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A great if a little muggy night at Triple Creek on Wednesday for the first round of the Post Season Tournament for the Youk Award. 

Lets get to the action.

First it was regular season Champ Team Goldhoff vs. Team Simons

AJ for the winners:

Another incredible team win as Team Orange battled back to defeat Team Simons 8-7 in eight thrilling innings.

Team Simons came out swinging, jumping to an early 3-0 lead behind timely hitting and strong defense. Team Orange began to chip away in the second inning, cutting the deficit to 3-2 with hits from Harry Meisner, Mike Gray, and Ethan Zinn, along with a sacrifice fly from Eric Zied.

After a scoreless third inning, Team Simons added two more runs to extend their lead to 5-2 after four innings. Chris Von Holle, Marc Simons, and the Bernstein boys helped power the offense. Team Orange answered with a run of its own when Todd Wasserman drove in Gray with a clutch hit.

The back-and-forth battle continued as Harry Meisner launched a massive home run in the fifth inning. Team Simons responded in style, getting a JCC home run from Ben Charlton and a fence-clearing blast from Camden Kirzner in the sixth to take a 7-4 advantage.

Facing a three-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh, Team Orange refused to quit. Hits from Michael Askin, Tyler Stansbury, Harry Meisner, Mike Gray, and Matt Miller sparked a dramatic rally that tied the game at 7-7 and sent it into extra innings.

After holding Team Simons scoreless in the top of the eighth and seeing the first two hitters retired in the bottom half, Team Orange found one final spark. I reached base on a bunt, moved into scoring position by stealing second, and then super sub Michael Askin delivered the game-winning ground-rule double to walk it off and seal the 8-7 victory.

It was one of the best games we’ve played all season. I’m incredibly proud of this team’s toughness and determination. We never stopped battling, kept coming back, and found a way to win.

We’re looking forward to facing Team Groh again next week.

Staying with this game we had Team Groh vs. Team Krantz 

Roger for Team Groh

TEAM GROH          5

TEAM KRANTZ.     4

It was about as tense a game as you’d want to see.

TEAM GROH defeated TEAM KRANTZ, 5-4, by scoring four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to come back from a 4-1 deficit.

“That was one of the more exciting games that I’ve played in,” acting TEAM GROH captain ADAM CRONSTEIN said in the winner’s locker room afterwards. “Howie (HOWARD SCHWARTZ, who was subbing) was really pitching a great game and it got a little uneasy at the end, but we found a way to win. Now we have to continue that into our next game.”

TEAM KRANTZ took an early 4-0 lead, three of them were unearned. TEAM GROH got one back to set up a dramatic sixth inning.

DAVID SNYDER started it off with a double to left field. After an out, CRONSTEIN bunted his way on and after an intentional walk to sub TAIT CUNNINGHAM to load the bases, sub DAN GREEN, wearing an off-color Philadelphia Phillies cap, hit a sacrifice fly to score SNYDER. NICK O’BRIEN singled to score CRONSTEIN and after a walk to RYAN BAUM to load the bases again, BRYCE ANSLINGER lined a single to plate the final two runs to give TEAM GROH the lead.

“I was zeroed in on something good to hit and was fortunate to get a pitch that I could hit. I love helping the team in any way,” ANSLINGER said afterwards while giving an interview to the media.

It should be noted that the ageless wonder, STU WEINSTEIN, pitched another gem of a game in giving up just one earned run and getting out of a huge jam in the top of the seventh inning when the first two hitters got base knocks. The play of the game might have been when CRONSTEIN, who was catching, yes…..made a play on a bunt to nab the runner at third base and later threw a runner out at first on a semi-botched play on a grounder to WEINSTEIN……maybe CRONSTEIN has found his new position?

Next up is a fourth meeting with TEAM GOLDHOFF…….

“It should be a great game. We know them and they know us and there’s a little bad blood brewing when we face off,” ROGER ROSENTHAL said. “They’re a great team, no doubt, but we think we’re pretty good ourselves.”

