Author: Rick Tenenholtz

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May 17 & 21, 2023: Games Recap

A bonus BIG addition to the softball blog this week as we have both Wednesday, May 17 Sunday, May 21 to update. Another amazing weather week. Ryan must have sold his soul for the first half so far. Let’s keep it up this week.

Let’s first start with last Wednesday 

On Field one, we had Team Zawatsky vs. Team Kamrass.

Micah for the winners:

Team Kamrass stayed undefeated with a 15-13 against Team Z. Playing without shortstop Zach Mayer (who likely would’ve been tossed had he been there for reasons discussed later) and playing against a sub Z found, who likely is better than many of the Reds, wasn’t enough to end the winning streak.

Fink pitched another great game and got out of a couple of jams. The combination of David Solomon and Scott Raskin gunned out another baserunner trying to steal. Bryce Anslinger moved to right center this week and had a few nice catches. And Captain Micah Kamrass finally achieved his dream of jumping the fence to make a catch, it just happened to be the foul fence.

The whole team did a great job hitting tonight. Big hits came from Super James Swan, Adam Heldman, and Michael Margolis.

A new rule controversy not yet seen in our league took place tonight. While a runner was trying to score, he collided with the umpire before he could touch the plate, and was then tagged out. The umpire made up “I think he would’ve been safe, so he’s safe.” A later check of the rules shows this is not the case. The umpire is part of the field of play and there is no such thing as umpire interference. So now we all know.

Team Kamrass keeps finding a way to score more runs than the other team. The plan is to do the same on Sunday against Team Wolf.

On Field Two it was Team Brafman vs. Team Fogel

Roger for the winners:

TEAM BRAFMAN 2

TEAM FOGEL      9

In a total team effort, TEAM FOGEL gave up two runs in the top of the opening frame and shut the door the rest of the way and let the offense and defense do their thing.

COREY “I AM NOT CY YOUNG” NORRIS pitched another gem and didn’t walk a batter and let his defense play a near flawless game.

“I’m not going to strike any one out or walk anyone so my defense has to be good and once again it was great. All I need to do is put the ball in play and I have confidence they’ll make the plays behind me, ” he said in a post game interview.

The play of the night was a SPORTSCENTER TOP 10 PLAY when reserve catcher DAN “DANNY” GREEN caught an attempted bunt.

“Hey, as I’ve said in the past, I’ll do whatever we need. I’ll play anywhere. Wherever the captain tells me to play, that’s where I’ll play, but one thing I won’t do is clean up the bench area after a game.”

There were hitting stars aplenty including BRANDON “THE GAMECOCK” WRONKER….SCOTT “WILL YOU PLEASE BE MY” FRIEND…..JASON “THE COWBOY” ESTERKAMP….JOEL “SPARKY” FOGEL……and even the veteran ROGER ROSENTHAL, who not only had a single and sacrifice bunt, but also “stole” second base.

By the way, on the hit, he slid into first base instead of running thru the base like you’re supposed to.

“I can’t believe I did that. I was telling a friend at lunch today that you don’t do that and what do I do?, ” he stated afterwards in the winner’s clubhouse.

KUDOS also go out to sub IAN CONWELL (TEAM WAGNER), who had perhaps the best game of his career as he hit the ball well and played an unbelievable RCF…..he also scored from second base on a sacrifice bunt.

After the game, ROSENTHAL said, “We’ve got to make a trade for you and give Team Wagner a MICHAEL JORDAN rookie card for your rights.”

On Field three we had Lefton vs. Wolf 

Wes for the victors:

This week Team Wolf continued their dominance with a 15-0 drubbing of Team Lefton. Starting the game with the first 8 batters reaching base and scoring led by 2 RBIs each from Wes, Scottie and Mike Gray.

Team Wolf’s defense was just as consistent as their hitting. Dan LaCerva led the way with quality plays at both right field and second base. Mike Gray is the team’s true key to defensive success, pitching aggressively and in the strike zone. He has only allowed 1 walk on the year and shows no signs of slowing up.

This performance, following a 13-1 run rule of team Wagner last week, places team Wolf at the top of the standings. A showdown with also-undefeated Team Kamrass awaits on Sunday.

Finally, on Field 4 we had Team Grefer vs. Team Solomon

Kyle for the winners:

We beat Team Solomon 11-6 and the difference was our defense. Joey Hiudt set the tone early running down a ball in right field on the first play of the game, and everyone in the outfield made nice plays with Jack Cohen running down a ball in deep center, and Adam Cronstein making a sliding catch on the dirt. David Wertheim and Mark Levine also made some nice plays on the infield. Jon Ruben also pitched another great game by serving it up and trusting the defense behind him.

