Category: Game Results

With apologies for the late posting, here is the short version from Sunday’s games.

On Field 1 we had Team Fogel vs. Team Wolf Machine

Scott with the update for the winners:

Without team Captain, Wes Wolf, the team turned to Matt “The Bobcat” Brodof to get them through another win. He did just that as we won 6-4. Team Wolf used the outstanding pitching of Mike Gray combined with the tremendous outfield play of Pete “the Straw that Stirs the Drink” Soltesz, Mike Askin and Rabbi Yitz to hold off Fogel for the win. Team Wolf goes for the perfect season this Wed. vs. Team Wagner.

And Roger for Team Fogel

In what turned out to be a pitcher’s duel, TEAM WOLF, with captain WES WOLF, vacationing in the Alps?…..isn’t that the saying?………prevailed over TEAM FOGEL, 6-4.

JEREMY FOGEL, who played a solid LCF again, came in for relief duty on the mound and shut the door, however the offense just couldn’t sustain anything.

“I’m ordering extra batting practice this week heading into the final week of the season and the playoffs. We, me included, just can’t seem to buy a hit,” FOGEL said afterwards. “We’ve got to break out of it soon or it’ll be 1-2-3 you’re out of the tournament.”

Rookie shortstop BRANDON WRONKER, a graduate of the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, suggested that DAWN STALEY, coach of women’s basketball team, give the team a pep talk before the next game. That would rattle you!

Kudos go out to FOGEL for his great play in the outfield and his relief pitching…..who knows, he might be in the pitchers round next season?

TID BITS……

*ANDY GOLLIN is back from being off two games…..the reason?…..He was in Madison, Wisconsin checking out his alma mater, the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN football summer program……ON WISCONSIN!!!!!!!

On Field 2 we had Team Lefton vs. Team Stu

Team Lefton won 13-11.

On Field 3 it was Team Wagner vs. Team Zawatsky

Brad for the winners

Team Wagner beat Team Zawatsky 24-14 in a 6-inning affair on Sunday morning.  Big shout out to Benji Kotzin, who was subbing in place of Josh Rosen. He took a pitch in his second at bat over the fence in center field.  Other offensive contributions came from Ian Conwell, Cam Kirzner, AJ Goldhoff, Matt Grindle, Norm Frankel, and Jerry Kirzner.  Team Zawatsky wouldn’t go away and had some big hits from Mike Rothstein, Eli Zawatsky, and Joey Mattis. 

Team Wagner looks to take down Team Wolf on Wednesday.  That game airs on Star 64 with Don Muraco and Hercules Hernandez on the call.

Team Z faces Team Grefer on channel 6.  Otis Nixon and Willie McGee are on the call for that battle.

Finally on Field 4 it was Team Brafman vs. Team Grefer

Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley for the winning Team Brafman side

Despite some incredible defense from Team Grefer, Team Brafman was able to win 11-3 due to some timely hitting. After Team Brafman got a leadoff inside-the-park homerun from Joel Buckley, Super-sub David Solomon hit a bases clearing double while also scoring 3 times. Defensively, Alex Krause led the way with 5 catches leading to a bunch of stranded runners. Also notable for Team Brafman was Griffin Harris, who would have had an additional 3 RBIs and been one step closer to the cycle if not for the amazing catch of Jack Cohen who jumped up and took a home run away from over the fence, the first time I think anyone has seen that happen during a game.  Capt. Brafman would like to thank his team for going 3-0 in games he wasn’t at this year, proving once and for all that he is the Vern Rapp of this year’s captain group.

Another hot one out on the fields (but nothing like the action on field 2) more on that below. We are two games away from a perfect weather season and I’m going to keep bringing it up as a reverse jinx. 

Let’s head to the fields

On Field 1, we had Team Brafman vs. Team Kamrass

Micah for the winners:

Playing without ace pitcher Jeff Finkelstein, Team Kamrass was still able to cobble together a 13-11 win against Team Brafman by utilizing three pitchers. Michael Margolis served as the opener in the first inning. Dave Solomon was the long man pitching 5 innings of 2 run ball. Zach “Ricky Karcher” Mayer closed it out in the 7th.

Scott Raskin hit a three run homer and also made two great plays in the field. There were lots of stolen bases tonight, including an Elly-like heist of home by Zach Mayer.

