28 | OCTOBER 27 • 2022 

I

t’s called the Inter-
Congregational Men’s Club 
Summer Softball League. 
But that hasn’t stopped a few 
women from playing with the 
guys in the league through the 
years.
Temple Shir Shalom No. 3 
has had women on its roster all 
three years of the team’s exis-
tence, fulfilling its mission, said 
player-manager Joe Lipman, to 
have a diverse team.
Two women — Amy Benson 
and Jamie Elkins — played 
full-time this season for Shir 
Shalom No. 3 on a team that 
made a serious bid to win the 
Rosen Division championship.
Benson is a 23-year-old 
Royal Oak resident and 
research assistant in the neu-
roscience lab at Wayne State 

University who is an accom-
plished fast-pitch softball 
player.
She’s made a successful tran-
sition to slow-pitch softball in 
her two-plus seasons in the 
Inter-Congregational league, 
playing mostly leftfield this sea-
son for Shir Shalom No. 3.
Benson said she was con-
vinced to join the team by 
her friend and team member 
Charlie Gertner, but said she 
didn’t do it to be a trailblazer.
The former Bloomfield Hills 
High School and Oakland 
Community College softball 
player said she originally 
became part of the Shir Shalom 
No. 3 team because she loves 
to play softball and thought it 
would be fun to be on the same 
team as her friend.

Benson recruited her broth-
er and father to join the Shir 
Shalom No. 3 team this season, 
so the summer turned into a 
family affair for her.
Her brother Aaron Benson, 
25, lives in Royal Oak. Her 
father Randall Benson, 63, is a 
West Bloomfield resident. He 
played this season after recov-
ering from back surgery.
“Playing with my brother and 
dad was like tapping into my 
childhood,
” Amy Benson said.
“While I didn’t join the 
league to make a statement, I 
would like to see more women 
play in the league. It would be 
nice to have sisters and daugh-
ters play together on a team.
”
That would be fine with 
Karen Gordon, who would 
have been Shir Shalom No. 3’s 

third full-time woman player 
this season, but she opted out.
She said she did that main-
ly because she underwent 
knee replacement surgery in 
December 2021 and starting 
to play softball again in April 
wouldn’t have been advanta-
geous for her recovery.
Plus, she needed to devote 
time to being the delegation 
head for Detroit athletes who 
competed in the revived JCC 
Maccabi Games in San Diego.
“I plan to play again (for Shir 
Shalom No. 3) next season,
” 
Gordon said.
Gordon played for Shir 
Shalom No. 3 in 2020 and 2021 
after playing for the combined 
Congregation B’nai Israel/
Temple Kol Ami team in the 
Inter-Congregational league 
from 2017-19.
She hopes more women 
will play in the Inter-
Congregational league. And she 
doesn’t want accommodations 
made for them.
“This probably isn’t a popular 
opinion, but I’m not a fan at all 
of co-ed softball and its differ-
ent rules,
” she said. “I want the 
competition.
”
Even though Shir 
Shalom No. 3 lost 14-13 to 
Congregation Beth Ahm in the 
Rosen Division playoff cham-
pionship game this season, a 
game in which it twice declined 
winning by a forfeit, Lipman 
said his team achieved all of its 
season goals:
— It continued to win more 
games than the previous sea-
son. Shir Shalom No. 3 won 
one game in 2020, three games 
in 2021 and 11 games this sea-
son, going 11-13 including the 
playoffs.

SUSAN GERTNER

SPORTS

It was a successful and fun season for the men — and 
women — on the Temple Shir Shalom No. 3 softball team.
Sheer Effort

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Meet the Temple Shir Shalom 
No. 3 softball team that made 
great strides in the win column 
this season in its third year of 
existence.

