Category: Game Results

On a picture perfect Wednesday night, the latest season of JCC kicked off at Triple Creek Park. Let’s get right to the action.

On Field one we had the “Battle of the New Baby Captains,” Team Wes vs. Team AJ

AJ for the winners:

A great start to the season for Team Orange as we beat Team Wolf 16-8 on Field 1. The
game started out very shaky with errors all over the field on both sides. That resulted in
a Team Wolf 7-3 lead after two innings. Once the rust got shaken off, we slowly chipped
away, capped with a Harry Meisner JCC inside the park home run, and hits from every
single person on the team.
Then in the sixth inning we scored seven runs on hits from Eric Zied, Todd Wasserman,
Michael Heldman, me, Ian Segall, Tyler Stansbury, and Mike Gray. After the big inning
we were able to close out the win on defense, again with contributions from every single
person on the team.

On Field two it was Team Ken vs. Team Marc Simons

Roger for the winners:

TEAM GROH…… 10

TEAM SIMONS…. 5

reported by ROGER ROSENTHAL

TEAM GROH fell behind 3-0 in the top of the first inning, but rebounded in a BIG way, by plating six runs in the bottom of the frame and never looked back.

“I knew we were OK at the beginning of the game, I have a lot of confidence in our hitting and defense and we settled down,” team captain KEN GROH stated in the winner’s clubhouse after the game.

Everyone got involved in the offense except for DAVID SNYDER, who knew what he was talking about when he said, “I’m hitting like ROGER (ROSENTHAL).”

STAT CORNER…..

Super-sub DAVID WERTHEIM, on loan from TEAM FOGEL, led the offense with two hits including a homerun. Interesting that he hit a home run as he was talking about it before the game……ADAM “COMMISH” CRONSTEIN  had three hits , two runs scored and two rbi’s…..RYAN “ADAM” BAUM had two rbi’s….NICK OBRIEN had a run scored and one rbi…..GROH had a run scored and one rbi and a walk…..BRYCE ANSLINGER had two hits and one run scored and one rbi….CHRIS KUNKEL (NO RELATION TO FORMER XAVIER BASKETBALL STAR, ADAM) had one rbi and one run scored….SAM KLINKOWITZ had one hit…..and finally, after boasting how great a hitter he is, had one run scored and one rbi…..

It should be pointed out that GROH was at his best on the mound and was in control the whole game……

QUOTE OF THE SEASON (so far)……..

“You walk as slow as you run,” JACK COHEN said of ROGER ROSENTHAL……

It should be noted that STU WEINSTEIN (suspended) and ROGER ROSENTHAL (injury), both were in attendance and should be back to playing next week…..

DEFENSIVE PLAY OF THE GAME……CAM KIRZNER made two sparkling plays at shortstop in the same inning, the second turned into a double play when he fielded the ball behind the second base bag, stepped on the base and threw to first base to complete the double play…….it was a good enough play that even ROSENTHAL, a BIG Xavier fan applauded the University of Cincinnati super fan KIRZNER……HOW ABOUT THAT?

QUOTES AND MORE QUOTES……

“It’s only one game, but I like the makeup of this team,” GROH said. “We’ve got hitting and defense and of course pitching plus experience (WEINSTEIN and ROSENTHAL) have played a combined 411 years!

Next week….TEAM GROH plalys TEAM KRANTZ with the game being aired on TNT with CHARLES BARKLEY and STEVE ZAWATSKY doing the game and TEAM SIMONS clashes with TEAM GOLDHOFF with the game airing on TBS with BOB COSTAS and GARY ASKIN doing the game…..

UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN…….

On Field 3 it was Team Ryan in his return as a captain vs. Team Krantz

Ryan for the winners:

Team Silverman beat Team Krantz 14-4 in 5 innings on Field 3.  The victory for the home team was a complete team effort with every single player contributing with their bat and/or their glove.  Behind the strong pitching of Corey Norris and clean defense all the way around, the team consistently had runners on base with most of the team having at least two base hits.  A special thanks to subs Jeremy Fogel and Scott Friend who both had great games at the plate.  Congratulations to rookie Brian Sugerman on the birth of his first child 10 days ago, who celebrated in grand style by launching a triple to left field.    

