McGrath and Dock getting hits and Brodof and Shapiro driving them in. The Fogel team came back with 3 in the bottom of the inning with Krantz, Joel Fogel, Rosen, and Frankel providing hits. It was back and forth scoring and defense for the rest of the game with both Stu Solomon and Jamey Kurtzer throwing strikes.
Notable hits were by Josh Rosen for Team Fogel with two over left-center bombs, and extra base drives by Team Solomon’s Stu, Brodof, and Shapiro.
Highlight fielding for Fogel was provided by Josh Rosen in right-center as he chased down 3 balls to record all 3 outs one inning, and Norm Frankel who dove and speared a line drive at 2nd base for a critical out. He was prepared to catch that one because it was the last of 3 rockets that were fired at or near him during the game. Jeremy again ran down fly balls from left-center and Nick O’Brien reached high for a line drive and made the routine plays at shortstop.
For Team Solomon, David Snyder made the required catches at 2nd base, Shapiro at 3rd threw out a Fogel runner straying off the base, and the lefties in the outfield threw out Fogel runners trying to take the extra base. Team Fogel kept testing Brandon Lindsey in right field (Jamey Kurtzer two times), but he continually snagged fly balls coming his way.
Team Solomon went up 7 to 6 to end the top of the 6th inning. It looked bad for Team Fogel in the bottom of the 7th as scoring opportunities in previous innings weren’t realized and they threw the ball around to give Solomon additional runs.
Krantz led off the inning with a hard grounder in the hole between the 1st and 2nd basemen. Joel lined out to 2nd base. Jeremy hit a shot to right field and he was off and running. He was rounding second as Landon scored. Third base coach Kombrinck prudently put up the hold sign at 3rd base as Jeremy rounded the bag, slowed and threatened down the line. He then smartly decided that the throw from the edge of the infield would be a tough one and started for home. Chest flop onto the mud at home plate – safe!
On Field 3 Wolf beat Wagner.
League notes
Wing Night at the Silver Spring House sponsored by “Big” Gig Franklin will be on June 11. This is open to ALL of us so please make it a point to go that night and thank our great league sponsor, Gig.
The J classic is coming up. If you would like to sign up for anything please do so. This is a HUGE and fun fundraiser for the JCC which Rick Lefton helms each year.
Speaking of which, get your running shoes on for the the Oy Vey 5K. I believe it is going to be the second Sunday in November. I will continue to bug all of you for months.
Birthday’s this month and I’m sure there are more that I didn’t see
Former Player(s) Rafi and Jeff Adams
Rick Tenenholtz
I like to tease Scott “Ricky Henderson” Wolf about being the all time JCC stolen base leader (if we even keep these stats) but the one thing I don’t question is his knowledge of teaching kids baseball. The other night after one of our games I was pitching batting practice to my son Jacob and Scott stepped in and told him to hold his bat back in the exact same way that our team’s hitting coach is showing him. Guys, use Scott (And Z and a couple of other guys as a reference). They know how to coach.
I can’t remember if we had a blog since the J-Night at the Reds game but, if not, once it stopped raining it was another great night. 500 members of the community and plenty of us enjoyed the game (minus the Reds losing to the White Sox). Speaking of which, no team that will make the playoffs can go 2-4 vs. the White Sox and the Pirates and be considered anything but a sham. Speaking of bad baseball how about the Rockies who are 9-43 something right now.
I agree 1,000,000% with ESPN 1530 host Mo Egger take on Trey Hendrickson. if any of us signed a contract 2 years ago and then said, “Well, I did really well and the market is paying guys ‘X’ so I want a raise,” and your employer says, “OK, here is a 75% hike” and you still say “No” that is on you. I will never understand this with pro athletes. You sign a deal, play the deal through. For once I’m on the Bengals side.
The Athletic today voted OSU the Team of the 2000’s so far, over Bama. I will be cancelling my subscription this afternoon.
And last but not least, Roger has a couple of random XU bobbleheads, even by his standards. I think one is a priest or the school president from like 2004 and the other is of Kenny Freeze with a towel over his eye.
See everyone Wednesday night!
Marc