Author: The Commissioner

 

August 30 Recap

By Marc Brafman

 

A great Sunday morning for softball as teams were in action yesterday. 

 

On Field One 

 

Keith Kombrinck checks in for Team Loon: Beautiful 70-degree weather promised a comfortable setting for Team Loon vs. Team Schwartz.  Home team Loon scored in the bottom of the first with hitting from the top of the lineup, Jeff Finklestein, Anton Loon, Mark Tenenholtz, and Matt Brodof. Team Schwartz stormed back with singles up the middle and carefully placed hits to right field.  Randy Broyles was on his game as he had Team Loon’s bottom of the lineup hitters popping up and grounding out but couldn’t contain Loon’s big boppers. Gappers by Anton and Brodof plated runs. Team Schwartz kept getting hits, but SS Jeff Finkelstein and 3B Brodof played great defense as they turned three double plays to snuff out rallies. Kudos to Ben Rodriquez in RF for Team Schwartz as he dove for a sinking liner. Couldn’t make the catch, but great effort. Going into the top of the seventh, Loon’s Kombrinck was surprised to learn from Brodof that Team Loon was winning 10-7 instead of down 10-7.  “Pay attention to the game, Keith!”  All was well for Team Loon in the 7th as Jamey Kurtzer retired the side in order which included a nice play by the veteran pitcher on a bunt attempt to end the game. Team Loon improves to 2-2 in the 2nd half, and 7-3 overall.

 

Taylor chimes in for his team: 

Team Schwartz was shorthanded and played with 9. It was a weird game for Schwartz with 3 outs coming from base running mistakes and 3 non-traditional double plays on hard hit balls. Team Loon got out to a 4-0 lead in the first and 7-2 lead in the fourth. The top of the order led the way for Loon, while Randy Broyles pitched a solid game and shut down the remainder of the lineup. Team Schwartz plated 5 in the top of the 5^th to tie the game. The key hit was a 2-run homer by Adam Cronstein. Loon added a few more runs off solo shots by Anton and Mitchell “second-leadoff” Evans to regain the lead and eventually win 10-7. Mark Tenenholtz broke his streak of 2 games with 2 home runs over the fence against Team Schwartz. However, he did have an overly dramatic, unnecessary diving catch. “You didn’t fool anyone, Mark.” Team Schwartz had too many spirits on Saturday night and ultimately that is the reason for their sloppy play on Sunday.  

 

On Field 3 it was another comeback win for Team Brafman as they outlasted Team Lefton 16-15 (or something like that) 

“A couple of weeks ago Team Lefton beat us 14-2 in a game that wasn’t even that close, so today’s win was a nice comeback,” Brafman said. “This game was back and forth from the start. Team Brafman would take the lead only to have Lefton come back and then they would take the lead and we’d come back.” Going to the top of the 7th Lefton had a one run lead after a nice 3-run inning led by the top of their order. But back came Team Brafman who tied the game on a sac fly from Brandon “The Bird” Wolf and then took it with a big two-run single by sub Ryan “The Hebrew Hammer” Baum. The score for Brafman might have been bigger if not for the amazing defense by Brandon Guttman in LC, Gary “Fish” Fisher at 2^nd, Jimmy Lefton at first and Eppy, who took one of the hardest balls I’ve ever seen hit off his leg, but he was able to recover to get the Speedy Mike “Flash” Creemer coming home. 

 

In the bottom of the 7th Lefton came off the mat to once again tie the score on a two-run single by Mike Rothstein leading to the 2nd extra innings game of the season for Brafman. A bases loaded walk drove in the go ahead run. 

 

In the bottom of the 8th Lefton was able to advance the tying run to third but that was as far as he got as Jeff “The Natural” Weisbrot made a fine running catch on a LOOOONG fly ball hit by Jonathan Sussman to end the game.  

 

Team Brafman was led by Tyler “the Big Bad” Wolf who hit a grand slam, sub Ken Groh who had a couple of hits  and Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley who I believe went 5-5. Buckley also, for the second game in a row, took a hard grounder off his body; he might be the first JCC player to wear catcher’s gear in the field. 

 

Team Brafman improves to 4-1 in the second half and 6-5 overall. With a bye this week they look to win a share of the 2nd half when they play current first place team Groh in two weeks. Lefton falls to 0-4 in the second half.

 

Finally, on Field 4 Team Weisser defeated Team Fogel 6-5. Weisser was led by Josh Rosen (not the QB) who homered and Brad “The Human Rain Delay” Wagner who had a triple and at least 10 putouts at 3rd. “We barely hung on there in the 7^th,” Weisser said post game. “It was my kind of game, though.  It was over quickly and both teams played well. I would also like to report that my dog, Muffet, didn’t get away from me today.” 