Finally on Field 4 it was Team Marc Brafman vs. Team Stu

Stu for the winners:

Kade “Drivin in my” Carlyle drove in five runs on three hits to lead Team Solomon past Team Brafman 15-5 on Wednesday at field 4. Carlyle hit a grand slam in the fifth inning, scoring four runs, and singled in the second inning, scoring one.

Team Solomon got on the board in the top of the first inning after Stuart “Little” Solomon doubled, scoring two runs, and Jimmy “Neutron” Lefton singled, scoring one run.

Team Solomon extended their early lead with three runs in the top of the second thanks to RBI singles by Carlyle and James “Quit Looking at Me” Swan.

Team Solomon added two more runs in the top of the third inning on three hits. Alex “Sauer” Kraus hit a solo home run, and Zach ‘Albert” Michelson (Albert Michelson was an astrophysicist who helped us measure the speed of light)  doubled, scoring one run.

Team Solomon added five more runs in the top of the fifth inning on six hits. Carlyle hit a grand slam into the trees, and Scott ” #1 medical Professional on our Team” Raskin doubled, scoring one run.

Team Solomon accumulated 20 hits in the game. Carlyle, Solomon, and Michelson each collected three hits for Team Solomon. Kraus, Adam “Mr. Ale 8” Heldman, Raskin, and Lefton each collected multiple hits for Team Solomon

Capt. Brafman would like to congratulate rookies Spencer “Flat and” Scruggs and Ethan Zinn on their first hits in the JCC league. Lots more to come..

League notes

I’ve been pretty hard on the Reds drafts over the years since for about 20 years they mostly stunk. But you have to give them credit for Elly, Sal Stewart, Chase Burns and Lowder. Of course constantly picking in the top 10 has a lot to do with that but at least none of them seem to be like Mr. Tin Nick Senzel..

I will mention it again but is there anything dumber than NFL draft talk? 

It was great to get out and play last night wasnt it? Watching Jacob play so many games I was itching to get out there. 

If Howie has played every year since he was 16 his first year in the league would have been 1964. Think about that for a second..Amazing that he is still out here playing we can all be so lucky.

While keeping my scorebook last night Joel Buckley mentioned that he likes to keep steals as a stat. I informed him that he is many steals away from Scott “Hungry Like a” Wolf the self proclaimed JCC steals leader. And who are we to dispute that fact?

I walked past a recent UC basketball recruit who is 7-3. I’m pretty sure I came up to his hip (maybe).

I know grass is hard to come by in Clifton but it amuses me to know end that UC students bring blankets and towels to Nippert and sun tan on the field. If this is a tradition I am just finding it out but nothing compares to the great first snow of the year tradition of drawing a giant penis on the field in snow each year. I laugh every year like I’m Jacob’s age. 

I read today that the new Spaceballs movie is coming out next year. I hope it’s as good as the first one. More amazing is that Mel Brooks who is 100 wrote it and is going to be in it. 

Finally in “What is Roger Selling this Week.” He has a lot of Travis Steele XU gear for sale. For 4 years he couldn’t give it away…now it’s his best seller.. He’s hoping that all the Miami fans buy it up. And if anyone wants some Butch Jones game programs autographed I found a bunch of them.

I’ll do better next week.

Marc

A big shout out to Brad Wagner for his help with the recap of the ASG which was two Sundays ago. Sorry for the delay in getting it out to all of you:

Brad, take it away:

JCC All-Star Game Recap – September 28th at Grooms Field

Under perfect fall skies, Team Wagner defeated Team Grefer 17–8 in this year’s JCC All-Star Game.

Jimmy Lefton took the mound for Team Wagner and battled through a challenging first inning as Team Grefer jumped out to an early lead. Team Wagner’s offense came alive in the middle innings—plating two runs in the third and exploding for nine runs in the fourth to seize control of the game.

Stu Solomon entered in relief and delivered four outstanding innings, allowing just one run and helping secure the victory.

Leading Hitters for Team Wagner:

• Zach Mayer: 3 hits
• AJ Goldhoff: 3 hits
• Joel Fogel: 3 hits
• Ken Groh: 3 hits

Defensive Standouts:
David Wertheim, Jeremy Fogel, Brad Wagner, and Matt Brodoff each made key plays in the field that kept Team Grefer’s offense in check.

