Hi everyone
It’s been a long LONG time since we have had a blog, so let’s do two weeks worth shall we
First, from last Sunday:
Jeremy leads off as his team took on Team Groh:
In a Sunday morning showdown between Team Groh and Team Fogel, veteran southpaw Jimmy Lefton stole the show from the first inning onward. After surrendering a one-out double to Adam Cronstein (questionable whether it would have been a double had the bases been properly assembled pre-game), Jimmy did not allow another runner to advance beyond second base for the remainder of the game. With an errorless defense behind him and his cutter breaking in sharply on the hands of righties, Jimmy cruised through seven strong innings in what was his strongest start of the year.
On the offensive side, timely hitting and aggressive base running told the story, with contributions coming from all throughout the order. Team Fogel would not be denied, plating runs in bunches and cruising to a 9-1 victory. Team Fogel looks to build on that momentum heading into a double-header filled slate.
Next we have Landon as his team took down Team Brafman
Team Krantz 12, Team Brafman 3
Team Krantz earned a 12-3 victory over Team Brafman and got the monkey off their back for the first win of this young season. Jamie Drennan set the tone with an outstanding pitching performance, limiting Team Brafman to just three runs and keeping hitters off balance throughout the game.
The offense was led by a mix of veterans and super subs. Norm Frankel hit a big double for insurance runs. Substitute players David Wertheim and Ian Conwell provided fireworks, each blasting inside-the-park home runs. Wertheim turned in an error-free cycle (legit cycle), while Pat Feldman paced the lineup with a 3-for-4 performance, collecting several key hits and playing stellar defense.
Team Brafman battled hard all game.
Veteran All-Star Howie Schwartz delivered a strong outing on the mound and helped his own cause at the plate with a stand-up double.
Mark Levine and his nephew Mike Askin came through with timely hits, and Spencer Scruggs drove in a run with a sharp single past third base.
A well-played game by both teams, and despite the 12-3 final, the contest was closer than the scoreboard indicates.
Team Brafman would like to thank Peter “The Vacuum” Brownell who played SS and had the single best defensive game I or most of the guys on our team have ever seen. Simply an amazing game for him in the field.
Next Team Wolf vs. Team Silverman
Wes for the winners
Team Wolf pulled out its second come-from-behind win by beating Team Silverman in an all-timer 18-16.
After being down 10-2 in 3 innings, and 14-6 after 5, Team Wolf came screaming back led by a three-run right field homer by the ageless legend, Scott Wolf, and three more runs to cut the lead to two. Down two in the bottom of the seventh, sub Landon Krantz (who scored 4 runs on the day) led off with a single, and scored, then Mike Rothstein knocked in Wes Wolf to tie the game on a sac fly. In the bottom of the seventh Team Silverman loaded the bases, but Mark Weisser stepped up and got out of the jam by getting the third out on a grounder to the pitcher.
In the extra 8th inning, Team Wolf newcomer Zach Hoffman started with a single and later scored the first run on a Weisser single. Matthew Kraus & Krantz got big two out hits, and were knocked in by a Wes Wolf double putting team Wolf up four.
The bottom of the 8th ended in a way that was described as a “first” by many long-time league members. Team Silverman scored two and loaded the bases for super slugger Anton Loon who, with a chance to win the game, launched a high fly ball to deep left field. Corey Myers retreated to the track, then with his back against the wall he calmly jumped and caught the ball, robbing Anton and Team Silverman of a walk-off grand slam. (Editors note) We were all at the game and watched this in real time. An amazing catch and ending to a great game.
Finally I know team Stu won
Now onto Wednesday night
First up will be Roger for Team Groh:
TEAM GROH rebounded from a Sunday morning loss to TEAM FOGEL with a doubleheader sweep of TEAM WOLF under sunny skies on Wednesday evening.
Winning game 1, 16-5, and the nightcap, 17-7, TEAM GROH found their offense BIG time!
“I hope we didn’t overdo it with the run production and not have anything for our next game. I know we didn’t,” captain KEN GROH said afterwards in the winner’s locker room.
All 12 players were contributors on the hitting end with NICK O’BRIEN, ZACH MAYER and ADAM CRONSTEIN (grand slam) provding the pop with home runs, none going over the fences.
GROH, BRYCE ANSLINGER, RYAN BAUM, SAM KLINKOWITZ, CHRIS KUNKEL, DAN MCGRATH, ROGER ROSENTHAL, DAVID SNYDER and STU WEINSTEIN.