GAME TIME is 6:01 with the game aired on TBS. STEVE JARNICKI will handle the play by play and CHARLES BARKLEY will do the color.

The first 1 fan in the gates will receive an autographed ball from the winning team…….

Next we move to Team Fogel vs. Team Wolf 

Jeremy for the winners:

Going for the season sweep of Team Wolf, it was evident from the jump that it would be no easy task for Team Lox to advance to the semifinals. The first round of the tournament was filled with exhilarating games, and this one was no different. Fast forward to the bottom of the third, with Team Lox trailing 3-0 after being shut down offensively through the first two frames.

Ian Conwell was the rally starter in both big innings, helping turn the order over with runners on base. With two in scoring position and one out in the third, and already having plated a couple runs in the inning, El Capitán stepped to the dish and ripped a line drive over the right side of the infield, clearing the bases and helping Team Lox reclaim a lead that would not last long. After taking a 4-3 lead, Team Wolf answered with a four-run inning of its own. The momentum in this game did a complete 180 when two key plays were made defensively in the middle innings. One being a bases loaded force out from Wertherhammerstein to Ricky Lefton at home plate to get the first out of the inning, and then Brad Gallop unleashing his cannon from right-center field, throwing out a would-be insurance run to end the inning.

This sparked another rally by Team Lox, again starting with Ian Conwell and Mark Franklin. After Wertherhammerstein drew a walk, the bases were loaded for El Capitán. With the stage set and his pup in attendance, he launched a deep drive into right field that he thought was destined to clear the fence. However, the in-season training program has had him out of the gym, and the ball one-hopped the wall for a bases-clearing triple. The inning was not over there, as the middle of the order kept things rolling, capped by a two-out line drive up the middle from Will Coleman.

Key defensive plays kept the Wolf offense at bay in the final innings, while Team Lox tacked on a few more runs to cap off a 13-7 first-round victory.

Two more to go.

And last but not least on Field 4 it was Team Solomon vs. Team Silverman

Stu for the winners

Team Solomon pulls out a dramatic win 10-9 against Team Silverman. 

The game was a defensive gem as both teams played great in the field. Big shout out to Peter “Paul and Mary” Brownell on playing a great shortstop. It seemed like the ball was a magnet for Team Solomon batted balls. Kade “York” Carlyle made some very nice running catches in the OF. 

For the offense, which at times was offensive for both teams. Team Silverman got on the board first with a 3-run first inning. A very close pitch that should have been strike three but was called a ball extended the inning leading to a two-run double. Stuart “MVP” Solomon got the offesne started with a lead-off double in the 2nd, moving to 3rd on a single by Seth “Third Son of Adam and Eve” Berland. Stuart and Seth came around to score on two ground outs to the right side from John “Not Toxic” Spears and Scott “y too Hotty” Raskin. 

The offense stalled for the next few innings. Team Solomon was down 7-2 going into the bottom of 5 when the offense exploded for a 5-run inning. John Spears and Seth Berland started the inning with singles. After the first out, the bottom of the line up came alive with 4 straight singles from Alex “Jones” Kraus, Zach “Preppy” Michelson, Brandon “Ingram” Lindsay, and Keith “Henandez” Kombrinck. 

After giving up 2 runs in the top of 7, Team Solomon came up with the bottom of the line up at bat. Two big singles from Zach and Brandon, Keith grounded into a FC at 3rd. Adam “Pacman” Heldman drew a key walk to load the bases for “Uncle” Drew, who hit a single to score Brandon, putting Keith at 3rd and Adam at 2nd. Kade came up and hit a deeeep fly ball to LF scoring both Keith and the fleet of foot Heldman to win the game. 

So this sets up the first chalk final 4 semi finals match ups in a very long time. On Wednesday night, we will have Team AJ vs. Team Ken and Team Stu vs. Team Jeremy. Come out and enjoy the action.

LEAGUE NOTES

As Adam mentioned, a huge thank you to Gig for treating all of us to wings once again.

