Author: Rick Tenenholtz

Another amazing night at Triple Creek on Wed. night. Ryan’s bribes to Mother Nature are finally paying off. 

On field 1 we had Team Wagner vs. Team Wolf. 

Wes for the winners: 

Team Wolf continued its winning ways with a dominant run-rule performance over Team Wagner. After starting slow with a 1-2-3 first inning, Team Wolf’s bats heated up with 3 in the second, 3 in the third, then an explosion of 7 in the fifth, capped off by a three-run JCC Home Run by Tyler Wolf on his first ever hit down the left field line. 

Mike Gray led the team on the defensive side with another stellar pitching performance. The right side of the infield was held down by the stylish tandem of Keith “Shin Guards” Kombrink at first and Dan “The Stache” LaCerva at second with some nice plays throughout the game. 

After the game, the other captains were overheard at Silver Spring House hyping up Team Lefton ahead of their showdown with 4-0 Team Wolf next week. Jimmy and Ricky immediately got their gloves to practice their bunt defense and game-plan pitch selection in the parking lot. 

On field two, it was the always exciting cage match between Team Kamrass and Team Solomon

Micah for the winners:

Team Kamrass stayed undefeated with a 9-4 win against bitter rival Team Solomon. The story of the night was lights out pitching from Fink and great team defense across the board. Super James Swan had the hit of the night with a three-run triple that almost made it to the fence. Jordan Skinner had a couple of nice plays at third base.

Tip of the cap to new guys, Adam Teitelbaum and Andrew Solomon, both of whom had nice hits over the heads of our outfield. Another tip of the cap to old guy Alan Lessure on a nice single to the outfield.

Bring on Team Z next week!

On field 3 Team Grefer vs. Team Z

Kyle for winners:

Team Grefer beat Team Zawatsky 9-5 in a game that was all about defense. The highlight of the game was a rare triple play by Dan Grefer at first base where he made a jumping catch on a missile from Z, stepped on first and threw to second for the third out.

Other defensive highlights were Dan with a diving stop at third; David Wertheim ran down balls in short center and turned a double play; Landon Krantz turned a double play at 2B, and in his first time playing catcher threw out a guy at second on a passed ball; and Adam Cronstein threw a runner out at third from right center.

Jon Ruben pitched another good game, and offensively the top of our order did the heavy lifting with David Wertheim, Adam Cronstein, and Landon Krantz with good games at the plate. Joey Hiudt also redeemed himself from his first at bat (got called out trying to bunt with two strikes) by blasting a triple in his next at bat.

Finally on field 4 Team Fogel vs. Team Lefton

Roger for the winners

 TEAM LEFTON 4

at

TEAM FOGEL  9

After two close losses, TEAM FOGEL got back to their winning ways with an impressive 9-4 victory over undefeated TEAM LEFTON.

Defense and timely hitting were the keys to the victory as it was a total team effort.

After TEAM LEFTON went down in the top of the opening frame without scoring, the victors got ahead in the bottom of the inning and stayed ahead the entire game.

In a line-up change, Philadelphia native, DAN “DANNY” GREEN moved to the leadoff spot and got aboard with the first of his two bunt hits, to spark the offense 

and ignite an early lead.

There were hitting stars aplenty including JOEL “SPARKY” FOGEL, father of captain JEREMY FOGEL, who moved down in the batting order and had four RBIs.

“I told my son he should move me down in the order. I knew what I was talking about. I’ve been in this game a long time and it worked out great,” the elder FOGEL said afterwards. He added, “If he didn’t obey his old man, I was going to dock his allowance for a month.”

The younger FOGEL added, “I didn’t want to, but I listen to my father all the time and it worked out great. I also need that allowance to supplement my expensive lifesytyle.”

GREEN added, “Hey, I’m a team player and I want to do what’s best for the team. If that’s leading off to start rallies or take the luggage to the motel rooms after a long bus ride, I’ll do it. Anything for the team.”

JASON “THE COWBOY” ESTERKAMP, SCOTT “PLEASE BE MY” FRIEND, and pitcher COREY “I CAN HIT LIKE ANYONE ELSE” NORRIS also supplied the big hits.

Defensively, the two defensive wizards of the game had to be SCOTT “PLEASE BE MY” FRIEND who played like a gold glover and had perhaps one of the best games of his career and captain FOGEL who made a few diving catches of his own and let his teammates know about it.

“Hey, GRIFF HARRIS is a great friend of mine, but I’m no slouch and I’m not sure he would have made those plays.”