Captain Kamrass was pleased with the performance. “This one was a lot of fun,” he said. With the bye on Sunday, Team Kamrass is glad to have Fink back on the hill for the season finale against bitter rival Team Solomon.

For Team Brafman Jamey “The Rookie” Drennan continued his ROY season with a homer. And as usual Griff hit a bases clearing triple. Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley would personally like to thank the ump for inventing rules on the fly last night. “That was a nice treat for us,” Buckley said post game.

On Field 2 we had the game of the season Team Wolf Machine vs. Team Z

Team Wolf prevailed 13-12 today in an instant classic against Team Z. Great play all around, complete with incredible defensive plays on both sides, a bunch of timely hitting, questionable fan interaction, and drama to end the game. 

We’ll pick up in the bottom of the seventh after Team Z took an 8-6 lead following a close back-and-forth game. Ty “cut-it-close” Wolf led off the inning with a double to right field and was quickly knocked in by Pete Soltesz. After an out, Bryan Goldberg hit a game-tying triple down the left-field line to tie the game. A couple batters later, Team Z turned a bang-bang double play to send the game to extra innings. 

Team Z rallied for 4 two-out runs to take a commanding lead going into the bottom of the eighth. Dan “The Stache” LaCerva led off with a huge infield single, followed by Michael Askin’s third hit of the game. Wes Wolf then hit a liner down the right field line that made it to the wall, resulting in a home run that reduced the deficit to 1. Matt Brodof was finally rewarded with a hit after smashing the ball all game. Before walking to the plate as the winning run, Pete Soltesz said to his teammates “I’m going to pull it, and I’m going to pull it hard”, and he did just that, crushing a home run over the fence in left-center field to walk off the game. 

Credit goes to both teams in one of the best games of the season. A huge thank you to Mark Weisser for a gutsy pitching performance – the Wolf boys always love playing behind you!  (League notes ads this was a fun game to watch with cheering family members, good coaching and general good play from both teams)

On Field 3 it was team Fogel vs. Team Wagner

Brad for the winners:

Team Wagner took down Team Fogel 18-4 on Wednesday.  Wagner scored three in the first and held Fogel to a single tally, then scored five in the second inning before closing it out with nine runs over the last two innings.  Howie Schwartz was dominant on the hill, with a couple of strikeouts and strong defensive plays.  Cam Kirzner made a great catch going into centerfield to grab a pop-out in the fifth inning.  Chris Kunkel, Matt Grindle, and John Spears made solid plays defensively, while Wagner, Super Sub JZ, and Norm Frankel brought out the big sticks at the plate.  Wagner takes on Zawatsky on Sunday.  Fogel takes on Wolf.

And Roger for Team Fogel

Another game….another loss……

After two tough losses, TEAM FOGEL was never in the game as TEAM WAGNER jumped out early and breezed to the victory……

Kudos go out to BRANDON WRONKER, who went 3 for 3, but hits were far and few for the rest of the team……

Team captain, JEREMY FOGEL, one of the best defensive outfielders in the league had to pitch as both pitchers on the team were out….COREY NORRIS, with an injury and DAN 

“DANNY” GREEN missed for personal reasons……he was back home in Philadelphia participating in a cheesesteak eating contest.

Kudos go out to TEAM WAGNER shortstop, CAM KIRZNER, a huge UC men’s basketball fan, who after striking out earlier in the game and getting razzed by ROGER ROSENTHAL, a huge XAVIER UNIVERSITY men’s basketball fan, made a Top Ten Play Of The Year play at shortstop when he made an almost impossible catch in shallow left center field.

ROSENTHAL said after the play, “I can’t believe I’m complementing a UC fan, but that was one hell of a catch. Elly de la Cruz would have been impressed!”

TEAM FOGEL’s locker room was closed off to the media once again, but there was a lot of yelling going on in there. It is believed that there were some words said to certain players and that a near fight broke out, but JOEL “SPARKY” FOGEL, father of JEREMY, calmed things down and said, “NO desserts for you guys for a week!”

TEAM FOGEL will try to break a three game losing streak this coming Sunday when they take on undefeated TEAM WOLF.

