MAY 16 • 2024 | 39

and a popular person in the 
office and throughout the 
building.
“He’s just a great young 
man. I’m proud that he plays 
for us, and proud that I con-
sider him a lifelong friend.”
Gach is finishing this 
school year on the Groves 
boys track and field team 
after playing baseball in the 
spring for the Falcons as a 
freshman and sophomore.
He’s running the 100-meter 
dash and throwing the shot 
put and doing well in those 
vastly divergent events.
He’ll take two online 
courses this summer — 
pre-calculus and British 
literature — so he can be a 

mid-year Groves graduate 
and enroll early at U-M. He’ll 
participate in the Wolverines’ 
spring workouts and spring 
game in 2025.
The Groves football team 
went 9-4 and advanced to the 
Division 2 semifinals in 2022, 
Gach’s sophomore season. 
The Falcons were 6-4 last fall 
and lost in the first round of 
the playoffs.
David and Amy Gach, 
both Michigan State grads, 
are Avery’s parents. Avery has 
a brother, Eli, 13, a freshman 
at Groves. The family attends 
Temple Shir Shalom. 

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to stevestein502004@yahoo.com.

This is a special year for 
the Michigan Jewish Sports 
Foundation. It’s the foundation’s 
40th year. It has raised more than 
$1.5 million during that time for can-
cer charities and cancer research.
One of the foundation’s spe-
cial annual events is the Hank 
Greenberg Memorial Golf, Tennis 
& Pickleball Invitational. The 33rd 
annual Greenberg Invitational will 
be held June 10 at Franklin Hills 
Country Club in Franklin.
This year’s Greenberg 
Invitational honorees are 2005 
Baseball Hall of Fame inductee 
Wade Boggs, sportscaster Andrea 
Joyce and Martin Shichtman, 
the retired founder and director 

of Eastern Michigan University’s 
Center for Jewish Studies.
Boggs, Joyce and Shichtman 
will receive the Hank Greenberg 
Lifetime Achievement Award, Dick 
Schaap Memorial Award for 
Excellence in Broadcasting 
and Barry Bremen 
Memorial Award, respec-
tively.
Boggs played in the 
major league for 18 years 
(1982-99), mostly with the 
Boston Red Sox. He was the 23rd 
player to get 3,000 career hits and 
he made 12 straight appearances 
in the All-Star Game. He was a 
five-time American League batting 
champion, eight-time Silver Slugger 

award winner, two-time Gold Glove 
winner at third base and 1996 
World Series champion with the 
New York Yankees.
His uniform No. 26 was retired 
by the Red Sox in 2016. His 
uniform No. 12 was retired 
by the Tampa Bay Rays in 
2000. 
Known for his many 
superstitions, including 
eating chicken before every 
game, Boggs drew the Hebrew 
symbol “Chai” in the batter’s box 
before each at-bat even though he 
isn’t Jewish.
Joyce, a 1976 University of 
Michigan graduate, worked for a 
short time early in her career at 

WDIV Channel 4 in Detroit. Since 
then, she’s worked for ESPN, the 
Madison Square Garden Network, 
CBS Sports and NBC Sports, cov-
ering major sports events including 
the Olympics. 
The evening dinner at the 
Greenberg Invitational once again 
will feature a sports panel mod-
erated by Detroit sports talk icon 
Mike Stone, a 2016 inductee into 
the foundation’s Michigan Jewish 
Sports Hall of Fame. This year’s 
sports panel will include ESPN 
sportscaster Jeremy Schaap, son of 
Dick Schaap, Boggs and Joyce.
To purchase tickets for the 
Greenberg Invitational and for 
sponsorship information, contact 
Don Rudick, the foundation’s exec-
utive director, at zeedon1@gmail.
com or (248) 390-5981.

Meet the Gach 
family. From left 
are Eli, Avery, 
David and Amy.

Hall of Famer Wade Boggs Will Be One of the Headliners 
at the Hank Greenberg Invitational

It’s softball season.
The Inter-Congregational Men’s 
Club Summer Softball League has 
begun its 28th season of competi-
tion and camaraderie. Twelve teams 
are playing in the weekly league, five 
in the Greenberg Division and seven 
in the Koufax Division.
What’s new this 
year? A rule change. 
A team’s batting order 
must include everyone 
who is there for a 
game. That goes for 
the regular season and 
playoffs.
Also new is a third 
league organizer. Matt Bassin has 
joined incumbents Michael Betman 
and Mitch Kline.
The double-elimination league 
playoffs will return to a two-week 
format this summer to shorten the 
season. The playoffs ran over three 
weeks last year.
Opening day April 28 was washed 
out by rain, so the season began 
May 5. No games were played May 
12, on Mother’s Day, which is a 
league tradition. 
If the weather cooperates the 
rest of the summer, the league’s 
20-game regular season will end 
Aug. 4 and the playoffs will be Aug. 
11 and 18.
Games once again are at Drake 
and Keith sports parks in West 
Bloomfield.
The league’s three awards will be 
presented once again. Each team 
will nominate a player for the Jeff 

Fox Sportsmanship Award, and the 
league’s organizers will select the 
recipient. The league’s umpires will 
select the winner of the Michael 
Yendick Pure Heart Award.
The league’s newest award is the 
Steve LeVine Award. The award was 
presented for league 
longevity and service to 
the league in its first two 
years. Betman said the 
focus of the award this 
season has yet to be 
determined.
Three of the five 
teams in the Greenberg 
Division are from 
Temple Israel (No. 1, No. 2 and No. 
6). They’re joined in the division by 
Temple Beth El No. 1 and Temple 
Shir Shalom No. 2. 
The Koufax Division also has a 
Temple Israel team, No. 3. Temple 
Beth El No. 2, Temple Shir Shalom 
No. 3, Adat Shalom Synagogue 
No. 1, Congregation Shir Tikvah, 
Congregation Shaarey Zedek and 
Congregation Beth Ahm round out 
the division.
The defending league playoff 
champions are Temple Beth El 
No. 1 in the Greenberg Division 
and Shaarey Zedek in the Koufax 
Division. Temple Israel No. 6 and Shir 
Tikvah won the regular-season divi-
sion championships in 2023.
The league is down a team this 
year with the loss of Temple Israel 
No. 5 from the Greenberg Division. 
The team’s remaining players were 
spread throughout the league.

Play ball! Inter-Congregational Men’s 
Club Summer Softball League Season is 
Underway

IMAGE BY MICHIGAN JEWISH SPORTS FOUNDATION

IMAGE BY INTER-CONGREGATIONAL MEN’S CLUB SUMMER SOFTBALL LEAGUE