 

League notes:

 

Congrats to two members of Team Brafman, Tyler Wolf and Joel Buckley, for buying new houses.

 

Congrats to former catcher Brian “Yogi” Monk on the bar mitzvah of his son, Joey, over the weekend. It’s very strange to watch a bar mitzvah from someone’s house, but he did a great job 

 

Well done by Jacob “Orthodontist of the Stars” Stadiem for stepping up and being one of the sponsors of the JCC kids swimming program. 

 

On a personal note, if you guys or your family love Jewish baked goods, make sure you hop over to Jungle Jim’s and ask for baked goods by Erica. Not only is she my sister-in-law, but man she makes a mean challah. 

 

Let’s congratulate Roger on his wedding anniversary this past week. Roger was lucky that with the pandemic he couldn’t take his wife out to a nice dinner, but because he is a nice guy he did let her get the biggie fry when he took through the drive through window at McDonalds. “Nothing is too good for my bride.” 

 

See ya Wednesday. Mask up!

 August 26 Recap

By Marc Brafman

 

We are in the home stretch of the second half of the season so let’s get right to the recaps:

 

On Field One Team Weisser defeated Team Lefton 13-11. “After jumping out to an early 12-3 lead we hung on to win,” Weisser said post game. “I had to use my new spitball technique I learned from my mentor Preacher Roe. He told me to wipe my hat and while I do that I spit in the palm of my hand. This way no one can see me. Although Z was looking at me pretty closely down the stretch last night.” 

 

Team Weisser was led on defense by James “Lynn” Swan who, like his namesake, made a pretty catch in LC to save 3 runs. Also, Dee Harris and David Wertheim kept Team Lefton off the board with some nice defense. Not to be overlooked was Brad “The Human Rain Delay” Wagner’s homer to help Weisser win their 1st game of the second half. Weisser stands at 1-2 in the second half and 3-5 overall while Lefton falls to 0-3 in the second half and 4-8 on the year. One note from this game…not a single player on either team who started at 3rd was thrown out at home by the right fielder on a single.

 

It should be noted that League Mascot, Kirby the dog (aka Muffett), interrupted play for the 3rd time this year. Might be time for a better leash, Mark.

 

On Field 3 it was a battle from start to finish as Team Brafman outlasted Team Loon 16-14. “I’m not sure how we lost that game,” Anton said post game. Between myself, Matt Brodoff and Zach Huidt we went a combined 12-12 yet somehow Brafman was able to pull it off. I know my team will rebound next week. Also, Scott “Shorty” Adams had at least 2 hits (and maybe 3. I can’t remember).  After jumping out to a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first, the lumber of Team Loon answered with 6 runs in the bottom of the first. But Brafman battled back and went into the top of the 7th only trailing by 3 runs.  With one out is when the rally started. Scott “Dire” Wolf and Duffy “Clap at the Wolf” Man each reached on bunt singles. A single by Zach “The Wild Horse” Zakem brought the go-ahead run to the plate in Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley who also singled. Weston “Hungry Like a” Wolf and Jeff “The Natural” Weisbrot also singled. After a walk to Tyler “Big Bad” Wolf, the star of the game, Brandon “The Bird” Wolf, roped a two-run double to LF to conclude the 6-run inning. Brandon went 4-5 and pitched a great game. “I know my job is to throw strikes, but tonight I was happy to contribute at the plate.” On defense Sam “The Hitman” Hecht made a great diving catch to rob Jeff Finkelstein of extra bases and Joel Buckley stopped a hot shot with his neck. While he didn’t make the out it was an impressive use of one’s body. “This was one of my favorite wins in a while,” Brafman said. All 10 of us got at least one hit and we made the plays in the field when we had to. Beating such a good team like Loon was our best of the season.” Of note, not a single player on either team who started at 3rd was thrown out at the plate on a single to right field, continuing the JCC softball trend.  Loon falls to 1-2 in the second half and 7-3 overall while Brafman improves to 3-1 in the second half and 5-5 overall.