Finally on Field 4 a real pitchers duel between Team Grefer and Team Lefton 

Jimmy for the winners:

From the “you never know” episode of JCC softball. Team Lefton came back from six runs down in the bottom of the 7th to win against Grefer 22-21.

There were many offensive stars for Team Lefton but none as big as the three “Loony tune clan” Anton, Matt and Peter each went yard. “Not since the Alou brothers have three family members on one team done so well,” Jimmy said post game. Jamie Kurtzer was the game ball winner for perserving through an offensive explosion from Grefer. Jamie also drove in the winning runs with two outs in the bottom of the 7th with a line drive over the CF head.

League notes:

Happy birthday goes out Brandon “gray” Wolf, former player  and league sponsor Billy “Wrath of” Kahn and current player Oren Shmoel.

I forgot to mention this last week but a HUGE congrats to Matt Miller for being promoted to chief of staff of UC basketball. 

Former JCC all star and now one of the most buff jewish guys you’ll ever meet Jeff Cohen a happy anniversary 

Kevin Youkilis has a new coffee to go with Loma beer. Congrats Youk.

Jason Esterkamp became the next liar in our league saying how much he misses his kids while they are away at camp. How come all of the pictures of you empty nesters for the summer say we miss our kids while also on vacation on the beach somewhere?

Last night during the exciting Team Z vs. Team Wolf game Brad Wagner and I were discussing Ryan “the One Man Gang” Marcus and whether he should adopt Akame the African Dream persona moving forward. If any of you know what we are talking about I feel sorry for you.

David Wertheim was on TV yesterday promoting some sort of Irish festival coming to town. Now I know there were river dance type of dancers on the show with him. I hope there is video of him dancing like that

Not to be Debbie Downer on the Reds but let’s remember they could have signed Luis Castillo to a team friendly deal and that none of the players they got for him are currently on the team. So when they trade Arroyo or Marte to some team for a pitcher nowhere close to Castillo’s skill level remember that our ownership team is still awful (Nick Krall is not) and that we could have had a rotation of the 3 young guys, Abbott and Castillo. 

Roger informed me that he can price out EDLC baseball cards for any number he wants. $5 bucks 10, 25 he said it doesn’t matter. 

See everyone on Sunday 

Another picture perfect night for softball last night. What’s more amazing, the Reds winning 11 in a row or not having a single Wednesday postponed by rain and it’s June 22?  

On Field 1, we had Team Stu vs Team Z

Stu for the winners:

It was a great day to be a sports fan in Cincinnati. All 3 of America’s teams, Reds, FCC and Team Solomon, won yesterday. What a time to be alive!

Team Solomon defeated Team Zawatsky 15-7 in a game that never felt in doubt. The team really had their hard hats on and went to work on Team Z. It was great overall defensive effort helping Stuart “MVP” Solomon to his first pitching win. Solomon was quoted after the game ” I really just tried to hit spots and keep the team off-balance.”

Stuart “Captain of the Year” Solomon went 4-5 and scored 5 times. He was robbed of an inside-the-park homer by the ball taking a fortuitous bounce over the fence in left for a ground-rule double. Tyler ” The Natural” Stansbury went 4-5 with several hard hit balls. Andrew ” Mr. 5th Round” Solomon finally showed why he was wrongly rated a 5 going 3-3. Some people are saying his captain and blood relative made a batting stance change which propelled him to make better contact. Additionally, Evan “Logan aka Kevin” Weisser had two big hits along with Oren “Best Basketball Player in the League Yes, better than Mayer” Shmoel was on base twice. Special thanks to Landon ” Everyone’s Favorite Doctor” Krantz for subbing and helping with the win.

We caught up with Commish Ryan Silverman after the game. “I knew this team had it in them. We have the talent to make some noise in the second half.”

Lastly Andrew Solomon had this to say to the ratings committee channeling his inner Kirk Cousins after his 3-3 performance “YOU LIKE THAT!”

On Field 2 we had Team Brafman vs. Team Wolf Machine

Once again Team Wolf found a way to win 11-7. With some timely hitting by Matt Brodof, Pete “The Straw that Stirs the Drink” Soltesz and Tyler “Big Bad” Wolf they did just enough to get the win. With a makeshift infield Mike Gray pitched a great game getting Team Brafman to put the ball in the air time and time again. The game-winning JCC “hit” was off the bat of Daniel “The Stache” LaCerva, which scored the two go-ahead runs for Team Wolf. 

