JCC Softball Cincinnati

Welcome back to the blog everyone! What a nice night for softball. After a lot of rain and lousy weather this spring (take it from a baseball dad), it was great to be back out there (even if we are all sore today). Let’s get to the action.

On Field one it was Team Solomon vs. Team Grefer:

Kyle for the winners:

We beat Team Solomon 14-12 in a sloppy game to start the year. We had plenty of defensive miscues but were barely able to eke out the win.

Mike Gray pitched a solid game and had a double and a triple to jolt the offense. Dan Grefer and Brian Goldberg each had a few hits but subs Dan Green, Drew Hart, and James Swan did the heavy lifting on offense with 3 hits each (including a smashed triple to center field by Swan).

Happy to get started with a win!

On field two it was Team Groh vs. Team Goldhoff

Rookie Capt. AJ for the winners:

A great opening week for Goldhoff’s Goons (As the app refers to us) as we beat Team Groh 6-2 in a fun defensive battle. Jamey Drennan pitched fantastic in his debut, only giving up 4 hits and 2 runs, while seemingly getting everyone to pop out.

On the offensive side we got contributions from all over the lineup including Griffin Harris, Adam Cronstein, and Zach Fritzhand who each with 2 hits. I had a hit bringing in two runs and Michael Heldman got a hit and made it around to score in his first game in the league.

The defense won the day though with Griff and Adam locking down the middle of the outfield, we also got big catches from Howard Goldwasser, Ian Conwell, and Michael Heldman.

Overall this was a great team effort and we look forward to continuing to get better next week.

On Field 3 it was Team Fogel vs. Team Brafman

For the first time in over a YEAR in the regular season Marc for the winners

In a back and forth game vs. Team Fogel on field one Team Brafman got off to a great start with a walk off 9-8 win. “It’s been a very long time since I can celebrate a regular season win and it felt good to get off on the right side,”  Brafman said. Down early 3-0 in the first, Mike Margolis made a great catch in RF with the bases loaded to save three runs and keep Team Brafman in the game. While Team Fogel kept pushing across runs (including a rocket off the bat of “The Other” Josh Rosen) Team Brafman kept it close. Down 8-4 in the 6th, Team Brafman tied it with hits coming from all over the lineup including a big single from rookie Corey Meyers and Brafman’s 4th hit of the night. After a scoreless top of the 7th Team Brafman’s bottom of the order got the winning inning going. Rookie Jeff “Oscar Meyer” Wiener led off with a single, Gary Fisher moved the runner along and Team Game Ball winner Mike Margolis singled for his 2nd hit of the night moved the runners along. The Special One Mike Rothstein then singled to load the bases and Zach Mayer won it with a single to LF. 

Kudos to Jimmy Lefton for a great pitching performance in his first game back and Harry “Hood” Meisner for making a couple of nice catches in LCF and for a big hit in the 6th. 

Team Brafman looks to continue their winning ways next week. 

Finally on field four it was Team Wagner vs. Team Simons

Brad for the winners:

Team Wagner beat Team Simons in extra innings on opening night, 13-12. The game went back and forth with plenty of strategic moves, including lots of bunts, intentional walks, and key defensive plays by both teams. Wagner took a 10-7 lead late as Team Simons had crucial hits to tie in the 7th. Team Wagner held Team Simons scoreless in the extra frame. The victors started the bottom of the 8th by getting their first three hitters on, then with one out, Corey Norris hit a hard ground ball to David Wertheim playing a shifted 2nd base, who threw to Captain Simons playing catcher for the force out. Still, Simons could not handle the throw, and Joel Buckley scored the winning run.

Everyone contributed to Team Wagner at the plate, including their elder statesman, Roger Rosenthal.

Team Rookie Seth Shaifer also played well in his Triple Creek debut.

Team Wagner is off next week and will be home recovering while watching reruns of “I Love Lucy.”

Team Simons will take on Team Brafman next week. The game will air on CMT. Bill Dance and Richard Petty will be on the call.

League Notes

A bunch of birthdays:

Scott “Why can’t We Be” Friend

Dave Cohen 

Matt Miller

Brad Gallop

Scott Raskin

Danny Grefer

Josh Lisman

Handsome Sam Castellini

Jeff Finkelstein

Greg Leader

Stu Solomon

Once again, if I missed your birthday, sorry.

A big shout out to former player “Big” Alex Lefton on getting engaged

Reminder that it’s JCC night at the Reds game on May 13 vs. the White Sox

The J-Classic is coming up. J Classic – Mayerson JCC  Please sign up, donate or come to dinner.

Wing night is also coming up at the Silver Spring House. I can’t remember the date but a big thank you to Gig for his continued support of the league.

