36 | NOVEMBER 21 • 2019 

sports HIGHlights

brought to you in partnership with 

quick hits
BY STEVE STEIN 

A Tale Of Kosher Ribs and, 
Thankfully, No Broken Ribs

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
T

he line drive was hit 
so hard that Dave 
Raminick never had a 
chance to move.
Standing at third base, ready 
to score in the early innings of 
the Inter-Congregational Men’
s 
Club Fall Softball League’
s 
playoff championship game, 
Raminick was hit on the right 
side of his chest by a foul ball 
hit by teammate Brad Golder.
The impact knocked 
Raminick to the ground and 
left him stunned.
“I couldn’
t get out of the way 
of the ball. Brad hit a missile. 
He’
s the hardest hitter on our 
team,” Raminick said.
Raminick was in the game 
as a pinch-runner for Howard 
Fershtman, who had doubled.
While that move put 
Raminick in the wrong place 
at the wrong time, luckily, he 
wasn’
t seriously injured by 
Golder’
s line drive. The ball 
barely missed his ribs.
After he got back on his feet 
and iced the injury, Raminick 
played the rest of the game in 
left field and batted a couple 
times.
He said he was sore for 
almost a week as the bruise 
turned his side into shades of 

green and purple.
His team, the Kosher 
Ribs, beat SHAEF 17-12 at 
Drake Sports Park in West 
Bloomfield for the fall league’
s 
playoff championship.
What happened after the 
Oct. 13 game is what Kosher 
Ribs co-manager Mitch Kline 
and Raminick want to talk 
about even more than the 
championship.
“(SHAEF manager) Barry 
Fishman called me an hour or 
two after the championship 
game to congratulate our team, 
but he also wanted (Dave 

Raminick’
s) phone number so 
he could give him a call the 
next day and check on him,” 
Kline said. “What a mensch.”
Raminick appreciated the 
call from Fishman.
“That was very nice of Barry 
to call me. I didn’
t know him. 
He didn’
t need to do that,” 
Raminick said. 
“But that’
s what (the Inter-
Congregational league) is all 
about. We all play hard and 
want to win, but we have 
respect for one other. I told 
Barry I’
d say hello to him 
when we see each other on the 

softball field next summer.”
Unlike the Inter-
Congregational summer 
league, fall league teams are 
made up of players from 
different temples, synagogues 
and shuls.
Kosher Ribs had seven play-
ers from Temple Shir Shalom 
(Raminick, Golder, Kline, Evan 
Kline, Alex Vinter, Dan Krauss 
and Michael Weinberger), 
three from Congregation Shir 
Tikvah (Fershtman, co-man-
ager Matt Bassin and Scott 
Litt), two from Temple Beth 
El (Jeff Hollander and Michael 
Kindred) and Corey Slutsky 
from Temple Israel.
Kosher Ribs and SHAEF 
each went 7-2-1 during the 
regular season and tied for 
first place in the six-team 
league.
Run differential determined 
the top seed in the playoffs 
and Kosher Ribs won that sta-
tistical battle 43-32.
“It was a great fall league. 
Very balanced. Any team 
could have won it,” Kline said.
The Inter-Congregational 
summer league was plagued by 
rainouts this year. But the fall 
league didn’
t have any rain-
outs. 

STEVE ACHTMAN

NMLS#2289

Elle Hartje got off to a great start 
with the Yale University women’
s 
hockey team.
The Detroit Country Day School 
graduate and 2019 Jewish News 
High School Athlete of the Year 
scored a hat trick against Long 
Island on Oct. 25 in her first game 
for Yale.
 She finished Yale’
s season-
opening weekend at home with six 
points (four goals, two assists) and a 

plus-8 rating as the Bulldogs swept 
both games from Long Island.
 Hartje’
s impressive numbers 
caught the attention of the women’
s 
collegiate hockey world. She was 
named the NCAA’
s third star of the 
week and ECAC Rookie of the Week.
 “I waited four years to come 
here. To finally be here and play is 
just so surreal,” Hartje told the Yale 
Daily News after putting up her hat 
trick against Long Island.

continued from page XX

Smiles are slathered on the faces of the Kosher Ribs players after they won the 
Inter-Congregational Men’
s Club Fall Softball League playoff championship.