Not to be overlooked, super-sub Jacob “JZ” Zeidenstein hit two homers over the fence, a double and made at least 3 fantastic catches in LC. Ryan “The Hebrew Hammer” Baum would like to thank all of Team Wolf for his workout in LF. At least 10 balls were hit foul or out of play last night. Ryan can now cross training for the Flying Pig off his bucket list.

On Field 3 it was Team Kamrass vs the short handed Team Fogel

Micah for the winners:

A complete team effort was turned in by Team Kamrass in a 20 – 5 victory against Team Fogel.  There was some pregame apprehension with the team missing “Captain Phillips” Micah Kamrass, “Super” James Swan, and Michael “Fear the Deer” Margolis.  But the team responded well powered by a 14-run 3^rd inning.  Everyone scored at least once in the game with Adam “Laundromat Billionaire” Heldman scoring 3 times and Zach “I’m a father now” Mayer crossing the plate 4 times.  Ace Jeff “Fink” Finkelstein turned in a beauty on a sore knee with the defense playing a super clean game in support. 

and Roger for Team Fogel

This is going to be short and to the point…..we stunk!

Not only did we lose in a one sided affair, COREY “I DON’T NEED WARM-UPS” NORRIS took a shot on his hand and had to leave the game. By then the game was in hand for TEAM KAMRASS. No report at press time on his availability for Sunday’s game.

Two notes of interest in the game:

1. The game was delayed about 15 minutes while the second base bag was being fixed. I’ve never seen that in my years in the JCC league.

2. Another oddity that I’ve never seen in the league was when I was at the plate and the ball hit me on the inside of my foot and the umpire asked me if the ball hit me. I said “yes” which it did and he said to go to first base.

In a game where captain JEREMY “THE COMET” FOGEL was vacationing in Madison, Wisconsin, home of THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN NCAA WOMEN’S 2023 HOCKEY CHAMPION, his father JOEL couldn’t get his team in the win column.

Asked afterwards if he had contacted him after the awful game, he said, “BARB (JEREMY’S mother and JOEL’S wife) was texting the entire game until he finally said, “Enough is enough.”…..it was pretty ugly.

Jeremy returns Sunday and will try to get the team back on track. Stay tuned!

TIDBITS….

*The oldtimers may remember MARK FAIREMAN…..he recently passed away…..He was always at games with a smile on his face…..one memory stands out…..it was his birthday (the same day as mine) and someone hired a stripper to attend the game……he was all smiles that game!…….

And finally on field 4

Team Wagner vs. Team Lefton

Brad for the winners:

Team Wagner took down Team Lefton 19-17 on Wednesday night.  The scoring started early and often for both teams, with Lefton scoring five runs in the top of the 1st and Wagner putting up a six-run bottom of the 1st.  Wagner doubled up in the 2nd inning and led 12-5 going into the 3rd.  Team Lefton battled back throughout the game with four combined homers by Matt Leader and Anton Loon (2-each) and solid hits from Jimmy Lefton, David Weil, and Peter Brownell.  Team Wagner stayed aggressive on the basepaths and had solid hitting contributions from Ian Conwell, Mark Franklin, Jerry Kirzner, Howie Schwartz, and AJ Goldhoff.  Cam Kirzner and Brad Wagner also contributed defensively. 

Team Wagner takes on Team Kamrass on Sunday.  The game will be aired on Fox19 with Deion Sanders and Otis Nixon on the call.

Team Lefton takes on Team Zawatsky on Sunday.  The game will be aired on PBS with Skip Bayless and Woody Paige on the call.

League Notes

Once again thanks to league sponsor Big Gig Franklin on sponsoring not only the league, but also Wing Night last night

A huge week for birthdays: Mike Margolis, Marc Brafman, Joel Buckley, Jared Kamrass and Mike Kahan

An assist to Adam Cronstein on my glaring omission on not mentioning the passing of JCC softball legend, The Iron Sheik ,last week. While everyone knows about how he became the WWF champ in 1984 (only to lose it to Hulk Hogan), what isn’t as well known is that he was a star pitcher on some great JCC teams in the early 90s. It was on the softball field that he acquired his love of trash talking which translated to Twitter where he was a fabulous follow.   Roger will now be marking up all of his WWF cards to .25 cents

I bumped into both Ryan Small and Bryce Anslinger at the Zoo LaLa fund raiser last weekend. It was great to catch up with both guys but it was a little hard to talk to Bryce since so many people kept trying to feed him leaves and other giraffe food.

