Last update - 00:00 10/08/2007
Softball / Lelchook memorial tournament brings in friends from all over
By Gadi Bossin
Organizers of the Dave Lelchook Memorial Softball Tournament at Kibbutz Shomrat last Friday had hoped to have just enough ballplayers and perhaps two dozen spectators, but the response went way beyond expectations.
Forty-two players, coaches and umpires arrived in uniform ready to play and officiate. Ron Blumenthal traveled nearly the entire length of Israel from Eilat. A crowd of more than 100 was on hand, including Steve Goldman, one-time Adamit-Shomrat player/coach, who came all the way from New York City.
Dave's mother Doris, sister Judy, brother Alex, and nephew Noah, all from Boston, and Estie Lelchook and daughters Yael and Michal of Kibbutz Saar were guests of honor.
There were moving opening and memorial ceremonies as friends and family remembered Dave, a catcher on the national softball team at the 1989 Maccabiah Games who was killed by a Katyusha rocket as he was cycling just outside his home on Kibbutz Saar during the Second Lebanon War last summer.
Play-by-play announcers took turns calling the games in English, Hebrew and Spanish.
The large number of players who came to play allowed for a quick realignment from a single game into a three-team mini-tournament. Players from different Israel Softball Association teams combined to form the three tournament teams.
The managers were Ed Friedman and Yehuda Beinin, two of the founders of the ISA thirty years ago, and Rabbi Bob Samuels, a softball stalwart and an elected member of the Brandeis University Sports Hall of Fame.
Each of the managers also played in the games. All three reached base, Beinin and Samuels on solid base hits, and Friedman with his hustle causing a throwing error.
An outstanding defensive performance was turned in by Shmuel Goldstein of The Dawgs who made two half-diving, half-sliding game-saving catches in right field for Team Ed.
Ron Blumenthal of the Eilat Flames and Roni Bossin of the Tel Aviv Tigers alternated in left field for Team Bob. Both made fine running catches as if they were in mid-season form and not on a summer break from softball.
Tim Cummings of the Galil Twisters and Tal Beinin of the national women's softball team combined on a shortstop-to-catcher throw-and-tag for a put out for Team Yehuda. Beinin had just returned from the national team's successful appearance at the European Tournament in Croatia.
Cummings and Roberto Popowski (Cerveceros/Team Bob) had the tournament's key hits, each with a two-RBI single, and Natan Tamari (Twisters/Team Yehuda) smashed a run-scoring double.
Ami Baran (Penticon/Team Ed), Bill Arscott (Twisters/Team Yehuda) and Shalom Menora (Shimshon Hi-Tech/Team Bob) sparkled in the innings they pitched, as did Yosi Ajzenwaser (Cerveceros/Team Yehuda) and Hezi Ganz (Cerveceros/Team Ed) in their innings.
Ganz struck out the final batter of the tournament to give Team Ed the tournament championship. The scores of the three abbreviated games: Team Ed 4-3 over Team Yehuda; Team Yehuda 1-0 versus Team Bob; 1-1 between Team Bob and Team Ed in the final game. Team Ed captured the tournament title with one win and one tie. Team Yehuda finished second with one win and one loss. Team Bob was third with one loss and one tie. A ruling by the tournament commissioner turned a 4-1 Team Bob lead over Team Yehuda in the top of the third and final inning of their game into a Team Yehuda victory, 1-0. The tournament rules required a reversion to the score at the end of the previous inning if the game was not completed within forty minutes.
Calling the games were ISA umpires Howie Litz, Bob Kessler, Shmuel Goldstein, Brian Aron and Goose Gillett.
Gillett, of the ISA executive board, presented the Lelchook family with two balls signed by the players. Gadi Bossin presented memorial tournament souvenir certificates to the family.
Jonathan Friedland, U.S. Consul in Haifa, also addressed the gathering.
Arscott, Dave's pitcher and battery mate on the Shomrat Cubs during the 1980s and '90s, shared his thoughts and feelings one year after. "In a way, this gentle giant is immortal to me," he said. "A day doesn't go by when I don't hear his voice in my head. I miss my catcher. I miss my friend. I miss my brother. I miss our Dave."