 

Finally, on field 4 Team Groh defeated Fogel 6-5. After a scoreless top half of the 1^st, Zach Swadner, in his last game of the season, got a single and scored on a Castellini hit. Zach will be missed for both his offense and defense! He paced the offense tonight going 3-3 and scoring twice. Tyler Stansbury scored 3 runs and finished the scoring in the 1st after a Pete Soltesz hit. The score remained 2-0 when the same trio all scored in the bottom of the 4th as Stansbury, Soltesz and Groh had RBIs. In the 5^th, Team Fogel’s bats got hot with Dan Gilbert and Adam Knecht leading the charge as the lead was cut 5-3. In the 6th Joel and Jeremy Fogel helped even up the game at 5. Team Groh held Fogel scoreless in the top of the 7th and Stansbury scored off a game-winning single to right by Joel Kahn. Swadner, Stansbury, Snyder and a game diving catch by Sam Castellini paced the defense, but not to be outdone, both Joel and Jeremy Fogel had amazing over the shoulder catches that would have joined Sam’s in the ESPN plays of the day.  Amazingly no player on either team was thrown out at home while starting on 3rd base on a single to RF. 

 

For all of you Faust fanatics, please send him a text or a call this week as he really is missing the action. It will be a big pick-me-up. 

 

Swadner states that in the Denver air he will become a homerun legend like Donte Bichette

 

Team Schwartz on the bye this past week is 1-2 in the second half of the year and 4-5 overall 

 

League notes:

 

I never thought I’d see the day when anyone in this league rivaled that of Rick “Mr. Selfie” Lefton, but Mr. Nice Guy, Todd Wasserman, is giving Rick a run for his money. 

 

I enjoyed seeing all the pictures of everyone’s dog yesterday for National Dog day. Except maybe the Fogel’s dog who on Sunday pulled Mr. Fogel clear out of his seat during the Brafman-Fogel game. 

 

Each week I reach out to a guy not playing this year to see what they are up to. This week it is Greg Leader’s turn. Now I thought he was going to say that he is trying out for Thom Brennaman’s job or that he is excited to share his white-water rafting skills with the league. Boy was I in for a surprise when he reported that instead he has been living in a bunker during the COVID times with a number of other JCC softball players I’ll let Greg fill us all in:

 

JCC softball pandemic journal entry – 

August 23, 2020:

 

It’s day 150. Those of us who opted not to play are still on lockdown inside of the bunker. We miss our friends in the league but understand the importance of our mission. In an unthinkable, worst-case scenario, the future of JCC softball depends on us to rebuild the league. 

 

There are dozens of us safely residing inside of the bunker. We have outstanding medical care (Doctor Bob and Larry) and food, thanks to the Grefers’ regularly scheduled truck deliveries from Atlantic Foods and Alan Lessure’s homegrown salsa. Who knew he grew tomatoes in his beard? 

 

Fittingly, tickets can be exchanged for food inside of the bunker. We also received shirts to wear while in the bunker. They arrived a week late. 

 

With dozens of competitive guys living together for this long, fights tend to break out on a regular basis. While the umps living within the bunker never seem to see what happened, they always blame Zach Mayer. He’s been banished to solitary confinement in the storage room we refer to as ‘field four.’ It smells like garbage and there’s nothing there except for a bucket of water.

 

The bunker definitely lacks quality entertainment and it feels like time stands still – kind of like watching the speaker at our end of season banquets. Before MLB started back up, Ryan Silverman provided a full re-play-by-play of each Reds game in the 1980s. The fact that he has committed every pitch to memory is unbelievable. Conversations with Michael Askin are pretty brief. We’ve already been through all of the videos Scott Adams dropped off. Howie does let us sit in on his Zoom happy hours with Mark Spitz, though. As for me, I spend most of my time changing brass trophy plates from ‘League Champions: Team Loon’ to ‘League Champions: Team Leader.’

 

There are some group celebrations. It was Roger’s birthday last week. We’re still not letting him in, but did enjoy singing Happy Birthday to him from inside the bunker. 

 

We’ve formed a new commission inside of the bunker. Micah was named commissioner, with Jared serving as his campaign manager. He ran unopposed. Soon after the league’s COVID scare in June, the commission voted down the idea of mating with current players’ wives to replenish the league with new talent. We have now voted that motion down three times, but fully expect someone will raise it again in September.

 

All of us here inside of the bunker continue to read the blog. We miss the league and being on the field with our friends. We wish them all continued health throughout the remainder of the *season.

 

It was reported that this week that OSU suspended over 200 students for violating the COVID-19 rules, and while there are no reports that any guys in the league were included in that my extensive JCC reporting network did uncover some past history of guys betting in trouble in college:

 

For example, Jeff Weisbrot was once caught trying to use his dentist mirror to look at one of his fraternity brothers and his lady friend by sticking the mirror under the door.

 

Randy “Tex” Broyles was fined by OSU for using Careless Whisper by Wham as his walk-up music every time he entered class “I always wanted to make an entrance and nothing says that like a song by WHAM,” Broyles said.