Camp Wildbrook has started once again this week. I’m happy to report the camp looks the same as it did when all of us went there. 

Joel Fogel and I were both talking about how this week going to Reds games just felt different. Jacob and I went on Monday (The Votto game) while Joel went on Tuesday (The TJ Friedl game) and we both remarked how no one left, the crowd was into it from the jump and even the pizza chant wasn’t as loud as it used to be because people actually cared about the outcome and not just getting pizza. I have no idea if the Reds can keep this up but I can tell you that they sure are fun to watch.  “Where ya gonna go”?   One other note on the Reds now that they have DFA’d Wil Meyers…is there any position player that you don’t root for? Jon Spears and I were talking about this the other day. I can’t remember a Reds team where if this or that guy came to the plate you’d almost want to boo them for one reason or another. (Moose, Punisher Jr, Brandon Larson, Willie Green, Jim Edmonds come to mind)  There is no one that I feel that way about on this team. That might be the first time ever.

It was pointed out to me that currently the City of Cincinnati is on something like a 25 game winning streak if you factor in FCC and the end of the Bengals regular season and the Reds 11 game win streak. 

Roger is putting in orders for all current Reds bobbleheads. Get in line he says.

See everyone on Sunday

Marc

It was a late night for Team Wolf after they beat a stubborn Team Grefer. Here’s Wes for the victors:

Team Wolf improves to 10-0 this season in a 11-8 battle against team Grefer. Somehow these two teams always play a close game and this was no different. 

After jumping out to their trademark early lead, it was 6-1 by the end of the second inning. Team Grefer just wouldn’t go away, trading scores with team Wolf until it was 11-6 going into the bottom of the sixth. Both shortstops, David Wertheim and Wes Wolf, seemed to be exchanging highlight reel plays throughout the game. 

With two outs in the sixth, Team Grefer’s top of the order came through for two runs. After a 1-2-3 top of the seventh, the window was cracked open, but Mike Gray and the Team Wolf defense came through in the bottom of the seventh to slam it shut. This team keeps on fighting, through injuries and close games, and shows no signs of slowing up. 

After lousy weather Sunday, Ryan called in another favor and…voila!…another perfect night for softball.

 Before we get to the recaps, I know most of you know this but a sad week here at JCC softball central as friend to the league and friendly face to all who knew him, Jeff Elkus passed away over the weekend. While Jeff never played in the league, a bigger sports fan you could never find. He was a fixture at the J and events around the JCC for many years. I hope the Reds keep winning in his honor this year. 

Now onto the recaps:

On field 1, we had Team Lefton vs. Team Kamrass

Micah for the winners:

Playing with just 9 because Jordan Skinner took a ball off the face in warm ups (but stayed to cheer us on and watch with the use of just one eye), Team Kamrass came from behind to avenge its first half loss against Team Lefton by a score of 11-6. Other than a ball over the fence by super sub Josh Kotzin, Jamie silenced us through the first 5. Pedro Cerrano woke up our bats in the 6th, where we put up a 9 spot. Kamrass and Raskin started the rally, and the biggest hit was a blast from David Solomon that bounced to the fence. Ben Margolis also had a beautiful bunt hit. Fink came out with the lead in the bottom of the 6th and struck out two, and then was lights out in the 7th to put the game away. The defense was sharp across the board tonight, especially with just 9 guys. We had lefties at short and third, and they both availed themselves well. “This was step one of two on our revenge tour,” said Captain Kamrass. “We can’t wait to get Wolf in a few weeks.”

On Field 2 it was Team Zawatsky vs. Team Brafman

For the second time this year without their captain, Team Brafman run ruled a team winning 18-3 for their 3rd win in a row. A 13-run first inning highlighted by a grand slam by Jamey “The Rookie” Drennan was the big hit. Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley, Eric “the Mouth of the Midwest” Gruen and todd “the Mayor” Wasserman also contributed with multiple hits each. “Everyone on the team got hits and Eppy pitched a great game,” Dee Harris said post game. “Our defense continues to play great behind Eppy.  I think it would be better for Captain Brafman to continue to stay away from our team moving forward.”