A belated happy birthday to Griff Harris

The Reds yesterday was like watching our games in real time. Giving a team more outs, walks, errors on the field it, a dramatic comeback that fell just short, it had it all. But you know what else it had? Two dopes playing on Field 3 in July with sunglasses on their F’in HATS and not on their eyes. A front office that leaves the manager to put in a guy who doesn’t have a hit since the All Star break (Friedl) and then when he has to hit in the bottom of the 9th, he can’t pinch hit for him because for some reason the team has 3 catchers on the roster.  We are currently giving playing time to a guy who was cut by the Rockies. I could go on and on about how the Reds are the worst hitting team in all of baseball, lead the league in runners stranded at 3rd with less than 2 outs, have the second most strike outs and have on any given day 3 or sometimes 4 guys currently under the Mendoza line. I could tell you all of that but I won’t. Oh and by the way the Reds farm system is ranked #25 so not a lot to hope for in the next couple of seasons. 

Wednesday was a pretty good night for Cincy Sports teams. Reds won, FC was home and won and the tennis tournament was going on. A lot of good pub for the city across the country that night

The Oy Vey 5K is back. Who can beat Adam? Come out and try on October 18. The Bengals are on a bye so you have no excuse. All of the money raised goes back to the JCC and the Blue Jays program. Please sign up and continue to support the J.

I did a lot of weird and dumb stuff at Alabama in ZBT, but trafficking COKE was not one of those. My favorite part of the story from Penn State is that they had the pledges cutting and bagging the drugs as part of their pledgeship. Fun times in college these days…
I’ve had to eat it since IU crushed Bama in the Rose Bowl last year but the fact that they backed out of the ND series in order to play teams like Valpo or Bellarmine is pretty weak. Then to say ND should come to Bloomington 2 times to 1 time going to South Bend is pretty funny to me. 

Let’s give it up to Joey B and the Bengals. It was nice to hear him say this after the Bengals practice with the Hammond Bears…”this is the year I’m tired of saying next year next year next year this is it! Your life is too short to keep pushing things down the road.” Good for him and maybe maybe the Bengals are starting to listen. Also hopefully Phil Castellini can get that message.

Good luck to everyone still playing next week. Marc

The better late than never blog

On field one we had Team Fogel vs. Team Grefer

Keith for Team Fogel:

Softball – Blog Game 4 Fogel Win #2 2025

Correction for last week’s Fogel Blog entry. Landon Krantz is not related to Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. I was caught in a time warp. At my age these things happen.

It looked bad for Team Fogel in the top of the first inning. Team Grefer scored 7 runs with line drive after line drive and then threw in a couple towering outfield shots. Those were courtesy of Landon Hawkins, Mike Gray, Oren Shmoel, Ryan Silverman and Jeff Finklestein, and others unnamed (Grefer’s 1st baseman) and unrecalled. Team Fogel refused to fade away and plated 4 in the bottom of the inning. There was a bunt single by Krantz, and hits by Jeremy Fogel, Nick O’Brien, Josh Rosen and Norm Frankel.

The hits kept coming from Team Grefer, but the Kurtzer defense was aided by 3 double plays and rally ending groundouts to shortstop. It was O’Brien to Krantz at 3rd, repeat, repeat. The notable double-play was 3rd baseman Krantz running full-speed into left field to make an over-the-shoulder catch and throwing across the diamond to a surprised Kombrinck at first. The doubled-up runner from 1st base was probably also surprised because he was near 2nd base at the time.

Jeremy played his usual stellar defense ranging near and far to track balls in left center. Norm at 2nd turned a double play to KK at first. Yes, 140 years. Oh, and I tagged Oren up the line at 1st base. The umpire called him safe, but I got him. Oren admitted it after the game.

Grefer’s pitcher Mike Gray was firing BBs, but the Fogel hitters were finding holes with hard grounders and not-so-hard liners over the infield. Throw in a couple of errors and Team Fogel somehow managed to plate 18. The Grefer’s only managed 4 runs after the first inning. Final 18-11.

On Field 2 Team Wagner vs. Team Stu

Stu for the winners:

Team Solomon is finally off the schnide with a big win over Team Wagner. 