Offensively the trio at the top of the order of David Wertheim, Jack Cohen, and Adam Cronstein all hit the ball well. The bottom of our order also had some key hits with Rick Tenenholtz hitting one over the outfield and Mark Levine hitting a double to right field.

And onto yesterday

On Field 1 Team Brafman played Lefton 

For the first time this season, Team Brafman was on the winning side beating Team Lefton 14-13 by the skin of their teeth. The big hits for Team Brafman came from Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley who went 5-5, Griff Harris and Tait “Richie” Cunningham who had three huge triples. Also Jamey “The Rookie” Drennan went 5-5 and even Team Captain, Marc Brafman, finally got a couple of hits. On defense a fantastic double play was turned by Dee Harris and Todd “The Mayor” Wasserman, while Mark “the Bruiser” Wolf and Alex Kraus both made all of the plays in the field. With a 6-run lead and two outs, Team Lefton came off the mat and had the tying run at second base. Only some great glove work by Drennan and Wasserman prevented the tying run from scoring on a rocket shot by Ryan “The Hebrew Hammer” Baum.

“I was just glad to throw strikes and let Lefton hit it,” winning pitcher Eppy said post game all the while telling Team Brafman bat boy, Jacob Brafman, about the time he ate a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts at a UDF post game. “The guy behind the counter didn’t think I could do it so I had to prove him wrong,” Eppy said. Team Brafman hopes to continue their winning ways Wednesday night vs. Team Zawatsky. (A special note: Congrats to Team Lefton’s Matthew Leader and Peter Brownell for both graduating from Sycamore yesterday. Both of them hit absolute bombs in the game. Leader had a triple and Brownell had a gap homer and another off the fence. Well done, boys!)

On field 2 we had Team Wes vs. Team Micah

Wes for the winners:

Team Wolf continues a dominant run with an 11-3 win in this weekend match-up against previously undefeated Team Kamrass who were missing some key players.

The key to success was another hot start, this time with 6 runs in the first inning highlighted by consecutive shots to the wall by Wes Wolf and Matt Brodof. Pete Soltesz & Michael Askin also led the way with multi-hit games and line drives sprayed all over the field. 

Mike Gray continues his success on the mound with another gem. No walks and very few hard hit balls drove another all around performance by Team Wolf on defense. 

Over the last three games, Team Wolf has outscored their opponents 39-4 and shows no signs of letting up. Next week they get another shot at perfection when they face Team Grefer. 

On Field 3 it was Team Wagner vs. Team Grefer

Brad for the winners:

Team Wagner got back in the win column after a much needed bye week, and took down Team Grefer 18-14 on Sunday morning in front of a standing-room-only crowd.  The victors were down 9-4 when they scored nine runs in the fourth inning to take a commanding lead.  Chris Kunkel had a three-run triple, was on base multiple times, and played great at 2nd base including a rally saving catch.  Howie Schwartz was stellar on the mound and helped his own cause with a two-run single.  Other big hits came from Josh Rosen, AJ Goldhoff, John Spears, and Cam Kirzner.  Captain Wagner discussed in his postgame interview with Charlie Goldsmith and P-Doc, that it was a rare must win first half game.  Team Wagner looks to continue the winning ways on Wednesday when they play Team Solomon on Field 2.  That game will be aired on 700WLW and 55KRC with a quadruple cast of Dan, Terry, Joe, and Byron on the call.  Team Grefer takes on Team Wolf in a game that everyone will be amped up for.  That game airs on the MLB Network with Pedro, Dennis, and Carmelo Martinez on the call.

And last but not least on field 4 we have Team Stu vs. Team Fogel

Stu for the winners:

People are saying the heated exchange between Tyler and Mark was the spark that ignited Team Solomon’s season. I’m not saying that, but people are saying that.

Team Solomon defeated Team Fogel 22-12. Hits were abundant throughout the lineup. Adam “Levine” Teitlebaum set the table going 3-4. Harry “ Superman” Misner, Tyler “ The Natural” Stansbury,  Stuart “The Captain” Solomon, and Ryan “All Smiles” Silverman all had multiple hits to keep the scoring up. We can not overstate that Alan “The Mouth” Lessure was on base 3 times, scoring twice. 

Defensively, Team Solomon limited any big inning with three separate and different double plays, the biggest one coming when Team Fogel tried to score from second on a sac fly. The relay from Ryan to Andrew Solomon to Tyler to Evan “Healthcare Hero” Weisser was a thing of beauty. As always Mark “Pa Pa” Weisser with a great pitching performance.

