Another amazing weather night last night. Ryan must have promised Mother Nature a raise if she keeps this up.
Let’s get right to the action
On Field 1, we had Team Zawatsky vs. Team Wagner
Team Zawatsky walked off Team Wagner 13-12 on Wednesday night. The game went back and forth all night with each team getting key hits. Key hits for Team Wagner came from John Spears, Howie Schwartz, Matt Grindle, Chris Kunkel, and Brad Wagner. Team Wagner came back to tie the score at 12 in the top of the 7th with a 3-run, 2-out rally but Mr. Special, Mike Rothstein had the game winning hit knocking in Will “Thrill” Coleman.
Team Wagner looks to regroup against Team Lefton next week as the game will air on Tape Delay after reruns of Saturday Night Main Event featuring Mean Gene Okerlund, Gorilla Monsoon, and The Dr. of Style Slick.
Over on Field Two it was Team Grefer vs. Team Brafman
Kyle for the winners:
We won 8-4 against Team Brafman in a game where our defense and pitching made the difference. Jon Ruben pitched a great game mixing up locations to keep hitters off balance.
Defensively, David Wertheim was a vacuum at shortstop, and Jack Cohen showed off his versatility by running down a ball in deep left field as well as playing a great second base for a few innings. After a rough defensive game last week, it was great to see our team recover.
On offense Adam Cronstein, David Wertheim, and Joey Huidt were key contributors. Gary Grefer had a couple hits and Howard Goldwasser smashed a ball over the outfield. He got thrown out at second but he might’ve made it if he hadn’t done an airplane celebration coming out of the box…
and Capt. Brafman add this thoughts
Another close game for Team Brafman. Once we get the bats going we will be a tough team to beat. Kudos to Dee Harris for a couple of knocks, Mark “Bruiser” Wolfe and Jamey “The Rookie” Drennan with two hits. On defense Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley did a great job at SS and Griff Harris, after telling Capt. Brafman to move up, was able to throw out the aforementioned Howard Goldwasser at 2nd. It should be noted that Eppy took a line drive off his shin, rubbed some dirt on it and continued to pitch. Nick Senzel (who did homer yesterday) would be out for a month if that happened to him.
Team Brafman looks to get back on track on Wed. vs. Team Wolf
On Field 3 it was a battle back and forth between Team Wolf and Team Fogel
Wes for the victors
Team Wolf continued its success with a 9-7 win over Team Fogel. On the way off the field, Roger Rosenthal was overheard saying “I really wish Wes would have picked me. This team is so talented they may never lose.”
This week was a solid all-around performance. At the plate we were led by Michael Askin, who went 3-3 and scored two runs. Duffy & Scott Wolf starred in a 5-run 4th inning, both hit RBI singles and beat out throws to the plate from Fogel outfielders. After Scott beat out a throw from Jeremy Fogel, he yelled, “Even Bo Jackson couldn’t throw me out! And Jeremy Fogel ain’t him, maaan.”
Mike Gray continued with a strong pitching performance highlighted by a rally-saving 3-pitch strikeout in the 5th inning. The continued solid defense behind him besides a few common field-3 sun balls in the outfield.
Next week, Team Wolf takes on Team Brafman. Opposing captain Marc Brafman mysteriously booked Tyler Wolf for a living wall installation that “Has to happen next Wednesday evening. Your schedule is open then, right?” (Brafman confirms that for his daughter’s bat mitzvah he would also like to pull Duff from this team to take pictures and Michael Askin to be the MC. “I’ve got no problem pulling rank on Team Wolf to help my team out,” Brafman said post game.
And Roger chimes in for Team Fogel
After an impressive victory in week one, this week didn’t go as planned, but it wasn’t due to a great effort by the entire team…..
TEAM FOGEL was knocked off by a very solid TEAM WOLF, 9-7, as the game went right down to the wire…..
Leading the way at the plate was ZACH MICHELSON with three hits in three at bats. It should be also noted that the tall lanky one wanted to make sure the blog reported this or he was going to boycott the next game….LOL….(see below)
Also, on the offensive side, rookie BRANDON “GAMECOCK” WRONKER had two knocks, as did SCOTT “THE BULLDOG” FRIEND, JASON “THE COWBOY” ESTERKAMP and
rookie MATT MILLER…….
On the defensive side, DANNY GREEN, playing his first game of the season, played a solid 2B in which he made an unbelievable catch on a looping line drive in shallow right field…..BUT the PLAY OF THE GAME was one by UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI basketball staffer, MILLER, on a diving catch in right field……it was such a great catch, that even ROGER ROSENTHAL, an avid XAVIER UNVIERSITY fan, was impressed. “That was one hell of a catch. I thought there was NO way a UC guy could catch that ball and he proved me wrong.”
QUOTES FROM THE GAME……
“I was really disappointed in our captain after last week when he said he would buy each player a bobblehead of their choice if we won. We won! Where’s the bobblehead?”, an irate ROSENTHAL said before the game…..
JOEL “SPARKY” FOGEL, father of the captain, who missed last week’s game due to business said, “I was told we had better win or I was going to take some of the blame, Hey, I had an important business meet in Nashville plus I wanted to see the Grand Ole Opry.”
Roger, you better put the fact that I went 3 for 3 in the blog or I’m going to boycott next week and I’m going to hunt you down.” MICHELSON said after his splendid performance.