Now to the game action…….

The offense was led by both the dynamic trio of Cam ” Ward” Kirzner, Dan “Crenshaw” McGrath and Matt “LeBlanc” Brodof. People forget Dan’s mom was an olympian (Barbara Weinstein – Wikipedia). The Run-CDM set the table going a combined 12-15.

Steven “Glansberg” Shapiro, Ben “Tarleton State” Charlton, and Alex “Trebek” Kraus continued the hit parade, keeping innings going and coming up with huge hits. 

Lastly, Eli “Jay” Gould (Jay Gould – Wikipedia) has been great all year batting about .800 and playing great in the field. 

On Defense, if it weren’t for “Disco Stu” Solomon losing his mind for an inning and a half as a pitcher, the score would have been much bigger. The defense picked him up though, making plays all over the place. Will “Derrick” Coleman made two great scoops at first to throw Roger “Rabbit” Rosenthal out from RCF.  

Next Week for Team Solomon is the Battle of the Stu’s as Team Solomon travels to Team Simons. 

Spiritual Leader Jeremy Dock had this to say after the game. “After three close losses, we were able to put together a complete game. Everyone hit and we played smart.”

Senior Member of Team Solomon and Former Wise Temple President, David Snyder “Pretzels” Esq. spoke to the media after the game and said, “I just keep the book.”

Field 3 saw Team Simons vs. Team Groh

Kenny for the winners:

A Pete Soltesz triple helped put Groh up 2-0 but Simons plated 5 in the bottom half to go up 5-2. In the Top of 2nd we hit around. Ruben, Wasserman, Cohen, Castellini, Stansbury and Soltesz helped us go up 8-5. Tyler, Pete, Von Holle, Groh and Ruben all singled in the 4th to build a 12-6 lead. And Ruben, Wasserman and Kraus had hits to plate 7 in the 6th to finish the game. The final score was 19-9.

And in a first for JCC softball an AI generated blog post from field 4.

Both teams put up a bunch of runs, but Goldhoff’s Goons fell to Team Wolf 15-9 at Field 4 on Wednesday. Team Wolf collected 28 hits, while Goldhoff’s Goons had 23.

AJ Goldhoff collected four hits in five at bats in the loss. Goldhoff doubled in the second inning, doubled in the first inning, singled in the sixth inning, and singled in the seventh inning.

Team Wolf jumped out to the lead in the top of the first inning after Jimmy Lefton singled, scoring one run, and James Swan doubled, scoring two runs.

Goldhoff’s Goons tied the game in the bottom of the first thanks to a single by Griffin Harris, a double by Jamey Drennan, and a single by Eric Cronstein.

Team Wolf flipped the game on its head in the top of the second, scoring six runs on nine hits to take the lead, 9-2. The biggest blow in the inning was a single by Adam Heldman that drove in two.

Lefton earned the win for Team Wolf. The starting pitcher allowed 23 hits and 11 runs over seven innings, striking out one and walking none. Drennan took the loss for Goldhoff’s Goons. The hurler went seven innings, surrendering 14 runs on 28 hits, striking out none and walking none.

Goldhoff’s Goons piled up 23 hits in the game. Adam Cronstein led Goldhoff’s Goons with three runs batted in. The right fielder went 3-for-5 on the day. Ryan Small, Michael Heldman, Ian Segall, Sam Klinkowitz, Harris, Drennan, and Cronstein each collected multiple hits for Goldhoff’s Goons. Goldhoff’s Goons were sure-handed and didn’t commit a single error. Harris made the most plays with seven.

Team Wolf collected 28 hits in the game. Heldman and Lefton each collected four hits for Team Wolf. Zach Mayer led Team Wolf with three runs batted in. Mayer went 3-for-5 on the day. Tyler Wolf, Swann, Pat Feldman, Jeff Wolf, Scott Adams, Andy Beck, and Mark Franklin each collected multiple hits for Team Wolf. Heldman stole two bases. Team Wolf stole four bases in the game.