Co-MVPs:
AJ Goldhoff and Stu Solomon

Attendance was strong, with the ticket booth noting it was the most well-attended All-Star Game in many years.

A big thank-you to all players, fans, and families who made the evening such a success. We look forward to celebrating together at the upcoming banquet!

League notes:

A lot of birthdays since the end of the season

Evan Gildenblatt

Nick DePiano

“the Special One” Mike Rothstein

Brandon LeBeau 

Brad Wagner

Zach Mayer

Bryce Anslinger

Speaking of Bryce big props to him for rooting on the Redlegs from Milwaukee last weekend. I did not plan ahead and missed the boat on that. 

As for the Reds, I know the Dodgers are the Dodgers and it would have been tough sledding no matter what but man I just can’t figure out why we did what we did with the pitching staff. If Nick Lodolo was good enough to pitch two+ innings in game two, why did he not start or at the very least come in for the 4th inning on Wednesday night. Tito made some really bad moves both on Sunday vs. the Brewers and in game 2 vs. the Dodgers. Would it have mattered? Who knows, but I don’t think he gave us the best chance to win and that is surprising. 

I have nothing to add about the Bengals other than it’s like watching the Lost Decade all over again. 

If any of you guys come down for a UC game let me know. An open invite to our tailgate. Cam, AJ, Brad and Corey Norris have all come by to say hi. Just let me know before hand and I’ll send you the map to where it is. We aren’t OSU but UC is having a nice season thus far, so I hope to see ya at a game.

Reminder the Oy Vey 5K is coming up the week of the Bungles bye week. Please sign up.

We will announce the date and time of the banquet soon so keep your eyes open.

Finally, join us for a special event, a behind-the-scenes look at the Israeli Olympic Baseball team, Israel Swings for Gold, at UC on Friday, October 24.

The event will take place at 7:30 PM in Lindner Center Room 450 and will include the following:

7:30 PM: Shabbat candle lighting (pending approval for real candles; otherwise, we’ll use fake tea lights)

7:45 PM: Film screening (approximately 78 minutes)

Following the film: Q&A with Nate Fish, CEO of Israel Baseball Americas and Israel National Team Manager, and potentially Kevin Youkilis.

Marc

On a sun-splashed Sunday morning Team Solomon took on Team Brafman on Field 2 for a chance to face Ken Groh in the finals.

Unfortunately for me, Captain Stu for the winners:

Team Solomon made JCC Softball history Sunday on Field 2 when we defeated Team Brafman 18-8, advancing to our second championship game of the season.

The winning recipe has been simple for us this year: score early and often. We led off the top of the first inning with five straight hits and runs, capped by an inside the park homer from Dan “Marino” McGrath. Team Brafman returned the favor with 3 runs in the bottom half and 1 in the second before we jumped on Jimmy “Garoppolo” Lefton again with 4 runs to open the third. Stu “King” Solomon showed off his speed around the basepaths on a fourth inning JCC home run, and Will “Keon” Coleman brought in 2 insurance runs on a big fifth inning triple. Matt “Stafford” Brodof, Jeremy “Duck Duck” Dock and Alex “Sauer” Kraus added three hits each in the wire-to-wire win.

Shoutout to Brafman’s Corey “Flying Squirrel” Myers for going full extension in foul territory beyond the left field fence line to come down with an unbelievable diving catch despite being ruled out of play. Captain Brafman would add “this was the single best catch I have seen in my 8+ years in the league, even if it didn’t count.” 

Team Solomon returns to Field 2 on Wednesday at 6pm to meet Groh in the postseason title game.

I’d like to thank my team for a great season. Coming off an 0-16 regular season last year it was great to play and win a lot of games this year. Kudos to Jimmy Lefton for coming back strong from surgery last year to both pitch and finally hit like we know he can. Also good luck to Stu and Kenny this Wednesday.

So there you have it guys. It’s down to Capt. Groh vs. Capt. Solomon for the Youk award on Wednesday night. If you want to come out and watch, please remember it starts at 6:00.

