Author: Rick Tenenholtz

A windy (and sunny)  start to the season on Wed. night caused some interesting fielding plays. But it sure was nice being out on the fields again.

On Field one we had Team Brafman Vs. Team Wolf. 

Weston for the victors: 

Team Wolf starts the season off on the right foot with a 12-5 “closer-than-the-final-score” style game with Team Brafman. It was a back and forth battle as a 5-5 tie game heading into the top of the seventh, when Tyler Wolf (batting last due to the first implementation of his namesake “Late Arrival” rule) led off by beating out a grounder to short, Super-sub Catcher AJ Goldhoff reached on a fly ball to center, then Wes Wolf broke the tie with a 2-run triple to center field. Team Wolf went on to score 7 total runs that inning with big hits from Eli & Steve Z, Ian Conwell and many more. Eddie Gallop kept the offense afloat early in the game with hits in his first two at-bats and Mike Gray picked up right where he left off last year with a strong outing despite a tough first game from his defense. 

Team Brafman battled despite missing some of their top players, playing great defense with gale force winds coming in from left field.  (Capt Brafman would like to add that rookie Steven “Shap” Shapiro had his first hit in the league.) And playing slightly out of position Jamey Drennan made two very good catches in RC

On Field two it was Team Harris vs. Team Grefer 

Roger reports in for Team Harris:

TEAM HARRIS 12

TEAM GREFER 2………six innings…..

After a horrible weather day a week ago, it was worth the wait for TEAM HARRIS……..

After falling behind 2-0 in the early innings, TEAM HARRIS, under the leadership of first year captain GRIFF HARRIS, plated eight runs in the bottom of the third inning and never looked back in winning in a ten run rule after six innings, 

12-2….

The offensive explosion was a pleasant sight, but veteran pitcher, MARK WEISSER, pitched a gem with son, EVAN WEISSER, calling the pitches in only a way a father would love.

The defense was sparkling led by DAVID “DEE” HARRIS, the captain’s “old” man, who after a couple of misplays early in the game, was as solid as solid could be.

“I was told by my son that I’d be playing shortstop this week to help better our defense with who we had available and I didn’t want to let him down. I went back a long time ago when I was a camper at the JCC and my counselor, ROGER ROSENTHAL, yes that ROGER ROSENTHAL  taught me everything I needed to know at shortstop,” HARRIS said after the game.

HItting stars included, ANDY GOLLIN, the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN graduate, EVAN WEISSER, JZ ZEIDENSTEIN delivered key hits, but at the end of the day, it was a total team effort from everyone.

Captain GRIFF after the game…..

“I was pleased with my first official game as a captain. I couldn’t sleep last night at all and was up trying to make out that perfect line-up card and defensive assignments. I ended up finally getting to sleep only to get up up in the early morning hours and saying to myself, ‘this is game day'”

Rookie DAN BERNSTEIN after the game…..

“I loved it! I was really looking forward to last week, but the wait was worth it. I had a great time and the guys on the team seem really nice, but does Roger ever shut-up?

Finally, 

DEE HARRIS after the game……

“I’m super proud of my son on how he handled himself in his first game as a captain. He’s learned a lot about the league coming to games for years. I think he’s only going to get better and better as time goes. He’s an old chip off the block just like his father.”

TEAM HARRIS gets two weeks off due to a holiday and a bye, but don’t think for a minute they’ll have a break. “We’re going to hold practice (who needs practice?) a few times during the break and not rest on our laurels from this victory. I want to get better and better each week.”

TIDBITS…….

The rumors are true…..ROGER ROSENTHAL and his lovely wife, Carol, were in New Jersey this past weekend attending the DAYS OF OUR LIVES fan event…..that’s right! 

Roger was amongst the stars chatting it up and trying to get as many Facebook friends as possible.

Rookie BROCK FOWLER, an Ohio University graduate, was the only rookie to attend the after-game meal at a popular restaurant. Once again, STEVE “EPPY” EPPSTEIN showed his generosity by treating those that showed up, chicken wings and everything else…..

And finally, MARC BRAFMAN drove ROSENTHAL to the after-game meal with son, JACOB, in the back seat. ROSENTHAL asked who won the Xavier/UC game that day and when JACOB said that Xavier had one, there was a loud YES from a certain individual…..guess who?