 

Jerry “Doc” Kirzner was once fined for falling asleep as he says or passing out as his friends say at a Homecoming concert by The McCoys at OSU. “All I remember is having a couple of drinks before the concert and the next thing I remember Hang on Sloppy was over and I was getting carried home.” 

 

Mike Gray was fined in college simply for being a Cubs fan. 

 

In a strange twist to these stories Eric Goldstein was actually awarded money for marrying a great woman who went to Alabama. (Well done Eric) 

 

Sam “The Hitman” Hecht (my brother in law) learned how to make ice sculptures while at OSU. He was once fined for making an anatomically correct version of Greg Oden.

 

Joel “The Wrath of” Kahn was once fined for reenacting the famous Bluto scene from Animal House as he walked through the buffet line in his dorm. When confronted with a mouth full of mash potatoes Kahn said, “Hey I’m trying to become a chef. I need to eat all of this food to try it out to see what I like.”

 

Scott “Shorty” Adams was fined because he legally wanted to change his name to Dick Nicholson 

 

And finally, I may or may not have been fined for streaking a party (or 2) with somebody taking a picture of said act and then forcing me to wear that picture on a t-shirt during my bachelor party. I can neither confirm nor deny those charges.  

 

And last but not least, it was Rogers birthday this past week. He learned that the Happy Birthday song was the first singing telegram song of all time and that now you can have Western Union send one using his favorite singer, Snoop Dog, directly to your house. He also reports that he is working on getting the special Brewers limited edition bobblehead of Freddie Galvis being thrown out at home on a single to RF. “It hasn’t happened since 2009 and I know Reds fans near and far will be excited to have this special bobblehead to commemorate this great season they are having. I’m also in touch with Dinsmore and Shol to put together an even more special Joey Votto Sombrero 2020 statue since that is what he looks like at the plate these days.

 

See everyone on Sunday. Stay safe and mask up! 

 

August 23 Recap

by Marc Brafman

On a very nice Sunday morning, six teams took the field to finish the first half of the year and continue the second. Let’s get to the game recaps:

 

On field one, as the old baseball saying goes, momentum is the next days starting pitcher and that was the case as Team Brafman rebounded from their loss on Wed. to defeat the previously undefeated Team Fogel 11-7. Brandon “The Bird” Wolf was outstanding all game and made some HUGE pitches late in the game to keep the potent Team Fogel offense in check all morning. In a battle of, in my humble opinion, the two best defensive players in the league Jeremy (Hamilton) Fogel and rookie Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley showed why they are the best all game. Jeremy tracking down balls early in the game when Fogel only had 3 outfielders and Joel turning two HUGE and I mean HUGE 5-3 double plays to keep Fogel off the board. “The ball has a way of finding me when I’m hot and today was just my day said Buckley. I’m glad I was able to help us get the win. On offense, for one of the first time all season, Team Brafman was able to come up with a couple of big two-out rallies. First, Sam “The Hitman” Hecht had a big two-run single in the first, and later in the game the cagey vet, Duffy “Shout at the Wolf”man, had a two-run triple. 

 

Besides Buckley, Team Brafman also played great defense all over the field. Zach “The Wild Horse” Zakem at 2nd, Tyler “Big Bad” Wolf in RC, Jeff “The Natural” Weisbrot at SS and Mike “Flash” Creemer behind the plate, who held onto a tipped 3rd strike with the bases loaded, helped seal the win.  

 

For Team Fogel, Joel Fogel made an amazing diving catch in RF, Rookie Adam Knecht had a triple and Jeremy also hit a homer in the losing cause. 

 

Team Brafman improves to 2-2 in the second half while Fogel falls to 2-1

 

Over on Field 2 it was a double header:

 

First from team Schwartz:

Team Groh was hot out of the gate scoring 4 in the top of the 1^st. Schwartz cut the deficit in half plating 2 in the bottom of the 1^st. From then it was smooth sailing by Groh who tacked on a few more runs taking a 7-2 lead to the bottom of the 5^th. Corey Schwartz hit an inside the park home run helping cut the lead to 7-5, but the rally stopped there. Groh pitched a great game and the offense was led by Tyler Stansbury and Pete Soltesz.

