MARCH 21 • 2024 | 49
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the early 1960s because they 
made for a good starting 
point. Michigan’s national 
championship in 1989 made 
for a good ending.”
Two free throws with three 
seconds left in overtime by 
Rumeal Robinson gave U-M 
an 80-79 win over Seton 
Hall in the 1989 NCAA title 
game. 
U-M athletic director Bo 
Schembechler fired Freider 
as the Wolverines’ coach 
just before the start of the 
1989 NCAA tournament 
and replaced him with 
top assistant Steve Fisher 
after Frieder announced he 
was leaving U-M to coach 
Arizona State at the end of 
the season.
Rice was the star of the 
1989 NCAA tournament. 
He scored a record 184 
points in the postseason 
and was named the Most 
Outstanding Player of the 
tournament.
One of the stories in 
Rosenbaum’s book that 
was a revelation to him 
involves Rice, a star at Flint 
Northwestern High School 

who joined the Wolverines 
before the 1984-85 season.
Rosenbaum said Rice was 
recruited by Frieder only 
after Frieder failed to lure 
three other Midwestern 
players to U-M.
“In the book, I call 
Frieder’s recruitment of Rice 
his Plan D,” Rosenbaum said.
Plan D almost didn’t 
happen. Rosenbaum said 
Rice was ready to commit to 
Central Michigan University 
when Frieder came calling.
Rosenbaum has another 
historical book on the U-M 
basketball team in the works. 
He said this one most likely 
will start in 1990, cover the 
Fab Five years, and end with 
the Wolverines’ 82-76 loss to 
Louisville in the 2013 NCAA 
championship game.
While Rosenbaum has 
a full-time job as a copy 
editor, he considers himself 
“a sportswriter at heart.” 
The Jewish News is among 
the publications he’s written 
for. 

Send sports news 

to stevestein502004@yahoo.com.

Around the horn with two baseball notes:
— Ryan Lavarnway, who played for the Detroit 
Tigers’ Triple-A team in Toledo in 2022 before 
being traded to the Miami Marlins, has written a 
children’s book, Baseball and Belonging, that talks 
about his life and how playing for Team Israel in the 
World Baseball Classic in 2017 helped him discover 
Judaism. Larvarnway, who has retired as a play-
er, grew up in an interfaith family (Jewish mother, 
Catholic father) and said he didn’t feel connected 
to either religion until he was recruited to join Team 
Israel.
— David Vinsky had a great baseball career at Northwood University, 
knocking in a school record 161 runs. That and other gaudy hitting sta-
tistics led to the Farmington Harrison High School grad being selected 
by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 15th round of the 2019 Major League 
Baseball Draft. Vinsky’s Northwood career RBI record was broken early 
this season. Vinsky played for the New York Boulders in the indepen-
dent Frontier League the past two seasons after being released by the 
Cardinals.

A Book about Baseball and Judaism 
and a Record is Broken

Harris Gurfinkel had a night for 
himself earlier this month in 
the weekly Brotherhood-Eddie 
Jacobson B’nai B’rith Bowling 
League.
He came within three pins of 
a perfect game, rolling a 297 
on March 4 at Country Lanes 
in Farmington Hills. That game 
and his 708 series (201-210-297) 
were lifetime bests. He also had 
the league’s highest game over 
average (plus 105 for the 297) and 
series over average (plus 132) for 
the night, which raised his average 
to 194.
Aaron Radner, Dave Shanbaum, 
Lyle Schaefer, Isaac Pickell and 
Brian Hacker also had a big night 
March 4.
Radner rolled his season 
high series (268-255-268--791). 
Shanbaum shot a 289 in his third 
game. Schaefer continued his 
streak of not rolling a series under 
650 in three months (206-215-247-
-668). Pickell had a lifetime-best 
278. Hacker had a lifetime-best 
192.
The last night of the second 
half of the league season is March 

25. Playoffs will begin April 1 and 
continue to April 15. League 
bowlers are competing virtually 
and simultaneously once again 
in the annual International B’nai 
B’rith Bowling Association national 
tournament. 

So Close ... Bowler Rolls a 297 Game 
in Brotherhood-Eddie Jacobson B’nai 
B’rith League

Don Rudick is a big fan of Mike 
Stone, the Detroit sports talk radio 
icon who recently retired as a full-
time morning show host on WXYT-
FM (97.1) The Ticket.
Rudick is the executive 
director of the Michigan 
Jewish Sports 
Foundation. Stone is 
a 2016 inductee into 
the Michigan Jewish 
Hall of Fame, which 
is overseen by the 
foundation, and a 
member of the foun-
dation’s board.
Stone’s relationship with 
the foundation goes beyond that. 
“We used to ask Mike if he 
was available to be the emcee 
of the sports panel at the Hank 
Greenberg Invitational and the 
Hall of Fame induction dinner,” 

Rudick said. “Now we don’t have 
to ask him. He asks us the dates 
of the events to make sure he has 
cleared his schedule.”
Stone’s connections in the 
Detroit sports world have benefit-
ed the foundation.
“Mike’s experience 
in Detroit sports radio 
has enabled us to 
ask him to get Detroit 
sports team athletes 
to attend our events 
or in some cases 
honor a Detroit athlete 
with one of our awards,” 
Rudick said.
Stone and his wife, Cyndi, live 
in West Bloomfield and attend 
Temple Israel. Korman Hall at 
Temple Israel is named for his 
wife’s maternal grandparents, 
Harry and Anna Korman.

Hall of Famer Mike Stone is a Friend of 
the Michigan Jewish Sports Foundation

Harris Gurfinkel’s teammates on 
the Mertz’s Bakery team turned 
their backs on him here, but 
he earned the spotlight with a 
lifetime-best game (297) and 
series (708).

GARY KLINGER

Ryan Lavarnway

DETROIT TIGERS