Detroit's
Barbecue Legend,
Now Open in
Pontiac!
8 N. Saginaw St. Pontiac
248.409.5329
sports
Southfield-Lathrup Spirit
Lives On In Softball Team
slowsbarbq.com
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
S
10% OFF
Entire bill
Expires 12.15.17
Pontiac location only
8 N. Saginaw St.
Pontiac, MI
We offer Call Ahead Carry-Out and Catering Services
2192400
DESIGNS IN DECORATOR WOOD & LAMINATES, LTD.
It Doesn't Have
To Cost A Fortune…
Only Look Like It!
Complete kitchen and
bathroom remodeling as well
as furniture design and
installations including granite,
wood and other materials.
Lois Haron Allied Member ASID 248.851.6989
2152860
36
December 7 • 2017
jn
outhfield-Lathrup High School is
no more.
Opened in 1967, the school
closed in 2016 because of declining
enrollment and financial struggles
in the Southfield School District. S-L
is now the district’s University High
School Academy.
Memories of S-L live on in a men’s
slow-pitch softball team, of all things.
The Lizards, formed in 1975 by S-L
grads who wanted to stay in touch,
completed their 42nd season in the
Southfield Open Men’s Class D League
this summer.
They went 18-0, winning 14 regular-
season games and four games in
the playoffs to capture their second
league title in three years.
Player-coach Dennis Horwitz,
62, has been on the team since its
inception. The 1972 S-L graduate is
the team’s lone remaining tie to the
school. Wayne Miller, another original
team member, stopped playing for the
Lizards after the 2015 season.
An infusion of younger and new
players through the years has changed
the look of the team. Horwitz thinks
the team’s median age these days is
probably in the late 20s.
“Experience can only take you so far
in slow-pitch softball,” he said. “You
need young players to be successful.”
The youngest player on the team is
22-year-old Eric Horwitz, Dennis’ son.
“I was Eric’s age when I started play-
ing on the Lizards,” Dennis said. “Eric
was the team’s batboy starting when
he was 4 and he began playing with us
when he was 16.”
Eric is still a batboy. He’s done that
job for the Detroit Tigers at Comerica
Park the past six summers.
Other players on the Lizards
include Matt Broder, brothers Danny
and Johnny Deutsch, Barry Fishman,
Jake Holoway, Matt Kash, Andrew
Kaye, Garret Segal and Ryan Weiss.
All live in Farmington Hills or West
Bloomfield. There are no Southfield or
Lathrup Village residents on the team.
Broder is the most acclaimed
athlete on the Lizards’ roster. The
2008 Jewish News Male High School
Athlete of the Year from Cranbrook-
Kingswood went on to pitch for the
University of Michigan baseball team.
“We keep playing together because
we enjoy the camaraderie and we like
playing ball,” Dennis Horwitz said.
“We’re successful because the guys
Dennis Horwitz and his son Eric Horwitz
celebrate the Lizards’ latest softball
championship.
know the fundamentals of the game.
They know how to play. I’ll keep play-
ing as long as I can. It’s year to year.”
League games are played Thursday
nights at Inglenook Park off 12 Mile
Road between Evergreen and Lahser
roads. The park is within walking
distance of what used to be S-L,
which also is off 12 Mile just east of
Evergreen.
There’s no great story behind the
Lizards team name.
“We were talking about a name
one day, came up with Lizards, and it
stuck,” Dennis Horwitz said.
Perhaps the most famous member
of the original Lizards team was Gary
Friedman, an acclaimed photojour-
nalist at the Los Angeles Times who
died in June after a 15-year battle with
prostate cancer. He was 62.
Friedman covered the 9-11 terror-
ist attacks, presidential elections, the
1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, the
Super Bowl and the Olympics. He won
a World Press Photo award in 1981 for
his photos of twin women conjoined
at the head.
After beginning his professional
career at age 16 at the Southfield
Eccentric newspaper and graduat-
ing from Wayne State University,
Friedman earned an internship in
1976 at National Geographic maga-
zine. He worked for the Los Angeles
Times from 1980 until his retirement
in 2015. •
Send sports news to stevestein502004@
yahoo.com.