After pitching a gem, Ken Groh opted out of pitching in game 2. Tyler Stansbury took the mound instead. He surrendered two runs in the top of the first, but helped himself out with a home run over the fence in the bottom to take a 3-2 lead. He hit 2 bombs over the fence in game 2. Unfortunately for team Groh, that was the last lead they saw. Team Schwartz scored six in the second. Eric Zeid and Todd Wasserman had big hits to start the rally. Ben Rodriguez shed 75 pounds this offseason, which has made him the best RF in the league. He ran all the way into the infield and made a web-gem sliding catch. After the game, Ben said, “I have made diving catch after diving catch, yet my coach won’t put me in LCF. I use that disrespect as motivation.” Schwartz added another six runs in the fourth behind the red hot bats of Harry Meisner, Adam Cronstein, and Randy Broyles. Randy pitched a great game, keeping the potent Groh lineup off balance. Schwartz took a 15-5 lead in the 5^th and the game ended in a 15-9 final, as the teams split the double header. After game 2, Randy followed the new JCC tradition, which requires the winning pitcher to take off his shirt and wave it in the air. We all request that you please leave your shirt on, Randy.

 

Side note: Rookie Ethan Reisenfeld started college this weekend and could not make the Sunday games due to “too many spirits” the night before. Coming from someone who has played some of his best games with blood shot eyes and a severe hangover, there is no such thing as too many spirits before a softball game. He’s just a kid. He will learn. 

Editor’s note: the second-game final score is still up for debate as Team Schwartz didn’t keep the scorebook in their big inning and had to take a straw poll on who scored. Next time guys, keep score. Not all captains will be as nice as Ken was…

And from the Groh side of things:

In the 2^nd-half game Team Groh won 7-4 to push their record to 3-0. Randy shut down the last 6 guys in the lineup easily but Zach Swadner, Sam Castellini, Tyler Stansbury and Pete Soltesz all had 2 hits each and the last 3 guys drove in 2 each as Tyler had a triple and homerun. After Team Schwartz got off to a 2-0 lead, team Groh scored four in the first and added another in the third to make it 5-2. Schwartz cut the lead to 5-3 after three, but Groh pushed across two more in the fifth and Schwartz could only leave the tying runners on base.

 

In the 2nd game, Tyler Stansbury took the mound and struck out a hitter in the 1st as Coach Groh was questioned about the number of guys he struck out in game one (0). Team Schwartz put up two in the first and Groh answered with three in the bottom as Swadner had a leadoff homer. Team Schwartz had a good combination of great hitting and suspect defense to open up the game in the next few innings. Groh mustered a late rally but fell short 15-9. Swadner, Stansbury and Groh each went 3-3 but it wasn’t enough. “Tyler didn’t get out today and put 2 over the fence. Ryan Baum did great behind the dish. 

On a side note since my babysitter overslept the umpire was subjected to my kids throwing dirt on him thru the fence and daddy did take them to get smoothies after the game for a punishment.” 

 

Finally, on Field 4 it was Loon vs. Weiser:

Team Loon played one 7-inning game and defeated Team Weisser to complete a season sweep of the wily veteran. Loon’s squad was playing catch up all day- they battled back from deficits of 3-0, and 6-3 before scoring 4 big runs in the 6th and held on for a 7-6 win. As usual with Team Loon, it was a total team effort. Mitchell Evans was the catalyst in the deciding 6th inning when he led off with a single. Matt Brodof’s double scored the tying run, and Loon took advantage of some shaky defense to secure the win. With the win, Loon improves to 1-1 and 6-2. 

 

League notes will return Wed. 

have a nice start to your week everyone, and keep those masks on!

 

August 19 recap

By Marc Brafman

 

The weather was beautiful at Triple Creek last night and the bats were hot as well:

 

Team Fogel came to Triple Creek with their hitting shoes on scoring 8 runs in the top of the first.  The big blow was a 3-run homer by Dan Gilbert. “My homer didn’t come on a 3-0 pitch, so I guess it was ok that I swung right?” Gilbert asked. “If not, I sure hope that Eppy doesn’t stick it in my ear next time we play.”  Lefton scratched 2 across in the bottom of the first but that would be all they would get while Fogel kept tacking on each inning.  Jeremy Fogel had a multi-hit game hitting a 2-run homer in the 3^rd and Adam Knecht had a multi-hit game.  Mike Gray again was masterful on the mound pitching 5 innings without allowing an earned run.  Team Fogel pushes their 2^nd half record to 2-0 with a run-rule shortened game. 15-2 was the final.  When asked for comment post game, Jimmy said “Fogel kicked our butt. I’ll let him tell you how it happened.” 