It should be noted that an unusual play happened in the latter stages of the game, when perennial star ANTON LOON of TEAM LEFTON had a brain cramp. He was on first base and a runner was on third base with two outs and his team down six or seven runs at the time, when he attempted to get into a rundown to produce another run. 

TEAM FOGEL should have conceded the run to get the third out, however they botched it and let the run score and LOON remained on base and they proceeded to make it a 9-4 lead.

First baseman, ROGER ROSENTHAL, who dropped the throw in the rundown to tag LOON said afterwards, “I was in a state of shock that we would just concede the run in that situation to get the final out of the inning. I’ll take the blame, but it shouldn’t have come down to that.”

LOON stated after the game, while eating his postgame meal, “I don’t know what I was thinking. It was stupid play on my part, but it turned out OK.”

OTHER QUOTES……

MATT “THE BEST BASKETBALL COACH ON OUR TEAM” MILLER said to ROSENTHAL, an avid XAVIER UNIVERSITY fan, “How about what former University of Cincinnati head coach BOB HUGGINS recently said about students at XAVIER UNIVERSITY. Are you one of those he was talking about?”

In response, ROSENTHAL said, “What an asshole. That’s typical Huggins. What an idiot!.”

SCOTT “SHORTY” ADAMS on walking out to his rightfield position in a slow walk said, “Hey. I played 18 holes of golf today and I was tired.” Nice that you played a good game!

Finally, BRANDON “GAMECOCK” WRONKER said, “Do you guys always go at it like this?”….the answer…….YES!

Tidbits at the dinner table after the game…..

LOON stated he didn’t like hockey and the response from ROSENTHAL, an avid hockey fan……..”You’d rather watch baseball than hockey?”…..the two had two be separated before a brawl broke out by peacemaker DAVID “MR. OPINION” WEIL who was just drinking his beer and minding his own business.

STAY TUNED……

League Notes:

Once again please sign up for Jewish Night at the Reds game on May 23.

Plan on coming out to the Silver Spring House on June 21 for League Wing Night sponsored by our guy, Big Gig Franklin.

Congrats to Handsome Sam Castellini. He and his wife are expecting their first baby.

A week late congrats to former All-Star pitcher, Randy “Tex” Broyles, on the graduation of his daughter from college.

And because it can’t be a week without a Lefton kid graduating from college, this week it’s former All Star Ben “Weezy” Lefton’s daughter, who not only scored her 200th goal in LaCrosse, but also is graduating. Congrats to them.

If you asked me which guy in the league would least likely be going to see Taylor Swift, my answer would be Alan Lessure. But if you asked me the second least likely guy to be going, I’d say Scott Wolf. Who knew that Scott was a Swifty? If you ask him nicely I bet he will sing Lavender Haze for us next game.

Congrats goes out the Half Man Gang Ryan Marcus on the bat mitzvah of his soon to be sister-in-law (Or is it your current sister in law?). Either way I know you are involved in the Burstein family, so congrats!

Rookie, Jon Spears, and I have been in a sports and music related text chain for years. One of the things that I point out each year is how often right after the Reds score a run they give it right back. We have named this a Brafy. From this point forward pay attention to how often this happens. I was at the game on Tuesday. The Reds got a run in the bottom of the first. Then, on the 1st pitch of the second inning, Hunter Green gives up a homer. That equals a Brafy. I’m telling you it happens at least two-three times a week (This, by the way, has replaced ESPN showing highlights of every NFL Team doing something good vs. the Bengals, which used to be a staple of their shows).

You have to give the NFL credit for always being in the news. First, the biggest waste of time in all of sports, the NFL draft. Then, last night, it was the release of the schedule. WLW had Mo, Tony Pike and Lance on the air for 3 hours talking about this! I get that it’s exciting to see how many prime time games the Bengals get and where the bye week is, etc. But to say well this game or that game is a hard game in May with all the injuries that can happen is just dumb. 

And finally, in this week in Roger’s world, he told me earlier in the week that he hit the mother load at the flea market with a purchase of over 2,500 football cards. So if you are in the market for Aaron Rogers or Tom Brady or Stanley Wilson, Roger is your guy.

See everyone at the field Wednesday night

Marc

While the wind was blowing, at least it was dry for week three of the softball season. I don’t remember having three weeks in a row last year at any point so at least we’ve got that going for us, right?

Let’s get to the action 

On field one it was Fogel vs. Kamrass

Micah for the winners:

Team Kamrass edged Team Fogel 12-11 in a hard fought and well played game by both teams. Inspired by the rousing pregame pep talk from their captain, Team Kamrass started off hot at the plate and in the field. For the second fame in a row, every member of the team contributed at the plate. Jordan Skinner hit a ball over the head of Jeremy Fogel. Michael Margolis had a big knock. And Super James Swan swiped home for a steal for the first time this season.

