Good snowy day today guys,
It’s days like today that make me think of hot days on Wednesday nights. Last night we had our postseason dinner and awards night. Big thanks to Mike and Rick at the JCC for making it all happen. Below are the winners of all of the awards. Congrats to everyone who was nominated.
Ron Rose Rookie of the Year – Ian Segall
MVP – Griffin Harris
Offensive Player of the Year – Cam Kirzner
Defensive Player of the Year – David Wertheim
Comeback Player of the Year – Jimmy Lefton
Tournament MVP – Dan McGrath
All-Star Game MVP – AJ Goldhoff and Stu Solomon
Frank Harkavy Goodwill Ambassador – Ryan Silverman
Marcus Kruke Sportsmanship Award- Bob Pelberg
League Champion – Team Goldhoff
Post-Season Tournament Champion – Team Solomon
On top of that we had a nice Q&A with former JCC Blue Jays player, Charlie Goldsmith. He was very informative on what it’s like to cover the Reds and Bengals. A couple of the highlights were talking about how the Bengals have denied all the Bengals beat writers the chance to talk to Duke Tobin, that they will continue to operate the way they see fit, wins and losses be damned, and that first round pick Shemar Stewart is currently the worst player on the Bengals, which is saying something.
On the Reds front, he didn’t have an answer for why the Reds won’t spend more money on payroll, that Banana Bob loves the Reds so much he meddles in the front office (but not enough to actually spend money on a winner) and that he agrees with me that the Reds should trade Cam Collier because he has no place to play and won’t be on the Reds for at least two more years. He is worried about the lockout, unfortunately. If he didn’t stop questions I think we (I) would have kept him there all night.
Finally, he said he knew Mike Youkilis and it was fun to talk to Tito Francona about his connection to him when he was hired. That was very cool to hear..
League notes:
Thanks to all of you who came out for the Oy Vey 5K yesterday. Yes, it was cold but that didn’t stop Adam from defending his title of fastest 5K runner in the league. I beg/implore all of you to come out and try to beat him next year. Once again, ALL of the money goes back to the Blue Jays and softball and basketball league.
Happy birthday to the following:
Pete “The Straw that Stirs the Drink” Soltesz
Mark Weisser
Steve Z (and get better from your shoulder surgery)
If I missed your birthday since the end of the season, sorry.
Happy anniversary to Rick and Betsy Lefton
And Congrats to Ryan “The One Man Gang” Marcus on getting married
While OSU looks like the best team in football it will be interesting to see if their schedule and total lack of playing any teams any good (which is a 100% reflection on the lousy Big 10) and not at all on OSU) will come back to bite them in the tournament. I’m not sure what I would like more. to see Bama and UGA struggle to beat teams in the meat grinder of the SEC or to be OSU and just crush everyone without playing as hard a schedule. Again this is not to take anything away from the Buckeyes. You play who you play, but are they as good as the top of the SEC? In a few weeks we will find out.
After two games, I have no clue if UC is good in basketball. I can tell you I haven’t seen a player like Baba Miller on UC maybe ever. The dude is 6-9 or so, can dribble like a point guard and can throw it down like a power forward. He might be the best player on the team or it could be that they play Little Sisters of the Poor for the first month. Just like with the Buckeyes, we will find out soon if UC and Miller are legit.
I started watching the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame concert the other night. They opened it with a tribute to Sly and the Family Stone (Sly Stone died earlier this year), with Stevie Wonder, Joe Perry, Beck, Flea, Questlove, some other R&B guy and Jennifer Hudson all in the band they didn’t hold a candle to prime Sly. Not even close. One of the greatest bands ever.
On the other hand, Bryan Adams rocked it fronting a couple of Bad Company songs.
I have not confirmed that Roger camped out over night at Skyline Chili to get the Bengals bobbleheads first but I wouldn’t put it past him.
Stay warm out there. April isn’t that far away, right?
Marc