 

Meanwhile Groh took on Loon on Field 1:

 

Tonight’s game was a high-scoring affair as the hitters definitely bested the pitchers. Team Groh started off strong holding Team Loon scoreless for the 1st 2 innings meanwhile scoring 4 in the 1st as Sam Castellini and Tyler Stansbury each doubled and Pete Soltesz, Ken Groh and Joel Kahn followed with consecutive singles. Loon scored 6 to take the lead with MVP Mark Tenenholtz hitting 1 of his 2 homers on the night to go with a triple and double if not more. “I’m pretty much in a daze when he is up, Groh said.” Zach Swadner and Castellini scored to tie the game at 6 after 3. Joel Kahn drove in both runs after the intentional walk and had a 4-4 night with 7 RBIs (wow)! Team Loon took a 10-6 lead, but Groh answered with 4 to tie up the game 10-10 after 5. The bash brothers Tenenholtz-Loon-Brodoff gave Loon another 4 run lead with Mark and Matt each hitting home runs, but after a rousing speech by Groh, the team rallied for the 3rd time and plated 7 runs as Nick Depiano, David Snyder and Mark Franklin started the rally and Castellini (4-4, 4 runs), Stansbury (3-4 with 2 doubles and a homer and 5 RBIs), Soltesz, Groh and Joel Kahn finished it off. The 1^st-half champs couldn’t find an answer in the 7th. It was a competitive and fun JCC softball game. Outside of getting thrown out at the plate, Coach Groh is hoping LCF Pete Soletz has a favorable outcome with his turf toe MRI. Also, everyone please wish Zach Swadner the best as he took a job in Denver and will be playing his last game next Wednesday.  

 

Finally, down on Field 4 Team Schwartz beat Team Brafman 11-7. Unlike the other games where big hits were the norm, once again Team Brafman lost by giving up singles and some hustle doubles. The brothers Schwartz each had a couple of hits, Todd Wasserman  had a few knocks and Harry “Hood” Meisner used his speed to score a couple of runs, including one on a pop fly behind second base. But the star of the game was Randy “Tex” Broyles who kept Team Brafman off balance most of the night and struck out 3. “I had Randy on my team last year,” Brafman said “and that was the best I’ve seen him pitch. I just wish it wasn’t against us.” On defense Taylor made a couple of really nice plays at SS to kill a couple of rallys. For Brafman, Sam “The Hitman” Hecht had an RBI single, as did Tyler Wolf. And on defense Weston “Hungry Like a” Wolf and Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley continue to flash the leather on the left side of the infield. Each team is 1-1 in the 2nd half.

 

One other note about this game, for the second time this season Mark “Eddie Harris” Weisser was the cause of a time out before Team Brafman batted when his dog Muffet ran onto the field. Thanks to the Hitman, Sam Hecht for eventually catching Muffet before she pulled a Shotzie and pooped on the field.  

 

League Notes:

 

In 1998 it was popular to go to watch Mark McGwire take batting practice because of his homers. The JCC softball version is watching Eric “Spuds” Zeid take grounders and dive all over the field. “I love playing 3rd, SS, LF, CF, Catcher and the water boy all at once,” Zeid said. 

 

A correction from last week’s blog was that had Adam Cronstein hit a grand slam vs. Fogel. It was really Taylor “May the” Schwartz be with you. But since he’s the only captain who doesn’t send in a recap, he and his team get what they get from the other captains. “I miss my ghost writer, Leon,” Taylor said after last night’s win. As he was drawing my postgame bath each week, I would recount the game to him. Now, like President Trump I don’t have time for my daily blog reports each Thursday. I just scan it for my name since on my team that is all that really counts. 

 

Some really great news to report from Oren Shmoel after his son was born a few weeks premature.  After 50 days in the NICU he was finally able to come home! Congrats to Oren and his wife Sarah. Can’t wait to see that little guy out on the field in 16 years. 

 

As we all know by now, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a grand slam with a big lead on a 3-0 pitch earlier this week vs. the Rangers. Of course, there is some dumb “unwritten rule” in baseball that you can’t do that. It got me thinking about some of the unwritten rules of the JCC softball league:

1) Zach Mayer was/is always right when he argues with an ump, no matter what the call might be

2) You shouldn’t steal with a big lead in our league because no team ever comes back from a large deficit

3) When in doubt, just point to Eppy at the Silver Spring house and say put my wings on his tab

4) Joel “The Wrath of” Kahn doesn’t have to always pull the ball. He just wants to.

5) Jason “The Mad Hungarian” Faust doesn’t always turn and toss the ball to left field with a runner on 3rd when the ball is live. He just feels like it (well that maybe should be a written rule) 

6) All of the Big Ten fans in the league are now excited to watch real football on Saturday since they won’t be put to sleep with the exciting Iowa vs. Rutgers games and now can turn to SEC, ACC and most importantly AAC football. Who doesn’t want to watch Tulsa vs. ECU? 

