Category: Game Results

 

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!!

 

August 9 Recap

By Marc Brafman

 

The morning was hot and so was the action on the field. As Ernie Banks used to say “Let’s Play Two” on Sunday at Triple Creek.

 

It was a tale of 3 teams as both Lefton and Loon swept their action on Sunday while Team Brafman was on the other end of the spectrum by being swept. Let’s go to the action.

 

On Field 1, Team Lefton ended the first half at 4-2. In game one they beat a depleted Team Fogel 14-4. Lefton was led by super Sub Alex “Earl Bruce” Lefton who went 7-8 for the day. “We hit up and down our order for the second game in a row, and even with a shorter game scoring 14 runs is a lot. I Was really proud of the effort we gave,” Captain Jimmy Lefton said. In game two, Team Lefton beat Team Weisser in a back and forth game 9-8. With the score tied in the bottom of the fifth Rookie of the Year Candidate Jacob Zeidenstein hit a walk off single for the win. “Man, I’m just excited to help the team,” JZ said post game. “I haven’t been this pumped about anything since Grace Lefton invited me over to one of Rick’s selfie stations that he had set up at their house this summer. I know that it’s important to not only play well but look good when you play on Lefton so that game winning single really helped my profile.”  

 

On Field 3, it was a tough day for Team Brafman who lost in walk off fashion to Team Schwartz in game one 11-10, and then lost another tough game to Team Fogel 11-8 in the second game. In the first game it was back and forth all game as Schwartz was led on offense by Taylor “May the” Schwartz be with you and Randy “Tex” Broyles who each had 3 singles. Not to be overlooked was the hitting of Eric “Jeter” Goldstein who had a couple of knocks and got on base with a walk. The game took a turn in the top of the 4th when Sam “The Hitman” Hecht had a huge two-run single to put Brafman up by a run. In the top of the 5th Jeff “The Natural” Weisbrot then hit a two-run homer for Brafman to put them up 3 going to the bottom of the 5th. That is when Team Schwartz mounted a comeback. 

With one out Goldstein walked, Schwartz singled and Cronstein walked. After a Broyles fielder’s choice, Harry “Hood” Meisner was walked intentionally by Capt. Brafman to load the bases and set up the force out. That move backfired when Corey Schwartz smoked a game winning single up the middle scoring the go-ahead run from first. “That move showed so much disrespect for my brother. I don’t know what Brafman was thinking,” an elated Taylor said post game. “I haven’t been this excited since Leon brought me my favorite PB&J Sandwich with the crust off just how I like it when we lived together. What a great win for our team.”  “I now know how David Bell feels,” a dejected Brafman said post game. “If Corey had made an out, I would have looked like Sparky Anderson. Instead he made me look like Vern Rapp.”

 

In game two on Field 3, Team Fogel, with Ken Groh subbing as pitcher, held Brafman in check to win 11-8. Fogel once again beat Brafman with death by a 1000 paper cuts approach on offense when the top of his order led by Mark Simons, Ken Groh, and Adam Knecht each had multiple hits. It was a back-and-forth game until the top of the 3rd when Fogel once again got multiple runs with singles and well-placed balls led by Eddie Gallop who capped off the inning with a single and scored on a couple of hits. Brafman showed the fighting spirit they have shown all season battling back to put the winning run at the plate, but Groh was able to snuff out the late rally. 

 

Finally, over on Field 4 Team Loon relied on great defense and crafty veteran Jamey Kurtzer to sweep the DH and move to a league best 4-1. In Game 1 vs Team Groh, the offense was led by Shorty Adams and professional hitter, Keith Kombrinck. Defensively, Fink was a vacuum at SS all day and seemed inspired to play in front of his wife and two kids.

 

In game 2 vs Team Schwartz, Mark Tenenholtz took matters into his own hands with 2 HRs (over the fence). The first was a 2-run bomb, and the second was a Grand Slam which gave Team Loon some breathing room in a 12-6 victory. Mark also added a couple of diving catches to snuff out rallies and Jamey did the rest. “I have to stick up for Big Blue Nation,” Tenenholtz said post game. “Sure, our football coaches called out Big Brother OSU on a coaches conference call for cheating, and sure our best point guard couldn’t get out of town fast enough to transfer UC, so someone has to stand up for Michigan Sports, and today that guy was ME!” 

 

With the sweep, Team Loon clinches the first half of the season with their record currently standing at 4-1.

 

See you all on Wednesday!

 

August 5 Recap

By Marc Brafman

It was another great night of softball action last night. Let’s get right to the action:

Team Fogel got back on the winning side of things evening its record to 2-2.  Mike Gray was masterful hitting his spots all night and the offense was led by Jeremy Fogel, who was a home run shy of the cycle.  Subs Gary Grefer and Randy Broyles both produced in a big way and the team defense was solid.  Both father and son Gallop had huge bunts. When you think of all the great father/son combo’s in baseball history (Bonds, Griffey, Bell) the Gallop name should be right there with them.  All that work in the instructional league has paid off.  Final score was Fogel 8 Loon 4  

Meanwhile, Ken Groh got his team back on the winning side last night as well.