On Field three it was the sun vs. Team Fogel and Team Kamrass

Jeremy for the winners:

Team Fogel took on Team Kamrass in an affair that was largely impacted by swirling winds pushing hits deep into the outfield and a glare from the sun that impaired vision more than staring at the eclipse. In a back-and-forth effort, Team Fogel prevailed over Team Kamrass by a score of 14-13. Lots of defensive plays all around that set the tone, but notable diving stops by Joel Buckley at shortstop and snags by Pete Soltesz in left field stopped rallies from ever starting or from continuing on. On the offensive side, big contributions all throughout the order kept consistent threats alive. A couple of key two-out RBIs by rookie Sam Klinkowitz were the difference in this one. Team Fogel anxiously awaits their next instant classic in the second half with Team Kamrass. No shortage of drama in any of the matchups between these two teams.

And last but not least in the game of the night on field 4 Team Wagner took on Team Tenenholtz

Brad for the victors

Team Wagner defeated Team Tenenholtz 23-16 at the friendly confines of Field 4.  The victors took an early lead, but Team Tenenholtz battled back multiple times to tie the score.  Team Wagner had a 15-14 lead going into the 6th and added some much-needed Geico Insurance runs in the top half of each of the 6th and 7th to prevail.

Michael Askin, Bob Pelberg, Anton Loon, and the three Hiudteers (Zac, Daniel, and Joey) had key hits: Corey Norris, Brad Wagner, Landon Hawkins, Matt Leader, and Mark Levine all brought in important runs.

Rookie Landon Hawkins had the web gem of the day with a great catch at SS to end a rally. 

After a break next week to dip our fingers in the wine while describing the awful ten plagues, Team Wagner takes on Team Wolf on Field 2; that game will be aired on PBS with Jose and Ozzie Canseco on the call.  Team Tenenholtz takes on Team Brafman; Lord Alfred Hayes and Gorilla Monsoon will be on the mic for that battle.

A reminder that we are off this week due to Passover. See everyone once again on May 1.

League Notes:

Speaking of Passover if you need baked goods for your seder, look no further than Sweet Butter Bakery Sweet Butter Bakery (sweetbuttercincy.com)

The J Classic is coming up. It’s an amazing event that was started years ago in honor of Shorty Adams’ dad. J Classic – Mayerson JCC I believe Ryan and Anton are the defending pickleball champs. Please consider signing up and supporting the JCC. 

A couple of college announcements this week. Congrats to Corey Norris’s daughter for choosing Michigan St. much to the chagrin of her mom who wanted her to go to Maryland.  And congrats to Jerry Kirzner’s granddaughter who is going to Tulane next fall.

Happy birthday to Josh Rosen 

While the Reds can’t hit at the moment due to the flu and the fact they have to play Jonathan India every day I do love watching them run the bases. It’s ironic that former Cards and Royals manager Whitey Herzog died this week because he would love how much the Reds steal. Hopefully this will continue to pay off for them if/when they ever get on base. 

Todd “The Mayor” Wasserman and I were texting last Sunday during the Billy Joel CBS Special until they for some reason cut Piano Man off at the end. Is this the Heidi game part two (if you don’t know what I’m talking about look it up)? Not sure how you can start a program late due to the Masters, and then when the guy is singing his most popular , if not best, song you cut it off to go to the local news. You couldn’t have waited 2 more minutes. By the way Todd claims his favorite Billy song is Tell her About it and his favorite album is The Bridge.. The Doctor of Style David Weil did tell me he once saw Billy Joel open for Deep Purple and Foghat and when he started to play Piano Man the fans at the Cincy Gardens who were not there to see him booed. He (Joel) then told all of the fans to F-off. It would have been fun to see acts in the 70’s.

My office at UC overlooks the back of Fifth Third Arena where some of the basketball players park (illegally). I have turned our own Matt “No I am not related to Wes”  Miller into a traffic cop. I text him when the parking po-po is outside and sometimes the players hurry up and move their cars. Or as was the case this week they got a boot to which Matt replied, “I tell those dopes not to park there it’s on them now.”

And one final note on college basketball. I find it amusing that people are all up in arms about Caitlin Clark’s starting salary in the WNBA. All these people claiming to be upset by the WNBA must be asked to name 5 current WNBA players and who won the last title. If you can answer those two questions you have a right to complain about their salary. If you can’t shut your yap, go to a game and support the ladies starting this season.

RIP to Dickey Betts from the ABB. Next week I will report on a story that Eddie Gallop has about seeing them that he promised is entertaining. 

And last but not least while Roger mentioned it in his recap it does bear repeating that he and his wife went to a Days of our Lives convention. I believe it went something like this for Roger and all of their fans: SNL’s Greatest Moment #71 (youtube.com)

Have a nice Passover everyone keep Israel in your thoughts.

Marc

Greetings, everyone! As we start getting ready for softball, I figured it was time for the first blog post of the season coming to you live from cloudy Hilton Head Island.  This will be the offseason version with the season preview coming next week. 