Goldhoff’s Goons play at home on Wednesday against Team Barfing Brafman in their next game.

League Notes

Congrats to Cam Kirzner who graduated from UC last week

Congrats to all parents who had kids graduate either college or high school last week

Another congrats to Scott Wolf whose daughter got married a few weeks ago

And Scott Friend’s sister, I believe, is now the principal of one of the Sycamore Elementary schools.

I have little to say about the Reds other than it’s a long season already and we aren’t even to May 15. I can’t believe Tito came back for this.

I have heard that Roger has a new Pope bobblehead in White Sox gear eating a hotdog from the Wiener Circle. It’s a hot seller.

See everyone next week

Mother Nature said, “Hey I’ll let you guys play tonight, just don’t ask for the sun.” As it turned out we didn’t need it and a perfect night for softball was had by all. Let’s get to the recaps.

On Field 1 it was Team Wolf vs. Team Fogel 

I know Team Wolf won 6-3 in what was a pitchers duel. Team Wolf has still not lost a regular season game in over a year..

On Field 2, Team Solomon took on Team Tenenholtz 

Rick For the Winners:

On Field 2, it was undefeated Team Solomon hosting Team Tenenholtz. The home team got off to a quick start with hot bats and slick defense. Pitcher Ken Groh kept the hitters off balance as the visitors’ first two batters made outs in each of the first three innings. Thanks to great defense by David “Duke” Snyder (yes, the nickname needs to be paired with the last name, not the first) and AJ Goldhoff, Team Solomon led 4-1 after 3 innings. Things looked bad for the visitors when catcher Mike Rothstein was inadvertently hit by Ken Groh’s bat on the follow through, but Rothstein toughed it out and shined the rest of the game.

The visitors finally started to hit in the 4^th as they scored 4 runs in both the 4^th and 5^th innings and added 3 more in the 6^th thanks to 3-hit nights by Sam Castellini, Tait Cunningham, Mike Rothstein and Hall of Famer, Howard Schwartz. Howie was masterful keeping the home team’s bats mostly quiet in the late innings and Team Tenenholtz went on to a 14-8 victory. Defensive kudos go to Zach Michelson, who has completed his second week at Camp Rothstein, Tait Cunningham, Bryce Anslinger and Brian Goldberg.

Field 3 had a classic battle of veteran pitchers as Team Brafman took on Team Harris

Roger for the winners:  

TEAM HARRIS 14

TEAM BRAFMAN 7

After a rough top of the first inning that produced five errors, but only two runs, TEAM HARRIS took control of the game and never looked back.

Once again, veteran pitcher MARK WEISSER pitched a stellar game and if not for the many miscues by the defense, would have given up a lot fewer runs.

“I know they’re trying their best behind me. It’s our second game of the year and I know we’ll tighten the screws on defense. I like this team,” WEISSER said postgame.

Hitting stars were aplenty as rookie DAN BERNSTEIN got his swing together after a rough start to the season with a BIG fly . “I know what I can do at the plate and once I know the league better watch out,” he said afterward.

RYAN MARCUS, after missing the first game, showed why he’s very dangerous at the plate as he smacked a dinger in the bottom of the first inning to set the tone for the rest of the game. He was also walked twice intentionally with runners on base, a tribute to his hitting prowess.

The Moeller High School graduate said, “If they want to walk me, fine. I have confidence in my teammates to make them pay.”

Other hitting stars were the HARRIS BOYS. Captain GRIFF got on base three times with base knocks and father DEE had two hits and was robbed of a third. RYAN “ATOM” BAUM plated runs with hits and it should be noted he has lost 40 pounds and is ready to model men’s clothing (as opposed to women’s clothing).

EVAN WEISSER continued his hitting ways and father MARK also chipped in. 

A silent contributor was STU WEINSTEIN who didn’t have a hit, but had key at bats to bring in runs or move runners up. “I just try to do what I can to help the team,” he said. It should be noted he lined a shot to left field only to have MARC BRAFMAN make a nice catch on it.

