Dawgs Softball in Israel | ñåôèáåì éùøàì - äãåâæ

2003 started out with good practices, but without a sponsor. In the photo above, ltr: Steve Kronengold, Eli Fagan, Danny Epstein, Natan Mandel, Oren Inbar, Jake Miller, Yaniv Gohary w/bat, Yossi Glickman, Jon Dym, Jeremy Shai (squatting), Yechezkel Gantz, Hilik Besser, Lowell Blackman. With Jon Dym on board as an energetic coach and with managerial experience and "ichpatiut"(*), we were able to schedule several practices before the start of the season. In addition, like a matriarch Elephant (what's with the animal comparisons here?), Jon brought the knowledge of exactly where to practice: Sport-Kef in Rishon Le-Tzion. You see, this field is conveniently located next to Highway 4, is lighted, and costs NOTHING. So, there we went. Actually, we started the weekly practices in the summer of 2002, and these sessions were helpful. As for the Spring of 2003, the start was very cold, as the winter of 2002-2003 in Israel was a cold, wet one. In addition, several players found out about the team from the website, which is a first for us. The downside of 2003, at least as of this writing, is that we did not have a sponsor. However, because of the fortunate lobbying on the part of Otzma (see Otzma in Links), we were able to squeek by the year without schnorring more money from the guys. If you, Gentle Reader, wish to sponsor this team, imagine your name up in lights: "Gentle Reader DAWGS" Sound good? Well, email either Shmuel (shmuel_goldstein@hotmail.com) or Jon (jdym@012.net.il) The spring season ended up with fewer wins than we expected. We won all of 2 games, and one of them was by forfeit. Hmmmmmm. But, the games we *did* play featured tighter defense, if you can believe that. Well, believe it. The difference here was that the bats went silent for some reason, and also, simply, the whole league has gotten better. Yechezkel Gantz was certainly the rookie of the year, contributing behind the plate, on the mound, then later at SS, and his bat turned out to be the best on the team, which admittedly, isn't saying much. Shmuel's pitching goals were to keep his ERA in single digits, walk less than one batter per inning, more strikes than balls, and more SO's than BB's. He acheived all these goals except the last. ERA was just under 9, Free Ride per inning (BB+HP) was 0.93 (note that the avg batter/inning he saw was 6.5), 1.37 S/B ratio, but Free Ride % (BB+HP) was 14.20 whereas SO% was 2.60. The fall season saw the addition of Eli Krantman at short, who didn't disappoint us there, no sir. His bat is another story. We're gonna have to work on that one. We also saw Michael Moronov, who played a couple of games with us, and is another Rechovot Youth Softball player. He looks good, but he's young. Albert also, just keeps getting stronger and stronger. He can throw out someone stealing second without a second thought. Imagine a Polar Bear with a Russian accent. Da, nazdarovya, growlsky. We lost Jeremy to the IDF - keep us safe, Jeremy, and keep yourself safe, too. Yaniv will be going in during the winter of 2004, so we're going to lose him then, too. Russell did not show up in the fall, and neither did Yehudah Kronengold, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have left the team. And oh, we saw that former Dawg Eitan Pomeranz joined Tri-United, and we are glad to report that we struck him out in his first at-bat against us. As for our play, we nominally improved from the spring, and could have, and should have, had a win/loss percentage of 0.400 for the fall (instead it was 0.200). We had a game against Shomrat, in which, going in to the 6th inning, we were leading 14 to 11. But our intrepid starting pitcher got a major case of butterflies and lost his control. We put in Yechezkel, who had even worse control. The game unravelled, and Shomrat scored 8 runs in the top of the 7th. We only managed to score 4 more in return, losing the game, 18 to 19. This means that we've got to work on Yechezkel's pitching, and Shmuel still has some mental work to do, as well. Yossi Glickman is a promising guy, and very fast on his feet, although he's kinda weird. Well, you're weird, too, aren't you? So what are you complaining about? (*) Hebrew slang for "a guy who actually gives a damn" List of players (Spring): Blackman, Lowell Dym, Jon Epstein, Danny Even, Robert Gantz, Yechezkel Glickman, Yossi Gohary, Yaniv Goldstein, Shmuel Kronengold, Yehudah Mandel, Natan Rothstein, Russel Sarkovitz, Albert Shai, Jeremy Sommer, David List of players (Fall): Blackman, Lowell Dym, Jon Epstein, Danny Even, Robert Gantz, Yechezkel Glickman, Yossi Gohary, Yaniv Goldstein, Shmuel Krantman, Eli Mandel, Natan Moronov, Michael Sarkovitz, Albert Sommer, David In photo below: Top, ltr: Lowell Blackman, David Sommer, Yechezkel Gantz, Danny Epstein, Jon Dym, Yossi Glickman Bottom, ltr: Shmuel Goldstein, Robert Even, Albert Sarkovitz, Eli Krantman, with Yaniv Gohary in front