 

 

If you have an unwritten rule you’d like to see added, please find me on Sunday

 

Good luck to all of you college guys going back to school. Keep your mask on, don’t go to bars, or kiss girls, or be near people, or have fun at night. You know…act like all of us old guys…

 

This week in catching up with guys who aren’t playing this year, I spoke to Ryan Small yesterday. Ryan has been busy this summer with two kids at home, and his office still somewhat open. He did find time to create a golf league with some of his buddies and that is keeping him busy. They just started their playoffs this week and he hoping to play as well as St. X and UC alumnus, Jim Herman did last week.

 

This week in What Roger is learning since he isn’t playing softball. This past week was the 47th anniversary of when the Brady Bunch went to Kings Island (a special episode in Roger’s heart). Roger, with all the time on his hands, went back and watched every episode of the show as well as re-read the Pulitzer prize winning book, “Growing up Brady I was a Teenage Greg,” by Barry Williams. In this page turner, Roger re-learned that Marcia and Jan near the end of the show tried to get around wearing a bra (Because of women’s lib in the 70’s they say). Roger thinks it’s because they were looking directly at him through the TV. “I got through a lot of lonely nights with pictures of Marcia and Jan dancing in my head,” Roger said.  He also wants everyone to know that his favorite character on the show was Sam The Butcher because like Sam, Roger always delivers his products on time and in person like say for example a limited edition Thom Brennaman Village People Bobblehead, which Roger is now discounting for a very low rate.

 

See everyone Sunday. Stay safe and mask up!

 

August 12 Recap

by Marc Brafman

 

On a hot and muggy night at Triple Creek we had 6 teams in action.

 

On Field One playing in front of a packed grandstand of Wolf family members, the game came down to the final batter as Team Brafman beat Team Weisser in walk-off fashion 11-10. In a back-and-forth game that was more of a pitchers’ and fielding duel than the final score would indicate, Team Brafman won on a walk-off bases-loaded hit by Weston “Hungry Like A” Wolf. 

 

With some clutch hitting by the usual suspects of David Wertheim and birthday boy Griff “Benedict Arnold” Harris, along with a big two-run single by Dee Harris and a very effective pitching performance by Brad Wagner, Team Weisser took a two-run lead into the bottom of the 7th. Team Brafman came off the mat quickly with hits by Jeff “The Natural” Weisbrot and Weston. With one out, Coach Brafman had a big decision to make: pinch hit for Brandon “The Bird” Wolf with the speedster Travis Jankowski or stick with Wolf. “I figured with the game possibly going to extra innings I needed to keep my best players on the field,” Brafman said (a novel concept). Tonight, that was the right call as Wolf smoked a game tying double to LC to even the score. But Wagner pitched out of a jam and the game went into extra innings. In the top of the 8^th, Wertheim and Harris not only got hits but scored runs using their youth and speed to again put Team Weisser up two. 

 

Which brings us to the fateful bottom of the 8th. Duffy “Clap at the” Wolf(man) led off with a walk. One out later, Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley singled and after a walk of Weisbrot and a pop out, Coach Brafman had another interesting choice to make. Should he let Weston Wolf hit or pinch hit for him with the ageless wonder Christian Colon who has 3 hits all season but has only struck out 3 times? “My front office has left me with many choices to make or not make,” Brafman said. “With a DH this season and runs hard to come by, I figured that I’d rather have one of the best hitters over the last 10 JCC seasons hit than a guy who spent all year last year in AAA playing in the Columbus JCC league. Again, that proved to be the right call as Wolf lofted a ball to right that scored all three runs as Weisbrot scored just under the throw from RF. “After a very tough Sunday sweep it was nice to get back to the winning side of things,” Brafman said post game. We are 1-0 in the second half. Brafman would go on to say that we couldn’t have won this game without the fielding of Tyler “Big Bad” Wolf in RC, “The Hitman” Sam Hecht in RF, and Scott “Dire” Wolf at 2nd along with Zach “The Wild Horse” Zakem behind the plate keeping us in the game. A true team win.” 

 

Meanwhile on Field Three, Joel “Sparky” Fogel continues to lead his team to wins, this time over the talented Team Schwartz:

Team Fogel got off to a 7-0 lead scoring 7 runs in the first and added on over the next 2 innings taking a 10-1 lead.  Team Schwartz’s bats woke up scoring 5 in the 4^th on the strength of a grand slam by Adam Cronstein.  The momentum was shifting as Fogel’s bats shut down and the lead was dwindling.  With Fogel up 11-9 in the top of the 9^th, Jeremy Fogel led off with a walk, moved to 2^nd on a long fly ball by Dan Gilbert and scored on Mike Gray’s single.  This proved to be a big run because Schwartz came back in the bottom of the 7^th scoring 2 to draw within 1 but couldn’t get that final run home.  Final score Fogel 12- Schwartz 11. “I’m too old for this type of game,” Fogel said post game. “I didn’t come back to captain this year for games where we almost blow a 9-run lead. I’m just glad we were able to hold on in the end.” 