Next week Team Brafman tries their hand vs. the Big Wolf Machine

On Field 3 it was Team Grefer vs. Team Wolf

Team Wolf won 11-8 to remain undefeated. 

Finally on Field 4 it was Team Solomon vs. Team Wagner

Brad for the winners:

Team Wagner took down Team Solomon 9-6 on Wednesday night in front of a crowd of four mothers, five babies, and two dogs.  Team Solomon jumped ahead with two runs in the top of the 1st, but Team Wagner tied it in the bottom of the 2nd and never looked back.  As our good friend Dan Hoard would say, the coffin nails for the victors came in the top of the 7th when Captain Wagner (who can’t make a good throw if his life depended on it) and Chris Kunkel hit back-to-back homers.  Wagner’s was more of a triple (his 2nd of the day) with an error.  Kunkel cleared the left-field fence.  Other big hits came from John Spears, Jerry Kirzner, and Matt Grindle.  Grindle executed a great bunt for a hit late in the game.  Defensively, Josh Rosen made an early case for the catch of the year off the bat of Harry Meisner.  Meisner crushed a Howie Schwartz pitch to the deepest part of Field 4, and Josh Rosen got to the fence in time to reach over and take the homer away from Harry.

Wagner takes on Team Lefton next Wednesday.  That game will be televised on PBS with Van Earl Wright and John McEnroe on the call.

Solomon takes on Team Zawatsky next Wednesday.  The networks are still bidding on that game, but Max Kellerman and Gene Okurland will be in the booth.

League notes

As Ryan mentioned earlier, good luck to Scott “Dire” Wolf on recovery from surgery on his broken finger. Get better soon, Scott.

Former league batting champ and all round good guy Taylor “May the” Schwartz Be with you got engaged over the weekend in Chicago. He reports that the Lincoln Park Softball league doesn’t hold a matzah ball to our league. 

Is there a more random fan/team than AJ Goldhoff rooting for the Denver Nuggets? After they won the NBA title he posted numerous pictures of him in his old Alex English, K-Mart and Kiki Vandeweghe jersey’s. Congrats on the title, AJ.

Last night at the Silver Spring House, Brad “The Human Rain Delay” Wagner surprised and impressed Jacob and me with his knowledge of random Reds who have worn the number #43 (which is Jacob’s number). This was off the top of his head, not looking it up. Our favorite was Tim “We all live in a Layana Submarine.” I honestly couldn’t tell you the numbers of most of the current Reds.

I bumped into the “Minister of Fun” Dave Cohen at the Dead and Company show at Riverbend on Tuesday night. It was great catching up. Not so great, he had just bought the new tour shirt and put it on. Note to you kids out there. Don’t be that GUY!! (Name the movie, win fab prizes)

Once again it’s Wing Night on June 21 at the Spring House. Please plan on coming

Apparently the Reds are now calling themselves “America’s Team.” I love what they are doing and how they play the game, but really…America’s Team? For beating the Cards and Royals who Team Wolf could beat? Let’s see how they do vs. Houston, Atlanta, Baltimore and San Diego the rest of the month. One more note on the Reds: I don’t think Votto coming back will hurt them at all. Move Steer to LF keep Votto hitting 6-8 in the order and also have him DH from time to time. Senzel can become the new Newman and play a few spots, send Jose “Punisher Jr.” Barrero back to Louisville and flat out release Wil Myers. I don’t want to see Wil Myers ever playing again, and I can’t stress that enough. No way should he take away at bats from Benson, or any of the young guys. Votto gets the benefit of the doubt.  Last point on the Reds. Jason Williams from the Enquirer wrote that Votto is the reason the Reds should never give out big contracts. That is wrong. The Reds can and should give out big contracts, then build a team around that big contract. They didn’t learn that lesson with Jr. and for the most part didn’t learn with Votto. I 100% blame ownership and place zero blame on the players.

Roger will be selling Las Vegas Golden Knight’s posters at the game on Wednesday. Make sure to get there early to get one.

See everyone Wednesday night.

Marc