Finally, JACOB ZEIDENSTEIN had a couple base knocks, but he needs to dial his arm down a little at SS as he threw a 103 mph ball over first base and made a dent into the fence.

TID BITS……

Before the game, MARK WEISSER offered ROGER ROSENTHAL $150 to be quiet for the remainder of the year……what do you think his answer was?

Does anyone know what teams are left in the NHL playoffs?……amazing how little people care about hockey, the most exciting sport…….there are a few of us…..KEN GROH…..GRIFF HARRIS……AJ GOLDHOFF…..any more out there?

Speaking of the NHL playoffs, ROSENTHAL and GRIFF HARRIS don’t have much in common on the field, but do share the fact that both their teams LA (Roger) and Toronto (Griff) got dumped in the first round…..again.

DAVID WEIL was missed last night at the local eatery, more so his comments about how bad the CINCINNATI REDS are and how bad a manager DAVID BELL is……MARC BRAFMAN wasn’t there either to spew his thoughts on the Reds either………and where was league mascot, alias JACOB BRAFMAN?

Finally, the state of college sports is getting worse……there are three reasons why players change schools……1. playing time…….2. coach……3. MONEY……..how about how good a school it is when it come to academics?

Capt. Brafman would like to thank Ryan Silverman, Danny Grefer and Peter Brownell for subbing and give a shout out to Eric Gruen, who I believe went 4-5 last night.

And on Field 4 last night Team Wagner vs. Team Kamrass

Pre Summary…The Hiudts are brothers, not cousins. My apologies for the confusion.

Brad for the winners:

Team Wagner run-ruled Team Kamrass on Wednesday night in front of a standing-room-only crowd on Field 4, 22-7.  Team Wagner scored four in the first, but the injury-plagued Kamrass team battled back and scored six in the bottom frame.  Each team then scored a run before Team Wagner took a 14-7 lead in the 4th and tacked on a snowman in the top of the 5th to close it out.  

Total team effort for Team Graphite/Charcoal.  Great defense by Anton Loon, Zac Hiudt, Micahel Askin, Joey Hiudt, and Landon Hawkins.  Corey Norris pitched a great game and helped his cause at the plate with one of three inside-the-park home runs.  Anton Loon and Matt Leader were the others.  Daniel Hiudt, Brad Wagner, Bob Pelberg, Mike Margolis, and Mark Levine also contributed offensively.

Team Wagner will take on Team Fogel next week on Field 3, with Oscar Robertson and Oscar Gamble on the call.

Team Kamrass will take on Team Grefer next week on Field 2, with Mickey Dolenz and Mr. T on the call.

League notes

Congrats to Eddie and  Brad Gallop for graduating from UC

I believe Ben “Weezy” Lefton’s daughter also graduated and was a huge scorer on her college lacrosse team.

And not to be outdone, Scott “Shorty” Adam’s son graduated from UK. 

Well done, everyone.

This is pushing it in league notes, but I saw that Greg Leader’s brother won his 300th game as a high school baseball coach. Too bad none of that rubbed off on his brother as a captain in the JCC league. 

It seems that every time I go to a Reds game I bump into Bryce. On Sunday he was the Skyline shuffle guy and was able to find the ball behind the 5 way and win a gift card! Way to go, Bryce!

While I generally agree with David Weil and Billy Kahn on the Reds, I don’t blame David Bell for the mess the Reds are in. Take today (Thursday) for example. The Reds tie the game at 4 in the bottom of the 7th. Fernado Cruz comes in and gets the first two outs then WALKS, repeat WALKS, the 8-9 hitters before giving up a  bloop single to Corbin Carroll as the D-Backs take the lead. How is that David Bell’s fault? Bottom of the 8th, Stewie Fairchild completely loses track of where a pop fly was hit on a hit and run and gets doubled off base. Now you can argue that Stewie isn’t a major league player and I would agree, but how are either of those things Bell’s fault? David and Billy harp on the lineup and who’s hitting where. Now that Friedl is back and Elly is hitting 2nd it doesn’t matter where anyone else hits. NONE of them can hit at the moment. You want to blame someone, blame Marte for taking PED’s or the front office for leaving Bell with a short bench. But I don’t see how an entire team not hitting has anything to do with the manager. 

