sports
Chris Warfield of Great Lakes Region
No. 1 fires up a jump shot against
Brotherhood No. 1 on Sunday in the B’nai
B’rith basketball league.
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28
January 25 • 2018
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B’nai B’rith Basketball,
Bowling In Full Swing
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
T
he 43rd season of the B’nai
B’rith basketball league has
tipped off.
There are six teams in the weekly
league this season, down one from
last year, “but they’re six solid teams,
each with nine or 10 players,” said
Gary Klinger, athletic chairman for
the B’nai B’rith Great Lakes Region.
Downtown Fox, winner of six
straight league championships from
2010-2015, dropped out of the league
and so did a Great Lakes Region
team. But a third Brotherhood team
joined the league to go along with
two Great Lakes Region teams and
two-time defending league champion
Pisgah-Zeiger.
Three league games are being
played Sunday mornings at the
Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield, the league’s home for
several years. After a 10-week regular
season, the top four teams will qualify
for the playoffs, with semifinals and
finals held on the same Sunday.
Pisgah-Zeiger lost in the playoff
championship game in its first four
years in the league including three
straight years to Downtown Fox. Now
it has won two league titles in a row.
Downtown Fox was Pisgah-Zeiger’s
victim in last year’s playoff champion-
ship game. Pisgah-Zeiger won 57-47.
Pisgah-Zeiger went 9-1 during the
regular season and earned the No. 1
seed in the playoffs. Downtown Fox
(7-3) was the No. 2 seed.
Meanwhile, the Brotherhood-Eddie
Jacobson B’nai B’rith bowling league
completed the first half of its season
and has just begun the second half.
The 18-team league bowls
Monday nights at Country Lanes in
Farmington Hills.
Aaron Radner, 22, is bowling full-
time in the league for the first time,
and the league’s youngest bowler has
the highest average, a 224.
He was a substitute the past couple
years when he was home on break
from at Michigan State University,
where he was on
MSU’s club bowling
team for four years
and served as team
captain as a junior
and senior before
he graduated last
May with a degree in
Aaron Radner
accounting.
The right-hander’s
lone 300 game was
bowled during Brotherhood-Eddie
Jacobson League play March 9, 2015,
when he rolled 232-192-300--724 as
a sub. He was 20 at the time. He’s
believed to be the youngest bowler to
roll a 300 game in league history.
It seems every 300 game has a
backstory and Radner’s gem certainly
does.
He changed bowling balls late in
the second game that night and after
finishing the game strong, he stuck
with the ball for the third game and
reeled off 12 straight solid pocket hits.
“I’m really enjoying bowling in the
league every week,” he said. “The guys
are very friendly, and there are a lot of
good bowlers.”
The 224 average is his highest
he’s maintained over a long period
of time. Before he went to Michigan
State, he was an outstanding bowler
for North Farmington High School
and an Academic All-State selection.
“I can’t tell you specifically why
I’m bowling so well in the league,”
the Farmington Hills resident said.
“Everything is coming together. I do
need to point out, though, that we
bowled on lanes with tougher condi-
tions when I was on the MSU team.”
Radner is bowling on a newly
formed league team called Mix ‘n’
Match. It’s an appropriate name.
His teammates are Bob Breitman,
who bowled in the league last year,
along with league newcomers Kenny
Weiss and Steve Mattler. •
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stevestein502004@yahoo.com.