In Reds news, it’s good to know that the Candy man is now 1-25 with something like 13 strikeouts. The Reds’ front office continues to come up with winners in free agency.

Finally, in Roger news, I have to give him credit for somehow finding me a Sean “SK” Kirkpatrick bobblehead with him as a DJ. I have no idea why this was a bobblehead or how he got it but thanks

See ya next week!

The season came to an end on a somewhat gloomy night on Wednesday as Team Fogel and Team Harris battled it out. The two youngest captains in the league squared off for the Youk award. 

Griff for the winners:

In an exciting championship showdown at the illustrious Triple Creek Park, Team Harris emerged victorious over Team Fogel with a final score of 11-6. Notably, Team Harris was missing, arguably, their MVP (Most Vexatious Player) of the season, Roger Rosenthal, who was on a cruise in Canada. Rosenthal fired the team up before the game with a video message from the cruise ship telling them to simply “just win the damn game.” Team Harris knew they couldn’t let him down after that.

The game was filled with standout moments and impressive performances from both sides.  Team Harris jumped out to an early lead in the first inning scoring 3 runs and never looked back after that. For Team Harris, Ryan Marcus hit a solo home run in the 3rd inning to highlight his 3-hit performance, while Ryan Baum contributed with several nice hits throughout the game. Captain Griff Harris hit a crucial 3-run home run in the top of the 6^th inning to extend the lead to 11-3. The captain also made a nice diving catch on the warning track to save multiple runs in the bottom half of the 6^th. Stu Weinstein pitched a gem. He kept Team Fogel’s hitters off balance all night, only allowing 6 runs over 7 innings. Other key offensive contributions came from Pat Feldman, Mark Weisser (who went 3 for 3), Dan Bernstein, and Stu Weinstein himself, who had a couple of big hits.

Big shout out to Jeremy Fogel of Team Fogel for making a spectacular catch in the 1st inning, robbing a potential 3-run home run.  He also threw a laser to nail a runner at 3rd base later in the game. Joel Buckley also shined for Team Fogel with an outstanding catch at shortstop for the final out of the 2nd inning to save multiple runs.

The game saw Team Harris leading every inning, with scores progressing from 3-2 after the 2^nd inning to the final score of 11-6. The atmosphere was electric with a sellout crowd, including some league veterans, despite the cloudy weather. After the game, the team (JZ) celebrated their victory by popping (dumping all over himself) a bottle of champagne provided by Brad Wagner, adding a festive end to their championship win.

Congrats to Team Harris and all of the guys on both teams for a great game and post season tournament. 

League notes:

Weather permitting, the ASG is on Sunday morning at 9:30. Make sure you check the rain out line before you come to the game.

The Oy Vey 5K is on November 10. Please sign up here: Oy Vey 5K – Mayerson JCC

Happy birthdays this week:

“The Special One”  Mike Rothstein

Former player, Neil Nadel

Eddie Gallop

Zach Mayer

It was also Wes Wolf’s anniversary this week. Congrats to Wes and Hailey.

As David Weil and I were talking about earlier this week, only the Reds could fire a manager with 5 games left so they don’t have to pay him to go on the road. Now they still have to pay him the last two years on his contract, so maybe David Bell got the better end of the deal. But NOTHING the Reds did comes close to the cheapness of the Pirates. With only 4 at bats away from getting a $200,000 bonus, the Pirates cut Rowdy Tellez. Again, 4 at bats away from paying a guy $200K, the Pirates cut him. They claim it was a baseball move. So when I bitch and moan about the Reds, at least I’m not a Pirates fan.

It was a great season once again, guys. We (the league) got a big shout out during the JCC annual meeting last night.    A huge shout out to Ryan and all the captains for their hard work. Can’t wait till next season (maybe my team will win a regular season game). 

Marc

IT’s come to my attention that the Tri State area is going through a prolonged drought.  Could have fooled all of us as we went what 3 weeks without playing due to weather and “field conditions,” but that hasn’t been a problem the last few weeks and it wasn’t last night on a hot and dusty night on the fields. 

On field one we had Team Rick T vs. Team Griff H

Roger for the winners:

TEAM HARRIS 16

TEAM TENENHOLTZ 13

In what could have been one of the more exciting games in recent JCC softball history, TEAM HARRIS defeated TEAM TENENHOLTZ, 16-13, in a game that wasn’t decided until the last inning.

After TEAM HARRIS jumped out to an early lead, TEAM TENENHOLTZ came back to take the lead, only to see the victors score late and often and hold on to the victory to advance to the Tournament Finals next week vs TEAM FOGEL…..

“That was one heck of a game and it was too bad one team had to lose, but we stayed with it and came out with the win. I’ve played a lot of softball games in my day, but this has to be one of the more exciting ones,” captain GRIFF HARRIS said amid the wild celebration after the game.

