Dawgs Softball in Israel | ñåôèáåì éùøàì - äãåâæ

Well, this year started out well. We had seven practices at the field in Rishon, but most had about 7 guys or so. Truth is, we had a total of 14, and each guy came at least once, but still, it's not the same. Even the final practice at Baptist Village, for which we paid hundreds of shekels had only 9 guys. So, it's a problem. First two games started out really well. Shmuel's pitching was confident, and competitive. We almost beat Dimona the first time around, a good sign in anyone's book, especially since they ended up taking the championship away from Penticon. We had Dani Machlis join us for this year, and he's still OK in the outfield, but his bat was not the best in the world. His camera really added to the atmosphere of the games, and there are many photos here on the site that you can see, thanks to Dani. After the third game, things started to slip into a malaise. We are convinced that it is psychological. You see, Yechezkel broke his hand, which means that Shmulik didn't have a back-up. Both Shmuel *and* Yechezkel both psychologically benefit from knowing that the other one is there to take up the slack if one of them gets into trouble. It's like being afraid of heights. You know that if you slip, you fall a looooong way down. You are afraid of slipping, and so you do. But unlike a true fall, in which you do not get up again, and therefore it is literally a matter of life and death to hold on, here, you only lose a game. Big deal. Well, once is not a big deal, but when it happens again and again and again, it gets to be annoying. Then Zeke (Yechezkel) was drafted, and was in until November. He wasn't able to get out too much to play, and so Shmulik was on his own. In the fall, we had Albert pitch for a couple of innings, and although he shows great promise, his control is no where near where we need it to be. Albert on the mound in 2005 should be an interesting story. Stay tuned. Another story, though not quite as big, is David Sommer's bat. He has certainly come into his own at the plate. And again, we are convinced that it's psychological. Hope he can transmit this to the rest of us. Eli Krantman joined us once again for the fall, and was great at short. But then again, his hitting too, was not the best. The big story of 2004, of course, is Jon. Jon apparently developed a cancerous brain tumor in September. He started to "lose it" right around that time (speaking incoherently, forgetting things), and then was hospitalized soon after that. Big loss to the team, no question about that. As of this writing (Jan '05), he is back home, doing better, but still not at work, and softball is the last thing on his mind. Keep him in your prayers, folks. Name is éäåùò àñà áï çéä . For 2005, we are looking at the 17th Maccabiah. We have Shmuel, Yechezkel, Albert, and Michael trying out for the Israel national team. We'll see if any one of them get on the team, and then we'll see how the team does this summer.