Team Solomon looks to continue their winning ways next week and into the second half.

League Notes

Congrats to Commish Ryan Silverman on his daughter Emma graduating from Sycamore yesterday.

Tuesday May 23 is JCC night at the Reds. They might stink but it’s always fun to sit in the moon deck on a nice night. Plus maybe we can heckle Willie Mays Benson if Bell is dumb enough to play him.

A tip of the cap to Mike Margolis on the graduation of his daughter from Wisconsin. 

I don’t know if he won or not, but Brandon Guttman’s son was nominated for player of the week from CCD last week. We all look forward to both of them being in the league once again down the road. 

Howard Goldwasser’s daughter graduated from Rutgers last week becoming only the second person I know to admit going to Rutgers. Speaking of which, how’d you like to be a parent of any student athlete at Rutgers and being forced to stay up till 2 AM to watch them play USC or UCLA. Because nothing says BIG 10 like Rutgers playing UCLA in any sport. 

A belated happy birthday to David BP Snyder (and I hope you didn’t have to wear another beer after I spilled yours all over the floor last week)

Super Sub Tait Cunningham is engaged and will be married this July. Congrats!

How come everyone in Cincy knows it’s dumb to pitch to Aaron Judge with a base open in the 10th inning except David Bell? 

And finally in this week in Roger. 

Roger has nothing better to do with his time on a Sunday afternoon than look up Cincinnati Hills League stats online. (That is the league that Wyoming, Maderia, Indian Hill and Finneytown are in) He wanted to report that my old school, Finneytown, was outscored this year 177-3 in baseball. What’s worse is that unfortunately I too knew this stat, so I guess I had nothing better to do either.

See everyone tomorrow night at the Reds game and Wednesday at the field

Marc

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May 18, 2023: Update

Word on the street is that our intrepid blogger, Marc Brafman, is working OT these days picking up dough from the current Hollywood writers’ strike. Marc will be back with an expanded double feature after Sunday’s games. In the meantime, the standings have been updated to reflect the May 17 games.

Games start at 9:30 AM on Sunday. See you all at the fields!

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May 10, 2023: Games Recap

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

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May 3, 2023: Games Recap

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 1st 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 1st inning lead, 2-0, but Team Lefton was able to tie it up in the 2nd 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 6th.  After the first two hitters grounded out, Peter Brownell doubled.  Sam Castellini singled, and Anton Loon came up and laced a single past the 2nd basemen to tie the game at 3-3.

After holding Team Wagner scoreless again in the top of the 7th, 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 2nd.  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 3rd 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 1st. 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 1st with a nice hit. Solomon scored one in the 1st 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 4th 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 6th 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.

Posted on

April 26, 2023: Games Recap

Another amazing weather night last night. Ryan must have promised Mother Nature a raise if she keeps this up. 

Let’s get right to the action

On Field 1, we had Team Zawatsky vs. Team Wagner 

Team Zawatsky walked off Team Wagner 13-12 on Wednesday night. The game went back and forth all night with each team getting key hits. Key hits for Team Wagner came from John Spears, Howie Schwartz, Matt Grindle, Chris Kunkel, and Brad Wagner. Team Wagner came back to tie the score at 12 in the top of the 7th with a 3-run, 2-out rally but Mr. Special, Mike Rothstein had the game winning hit knocking in Will “Thrill” Coleman.
Team Wagner looks to regroup against Team Lefton next week as the game will air on Tape Delay after reruns of Saturday Night Main Event featuring Mean Gene Okerlund, Gorilla Monsoon, and The Dr. of Style Slick.

Over on Field Two it was Team Grefer vs. Team Brafman 

Kyle for the winners:

We won 8-4 against Team Brafman in a game where our defense and pitching made the difference. Jon Ruben pitched a great game mixing up locations to keep hitters off balance.

Defensively, David Wertheim was a vacuum at shortstop, and Jack Cohen showed off his versatility by running down a ball in deep left field as well as playing a great second base for a few innings. After a rough defensive game last week, it was great to see our team recover.

On offense Adam Cronstein, David Wertheim, and Joey Huidt were key contributors. Gary Grefer had a couple hits and Howard Goldwasser smashed a ball over the outfield. He got thrown out at second but he might’ve made it if he hadn’t done an airplane celebration coming out of the box…

and Capt. Brafman add this thoughts

Another close game for Team Brafman. Once we get the bats going we will be a tough team to beat. Kudos to Dee Harris for a couple of knocks, Mark “Bruiser” Wolfe and Jamey “The Rookie” Drennan with two hits. On defense Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley did a great job at SS and Griff Harris, after telling Capt. Brafman to move up, was able to throw out the aforementioned Howard Goldwasser at 2nd.  It should be noted that Eppy took a line drive off his shin, rubbed some dirt on it and continued to pitch. Nick Senzel (who did homer yesterday) would be out for a month if that happened to him.

