TSS 2001 Reports Page

2001 TSS Team Reports Page

March 18th

Angels

The Angels kicked off their 2001 Temple Shalom Softball season with a schizophrenic opener against the Twins. The home standing Goldsteiners jumped to a commanding 7-0 lead after three innings but the never-say-die Angels stormed back for four in the fourth and fifth innings to seize the lead. Unfortunately, evil-Twin Abbey "a monkey's uncle" Garber gapped a two-run homer to give the Twins the lead for good. Bad guys 13, Good guys 8. The fallen Angels trudged home for a tilt against the always entertaining Cubs. The Broskians, due to a last second defection, were shorthanded, forced to play with just nine. Regardless, the Bruins jumped to a 7-1 lead after 1 and half innings. The Angels slapped on an eight spot in the bottom of the second, highlighted by Mark Jacobs three-run blast. The Cubs bounced back with six unanswered runs in the third and fourth frames to snag a 13-9 lead. The Haloes proceeded to score the last nine runs of the game to salt away their first victory of the young year, 18-13.

Name AB R H RBI

Eric Singer 8 6 6 3

Rony Batagower 6 2 4 3

David Lowenberg 6 0 3 4

Twins

The Twins, with 6 returning players from their Fall championship team, continued their winning ways beating the Angels 13-8 and the Cardinals 11-4. Led by the pitching of Harry "Satchel" Abrams and the fine fielding of Dan Feldman, Barry Golden, Greg Moore and Abbey Garber, the Twins won in unspectacular fashion with lots of line drive singles and solid defense. 35 of the Twins' 37 hits were singles, with slugger Abbey Garber smashing a 2B and a HR off of Angels' all start pitcher John Unell. Unell said "We really miss having Ron Putman as our pitching coach. I forgot I wasn't supposed to throw Garber meatballs." In addition to Abbey Garber, leading hitters on the day included Barry Golden 6-8, 4 runs, 1 rbi; Harry Abrams 4-6, 1 run, 3 rbis; Stan Grossman 5-7, 4 runs, 1 rbi; Gary Pearce 5-6, 3 runs, 2 rbis; and Bruce Neese 5-6, 3 runs, 3 rbis. Harvey Flick also provided key scouting advice on the Cardinals alerting Mike O'Connor as to baserunning tendencies of the Cards' speedy players allowing O'Connor to throw out one of the speedy Cards trying to stretch a 2B into a 3B. Many have projected the Twins to lead the league in fan attendance this year and despite the cold weather and Marty Goldstein, the 2000 fan of the year, being out of town (in Florida scouting for potential Twins call-ups), the Twins had two faithful fans, Lindsay Feldman and Adam Rosenfield in attendance. Dan Feldman could be heard in the dugout giving some really Brotherhoodly advice to youngsters Barry Golden and Greg Moore "Guys I just got married last month and my wife came out here to watch. I know last year your girlfriends came out to all the games, but now that you're engaged they think they don't need to come out any more. You need to set your women straight from the start. First it's I don't want to come to softball it's too cold and next thing you know dinner's not ready and waiting on the table when you get home at night." Barry and Greg could be seen taking notes.

Indians

The Indians 1st Game of the year saw the mighty Wahoo men jump out to a 7-0 lead against the Phillies. It did not hold. A gut renching extra inning loss. 10-9. The bottom of the line up gets the credit for keeping us in it. Todd Cowle, Joel Rosenzwieg, Rob Goldbaltt, all performed above expectations. 2Nd game, hello win collumn. Beating the Pirates in a wild game with over 40 runs scored. Hitting stars, Prager brothers, Richard taking 1 deep, Howard hitting a perfect 1000. for the season. Robert Surecks game winning bases clearing hit in the 7th inning to win it.

April 1st

Angels

The winless Dodgers pulled an April Fools joke on the Angels in the opener, stomping the visitors 6-3 in a game that wasn't as close as the score indicates. The sun and wind turned the game into a pitchers' duel until the bottom of the third when the Weinbergermeisters broke the log jam behind a two-out, inside-the-park grandslam. The nine-member Dodgers added a two-spot in the fourth and cruised home with their first win of the year, courtesy of the generous Angels.The Angels returned home to face the mighty, free-swinging Rockies. The Angels fought back from an 8-4 deficit by batting around in the third inning for nine runs, highlighted by Eric Singer's bases clearing triple. The comeback coincided with the mid-game disappearance of the Rockies' Slinging Sammy Rosenzweig, which reduced the visitors to playing with only nine. The stingy defense held the Parkerites to only 2 runs over the last four innings, resulting in a 17-10 victory and evening the Angels record to 2-2 at the religious break.