I hope everyone had a nice off season and is healthier than the Reds coming out of spring training.

First, and I’m sure there were a lot more, here are guys that celebrated birthdays since last year: (sorry if I missed yours these are the ones that came across my desk)

Jeff “the Natural” Weisbrot

Former league MVP, Mark”Big Blue”Tenenholtz

Rabbi Yitz

Former league all-star, Weezy Lefton

Everyone’s favorite sister, Brooke Fogel

Everyone’s favorite league wife and mom, Laurie Lefton

Todd “The Mayor” Wasserman

Scott “Shorty” Adams

AJ Goldhoff

Former league Commish, Ryan Kirzner

Duffy Wolf 

Eric “The Mouth of the Midwest” Gruen

Dr. Bob Pelberg

Jimmy Lefton

Mark “Bruiser” Wolf

Alex Kraus

Matt “no, I am not Wes Miller’s Son” Miller

Mr. Fun, Gregg Harris

Danny Grefer

Handsome Sam Castellini

Josh Lisman

Greg “Follow the” Leader 

Corey Norris 

Z also celebrated a birthday 

Random league notes

I know this is way late, but thanks to all of you who ran in the Oy Vey 5K. We broke the record this past year and I hope to do it again next year. So, expect me to bug you all once again.

Jamey “the Rookie” Drennan welcomed a baby girl this off season. Congrats to Jamey.

David “D-Sol” Solomon also became a new dad this offseason.

And I believe Alex Kraus and Jared Kamrass did as well.

Way WAY Back at the end of UC’s football season, Cam Kirzner was selected for the kick for cash and he became only the 2nd person all year to make the field goal. $1,000 bucks for going to a UC game. Not a bad Saturday!

As we all know Albert Weisbrot likes to sing the National Anthem at sporting events around town. He’s a UC Season ticket holder, yet somehow still enjoys singing at XU games. I hope it was way off key like Carl Lewis back in the day.

Has anyone ever seen Mr. Mike and Pat McAfee in the same place at the same time? They look more and more alike by the day.

A big thank you to Rick Lefton who has been on the softball commission for 24 years on and off. Thanks for everything you do for the league and the JCC in general.

I was talking to a buddy of mine who lives in Atlanta and they have a modified fast pitch league there as well. He told me they have an 80-year-old pitcher, so Howie and Eppy you’ve got something to shoot for. 

Zach Michelson was the first person to sign up for the league this year. Not sure what that means other than that Zach was logged in and ready to go at 12:01. 

I have never rooted more for a player whose team I have zero interest in than Iowa’s Caitlin Clark. Can she teach the UC point guards how to pass like she does? 

It’s going to be even MORE Fun this year to watch OSU with all the Yankee money they spent on NIL this off season still not win the National title and still finish 4-5 in the country. (Although I am a little bitter about losing Caleb Downs) 

Going to Opening Day is fun and we all love seeing GABP packed but when it’s two outs and the top of the 9th and I’m the only one standing in my entire section to get the last out since no one there even realized that it was the 9^th, I could do without those “fans.” I did enjoy the guy in the Puig signed jersey sitting in front of me betting on his phone all game. And yet Pete is still suspended. 

Am I the only dad of a little leaguer who finds it insane to spend $300+ on a bat? I love Jacob, you guys all love Jacob, but he isn’t the next Joey Votto.

Speaking of Votto, I wish we could banish to Pittsburgh or maybe the South Side of Chicago all of the Reds fans who don’t understand why the Reds let him walk this off season (with $7 million dollars). He wasn’t good the last two years, they have no place to play him, and they want to get younger. It’s as simple as that. Father Time never loses.

Finally, if you are ever fortunate to get a call from Roger make sure you have a good 10-45 minutes to talk. And that includes listening to his messages. Roger is like the guys in the Progressive commercials who are turning into their parents but without kids or parents. He’s just that guy 🙂 But that’s why we love him. Don’t ever change, Roger!!

The league preview will drop sometime this weekend can’t wait to see everyone out at the field next week.

Marc

On the final Wednesday night of the year the Commish, Ryan, not only dialed up another perfect night but also managed a couple of hits and made a nice catch in the field in the ASG last night. 

