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.