Hellavu Angels

Name AB H R RBI

Eric Singer 7 2 4 5

Rony Batagower 7 2 4 1

Ken Behr 6 1 3 4

Gene Reister 7 3 3 1

Twins

The Twins extended their win streak to 9 games (including the fall tournament), beating the Pirates 9-5 and the undefeated Rangers 7-5. With the wind blowing in from left both games, the Twins were once again led by the fine pitching of Harry Abrams and the defense of Dan Feldman and Abbey Garber. Despite the wind blowing in, Stuart Rosenfield hit his first career over the fence home run to seal the Twins victory. The Twins continued to hit solidly throughout the lineup. Leading hitters on the day included Abbey Garber 5-8, 3 runs, 2 RBIs; Harry Abrams 4-7, a 2B, 1 run, 2 RBIs; Gary Pearce 4-6, 2 runs; and Greg Moore 3-6, 2 runs, 2 RBIs. The Twins have two rookie of the year candidates in Greg Moore and Bruce Neece. Bruce joins the league after fine tuning his skills in the Japanese and Mexican Leagues while Greg is a product of the Twins farm system. Both have had their speed compared to Lou Brock's - Greg to Brock's speed in the 1960s and Bruce to Brock's speed today. Oh by the way, the Rosenfield home run is an April Fools.

April 22nd

Yankees

Overcast skies, gale force winds and a light rain near the start of the game all were apparent omens that the Yankees should have stayed in bed (or stayed in Shreveport) rather than take to the softball fields. Playing on field 6 with the wind blowing out to right, Cardinal leadoff man Larry Taub started the barrage by landing one at the base of the fence. From there it was uphill as the Cardinals tallied 8 before the Yankees even picked up a bat. The gap was closed to 9-4 after two when the Cards put 4 more on the board to seal the game. There were no extra base hits to be found by the “murderless row” of Yanks during this game. The Yanks were led by Irv Munn and Art Rothenberg who each were 2-2 with a walk. Ron Pinkus also added 2 hits in the effort.

The second game opened with a glimmer of hope as a few hits and the Indians gloves allowed the Yanks to jump out with 6 runs in the first. All seemed well as we were now hitting directly into the wind and the previous game on that field ended up 2-1. But the softball Gods had jinxed our gloves and the Indians rallied with 5 of their own in the bottom of the first. After 3, the game was tied 7-7 and the Indians broke it open with the bases loaded when Howard Prager knocked one off the fence in right and eventually scored on the play. Not even the Knute Rockne style pep talk of “GET YOUR HEADS OUT YOUR @#$@$!!” by fearless leader Silverman was enough to bring the Yanks back. Final score 12-8 Indians. Yanks were led by Bob Davis 3-3, Art Rothenberg 2-3 and Dave Mandell 2-3.

Next week (weather permitting) our first game we will face the Phillies in a battle of 1-5 teams. Both teams are counting on this game as a momentum shifting game and advise the league to watch out for whoever comes away with the win.

Angels

The Angels found themselves in a key intra-division match-up with the first place Rangers in Sunday's opener. Unfortunately, with the wind playing havoc with both the pitching and fly balls, this game was hardly a testament to the talent of either team. The game seesawed back and forth with time expiring and the game knotted at 15. After a scoreless first extra frame, the Angels took advantage of 5 walks in route to a 5-run eighth inning, highlighted by Rony Batagower's bases-clearing triple. Some timely defense helped closeout the Sack Attack, 20-17. The second game was against the Cardinals and a sweep was not in the cards for the Angels. The Redbirds put up 7-spots in the first two innings and cruised 17-8. The game was never in doubt as the Tannistas slapped the ball all over the yard. Another week, another split for the good guys.

Name AB R H RBI

David Lowenberg 6 3 5 3

Eric Singer 7 3 4 2

Rony Batagower 7 2 4 6 2 3B's

Twins

The Twins split their doubleheader, beating the Braves 10-3 in the opener and losing to the Dodgers 12-10 in the second game. On one of the windier days in recent history, Harry Abrams did a masterful job of pitching. Abbey Garber led the way in the first game with 2 home runs. Garber was quoted as saying " When we play the Braves my strategy is usually to aim right at Brian Sureck and with Brian missing the game and the Braves only having three outfielders I was able the gap the aging Mark Fishkind and Craig Prengler." The game also marked the first game of the year for star outfielder Joel Gilhang who ended his holdout. Management ended up being forced to give in to his weighty demands - never has to warm up with Stuart Rosenfield before the game, all team members agree to come out of the dugout after every Gilhang home run and do the funky chicken dance, and is permitted to wear earplugs when playing the Cubs.

