32 | OCTOBER 10 • 2024 J
N
I
t couldn’t have been a better
end of the Inter-Congregational
Men’s Club Summer Softball
League season for Matt Bassin and
the Congregation Shir Tikvah team.
Bassin, the team’s co-manager,
received the league’s Steve LeVine
Step Up to the Plate Award, selected
by fellow league directors Michael
Betman and Mitch Kline. Then
Shir Tikvah went undefeated in the
Koufax Division playoffs and won
the division championship.
So how did Betman and Kline
keep Bassin in the dark about an
award recipient that Bassin, as a
league director, was supposed to
help select?
“They were sneaky,” Bassin said.
“This was my first year working
with them, and it just didn’t
occur to me that we hadn’t talked
about selecting the LeVine Award
recipient.”
Bassin has had the complicated
task of putting together the weekly
league schedule the last several
seasons. League teams play each
Sunday at Drake and Keith sports
parks in West Bloomfield.
“It’s nice to be appreciated for
that,” Bassin said.
“I told everyone at the award
ceremony that I didn’t want to hear
any more complaints about the
league schedule because there’s a
reason for everything I do,” he said,
laughing.
For perhaps the first time in
league history this season, Bassin
said, three fields were used at
each park, allowing teams to
play a doubleheader each Sunday
morning without the 11:40 a.m. late
start.
“Without the late start, guys got
home sooner from their games,
and they had more time for what
they wanted and needed to do each
Sunday,” Bassin said.
Now, onto the Koufax Division
playoff championship that Shir
Tikvah won with a 14-13 victory
in eight innings over Congregation
Beth Ahm in the title game.
Shir Tikvah went 9-11 during the
regular season (1-5 in crossover
games against teams in the league’s
tougher Greenberg Division) and
finished in third place in the seven-
team Koufax Division.
But Shir Tikvah went 4-0 in the
Koufax Division playoffs, including
wins over Beth Ahm (14-6) and
Temple Shir Shalom No. 3 (11-9),
the teams that finished in front of
it in the division’s regular-season
standings.
Temple Israel No. 3 (7-13), Adat
Shalom No. 1 (5-15), Congregation
Shaarey Zedek (4-16) and Temple
Beth El No. 2 (1-19) rounded
out the division’s regular-season
standings.
Shir Tikvah won three games
on the first day of the double-
elimination Koufax Division
playoffs Aug. 4 to move into the
championship round, beating
Shaarey Zedek 8-5, Shir Shalom No.
3 7-4 and Adat Shalom No. 1 6-2.
The second week of the Koufax
Division playoffs Aug. 11 was a
waiting game for Shir Tikvah as
it waited for two rounds of games
to be completed to learn which
team it would face for the playoff
championship.
Beth Ahm needed 14 innings to
beat Adat Shalom No. 1 and earn
the spot in the title game opposite
Shir Tikvah, prolonging Shir
Tikvah’s wait until about an hour
after the scheduled start time for
the playoff championship game.
“That was impressive. They were
Two for Two
PHOTOS: INTER-CONGREGATIONAL MEN’S CLUB SUMMER SOFTBALL LEAGUE
Matt Bassin receives an Inter-Congregational Men’s Club
Summer Softball League award, then scores the winning
run in the Koufax Division playoff championship game.
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
SPORTS
LEFT: Matt Bassin and
Michael Betman.