In Roger world this week I found it interesting that he sets the market on Reds bobbleheads. I always thought that there was some Bobblehead Czar out there but it turns out it’s him. So when you see an Eddie Milner 1984 Reds bobblehead for 100 bucks, blame him.

Sorry this week isn’t more exciting I will do better next week.

See ya next Wednesday!

Marc

Last night was our end of the season dinner and awards night. A fun time was had by all at the JCC. For you guys that never come, I encourage you to come next year. It’s the final night you are with your team and we all get together until next spring. 

The winners were:

Ron Rose Rookie of the Year – “Pistol” Pete Brownell

Offensive player of the year – Matt “the Bobcat” Brodof

League MVP – Wes “Who Dey” Wolf (more on that later)

Comeback player of the year – Jack Cohen

Gold Glove Winner – Zach Mayer

Tournament and ASG MVP – Jeff Finkelstein

Frank Harkavy Goodwill Ambassador Award – Micah Kamrass

Markus Kruke Good Sportsmanship award – Pat “Sunshine” Feldman

Once again, a huge thank you to Ryan, Rick and Mr. Mike for all of your hard work to make our league what it is. 

Off season league notes

I am sure that I have missed a few but here are guys that celebrated birthday’s (that I know of)

Jeff Cohen 

Ryan “The One Man Gang” Marcus

Drew “Kung Fu” Brown

“The Special One” Mike Rothstein

Eddie Gallop

Zach Mayer

Brad “The Human Rain Delay” Wagner

Albert Weisbrot

Joel “Sparky” Fogel

Mark Weisser

If I missed your birthday, sorry 

Last month, Evan Gildenblatt and Ben Barnett’s mom won the Kovot award at the JCC annual dinner. It was an honor for me to present it to her.  Also at the meeting a plaque was dedicated to the JCC for friend of the league, Jeff Elkus. Make sure you check it out the next time you are at the JCC

Eric “Jeter” Goldstein and his wife, Anne, celebrated their anniversary this month

“Handsome” Sam Castellini and his wife had their first baby. Congrats to you, both

Speaking of babies, Jamey “The Rookie” Drennan and his wife are expecting their second daughter in November.

More Evan Gildenblatt news…he got engaged since the end of the season

Scott “Why can’t we be?” Friend started a new job at UD. Congrats, Scott.

David “Slim Shady” Wertheim is a man about town. You can find him on TV promoting one of his events or dressed in all white for others. And I guess I can’t even tease him about the 2-3 loss OSU team since I don’t think they lose until they play Michigan. 

Wes “Who Dey” Wolf has had an eventful offseason: Get married-check; go on long European honeymoon that the rest of us are jealous about-check; start new job with the Bengals in their digital sales department; check and check. Good luck with the Bengals, buddy. Who dey!

Roger is selling random old hockey programs. Not sure who is in the market for a 1998 Toronto Mapleleafs yearbook but I guess someone is. He also has a Billie Jean King teach your kid tennis book from at least 1976. Actually that one I might find interesting

David “the Doctor of Style” and I will be co-GM’s of the Reds next season. Between the two of us we can figure out how to get a starting pitcher better than Luke Weaver, what to do with Joey Votto, and why we should trade Jonathan India. Stay tuned for that.

Recently retired after 50 that’s right 5-0 years in the league, the Salsa king, Alan Lessure, has volunteered to help coach a team next year in the Ron Rose honorary role. He also said he will always bring his glove and catcher’s gear if any team needs a sub. 

In a random bit of Jewish Geography, Eric “The mouth of the Midwest” Gruen a couple of years ago worked with US Gymnast and all round Jewish hottie, Aly Raisman, on a platform for P&G. My neighbor’s daughter recently got engaged to her brother. When asked to comment, Eric said she (Aly) is a bit crazy but overall was a nice person to work for. Unfortunately, just like Seinfeld when he dated the Russian Gymnast, Aly didn’t offer to use Eric as the pommel horse.  