Fink pitched a great game and played strong defense as well. Team Fogel came back to make it a one run game with two outs and runners in scoring position, but Fink was able to get the final out to seal the game.

Team Kamrass remains undefeated and is ready for the biggest rivalry in sports with it’s upcoming game against Team Solomon.

and Roger for team Fogel:

TEAM KAMRASS 12

TEAM FOGEL       11

you might want to check the score with Micah’s report……

In a nip and tuck battle, TEAM KAMRASS withstood a bottom of the 7th inning rally, to leave the tying run on third base, and win 12-11.

Both teams had their chances and in the end, it was the victorious TEAM KAMRASS, that made one more play than TEAM FOGEL.

After the visitors took a 6-0 lead heading to the bottom of the 2nd inning, TEAM FOGEL kept coming back, but was never able to take the lead.

“Tough one to lose, ” said captain JEREMY FOGEL. “We left a lot of runs out there,” he added.

OTHER QUOTES AFTER THE GAME……

“Damn, I look like an old man out there. I’ve got to pick my game up if I can and try to help this team out,” ROGER ROSENTHAL said, nearly in tears afterward. “I need to focus more out there.”

COREY NORRIS, who settled down on the mound after the 2nd inning, added, “Roger, just go up there and hit the damn ball. You shouldn’t be thinking too much. Just hit the damn ball!”

MATT MILLER, resident basketball coach, gave some advice. “We’ll be ok. Look, I saw the UC basketball team have some bad times only to bounce back and I think we can do the same thing on this team.”

Finally, STEVE “SHORTY” ADAMS, promised the team that if they won their next game, he would take them out on the town. Wonder where he would take them?

On Field 2 Team Lefton vs. Team Wagner:

The Hebrew Hammer for the victors

“I’m Speechless.  I am without speech.”

Anton Loon before the 1^st inning kicked off “The wind is blowing in pretty hard.  I think it’s going to be a low scoring game, like 4-3.”

Team Lefton got off to a slow start with the bats this time around, which is to be expected when facing Howie Schwartz.  Team Wagner took an early 1^st inning lead, 2-0, but Team Lefton was able to tie it up in the 2^nd after a bloop triple by Ryan Baum and two consecutive RBI by Marc Simons and Matt Leader.

Team Wagner quickly got on the board again and held a 3-2 lead all the way until the bottom of the 6^th.  After the first two hitters grounded out, Peter Brownell doubled.  Sam Castellini singled, and Anton Loon came up and laced a single past the 2^nd basemen to tie the game at 3-3.

After holding Team Wagner scoreless again in the top of the 7^th, Team Lefton had a chance for a walk off victory.  Marc Simons hit a 1-out double and with 2 outs. Bob Pelberg came up huge with the game winning knock, scoring Simons from 2^nd.  The 4-3 final score proved that Anton Loon is indeed an oracle.

It was a great defensive effort by both clubs.  For Team Lefton the play of the game was when Matt Leader fielded the ball, stepped on 3^rd for the force out and threw across the diamond beating the runner at 1st for a nice double play.

On field 3 we had Team Stu vs. Team Z

Ken Groh for Team Z

Game Update: Team Zawatsky 20 Team Solomon 10

The Sun Field made it a little tougher on the defense today. Ryan Marcus had a 2 RBI double to start the scoring in the 1^st. Captain Steve drove him in and Eli Zawatsky hit his first triple of the year to knock in his father. Then Greg Harris capped off the five-run 1^st with a nice hit. Solomon scored one in the 1^st and two more in the second to cut the lead to 5-3 after 2. The Captain drove in a run to extend the lead but Solomon stormed back with 4 runs to take a 7-6 lead. Eric Zied led of the inning with a single and with two outs Mike Rothstein started the rally as Team Z had 5 straight hits that led to 5 runs scoring and an 11-7 lead. With 2 outs in the bottom of the 4^th Harry Meisner hit a 400-foot bomb to dead center nearly clearing the parking lot. After the game, Ken Groh retrieved the homerun ball and Harry autographed it for him. With the score 11-9, Will “the Thrill” Coleman and Eric Zied had hits and scored on singles from Stu Solomon and Mike Rothstein. Mike had another nickname for Will as the Thrill is not only when he hits and fields but his baserunning is magical at times. In the 6^th Ryan, Steve, Eli and Will all got hits to start the party and Greg Harris’s double cleared the bases to put the nail in the coffin. The final 20-10. My team needs lessons on how to keep the “book” but I believe the Captain Steve Zawatsky had 5 hits, Ken Groh had 4 hits and scored 4 runs. Rothstein, Pat Feldman, Ryan Marcus, Eli Zawatsky, Will and Greg all had 3 hits to pace the offense and the defense made enough plays to keep us in the game. Ken Groh wanted to point out after giving up the longest JCC Homerun of the year, he struck out Harry his next at bat with some help from his captain!