With TEAM TENENHOLTZ trying to make a comeback in the bottom of the seventh inning, ROGER ROSENTHAL made maybe the play of the year with a backhanded catch on a line drive up the middle to end the game.

“I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it,” veteran DAVID WEIL said while watching the game after his game had already ended. “Actually I didn’t see it. It was too dark.”

A wild celebration ensued as TEAM HARRIS was celebrating like there was NO tomorrow.

“I’m glad I came thru for the team when we needed it the most. I haven’t had a good year and really was glad to help the team out,” ROSENTHAL told ESPNU afterwards. “My hitting has really stunk this season and I try to do my job at 2B the best I can, and this makes it all worth it.”

STU WEINSTEIN once again pitched a nice game and won his third straight……..”I just let my defense do their thing and they did,” he said afterwards.

The offense was aplenty….stats courtesy of GRIFF HARRIS…..how accurate, who knows?

RYAN MARCUS…………on base five times…..three runs scored

PATRICK FELDMAN…..on base four times….three runs scored

GRIFF HARRIS………….three hits….three runs scored…..five rbis

JZ ZEIDENSTEIN………two runs scored

DAN BERNSTEIN………two hits and a sac fly

RYAN BAUM……………..three hits…..one homerun (inside the park)….he doesn’t have the power to hit it over the fence…..

DEE HARRIS……………..two hits

STU WEINSTEIN………..two hits…..two runs scored

ROGER ROSENTHAL….NO DP’S……

Here’s hoping EVAN WEISSER is ok after he had to leave the game due to the heat…..he seemed fine as he was back on the bench after leaving the game……

TIDBITS……pretty simple this week……

*SPECIAL THANKS go out to STEVE EPPSTEIN for his hospitality all season in treating players and there families to chicken wings……he loves those wings!

And on field 2 it was Team Jeremy vs. Team Morris (Brafman) 

Team Fogel ended the run of Team Buttermaker last night in a hard fought 19-13 back and forth game. Team Brafman as has been their custom over the last couple of games got on the board first with 4 runs in the first including Harry’s 4 or 5th homer in the last couple of games. Team Fogel got right back in it with 3 of their own in the first with the top of their order of Buckley, Pete “The Straw that Stirs the Drink” Soltesz and Matt “the Bobcat” Brodof leading the charge. In the top of the 2nd Team Brafman got a couple of runs back on a single by Eric Zeid, a great bunt by Eppy and a sac fly by Capt Brafman. 

Fogel once again came back to make it close with key hits from both Jeremy and Sparky Fogel. A big hit was after being taunted by Capt. Brafman that he didn’t have opposite field power, Soltesz crushed one to the RF fence. Not to be outdone Matt Brodof hit a two run homer over the fence for Team Fogel to keep it close. After yet another homer by Meisner for Team Brafman (this one more of a JCC version), Team Brafman led 13-9 going into the bottom of the 6th. Unfortunately for Team Brafman, Team Fogel was up for the task and then some. Sam Klinkowitz (who saved Team Fogel with a couple of great plays at second) led off with a single followed by Shorty Adams with a hard single as well. Then the top of the order came up and everyone got a hit. The big blow of the game and the inning was a bases clearing triple by Jamey Kurtzer to put Fogel up 6. 

A 1-2-3 top of the 7th clinched it for Fogel who ended up winning 19-13. “We fought hard all game,” Brafman said. “I give those guys a big hand for hitting it where we couldn’t get it and playing great defense all game. We tried to shift, pitch around guys, change our lineup around and they overcame all of it.  I wish them luck vs. Team Harris.” 

So our finals are set for next Wednesday. It will be Team Harris vs. Team Fogel for the post season championship. The game starts at 5:35, so plan accordingly.

League Notes:

A tip of the cap to Jerry “Doc” Kirzner who is retiring this year. Jerry’s first year in the league was the summer of 1963. To put that into context, President Kennedy was still alive, Pete Rose was a rookie 2nd basemen for the Reds and the Bengals were still 5 years away from being born. Jerry has been the commissioner of the league he still helps put the schedule together each year. He is also one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. Jerry, congrats on your LONG career with JCC softball. Don’t be a stranger next year. We’ll (I’ll) miss playing with you.   

The ASG is coming up on Sunday morning Sept. 29 with first pitch being at 9:30. It’s a fun morning to see the best our league has to offer. Come on out if you’d like. 

Evan Gildenblatt had a birthday this week. Happy birthday, Evan. 

The Oy Vey 5K is coming up. Please register: Oy Vey 5K – Mayerson JCC

Next year will be 30!!! years since the Reds last won a playoff series. I don’t see that streak ending anytime soon. 

One more week to go. Hope to see everyone out next week for the finals.

Marc