Both GROH (GAME 1) and WEINSTEIN (GAME 2) recorded victories on the mound with the defense providing some sparkling plays led by KLINKOWITZ, both at catcher and second base……check ESPN TOP 10 PLAYS OF THE DAY……
With the two wins, TEAM GROH, has set up some important games down the stretch in the first half.
“We’re taking each game, one at a time. I really like this team and think we can make history. If not for ROGER and his big mouth that never stops talking, I really like this time. We’ve got a long season still left and I’m really looking forward to see what we can do the rest of the way.”
NEXT UP….a twinbill vs. TEAM SILVERMAN on Wednesday with first pitch at 6:01 p.m. The first game will be televised on FOX SPORTS with announcers GARY ASKIN and EDDIE GALLOP handling the play by play and color. The second game will NOT be televised due to a contractual agreement.
AJ chimes in for his games vs. Team Silverman
An absolutely amazing night for some softball as the we finally got some weather to
smile on us. On field 2 we took out Team Silverman in both legs of the double header in
a couple hard fought battles.
Game 1
We jumped out to the lead in the bottom of the first inning after Tyler Stansbury doubled,
scoring two runs, and Harry Meisner hit a sacrifice fly, scoring one run. Team Silverman
came back and tied the game in the top of the second thanks to a double by Oren
Shmoel, and a triple by Matthew Silverman.
We then took control in the bottom of the second, scoring seven runs on eight hits to
take the lead, 10-3. The biggest blow in the inning was a single by Ian Segall that drove
in two. After that we never really looked back and won the game 12-8.
Big games also from Eric Zied and Michael Heldman collecting multiple hits and Ryan
Small and Mike Gray for driving in 3 runs apiece.
Game 2
This was a really good battle here for the first few innings as Team Silverman kept
threatening each inning. Our horse though Mike Gray was able to make the pitches to
keep us ahead though, while also taking multiple shots to his body from hard hits.
Shoutout to Mike for being a warrior.
The early blow was when Harry Meisner (who is on an MVP pace) hit a 2 run Homer to
left and Ryan Small doubling to give us a 3-0 lead. Silverman came back on us with hits
from all over their lineup. We then got the score to 7-5 with another massive homer from
Harry Meisner scoring three more
In the Top of the 5 th though we blew the game open with 12 runs, hits from everyone,
including a Tyler Stansbury Double, an Ian Segall Double, and a Jeremy Dock inside
the Park Home Run. Harry was then intentionally walked twice in the same inning which
I think might be a record.
Overall another great night of softball for Team Orange Crush, and we get to take on
undefeated Team Solomon next week.
Next in a battle of the Marc’s we had a split
Team Simons won game one with some timely hitting from the bottom of their order. After a costly error by Team Brafman, Andy Beck, Captain Simons, and Seth Shaifer each had hits to break open a close game. Team Simons flashed the leather all game and Jamey Kurtzer kept Team Brafman off balance for the win.
In game two Team Brafman finally broke through for their first win of the year. A huge bottom of the first set the table. Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley singled, followed by Mark “Big Blue” Tenenholtz first homer of the season. Back-to-back triples by Michael Askin and Spencer “Roll Tide” Scruggs and a single by Ethan Zinn gave team Brafman a 4 run lead they would never give back. Howie found the fountain of youth and pitched a great game. Jon “Scoops” Ruben saved a few outs with his play at first and kept Team Simons off the bases. Team Brafman looks to improve on there 1-0 second half record Wednesday.
Finally Team Fogel split a double header here is David Wertheim for Team Fogel in game 1.
TEAM FOGEL SURVIVES TEAM KRANTZ IN GAME ONE THRILLER
David Wertheim checking in as the guest writer this week. Let’s see if I still remember how to do this.
In the first of a month of five-inning doubleheaders, Team Fogel continued their excellent first half with a 9-8 win over a pesky Team Krantz. Missing southpaw ace Jimmy Lefton, in St. Louis for his son “Big Al” Alex Lefton’s wedding, “Big Dog” Bob Pelberg toed the slab and delivered a quality start en route to a victory.
Team Fogel started out hot, with five runs in the first inning. The big blow was a triple off the bat of Will “The Thrill” Coleman. Team Krantz scored two in the first and three in the second, evening the game after two frames. Team Fogel added three runs in the third inning on a Coleman inside the park home run to the fence.