Brief league notes

Happy birthday to:

JCC legend Jeff Cohen

Super-mom Barb Fogel

David “Slim Shady” Wertheim did some research on my claim that OSU had not been #1 in the country in a long time. They have been ranked #1 in the CFP rankings BUT not #1 in the AP poll until last week. So we were both right. Also it’s a shame that colleges charge all of us money to watch OSU play Grambling and Bama play La-Monroe. 

A crazy thing happened yesterday (Sunday) at about 3:45. I was at the Reds game while listening to the Bengals game. When Elly made his 25 E in the top of the 9th and the Bengals went 3 and out again with 2+ minutes to go. I thought I was going to A) see the Reds blow it in the 9th and B) the Bengals lose on a last second FG. Instead you guys know what happened and both teams pulled out the W in a very non-Cincy-Sports-fan way. Do I care that the Bengals played terribly or were “lucky” to win? Nope, not for one second. No such thing as style points in the NFL. And while the Reds are hanging on by a thread, at least we know that Hunter Green is an ace.

Hope to see everyone on Wednesday night at 6PM. 

A picture perfect Wednesday night at TCP last night saw three games being played and the action was hot. But first, a little house cleaning. 

Let’s go back a couple of weeks as Team AJ won the regular season title two weeks ago. Here’s AJ’s recap:

An amazing night at Triple Creek created a great atmosphere for the Goons to walk off Team Solomon 11-10 to win the Regular Season Championship Game.

We jumped on them early with 5 runs in the first off the back of a Griffin Harris triple and a Super Sub Pat Feldman inside-the-parker. We stretched our lead to 8-3 in the 2^nd after a Griffin inside-the-park homer. From there Team Solomon chipped away and got good performances from Camden Kirzner, Dan McGrath, Alex Kraus and many others to come back and take the lead against us 10-8 in the top of the 7^th. In the bottom half of the 7^th I got on, Adam Cronstein brought me in, Jamey Drennan brought him in and we went to the 8^th.

After a couple hits, we got quite a scare when Brandon Lindsay hit an absolute rocket to left center, but Griffin was able to track it and made an incredible catch in order to end the inning with no blood. In the bottom half, Ryan Small got on and the wiley veteran Dee Harris hit one out to right field and Ryan De La Cruz came all the way around to score and end it.

Just another incredible team effort with everyone finding a way to contribute as they have all season.

 Way to go team Goldhoff on winning the regular season title

Now onto last night:

First on Field 1 it was Team Groh taking on Team Simons for a trip to the title game for the Youk Award:

Ken with a recap of both last week and last night:

Groh 8 Grefer 4

Grefer scored 4 in the top of the 1st but Tyler Stansbury led off the bottom of the inning with a home run over the center field fence. Bryce Anslinger drove in 2 with the bases loaded to cut the lead to 4-3 after 1. Jon Ruben, Mathew Kraus, Tyler, Sam Castellini, Jack Cohen, Pete Soltesz and Ken Groh all hit singles and Chris Von Holle had a SF to plate 5 runs in the 2nd to take a 8-4 lead. Mike Gray scattered 2 hits over the final 4 innings but Grefer also didn’t score so Groh advanced.

Groh 25 – Simons 23

Groh thought he was a good pitcher this season until Team Simons was just ripping the ball in this semifinal game. Mike Askin and Mr. GOLD himself, Jeff Weisbrot, I believe each went 5-5. I believe Marc Simons, Scott Friend and Mark Weisser all had 3 hits as well. They batted around in the 1st inning going up 6-0. In the bottom of the 1st, Tyler Stansbury singled, Jack Cohen tripled and Pete Soltesz launched a 2-run homer over the RCF wall to cut the lead to 6-3. Simons went up 9-3 but Bryce Anslingervhomered over the fence and Danny Meisterman hit a 3-run homerun with his line drive down the left field line to cut the lead to 2. In the 3rd, Groh scored 5 with a Soltesz double, Anslinger single, Ruben double and David Solomon single. After Simons went up 16-14 team Groh scored 9 runs in the bottom of the 5th. Simons made it interesting getting the tying batter to the plate who hit it to the DPOY Jack Cohen to end the game.