Team Weisser started the scoring early as Griff “Benedict Arnold” Harris had an RBI triple to make it 1-0. In the bottom of the 1st Groh, Anslinger and Ryan Baum had consecutive two-out hits to put the home team up 3-1. Gig and Mark Franklin started off the 2nd with hits and Swadner, Soltesz, Stansbury and Sam Castellini all drove in runs to up the lead to 7-2. Baum 3-3 Kahn 2-2 and Depiano 2-3 all scored in the 3rd as the lead swelled to 10-2 after 3 innings. Both teams scored solo runs the rest of the way as Tyler Stansbury came in to close the game out in the 7th for the 13-6 win. Coach Groh was pleased as 8 players had multiple hits and 9 guys drove in runs. Swadner, Stansbury and Kahn led the defense as Soltesz and Baum paced the offense.   

Finally, on Field 4 Team Lefton laid the wood to Team Brafman 14-1. If there was ever a softball game with a score of 14-1 that wasn’t even that close it was last night. Lefton scored all those runs without the benefit of more than 1 extra base hit. Using the old Wee Willy Keeler line of “hitting them where they ain’t, Lefton was paced by rookie leadoff man Jacob Zeidenstein, sub Taylor “May the” Schwartz be with you and pretty much the rest of their lineup who hit the ball to all fields. “We had our hitting shoes on tonight,” Lefton said post game. “We showed patience at the plate and really put good ‘wood’ on the ball all night. When your entire team hits the ball it makes it easy to pitch.” Jimmy kept the normally potent Team Brafman offense in check all night as he cruised through the game with very few hard-hit balls. “I could have caught Jimmy in a rocking chair,” Rick Lefton commented. “Whatever sign I put down he hit his spots and it was an easy night for me.” “Sometimes you just have to tip your cap to the other team,” dejected and frustrated Brafman said post game. “We will come back on Sunday and get back at it.” Team Brafman did make a couple of nice plays in the field with “The Hitman” Sam Hecht and Zach “The Wild Horse” Zakem making nice plays at 2nd and Jacob “Hallelujah” Buckley continuing his gold glove work at 3rd. Lefton improves to 2-2 on the season while Brafman falls to 2-2.

League Notes:

Not only did Jeremy “Hamilton” Fogel almost hit for the cycle but Brooke Fogel is now doing modeling here in town. I couldn’t be prouder of my kids Sparky said post game.

Leave it to Mr. Selfie, Rick Lefton, to already find his cutout picture down at GABP. “When I heard about this, I knew it was for me,” Lefton said. “I have what 8-9 kids at home (I lose count) and combined none of them take as many selfies as I do, so it was only natural that I put my mug on one of the seats.” 

Ken Groh is taking his life into his own hands this weekend by venturing up to Columbus to help with Jason “The Mad Hungarian” Faust and his recovery efforts. “I’ve been told that Jason needs daily sponge baths and I’m only too happy to provide the loving care and touch that he will need.” (All kidding aside, it’s a great thing that Ken is doing and Jason is on the mend and getting stronger every day)

The future of the league is in good hands as Ryan “The Hebrew Hammer” Baum and Bryce Anslinger joined the long list of dads in the league that are coaching their sons in little league. Let’s hope that in 15 years we are all still playing to see the next wave of sons and dads playing together 

This week I caught up with Aaron “Straight Outta” Compton to check in and see what he has been up to. Since last season Aaron had knee surgery on his other knee and is feeling good. He’s been spending time with his family and misses being out on the field. Hopefully we’ll see Aaron back on the diamond next season.

You know you have a good brother-in-law (Sam Hecht) when he texts you on Monday to inform you that Summer Slam 1992 was on Fox Sports 1. Who doesn’t want to re-watch the Ultimate Warrior take on Randy Savage? 

In this week’s installment of What has Roger Learned since he isn’t playing softball and keeping with the wrestling theme-Being the huge WW(E)F wrestling fan that I am, I found it interesting that Angelo Poffo the father of both Randy” Macho Man Savage and “The Genius” Leapin’ Lanny Poffo once held the sit up record.  In 1945, [1] He completed 6,033 sit-ups in four hours and ten minutes. According to his son Lanny, after 6,000 sit-ups he did 33 more, one for each year of Jesus Christ‘s life. “I wish the WWE Would do a three-headed bobblehead to showcase these amazing athletes,” Roger said. (FYI…I do have a couple of Jesus bobble heads if anyone is interested) 

Finally, I think we ALL owe a big JCC softball tip of the cap to the Commish Rick Tenenholtz for all the hard work he’s put into this crazy season. If all goes well, we will soon finish the first half of the season safely and with minimal interruption and it’s in no small part to his leadership. 

See everyone bright and early on Sunday. Stay safe!