Finally on field 4 it was Brafman vs. Wolf

Marc and Wes with a joint recap. In a back and forth game Team Wolf won 9-8 on a walk off passed ball. In a very well played game with very few errors, this game ended in the most JCC-way possible. Tyler “Big Bad” Wolf scored when the ball got away from the catcher for the winning run in the bottom of the 7th.  Captain Wes paced his team with a three-run RCF gap homer while Matt Brodof, Pete “The Straw that Stirs the Drink” Soltesz and Keith Kombrinck also helped out on offense. On defense for Team Wolf, Dan “The Stache” LaCerva made two very good plays at 2nd to keep Team Brafman off the bases. Kudos to Mike Gray for a very well pitched game for the victors.

For Team Brafman Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley had a triple as did Jamey “The Rookie” Drennan. The Mayor Todd Wasserman in his first game of the year had a double and maybe the worse slide in JCC softball history to go along with it. Big props to Eppy for pitching a complete game and for the most part controlling one of the best offenses in the league. On defense, the tag team of JZ and Griff in the outfield turned in their normal stellar play. 

Team Wolf improves to 3-0 while Team Brafman is 0-3 having lost all three games by a combined 8 runs.

League Notes 

I had to leave right after the game to get a Wyoming Middle School music concert and because Marc was playing on Field 4, League notes are a little lite this week. He’ll try to do better next week.

Congrats to the Lefton triplets on graduation from UC and OSU this past weekend (or OSU is this weekend).

Same goes to our own JZ who graduated from UC on Friday.

I forgot to mention this last week but at the Spring House there was an older woman clearly flirting with all of the older guys in the league. (Howie, Jerry, Gary and Eppy). When she got around to Roger she smiled and turned around and walked away.

Happy four-year anniversary to Joel Buckley and his wife. With all that Cleveland love in the house, she must be a saint.

If you live in Sycamore, there is a fundraiser for new ball fields. The kids will be able to use them. 

Reminder that Jewish night at the Reds game is coming up in a couple of weeks. The Reds play the Cards and maybe for the first time in years the Reds might be better. 

Let’s all say a prayer for our guy, Rabbi Yitz, who is having surgery soon. Get better soon, Yitz.

Mark Newman’s son is off to USC in the fall. I guess he REALLY wanted to get away from home.

Congrats to Jason Esterkamp on the 5th anniversary of O’Bryan’s. Way to go, Jason.

One of the funniest parts of my team this year is when Jamey Kurtzer calls Eppy, Steve. I had to look around the first time and think who the heck is Steve? Keep it up, Jamey.

As usual, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame fumbled this year. I have no problem with the people that got in (except for Kate “No one knows who the heck I am if it weren’t for Stranger things” Bush, but how can someone like Kate Bush get in before Warren Zevon, the White Stripes, Bad Company, Soundgarden and Jessie and the Rippers? But this year can be salvaged if they play the classic George Michael song, “I Want Your Sex,” as the closer to the ceremony. I mean, just imagine Willie Nelson, The Spinners and Missy Elliot all trading verses of that song WHOOO SEX I’M NOT YOUR BROTHER!

The fact that the author of that song is in the Hall of Fame along with Lennon and McCartney, Bob Dylan and Chuck Berry…and yet the author of Werewolves of London, Hasten Down the Wind and Reconsider Me isn’t makes me upset, in case you didn’t pick up on that.

In Reds news this week for those of you dumb enough, like me, to have stayed up on Tuesday night, we got to see something really cool. Alexis Diaz, the best young closer in baseball, had to protect a one-run lead vs. the Padres with Fernando Tatis Jr. Manny Machado and Juan Soto coming up. Not only did he do it and make it look easy but it was one of those moments in baseball that you sit up and pay attention to. Our best vs your best, come and get it. It’s why we all love baseball and for one night it didn’t matter that the Reds stink or that it was just one win in a season that was over before it started. Just a great moment if you like sports. 

Finally, in Roger news, do you think he can become the “YOU CAN DO IT” guy from The Water Boy when XU Starts football again? I picture him in the stands as Xavier plays Butler in front of 10 people and yelling this every game over and over. 

See everyone next week. Let’s keep this fine weather going.