Now, I watched the game last night and beyond the score being 10-1 in favor of Team Wolf/Harris I couldn’t tell you more than a couple of things about the game. Joey Hiudt made two great plays in the field, one in RF and one at 2nd base. Griff Harris (with constant heckling from his sister) pitched a couple of innings (as did Tyler Stansbury) and Stu Solomon, channeling his best Dan Bilardello, dropped a pop-up behind the plate. And like I mentioned somehow Team Wolf/Harris scored 10 runs. It wasn’t a homer or balls in the gap, it was more hits here and there and stellar defense from them to keep Lefton/Eppy off the board. I will say when you have 20 of the best of our guys out there the quality of play is pretty impressive. I’d put our talent vs. any in the city.  Jeff Finkelstein, fresh off his impressive performance in the Tournament finals, won MVP of the ASG with 5 innings of one-run softball and a couple of hits. 

A great time was had by all and we look forward to next year. 

League Notes:

After the game, at the Spring House, we were talking about all the fathers and sons that have played in the league over the years and how special it is for all of us who play with our dads or sons or both. Which leads me to sad news as former player and Dad to our beloved Jason Faust, Marty Faust passed away earlier this week after a long battle with cancer. It shows how much this league meant to him that when Jason died last year, Marty asked for his signed  jersey so that he could hang it in his house. Forgetting winning and losing, that is the real legacy of our league. 

One of the all time JCC Softball families suffered a loss as the Hiudt’s lost their grandmother last week. We are all thinking about you guys.

Adam Cronstein’s father-in-law also passed away. He seemed like a great guy from what I read and how bad a guy could he be if he accepted Adam into his family?

Ben “Weezy” Lefton’s daughter Ellie is one of the all time leading scorers at her college in Lacrosse. Congrats to her.

A big shout out to rookie, Landon Krantz, for his work on school suicide prevention. That is what he has been studying for over the last couple of years. Keep up the great work, doc.

Roger celebrated both his birthday and his anniversary over the last couple of weeks. Roger’s wife is a bigger saint than any of us know for putting up with him all these years. Let’s hope he gets her a couple of bobbleheads for her birthday.

The Special One, Mike Rothstein, also celebrated an anniversary.

My favorite random headline of the week: Mikvah discovered in basement of former Polish Strip Club. A building that was a Mikvah before WWII was then turned into a strip club and the basement was closed or boarded up for years. New owners found the basement and the water was still in the pool. 

I have been writing this blog now for 4-5 years and it finally dawned on me that I should include what’s going on around the JCC: So in a new feature that I will include from now on here is what is coming up around the JCC:

Here are some upcoming things you could highlight:

• Annual Meeting | Thursday, September 7 
• Fall Market | Sunday, September 10
• Jewish Community Night at FC Cincinnati | Wednesday, October 4
• Oy Vey 5K | Sunday, November 5 (I am in charge of this again please let me know if you’d like to participate) 
• Hanukkah at Fountain Square | Wednesday, December 13 (for those with kids)

And here are some Sports & Rec things that they might be interested in:

• Men’s Basketball League
• Adult Archery (Not sure if this is their jam, but it’s new and could be fun)
• Pickleball Tournament | Sunday, October 22 (There is no page with information yet, but it goes straight to registration, which is live)

In another new segment called Marc’s book review I just finished a book called “The Jews of Summer.” No, it’s not about our softball league, but is instead a history of Jewish summer camp. For anyone that ever went to Jewish summer camp I found it more interesting than good if that makes sense. My favorite chapter was on co-ed camp and why most if not all co-ed camps encouraged dating so that Jewish kids would date other Jewish kids. This goes back to the 50’s and continues to this day.
Our final Reds bitch session: It’s amazing that the Reds fell ass-backward into two quality waiver wire pickup’s like Harrison Bader and Hunter Renfro since our cracker jack front office “Liked our team” at the trade deadline so much they didn’t improve the team at all except to wait for Hunter Green and Nick Lodolo, who won’t pitch at all the rest of the way. We need a RH bat, sure, let’s just use Stewie Fairchild, TJ Hopkins or Nick Mr. Tin Senzel. Does it matter that none of them can hit RH or LH pitching? Not to our front office. But, of course, now that we can get guys for nothing, all of a sudden these guys aren’t good enough, which was true two months ago. And last point, if the front office message is we are year ahead of our plans and we don’t care if we make the post season or not, why not shut Abbott down now? I would rather lose this year than hurt his arm. But what do I know? This is an organization that ran Luke Weaver out for 4 months when Howie or Fink are better pitchers. 
Once again it’s been a pleasure doing the blog this year. Hard to believe the season is over this quickly. Next year I’m sure once again we will need an Ark to get around Triple Creek. Thanks to Ryan, Rick, Mr. Mike, Jerry Kirzner for the schedule, Eppy for the wings and everyone else who makes our league what it is. Next April can’t get here quick enough. Stay healthy everyone. Talk to you soon…and sign up for the Oy Vey!

Marc