For those of you with Netflix, I suggest a couple of sports movies that I watched. One is Called The Swimmers, a true story about a couple of Syrian swimmers who escaped before the Civil War and made their way to Germany. A really amazing story. The other is the St. of Second Chances, a story about Mike Veeck. If you don’t know who Bill and Mike Veeck are, just google them. While the ending is sad, the majority of the story is really funny (this is a documentary).

The Oy Vey 5K is coming up in two weeks. Please sign up and if you can’t do that, do me a favor and share the link on your social media pages for me. 

Finally, not all the news was great this offseason as both Rick T’s brother died and just this week former long time player Mike Kadetz’s mom died. So sorry for your loss, guys. 

Let’s all keep all the guys in the league that know or have family in Israel in our thoughts. 

If you ever want me to post something in the blog drop me a line mbrafman14@gmail.com

Talk to everyone soon.

Marc

What a season that came to end on Sunday. Big shout out to Ryan, Mr. Mike and Ricky Lefton for another outstanding job of coordinating the season with Triple Creek and Angel Hernandez, award winning umps. (I kid, I kid) 

While League Notes will return with the All-Star Game blog, let’s wrap this up with the final Tournament game.

We had the Big Wolf Machine looking to match the 72 ‘Fins and go undefeated vs. the upstart Team Kamrass.  

Let’s get to the recap:

Breaking: in the biggest game of the year, a team was finally able to defeat Team Wolf. Congrats to them on an incredible season and winning the first and second half. However, the Tournament Championship this year belongs to Team Kamrass after an 8-5 victory in the playoff final.

After allowing 3 runs in the first on a monster shot from Matt Brodof, Fink settled down and was virtually unhittable the rest of the game. He got out of jams when he needed, including a key strike out in the 5th and a late caught stealing to end a run scoring opportunity.

In the third inning, Team Kamrass began with the bottom two in the order and plated five with a series of well placed singles, including another big one from Michael “cramps” Margolis and a rocket from David Solomon. Solomon also proved his fortitude by overcoming a foul ball that was later dubbed “the cup shot heard around the world.”

In the bottom of the 7th, Team Wolf threatened with two on and one out and the top of the order getting ready to come to bat. Fink induced a beautiful game ending 5-3 double play from Skinner to Raskin, and the team celebrated in true Reading Blue Devil style with a cooler of hard Mountain Dew. As the only college student, Ben Margolis was the favorite to win the shotgunning championship, but David Solomon was true to his Reading roots, and finished in first.

After the game, Captain Kamrass had this to say. “Tip of the cap to Team Wolf on winning the first and second halves, and also for their graciousness in defeat as we were declared the Tournament Champions. The year the Giants won the Super Bowl, the Patriots still had a lot to be proud of. This was a special group of guys. 15-4 and a Tournament Championship is as good as it gets in this league, and we did it all while having a lot of fun and enjoying our summer.”

Thanks to everyone who made it another great season for the league. Tip of the cap to Commissioner Silverman on dialing up great weather.

Post-Game Notes:

I’m sure all of you have heard of the Minnesota Stars forward Joel Eriksson Ek, who played in a Stanley Cup Playoff game after breaking his leg. Why do I bring this up? Because it has come to League Notes attention that winning Capt. Micah Kamrass played in Sunday’s game with a fractured arm. “I go by the mantra, ‘Rub a little dirt on it and all the owies go away,'” Kamrass said yesterday (It should be noted that like all the Reds injuries, Kamrass first went to Dr. Kremcheck who, of course, told him it was “just a bruise” before going to a real doctor who told him he had broken his arm). When informed of this story last night League Note’s wife said and I quote “You idiots and your softball!”

Once again, congrats to everyone on another great season. Team Wolf deserves a ton of credit for what they did as the first and second half champ and a big shout out to Team Kamrass for winning on Sunday. 

Hope to see everyone tomorrow night at the All-Star Game and at the Spring House.

Marc