On Field 3 it was Team Solomon vs. Team Wolf for a trip to the semifinals of the post season:

Stu for the winners:

After nearly two hours of action on Field 3, Team Solomon continued its second half surge with a 15-8 win over Team Wolf to advance to the semifinals.

Stu’s Blues took an early 4-0 lead as the visitors before Weston’s Washed Denims tied it up in the bottom of the second inning. We responded with 3 runs in the third and 6 in the fourth to really put the game out of reach.

Big hits from Matt “Bloody Hell” Brodof, Dan “Tim” McGrath and “Buffalo Ben” Charlton jumpstarted the offense, but nobody had a bigger day than Cam “Mr Boombastic” Kirzner. He was 4-4 with a walk, three runs and his first career homer over the fence. Award-winning reggae musician Shaggy had this to say on Cam’s performance: “Fantastic.”

Team Solomon looks to keep its momentum rolling against Team Brafman to clinch its second championship berth of the season.

And finally on Field sun it was Team Fogel vs. Team Brafman for a trip to the semi finals 

Marc for the winners

In a back and forth game Team Brafman scored 8 runs in the bottom of the 6th to pull ahead and win 19-11. For the first time all year Team Brafman had all 12 guys and everyone contributed in one way shape or form. Mike “The Special One” Rothstein, Jimmy and Ricky Lefton, Zach Mayer, Gary “The Coach” Fisher, Corey Meyers, Mike Margolis and Capt Brafman all had multiple hits. The big blow of the game was a 3-run homer by Rabbi Yitz that really broke the game open. Jeff “Oscar Meyer” Wiener, Harry “Hood” Meisner and Zach “The Wild Horse” Zackem also played well in the field to help Team Brafman advance.

“I love team softball and tonight was a perfect example of that,” Brafman said post game. “All 12 guys came to play and each of us continued for the W.”

For team Fogel Jeremy crushed a two-run homer while Landon Kranz, Ryan “The Hebrew Hammer” Braun and Jamey Kurtzer all had multiple hits in a losing effort. A great game by both teams.

Team Brafman looks to continue their hot streak vs Team Stu on Sunday with the winner playing Team Groh next week

League notes

Believe it or not, I didn’t see a single birthday for this week but if I missed you happy birthday, BUT…

Roger did celebrate his wedding anniversary over the last couple of weeks. Shockingly he didn’t have his XU hat on in any pictures

After the game I was talking to Howie and Mark Weisser and they both commented on how lucky they felt to still be in good enough shape to play and that no matter how sore they are it’s still fun. Considering how sore I am, and I play RF and got on base twice last night, the fact that they pitch and do it well is a testament to them. 

Once again the Oy Vey 5K is coming up the first week of November. Please sign up and support the JCC, the Blue Jays and all of the sports programs.

This week in the Reds is pretty much summed up this way. Last night they scored nine runs for the second game in a row at home and lost. That is the first time that has happened since the early days of the Big Red Machine. Until this team actually wants to win, I don’t know why I care so much. But I do and will continue to. “Playing for the future that never comes.” That should be the Reds slogan moving forward

A number of you asked how my trip to KC was last week. First, if you have never been to the Negro League museum, I would suggest you go. An amazing amount of history and somehow Getty Lee (from the band Rush) has autograph balls signed by hundreds of former players. It really is hard to believe that the Reds didn’t have a black player until 1954! Special bonus points if you can name him. Arrowhead is as big and loud as you would expect. With 72,000 Nebraska fans cheering, it was the loudest stadium I have ever been to. I can see why the Chiefs are so good at home.

As David “Slim Shady” Wertheim pointed out to me last night, it is tough to root for the #22 team in the country in Alabama when OSU is #1. God that makes me sick to my stomach to type, but it’s the fact as of now. But this is an amazing stat. This week is the first time that OSU has been ranked #1 in the country in the regular season since 2015! Crazy! Who would have thought that?

Finally, Roger is posting XU bobbleheads. How much would XU fans pay for a Sean Miller bobblehead? $2-3 bucks? 

Just a reminder Team Stu Vs. Team Marc B on Sunday for a chance to play Team Groh next Wednesday for the Youk Award

Marc