Finally, SCOTT “SHORTY” ADAMS was introduced before the game to rookie, DAN “THE ROCKET” LACERVA, who is married. “If you’re married, you don’t want to go out with me. That would be a mistake.”…..WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
And last but not least the game of the night was played out on Field 4 where Team Lefton took on Team Stu
The Hebrew Hammer Ryan Baum checks in for Team Lefton
“The sea was angry that day, my friends – like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli…”
In what could be considered the game of the year in week 2, Team Lefton defeated Team Solomon 18-17 in comeback fashion.
Team Lefton started things off on fire with each of their first five batters scoring in the top of the 1st. They tacked on another run and all 11 players came to the plate to take a very early 6-0 lead. Well, Team Solomon wasn’t phased and scored 9 of their own in the bottom of the 1st. This led to concerns by Team Lefton players that we may be late for work on Thursday if the game didn’t get moving.
Team Lefton continued to nibble into Team Solomon’s lead but couldn’t keep them off the scoreboard. A plethora of hits and a Tyler Stansbury home run brought the score to 17-12, Team Solomon leading, heading into the top of the 7th.
Ryan Baum led off the 7th with his 3rd single of the game. Marc Simons then laid down a perfect bunt down the 3rd base line and was safe at first. After a Matt Leader single Team Lefton had bases loaded and nobody out. This is where some mild controversy took place. David Snyder hit a towering fly ball that landed approximately 7 feet in front of home plate. The ball bounced and hit a Team Solomon defender and stayed fair. They got the easy out at home and had an opportunity to get Simons out at 3rd. However, the umpire stopped play and said he made a mistake and should have called an ‘infield fly rule’. He called the batter out and the runners all safe. From there the rally was on. David Weil hit a huge double down the left field line and Sam Castellini hit a bases clearing triple that gave Team Lefton the lead, 18-17. Team Solomon got their first two hitters on base in the bottom half, but Team Lefton was able to keep them scoreless and hold on for the win.
Leading the charge offensively was Sam Castellini who went 5-5 and scored 4 runs. Ryan Baum went 3-3 with a sac fly RBI. Anton Loon was 3-5. Matt Leader and Jimmy Lefton both went 3-4 as well.
Peter Brownell has to be an early front runner for R.O.Y. with his speed, arm, and stellar glove work at SS. He also went 2-5 with two hard hit line outs.
The defensive play of the game came as Phil Ganson on Team Solomon laced a line drive to the LC gap. Anton Loon picked the ball up on the warning track, threw a laser to the cutoff man, Brownell, who fired it to 3rd, where Matt Leader tagged Phil Ganson out.
It was a great way to start the season for Team Lefton. It wasn’t always pretty but we didn’t give up and fought to the bitter end.
League notes:
“The Special One” Mike Rothstein has a glove guy that helped him restring his glove. Mike was nice enough to give me the flier for the guy which I of course left in my bag. But if you need a glove guy ask Mike he said this guy did good work.
Happy 31st anniversary to Jimmy and Laurie Lefton. Also on the graduation of their daughter Mal from OU
Same goes to JCC softball first couple Joel and Barb Fogel on the graduation of babysitter and camp counselor to many of our kids, Brooke Fogel from OSU.
A reminder that wing night will be at the Silver Spring House on June 21. Gig wants to make sure we are all well fed that night so please come out and enjoy wings on him.
It’s Jewish night at the Reds game coming up. Tuesday, May 23. It will be a fun night and you get a Reds shirt in Hebrew to confuse people when you go to another game.
As Billy Kahn mentioned today, it’s a sad day here in League notes because former player Jerry Springer (yes THAT Jerry Springer) played in the league back in the day. As a kid I remember watching him play with a Yankee hat on. I don’t recall him being that great but he was fast. He spoke at the University of Alabama when I was a student. I met him there and reminded him of that. He said he always enjoyed playing. RIP Jerry
Greg Harris last night mentioned that when he went to Washington DC over spring break he brought back a couple of bobbleheads from Capitals and Wizards game. This led to a discussion of how many players from either team anyone could name. I believe it was 3.
I always say that the best part of our league is the different guys playing and how we all get along. That also goes for the cars we drive. Jamey “The Rookie” Drennan pulled up in a Tesla, which I was admiring from across the parking lot. At that moment Alan “The Salsa King” Lessure pulled up in the family truckster that he still drives. This is not an indictment on either guy. I just found it interesting
While Jeff “The Natural” Weisbrot is off coaching his kid’s baseball team, he sent along a video of his son Evan crushing his first homer over the fence in his game last night. Not sure what was cooler, Jeff’s reaction (Evan just hit a HOMER!!) or when his teammates realized what happened and came running out of the dugout to mob him at the plate. Such a fun moment.
On that subject I have realized this year that I get way more worked up over Jacob’s team, of which I am an assistant coach, than our games. But man it’s fun to watch him play. I’m sure you guys can all relate who have kids.
Mr. Mike “Flash” Creemer was at the field last night and assures me that there is plenty of top notch talent coming through the Blue Jay’s baseball pipeline.
Does anyone other than Lance McCalister care that Tyler Stephenson hasn’t homered yet this year? He keeps bringing this up yet doesn’t seem to mention that he’s been on base 15 straight games. Also, I am guessing that tomorrow or Saturday we will see the lowest attended game in MLB history when the Reds play the A’s.
And last but not least in this week in Roger
For some reason he was walking around with a 1970’s style bowling bag. He won’t show us what was in it but for those that have seen the classic movie Animal House I am betting it’s the same thing that Otter had in his bag.
See everyone next week
Marc
