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The Jeters celebrate back-to-back InterCongregational Men's Club Softball League
fall season championships.
Steve Stein I Contributing Writer
T
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TO October 29 2015
IV
— r
he InterCongregational Men's
Club Softball League fall season
is more about camaraderie than
competition.
But that doesn't make winning a cham-
pionship less sweet than during the sum-
mer season.
The Jeters won their second straight fall
title this month, beating Bad News Jews
10-9 in the playoff title game Oct 18 at
Drake Park in West Bloomfield.
What's the Jeters' secret of success?
"We have fun," said Victor Uzansky,
who manages the team along with Kenny
Walters. "Plus, we have a nice mix of
young guys and experienced players, and
we have players who know how to win."
Formed three years ago as a way to
keep InterCongregational softball going
past the usual end of the summer season
in mid-August, the fall league features six
teams made up of players from different
synagogues, temples and shuls and even
other leagues.
Each team usually has about 14 players,
giving the league about 80 players.
It's a quick season. There are five
Sundays in which each team plays a
doubleheader, then a one-day, single-elim-
ination playoff on a Sunday with every
team qualifying.
Players were drafted by managers prior
to the league's first year. The teams have
stayed together since then, with a few
tweaks.
The Jeters won the championship last
year despite going 3-7 during the regular
season and finishing in fifth place.
They won three straight playoff games
including a 16-4 thumping of No. 1 seed
Bad News Jews in the semifinals — it was
Bad News Jews' only loss of the season —
and a 25-7 win over No. 2 seed Marble
Rye in the title game.
Uzansky's crew took a different route
to the championship this fall. They went
8-2 in the regular season, tying with Bad
News Jews for first place, and they earned
the No. 1 seed for the playoffs because
they beat Bad News Jews twice.
The top two seeds receive a bye in the
first round of the playoffs, so the Jeters
sat out the first round. They beat Sandlot
32-13 in the semifinals before beating Bad
News Jews once again.
Uzansky feels the team's success in the
2014 playoffs carried over into the regular
season this year.
Besides Victor Uzansky and Walters, the
team included Benjamin Uzansky, Richard
and Jarryd Elias, Mike Rubenstein, Scott
Litt, Jeff Kaplan, Eli Cooper, Matt Maser,
Billy Wiseman, Seth Glazer and Scott
Karobin.
Benjamin Uzansky, a junior at Michigan
State University, drove in each Sunday to
play on his father's team.
Dances with Softballs (5-5), Kosher
Ribs (4-6), Sandlot (3-7) and Marble Rye
(2-8) followed the Jeters and Bad News
Jews in the 2015 regular-season standings.
Dances with Softballs beat Marble Rye
15-5 and Sandlot beat Kosher Ribs 20-15
in first-round playoff games. Bad News
Jews edged Dances with Softballs 7-6 in
the semifinals.
League founder Steven Achtman is the
Bad News Jews manager. Ben Watson,
Brad Goldman and Howard Rosner man-
age Dances with Softballs. The other man-
agers are Matt Bassin (Kosher Ribs), Elon
Friedman (Sandlot) and Richard Jacobs
(Marble Rye).
Bad News Jews won the title in the
league's inaugural season. Since then, the
Jeters have been bad news to them.
While they were disappointed about not
winning the title again this fall, Achtman
said, it still was a good season for the Bad
News Jews.
"We have such great camaraderie and
the guys are selfless," he said.
His roster included Shawn Achtman,
Brandon Achtman, Bruce Kaye, Andrew
Kaye, Jordan Kaye, Michael Kaye, Ryan
Columbus, Gary Klinger, Nathan Cohen,
Matt Kash, Barry Fishman, Jonathan
Fellows, Jonny Goldberg, Dennis Horwitz
and Eric Horwitz.
Besides having players from across
the Jewish community on teams, Victor
Uzansky said, the InterCongregational fall
season has a different feel than the sum-
mer season for another reason.
"You have to make a commitment to
play in the fall," he said. "It's easy to play
during the summer, when the weather is
nice most weeks. In the fall, you some-
times play when the weather isn't so nice.
I think you get more die-hards playing in
the fall:' *
Send sports news to stevestein502004@yahoo.com .