The Dodgers handed the Twins their first defeat of the season. The Twins countered the Dodgers' 6 run 6th inning with 5 runs to come up just short. The Twins continue to lead the league in fan attendance with Feldman, Moore, Rosenfield and Goldstein bringing out fans.

Name AB H R RBI Notes

Dan Feldman 5 4 3 2 HR & 2B

Abbey Garber 6 4 5 2

Joel Gilhang 6 5 3 1 3B

Larry Goldstein 6 4 2 1 HR

Bruce Neese 6 4 1 4 2 2B's

April 29th

Angels

On perhaps the most perfect day of weather in the history of the Temple Shalom Softball League, the Angels played to form and emerged with their fourth split in as many weeks. The opener was against the first place, late-arriving Indians. A well-rounded hitting performance saw each of the twelve Haloes scratch out at least one hit. The Angels pounded out 23 hits, finessed three walks and were gifted with three fielding errors by the visiting RothIRAs. The key blow was Michael Zientz's two-run triple in the 8-run second inning. Fine glove work by Ken Behr helped overcome other deficiencies in field as the Angels prevailed 18-12. The second game was against the homestanding Phillies. The Angels started strong, stringing together seven consecutive hits and five runs to open the game. The Angels followed with another 5-spot in the second but then the bats ran out of gas. The KaufmanBroads kept battling back and finally seized the lead in their last at bat. Several fielding blunders by the generous Angels and the failure of umpire Richard O'Connor to award the deep strike aided the Phillies in their comeback, 15-12.

Helleva Angels

Name AB H R RBI Notes

Eric Singer 7 5 5 3 3B & HR

Gene Reister 6 4 2 0

Rony Batagower 7 6 5 3

Michael Zientz 5 2 0 4 3B & BB

May 20th

Angels

The Angels updates virtually write themselves. They go something like this... The Angels, playing with only nine players, won their opener in less than convincing fashion. They jumped on the Cubs for 7 runs before the Brodsky Herzegovnians came out of hibernation. After a few anxious moments in the 7th, the Harpists held on for an 11-9 victory and a season sweep over the otherwise undefeated Bruins. The undermanned Angels next faced the always dangerous visiting Reds. The Rubinesques fattened their win column with a solid 7-4 victory in a reasonably well-played tilt. For the fifth consecutive week, the Angels split and stand locked into mediocrity at 5-5.

Helluva Angels

Name AB H R RBI Notes

Ken Behr 8 3 6 1 3B

Elliott Goodman 6 3 4 4 3B, HR, BB

Twins

The Twins kept their hot streak alive, beating the Cards 16-6 and the Indians 10-4, to move into a first place tie, at 8-2, with the Cubs. The Twins came out strong in the first game, mowing down the Cards 1-2-3 in the top of the first and then repsonding with 10 straight hits, including 4 extra base hits to start off the bottom of the first (including an over the fence homer for Bruce Neese). The 9-0 first inning lead was too much for the Cards to overcome. The Twins hammered out 23 hits including 7 extra base hits.

The second game was a defensive battle, with the wind blowing in. Dan Feldman's bases loaded 2B gave the Twins a 6-1 lead and with Harry Abrams' knucklecurve in rare form the Indians were unable to come back.

Leading Hitters

The entire doggone team, they kicked our butts pretty bad.

June 3rd

Angels

The Angels won their opener against the Braves 6-2 behind the clutch pitching of surprise starter George Cowart. Eric Singer provided a spectacular, game saving catch to ice the game against the Sureckatonians. The Angels not only lost the second game to the Dodgers, 19-12, but they lost their star leftfielder, Gil Wolchock, for the season due to a freak first inning injury. Forced to play with only nine players, the Angels fell prey to the remorseless Weinbergermeisters.

June 10th

Angels

Still reeling from the loss of spiritual leader, Gil Wolchock, the Angels suffered a devasting lose to the Rockies, 12-11, after a hard fought two-extra inning game. Michael Zientz's 2-run homer helped give the Angels a three-run lead going into the last frame, but the perky Parker-Bowlesians quickly tied it up with a three spot in the bottom of the inning. The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the second extra inning when the Rockies added to the Angels' woes by scoring the winning run and putting the Angels under the .500 mark for the first time since the first game of the year. The second game was anti-climatic as the the Angels were emotionally drained and lost a lackluster 8-4 decision to the Red Sox. The Rakofskites used hypnotic pitching tricks from Commissioner Hank Weinstein to subdue the already dazed Haloes.