Team Brafman looks to get back on track on Wed. vs. Team Wolf

On Field 3 it was a battle back and forth between Team Wolf and Team Fogel

Wes for the victors

Team Wolf continued its success with a 9-7 win over Team Fogel. On the way off the field, Roger Rosenthal was overheard saying “I really wish Wes would have picked me. This team is so talented they may never lose.”

This week was a solid all-around performance. At the plate we were led by Michael Askin, who went 3-3 and scored two runs. Duffy & Scott Wolf starred in a 5-run 4th inning, both hit RBI singles and beat out throws to the plate from Fogel outfielders. After Scott beat out a throw from Jeremy Fogel, he yelled, “Even Bo Jackson couldn’t throw me out! And Jeremy Fogel ain’t him, maaan.” 

Mike Gray continued with a strong pitching performance highlighted by a rally-saving 3-pitch strikeout in the 5th inning. The continued solid defense behind him besides a few common field-3 sun balls in the outfield.

Next week, Team Wolf takes on Team Brafman. Opposing captain Marc Brafman mysteriously booked Tyler Wolf for a living wall installation that “Has to happen next Wednesday evening. Your schedule is open then, right?” (Brafman confirms that for his daughter’s bat mitzvah he would also like to pull Duff from this team to take pictures and Michael Askin to be the MC. “I’ve got no problem pulling rank on Team Wolf to help my team out,” Brafman said post game.

And Roger chimes in for Team Fogel

After an impressive victory in week one, this week didn’t go as planned, but it wasn’t due to a great effort by the entire team…..

TEAM FOGEL was knocked off by a very solid TEAM WOLF, 9-7, as the game went right down to the wire…..

Leading the way at the plate was ZACH MICHELSON with three hits in three at bats. It should be also noted that the tall lanky one wanted to make sure the blog reported this or he was going to boycott the next game….LOL….(see below)

Also, on the offensive side, rookie BRANDON “GAMECOCK” WRONKER had two knocks, as did SCOTT “THE BULLDOG” FRIEND, JASON “THE COWBOY” ESTERKAMP and 

rookie MATT MILLER…….

On the defensive side, DANNY GREEN, playing his first game of the season, played a solid 2B in which he made an unbelievable catch on a looping line drive in shallow right field…..BUT the PLAY OF THE GAME was one by UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI basketball staffer, MILLER, on a diving catch in right field……it was such a great catch, that even ROGER ROSENTHAL, an avid XAVIER UNVIERSITY fan, was impressed. “That was one hell of a catch. I thought there was NO way a UC guy could catch that ball and he proved me wrong.”

QUOTES FROM THE GAME……

“I was really disappointed in our captain after last week when he said he would buy each player a bobblehead of their choice if we won. We won! Where’s the bobblehead?”, an irate ROSENTHAL said before the game…..

JOEL “SPARKY” FOGEL, father of the captain, who missed last week’s game due to business said, “I was told we had better win or I was going to take some of the blame, Hey, I had an important business meet in Nashville plus I wanted to see the Grand Ole Opry.”

Roger, you better put the fact that I went 3 for 3 in the blog or I’m going to boycott next week and I’m going to hunt you down.” MICHELSON said after his splendid performance.

Finally, SCOTT “SHORTY” ADAMS was introduced before the game to rookie, DAN “THE ROCKET” LACERVA, who is married. “If you’re married, you don’t want to go out with me. That would be a mistake.”…..WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

And last but not least the game of the night was played out on Field 4 where Team Lefton took on Team Stu

The Hebrew Hammer Ryan Baum checks in for Team Lefton

“The sea was angry that day, my friends – like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli…”

In what could be considered the game of the year in week 2, Team Lefton defeated Team Solomon 18-17 in comeback fashion.

Team Lefton started things off on fire with each of their first five batters scoring in the top of the 1st.  They tacked on another run and all 11 players came to the plate to take a very early 6-0 lead.  Well, Team Solomon wasn’t phased and scored 9 of their own in the bottom of the 1st.  This led to concerns by Team Lefton players that we may be late for work on Thursday if the game didn’t get moving.

Team Lefton continued to nibble into Team Solomon’s lead but couldn’t keep them off the scoreboard.  A plethora of hits and a Tyler Stansbury home run brought the score to 17-12, Team Solomon leading, heading into the top of the 7th.

