Dawgs Softball in Israel | ñåôèáåì éùøàì - äãåâæ

Our final practice brought us back to our "home" field in Rishon. This was our first time this year without our intrepid coach, Jon Dym (personal reasons kept him at home). But Yechezkel showed his mettle as a wonderful coach for this practice. He can ump, too, guys. Bueno. The team has jelled, and worked almost without a driver at all. Everyone knew what to do, and did it with alacrity. Runners took the signal, Shmuel has developed a drop ball (and struck out 4 dawgs, besides), and Lowell has shown he can still hit. The only question left is: When is Alon getting a haircut? Attendance report:

Veterans: Danny Epstein, Shmuel Goldstein, Natan Mandel, Robert Even, Yechezkel Gantz, David Sommer, Lowell Blackman, Michael Moronov, Yaniv Gohary, Alon Kaminer Newbies: None Absentees Dani Machlis, Yigal Rosfeld, Albert Sarkovitch, Yossi Glickman, Jon Dym

Yigal Rozval from Rehovot joins us. Yigal also is a coach in the Rehovot Softball League. Oh, and by the way, his wife just gave birth to a baby girl (March 9). Mazal Tov to them. Dani Machlis , after several false starts in the fall is with us for the spring at least. Dani is an excellent outfielder, and is very quick on the feet. He's also a professional photographer, and lives in Beer Sheva. Yaniv Gohary will be leaving us temporarily for his compulsory IDF duties. He will be a soldier until June, 2007. Sounds like a long time. As they say here, ùéôùåó ÷ì åðòéí - which means "may you have a pleasant time getting all scratched up". And come back in one piece, please, Yaniv? Eli Krantman, - last fall, we thought "hit the baw El-leh" was going to stay with us, but EK informed us that he cannot continue. Some dumb excuse like family, wife, and medical school. Boy, people these days have their priorities really mixed up . . .

Our sixth practice was under the real lights at Baptist Village in PT. But it seems that our only new player was Mr. Murphy: Yechezkel sprained his right hand (that's his pitching hand), and is out for 2-3 weeks, Shmuel at the last minute suffered from a sore shoulder and could not pitch, Jon's leg was injured, and to top it off, we had only 9 guys show up. Well, we DID have the batting cage, and did not a small amount of scrimmaging. Not bad, considering. Noteworthy was Michael Moronov behind the plate. Keep an eye on him, he's certainly a rising star. Eli Krantman has informed us that he will not be with us this spring. Attendance report:

Veterans: Jon Dym, Danny Epstein, Shmuel Goldstein, Natan Mandel, Robert (hard as) Even, Yechezkel Gantz, David Sommer, Lowell Blackman, Michael Moronov, Yaniv Gohary Newbies: None Absentees Dani Machlis, Yigal Rosfeld, Albert Sarkovitch, Alon Kaminer, Yossi Glickman

Now we are starting to see us warming up for real, folks. With 11 guys showing up, we are starting to show that we just might be serious. After being led by Yechezkel in warm-ups (we did the monkey, don't ask . . . ), we once again divided up into two groups: one groups did infield practice, and the other did batting practice, with soft-toss from BEHIND the batter. Hooo-boy. Jon presented us with our unique offensive signals. We cannot report on them here, as it is classified information. After that, most of the guys did Jon's famous relay race, while Shmuel and Yaniv on the side warmed up pitching and catching. We then had a scrimmage game, with Shmuel pitching, where everyone got to hit. He later switched with Yechezkel, whose improvement curve has a positive derivative indeed. Attendance report:

Veterans: Jon Dym, Shmuel Goldstein, Danny Epstein, Natan Mandel, Yaniv Gohary, Yechezkel Gantz, David Sommer, Lowell Blackman, Alon Kaminer (hey, it's been a while), Newbies: Yigal Rosfel, Dani Machlis (finally !!!!!) - like that ponytail, dude Absentees Eli Krantman, Michael Moronov, Yaniv Gohary, Albert Sarkovitz, Robert Even

The weather finally warmed up a bit, and we were all hot, hot, hot. Our fifth practice had once again, 11 Dawgs barking on the field, with two dogs on the side, one of which wanted to play behind the plate. After warm-ups led by Jon, and doing his imitation of a gorilla, we divided into our usual two groups: one groups did infield practice (much more intense this time), and the other did batting practice, with soft-toss. This time David Sommer was the slugger. We went over some rather complicated infield defensive positioning. The information can be found on this website under the Handouts link. Shmuel and Albert once again warmed up pitching and catching on the side. Hey guys, Shmuel has a drop ball. It's almost ready. Another scrimmage game featured Shmuel striking out Yechezkel (never mind that he walked Danny Epstein twice, and Yigal once). The offensive signals are working better, guys. Very nice. Attendance report:

Veterans: Jon Dym, Danny Epstein, Albert Sarkovitch, Shmuel Goldstein, Robert (hard as) Even, Yechezkel Gantz, David Sommer, Lowell Blackman, Michael Moronov (hey!) Newbies: Dani Machlis, Yigal Rosfeld Absentees Eli Krantman, Natan Mandel, Alon Kaminer, Yaniv Gohary, Yossi Glickman