August 15 • 2019 27
jn

Karen Gordon and Matthew Bassin were 
the recipients of awards presented annually 
in the Inter-Congregational Men’
s Club 
Summer Softball League.
Gordon, who plays for the B’
nai Israel/
Temple Kol Ami team, was presented the 
Jeff Fox Sportsmanship Award. Bassin, who 
plays for the Congregation Shir Tikvah team, 
received the Michael Yendick Pure Heart 
Award.
Each team selects a nominee for the Jeff 
Fox Award, and the winner is selected at 
random.
The other nominees for the 2019 award 
were Joey Lebovic, Roger Lewis, Eric Woolf, 
Matthew Chasnick, Steve Rosenblatt, Paul 
Blatt, Ryan Columbus, Jeff Katzen, Dale 
Zahm, Adam Eisenberg, Mike Feld, Nathan 
Cohen, Mike Lipson, Michael Bloch, Alex 
Vinter and Les Finklestein.
The Yendick Award winner is selected by 
league umpires.

Matthew Bassin and Karen Gordon

The Detroit and Boston 16U baseball teams got together to play unofficially. 

PHIL ARNOLD

At the Maccabi Games last week, the 
Detroit 16U baseball team, coached by 
Rabbi Jason Miller, was eliminated from 
the tournament as was the Boston 16U 
team. Miller met the coach, Aidan Arnold, 
on the bus going back to the JCC.
“I already knew three of his players 
since they’
d been sleeping in my base-
ment on air mattresses all week,” Miller 
said. “We decided that we’
d play a friendly 
‘
consolation’
 game against each other.”

Burt Hershe, the umpire director for the 
Maccabi Games, arranged for umpire Mark 
Cooper to be the umpire for the game. The 
two teams played for three hours on an 
open field at Founders Sports Park on 8 
Mile Road. 
“It was a very fun game that both 
teams took seriously but also had a lot of 
fun with 
. The two coaches, Aidan and I, 
became friends and the players interacted 
with each other very well,” Miller said. ■

True Sportsmanship

with a bachelor’
s degree in sociology 
after a two-year basketball career 
with the Spartans that included being 
a member of the 2010 Final Four 
team and winning two Big Ten regu-
lar-season championships and a Big 
Ten tournament title.
He’
s the first known Division I 
college basketball player diagnosed as 

being on the autism spectrum.
Now a high-functioning autistic 
person, and a husband and father of 
two boys ages 4 and 1, Ianni speaks 
year-round at schools, universities, 
businesses, conferences and summer 
camps. He’
s become one of the most 
sought-after motivational speakers in 
the country. ■

CHUCK FREEDMAN

The Stats

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Each of the three division winners was a Temple Israel team. Temple 
Israel No. 2 won the Greenberg Division, Temple Israel No. 3 won the 
Koufax Division and Temple Israel No. 4 won the Rosen Division.

The three division champions had a combined 36-11-1 record for a 
.750 winning percentage.

The six Temple Israel teams in the league had a combined 65-30-1 
record for a .667 winning percentage.

Only one of the six Temple Israel teams finished below .500.

Four of the six Temple Israel teams in the league are in the Greenberg 
Division. Temple Israel No. 3 will move up to the Greenberg Division 
from the Koufax Division next season because of its Koufax Division 
regular-season championship, which means five of the six Greenberg 
Division teams will be from Temple Israel.

Because of multiple rainouts this summer, the playoffs in the weekly 
league were reduced from three weeks to one week and the planned 
double-elimination post-season competition became single-elimina-
tion. Each league team was able to play its scheduled 16 regular-sea-
son games.

The top two teams in the six-team Greenberg and Koufax divisions 
and the top team in the five-team Rosen Division each will get a 
first-round bye in the playoffs. Teams without a bye must win three 
games in one day to capture their division playoff championship. Each 
division championship game will be at 11:40 a.m. Aug. 18 at Keith 
Sports Park in West Bloomfield.

3

The Inter-Congregational Men’
s Club Summer Softball League regular season 
came t 
o an end Aug. 4. Next are the playoffs Aug. 18, with all 17 teams in the 
three divisions participating.

Here are some numbers from the regular season:

36
65
1
4

16

2

Victor Uzansky — Ben Uzansky’
s father — 
also plays for the Temple Israel No. 2 team.

Ben Uzansky makes contact. He plays for 
the Temple Israel No. 2 team.

CHUCK FREEDMAN

CHUCK FREEDMAN