Ryan Baum led off the 7th with his 3rd single of the game.  Marc Simons then laid down a perfect bunt down the 3rd base line and was safe at first.  After a Matt Leader single Team Lefton had bases loaded and nobody out.  This is where some mild controversy took place.  David Snyder hit a towering fly ball that landed approximately 7 feet in front of home plate.  The ball bounced and hit a Team Solomon defender and stayed fair.  They got the easy out at home and had an opportunity to get Simons out at 3rd.  However, the umpire stopped play and said he made a mistake and should have called an ‘infield fly rule’.  He called the batter out and the runners all safe.  From there the rally was on.  David Weil hit a huge double down the left field line and Sam Castellini hit a bases clearing triple that gave Team Lefton the lead, 18-17.  Team Solomon got their first two hitters on base in the bottom half, but Team Lefton was able to keep them scoreless and hold on for the win.

Leading the charge offensively was Sam Castellini who went 5-5 and scored 4 runs.  Ryan Baum went 3-3 with a sac fly RBI.  Anton Loon was 3-5.  Matt Leader and Jimmy Lefton both went 3-4 as well.

Peter Brownell has to be an early front runner for R.O.Y. with his speed, arm, and stellar glove work at SS.  He also went 2-5 with two hard hit line outs.

The defensive play of the game came as Phil Ganson on Team Solomon laced a line drive to the LC gap.  Anton Loon picked the ball up on the warning track, threw a laser to the cutoff man, Brownell, who fired it to 3rd, where Matt Leader tagged Phil Ganson out.

It was a great way to start the season for Team Lefton.  It wasn’t always pretty but we didn’t give up and fought to the bitter end.

League notes:

“The Special One” Mike Rothstein has a glove guy that helped him restring his glove. Mike was nice enough to give me the flier for the guy which I of course left in my bag. But if you need a glove guy ask Mike he said this guy did good work. 

Happy 31st anniversary to Jimmy and Laurie Lefton. Also on the graduation of their daughter Mal from OU

Same goes to JCC softball first couple Joel and Barb Fogel on the graduation of babysitter and camp counselor to many of our kids, Brooke Fogel from OSU.

A reminder that wing night will be at the Silver Spring House on June 21. Gig wants to make sure we are all well fed that night so please come out and enjoy wings on him.

It’s Jewish night at the Reds game coming up. Tuesday, May 23. It will be a fun night and you get a Reds shirt in Hebrew to confuse people when you go to another game. 

As Billy Kahn mentioned today, it’s a sad day here in League notes because former player Jerry Springer (yes THAT Jerry Springer) played in the league back in the day. As a kid I remember watching him play with a Yankee hat on. I don’t recall him being that great but he was fast. He spoke at the University of Alabama when I was a student. I met him there and reminded him of that. He said he always enjoyed playing. RIP Jerry

Greg Harris last night mentioned that when he went to Washington DC over spring break he brought back a couple of bobbleheads from Capitals and Wizards game. This led to a discussion of how many players from either team anyone could name. I believe it was 3.

I always say that the best part of our league is the different guys playing and how we all get along. That also goes for the cars we drive. Jamey “The Rookie” Drennan pulled up in a Tesla, which I was admiring from across the parking lot. At that moment Alan “The Salsa King” Lessure pulled up in the family truckster that he still drives. This is not an indictment on either guy. I just found it interesting 

While Jeff “The Natural” Weisbrot is off coaching his kid’s baseball team, he sent along a video of his son Evan crushing his first homer over the fence in his game last night. Not sure what was cooler, Jeff’s reaction (Evan just hit a HOMER!!) or when his teammates realized what happened and came running out of the dugout to mob him at the plate. Such a fun moment.

On that subject I have realized this year that I get way more worked up over Jacob’s team, of which I am an assistant coach, than our games.  But man it’s fun to watch him play. I’m sure you guys can all relate who have kids.

Mr. Mike “Flash” Creemer was at the field last night and assures me that there is plenty of top notch talent coming through the Blue Jay’s baseball pipeline.

Does anyone other than Lance McCalister care that Tyler Stephenson hasn’t homered yet this year? He keeps bringing this up yet doesn’t seem to mention that he’s been on base 15 straight games.  Also, I am guessing that tomorrow or Saturday we will see the lowest attended game in MLB history when the Reds play the A’s. 

And last but not least in this week in Roger

For some reason he was walking around with a 1970’s style bowling bag. He won’t show us what was in it but for those that have seen the classic movie Animal House I am betting it’s the same thing that Otter had in his bag. 

See everyone next week 

Marc