Month: May 2025

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May 7, 2025: Games Recap

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

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April 30, 2025: Games Recap

A wonderful night for softball on Wednesday leads to a good blog a day late:

Leading off is Keith for Team Fogel who beat Team Wolf:

After a one run loss to open the season, and a not so close loss last week, Team Fogel got a win over Team Wolf last night. Mark Weisser was on the mound doing his magic for Wolf and Adam Heldman was making fine catches in deep left-center.

It was a close game at 6-5 in the 7th inning. Team Fogel had men at 2nd and 3rd with two out. Jeremy was walked to load the bases. Then it was time for the “big play” for Team Fogel. Joel hit a hard grounder in the hole between the 1st and 2nd basemen and two runs scored.

Matt Miller had two tomahawk hits and a deep drive over the right fielder, and as catcher cut down two runners. A Jeremy Fogel to Landon Kurtz throw from left center to 3rd base produced two bang-bang outs. Landon made additional good catches at third and Josh Rosen and Brad Gallop ran down a few balls in right center.

Eddie Gallop started that late-inning rally by leading off and lining a ball through the hole between 1st and 3rd . Jamie Kurtzer and the defense finished the game with a 9-5 win.

Next up is Ken Groh whose team beat Team Solomon:

Another close defensive game tonight with Solomon being carried by Dan McGrath, David Snyder and Cam Kirzner. Team Groh had Jack Cohen, Sam Castellini and Tyler Stansbury flashing the leather. From memory and not the book, Tyler Stansbury hit #3 out of the park putting Groh up 2-0 with Jack on base after a 4 foul at bat. Solomon plated 1 in the 2nd after a McGrath triple. Then Cohen tripled to make it 3-1. Eli Gould doubled and came around to make it 3-2. In the bottom of the 5th Solomon scored two to go up 4-3 but after Mathew Kraus collected his 1st JCC hit the team rallied behind him to score 3. Team Groh held off a bottom 7 rally to win 7-5. 

In the sad gm of the night Team AJ beat Team Brad:

This is about as bittersweet of a recap as I hope to ever write. Unfortunately, last night we lost Zach Fritzhand for the season to an injury, and we are thinking about him and hoping for a very easy recovery. He was having an amazing season so far (8-10 on the year with 7 RBIs in 3 games) and it stinks to see it end like this for him. We wish him nothing but the best.

As for the game last night, the Goon Squad came to play in a big way with a 15-1 win in 5 innings vs Team Wagner. Every single person contributed on offense and defense, which was very needed with our 1 and 5 out for the night. We really broke the game open in the second inning starting with massive contributions from the bottom of our order. Sam Klinkowitz hit a Klinko bomb that got him a 2-run triple, followed by hits from Michael Heldman and Howard Goldwasser. The rally was on and we scored 8 runs that inning.

Like I said though this was a team effort through and through. Jamey Drennan pitched great and had 4 RBIs, Adam Cronstein was a vacuum in LCF, I went 3-3 with a triple and three runs, Ryan Small and Ian Conwell had 2 hits as well. Our MVP on the night though is the aforementioned Howard Goldwasser with 2 hits and the biggest catch of the game.

Next week we will play Team Wolf with a chance to keep it rolling.

Finally on field 4 Team Brafman got another win vs. Team Grefer

Thanks to a couple of Subs (Michael Askin and Anthony (Not Alex) Skrapitz) and a great pitching performance by Jimmy Lefton, Team Brafman won 10-7 over Team Grefer. This was a team win all around with big hits coming from Captain Brafman, Zach Mayer, Corey Myers and Jeff “Oscar Meyer” Wiener (who also played a great first base). The defense led the way especially the left side of the infield of Meyer and Skrapitz who were perfect all night. Zach “The Wild Horse” Zakem played a great game behind the plate who kept the ball in front of him all night.  For team Grefer, Dan Bernstein hit a 3-run homer that might have just landed. 

Team Brafman looks to continue their winning ways after their bye week next week.

League notes

Instead of the normal League notes I wanted to share Rick Lefton’s post from earlier this week from his leading the Cincy delegation on the March of Living. I took this from Rick’s Facebook page but I thought it was important to share with the league. Thanks Rick for taking all the Cincy kids over to Poland this year.

It will be impossible for me to describe our day today…there is no way that words can match the range of emotions and circumstances we experienced today. The March of the Living “March” and ceremony were today…we marched from Auschwitz to Birkenau with over 7,000 other delegates as a reminder to people everywhere that our people…the Jewish people…survived the Holocaust and the people marching “The Living” were there to “March” in memory of those who perished and could not march for themselves.

Our delegation was honored and surprised to be selected to lead “The March”…we were moved to the front and given the important task of carrying the March of the Living banner at the front of the pack! Such a cool experience for our students as they were given unexpected VIP treatment and were placed right in front and next to press row so there will be plenty of images and videos from news outlets featuring our group! It was a once in a lifetime experience and very impactful!

Once we completed that task, the March of the Living ceremony in Birkenau kicked off and we settled in to enjoy what’s typically a very meaningful ceremony. There was rain in the forecast but it was looking like it would hold off until later in the afternoon…but that was not meant to be. Rain started shortly after the start of the ceremony (which normally lasts about 2 hours)…no big deal…we were prepared with rain jackets, ponchos, and umbrellas but it was obvious very quickly that severe weather was bearing down on us. The ceremony was abruptly ended about 20 minutes in and they announced that people needed to evacuate Birkenau and to please stay off the railroad tracks because lightening was in the area…oy. The sky opened up and we got pounded by the heaviest rain I have ever been in with no shelter anywhere in sight and thousands of people trying to hustle back to the fleet of buses used to transport everyone. It was terrifying and being in a place built to be terrifying for other reasons made it even more surreal. There was panic…real panic in that crowd. 

Fortunately with the help of local security, police, and volunteers working the event we made it out and back to the bus OK but soaked to the bone. I didn’t hear any complaining from our students as it was not lost on them where we were, and the real unspeakable tragedies that had happened there over 80 years ago. I was extremely proud of our group and it made a memorable day an extremely memorable day! 

We finished up the evening with a nice dinner at the Krakow JCC which has been doing incredible work supporting refugees from nearby Ukraine. The Krakow JCC CEO Jonathan Ornstein who is a transplanted New Yorker shared the details of the vital work they are doing…it was a real pleasure to be there as a fellow JCC Professional and a great way to end an unforgettable day! 

Sorry for the long post…this whole day could be a book someday so you got off easy!

See everyone next week