 

Finally, over on Field Four, Team Groh defeated Team Lefton: The Birthday Boy Ken Groh checks in:

Team Lefton started off the top of the 1st by scoring 5 runs and Groh still is scratching his head on how that happened. “All I know is I struck out a guy who ended up at 3rd”. But the team just kept fighting and received some extra outs along the way that really helped. Groh scored 3 in the 1st and 4 more in the 2nd to take a 7-5 lead that they never gave back. The squad scored multiple runs every inning. Zac Swadner played an amazing 3B and scored 4 runs. “Handsome” Sam Castellini had 4 hits and had 2 RBIs. Reigning MVP Tyler “Bryce Harper” Stansbury had 2 doubles and a homerun and drove in 6 runs. The captain went 4-4 on the last day of year 44 for him also driving in 4 runs. Joel “The Wrath of” Kahn, Bryce Anslinger and Nick Depiano all had 3 hits each and combined to have 4 triples. David “BP” Snyder made 5 defensive plays and Mark Franklin who played his 1st game at catcher did well as the coach said that his dad would be proud. The team is looking forward to the 2nd half and is looking forward to Wednesday’s matchup vs the 1st half champs.   

 

League Notes:

Ken also checks in with an update on his trip to Columbus to see Jason Faust: “I spent 2 nights visiting Jason Faust and I am pleased at his progress and his attitude. He is happy to be home with his wife and 2 boys and can do physical therapy at his home. He is very appreciative of all the support he has got from the softball league and told me he thinks he could pitch by the playoffs! Fighting spirit except I kicked his butt playing video games lol. I have to admit his 5-year-old son was better at hockey then his dad!” 

 

Not only can you find the best Facebook political commentary this side of Mother Jones from David “The Doctor of Style” Weil but he now also has started growing pot in his garden. Not that he or I would know what that looks like.

 

It’s good to know what the JCC values in their sporting equipment as last Sunday I was pitching some balls to my son Jacob post game. James “Lynn” Swan was waiting for what I thought were the balls. “No,” he said. “I don’t care about the balls. You can keep those. I just need the bucket back.” So, note to all of you…the balls you can have, but the bucket is only for the J.

 

I have unconfirmed reports that after the game last night Eppy ate a couple of chicken wings that had been hiding in Steve Zawatsky’s beard since two weeks ago at the Silver Spring House.

 

With the very sad news that the Big Ten postponed their football season Alex “Earl Bruce” Lefton reported on what was on the minds of most Big Ten and OSU fans from Columbus. A National Championship without the most historic power conference will be suspect. They’ve (The Big Ten) been in every title game since the BCS started except in: 20,19,18,17,16,14,13,12,11,10,09,06,05,04,02,01,00 and 99.

 

On that note, a personal plea from me to all of you. Please wear your mask when you are out and about and tell all your college-loving sports fans to do the same. We as a country have messed up sports enough this year to help keep what we still have (UC football (at least today) SEC, Big 12 and ACC sports, high school sports and the Bungles and Reds). Do your part, don’t be a dope, put on a mask when you go out. I will now get off my soap box.

 

In this week’s “Catching Up With” I caught up with Eric “The Mouth of the Midwest” Gruen last week. Eric is using his time away from softball to play an obscene amount of golf (rivaling only Tiger Woods and Trump) and being the best dad he can be to his three kids while lamenting the fact he can’t go to Disney. “Of all the things I miss that Covid has taken away from me the ability to get a picture with Elsa and Anna from Frozen ranks right up there.” He wants everyone to know that he, along with his mouth and bunting ability, will be back next year.

 

Finally, this week in Fun Facts that Roger has learned since he isn’t playing softball. As you guys know, I’ve been following the news closer than ever and with all the news about the post office and people being able to vote through the mail being front and center this week.  Did you know that the first bag of mail to travel by air (hot air balloon) was from Cincinnati in 1835? Roger also wanted me to mention that he has plenty of Felipe Lopez, Matt Latos, and Wily Mo Pena bobbleheads available for you to purchase if you’d like. 

 

See everyone on the field next week. Stay safe wear a mask!!