Krantz answered once again with three runs in the bottom of the fourth, including one of the crazier calls in league history. A long meeting on the mound for Team Fogel with men on base was taken advantage of. “Slick” Dee Harris was on third base and during the meeting, the umpire told Landon that Team Fogel had never called time. As such, Landon walked over to Dee and told him that Team Fogel never called time, and Dee scampered home with what was, at the time, the tying run. Team Fogel made sure to be VERY clear in calling time the remainder of the evening. This is the first time that this writer remembers an umpire actively helping the opponent.
After a scoreless top of the fifth, Team Fogel was in a golden position to walk it off with the top of the order due up. Joel Fogel and David Wertheim singled, putting the winning run on third, followed by an intentional walk of Jeremy “Cap” Fogel to load the bases. Brad Wagner popped up on the infield, so the baton was passed to Brad Gallop, who delivered a long fly ball into the right-center gap to score the winning run.
The aforementioned Coleman was the hitting star of the game with his two long extra base hits. Wertheim added two knocks of his own, and including game two, which Team Fogel lost, is now 15/16 (.937) career against Krantz hurler Jamey Drennan. Gallop, playing just his second game of the season, was a perfect 3/3 and played a very good left field.
And in game two
Landon for the winners
In Game 2 of Wednesday’s doubleheader, Team Krantz persevered over Team Fogel with a final score of 8-4. Jamey Drennan pitched a gem against a very good-hitting Team Fogel, and despite multiple tweaked hamstrings, Team Krantz’s offense got some big hits off of opener Dr. Bob and relief pitcher Brad Wags.
The bottom of the 1st opened with 3 consecutive doubles from leadoff specialist Kenny Lofton Ryan Marcus, then Griffin Harris, and then Jamey Drennan. Krantz did his signature bunt (in the cleanup spot?) to move Drennan over, and Dee Harris doubled again to bring everyone home.
Team Fogel had some timely hitting from Wertheim (3-3 at the plate), Jeremy Fogel (2 RBIs), and Brad Gallop who smashed a double in the gap. In the top of the 5th, down 4 runs, Jeremy Fogel launched a bomb to deep right center with two men on base. But Griffin made a spectacular catch at the track look easy, and the game came to an end. Team Krantz starts the second half 1-0. Let’s go!
League notes
Big shout out to both Jimmy Lefton and David “The Dr. of Style” Weil on the upcoming kids wedding. Big Al is getting married in St. Louis this weekend while David’s daughter is getting married in the Big Apple. Congrats to you both. Also happy birthday Big AL! Also congrats go out to Joel and Barb Fogel over the fact both Jeremy and Brooke are engaged (but not to each other, that would be gross) We have had a lot of league birthday’s over the last couple of weeksDavid Snyder, Eric Zied, Rick Teneholtz, Alumnus and best hair in the leauge Rafi Goldfarb, and Jeremy Fogel.
I know a lot of you had kids that graduated high school, college, 8th grade you name it. Congrats to all of us who that happened to.
Don’t forget it’s Wings night on June 24 at the Silver Spring House. It’s very nice of Gig to treat us all so please try to make it.
The Oy Vey 5K is early this year due to the Bengals bye week. It’s Oct. 18th and like I mention every year the money raised goes back to our program. You don’t have to run you can walk it. You get a great t-shirt and the chance to beat Adam who is always the first guy in the league to finish.
The less said about the mess the Reds find themselves in the better. I just get worked up and I’ve come to the conclusion it’s not worth it.
Tickets for game 3 in NYC at MSG for the Knicks/Spurs are going for over $7000 in the cheapest seats. For courtside they are going for over 6 figures! I read that it’s cheaper to send your kids to NYU than attend a game in NYC. Crazy!
The other night the Dodgers were on the TV at the Spring House and Rick Lefton and I were talking about where Ohtani would rank on the all time list of players. I think this stat about sums it up:
In his third consecutive two-way start, Ohtani hurled his third scoreless performance in his last four appearances, posting six innings of two-hit ball with six strikeouts in the Dodgers’ 7-0 thumping of the Diamondbacks. He also went 3-for-4 at the plate and reached base safely five times. He raised his average to .301 and lowered his ERA to a league-best 0.74. Imagine if Chase Burns could also hit like say Aaron Judge. This guy is amazing
Roger this week sent me a text with a picture of the Bob Huggins book written by Bill Koch a few years back and asked if I wanted it. I told him he already sold me a copy a few months ago. Would this have happened to Roger if the book was “It’s gonna be a whar Andy a whar”the Pete Gillen story? I think not
See you all on Wednesday. NO RAIN!