Devilish Angels

Name AB R H RBI Notes

Rony Batagower 16 6 10 4 2 2B's & 3B (Keeps up production)

Elliott Goodman 13 4 7 1 2B

Mike Zientz 14 3 4 3 2 HR's (Deceptive Power)

June 17th

The Angels celebrated Father's Day with a double-dip thrashing at the hands of the Yankees and Rangers. Both games featured the repeated taunts of their opponents asking "Who's your daddy?"

June 24, 2001

The Angels, losers of five consecutive games, suspended several star players (Elliott Goodman, Gil Wolchock, David Lowenberg and Bill Davidoff) for actions detrimental to the organization. The suspensions were for two games each. The players reportedly denied all rumors of wife/family swapping and directed all questions to Mike Kekich or Fritz Peterson, their spiritual leaders. The undermanned Haloes then promptly went out and swept a doubleheader for the first time this year. The opener was against the equally woeful record-wise Cardinals (watch who you are calling woeful). The Angels tied it with a two-out, game-tying single by Mark Jacobs and won it in the first extra frame on Eric Singer's game-winning leadoff homer in the bottom of the inning. In the second game against the struggling Indians, the Angels survived a scare after time had expired and the score was tied when Eric Singer caught a one-out fly ball and converted it into an inning ending double play on a picture perfect throw to Mark Jacobs to send this game to extra innings also. In the only extra frame, Michael Zientz's two-out triple scored Ken Behr with what proved to be the game winner. Both games featured the magnificent pitching of George Cowart. Every non-suspended Angel contributed to the winning cause in one way or another.

Two-Week Combined Stat Stars Angel

Name AB R H RBI Notes

Rony Batagower 18 4 8 5 2B, 3B, HR

George Cowart 11 5 6 3 3 BBs

Elliott Goodman 8 3 6 3 (2) 2Bs

Michael Zientz 17 2 7 1 2B & 3B

July 1st, 2001

Eight is Enough

Fresh off of last week's doubleheader sweep with only 9 players, the
Angels attempted to string together a season-best three game winning streak
with the same numerical disadvantage. The results were disastrous as the
visiting Pirates tattooed a 9-spot in the top of the first on the Angels and
never looked back. The Clown-hating Weinfeldians blew out the Haloes 22-1.
The only RBI for the good-guys were hammered in by last-second supersub Art
Rubinett. Immediately following the loss, the team released Mr.
Rubinett for his poor sportsmanship in ruining Pirate Jon Solov's shutout bid.
Mr. Rubinett's dismissal left the Angels with a mere eight souls
against the surging Phillies. Without Mr. Rubinett's bad karma, the Angel bats
awoke to the tune of 15 runs in the first 5 innings. The KaufmanTires attempted
a valiant comeback but fell short, 15-7. After the game, the Angels
voted to not give Mr. Rubinett a share of their playoff money.

Angel for a Day

Name AB R H RBI Notes

David Lowenberg 8 2 6 1 Rookie of the Year

Rony Batagower 7 3 5 4 HR

Eric Singer
7
3 5 4 2B

Bill Davidoff - - - - In Paris & London scouting for Gil Wolchok replacement

July 15th, 2001

Unell Magic strikes again

Angels Wing Their Way Into the Post-Season

The 7th and last seeded Angels met the 6th seeded Cardinals in the 
Teenie Weenies for a chance to play the 5th seeded Indians in the 
Mini-Playoffs of Division I in hopes of joining their big brothers in the Double 
Elimination Tournament.  Despite being held to a mere 12 hits in 7 innings and 
hitting into the first recorded triple-play (9-4-2-5 for those scoring at home) 
in Temple Shalom softball postseason history, the Angels battled back from 
the brink of elimination and eked out a 5-3 victory.  The lost eliminated 
the Tanndinistas, a dynasty that had made it to the World Series in an 
unprecedented four consecutive years.  Next up was the powerful 
Indians, led by the Prager brothers.  Numerous fielding blunders by the Indians, 
coupled with a tight strike zone and clutch hitting by the Angels, turned this 
intriguing match-up into a blowout as the Angels crushed past the 
RothIRAs 16-2.  Next up, the 5th seeded Rockies.

Name	AB	R	H	RBI	Notes
Keith Youngblood	6	1	2	1	Vacuum at 2nd
Eric Singer	5	4	4	1	(3) BB, SF, Webgem
Eliot Gilbert	5	4	3	0	(2) BB, Sparkplug
Ken "Polar" Behr	6	0	4	5	2B, (2) SF
Mike Zientz	7	2	4	1	Rookie of the year??

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