Quick Hits

quick hits

BY STEVE STEIN

When the annual Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame banquet returns this fall, it will be held at a familiar spot.

The banquet will be held Oct. 24 at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, its home during its formative years.

The COVID-19 pandemic knocked the banquet off the calendar in 2020 and 2021, the first times it was canceled since it began in 1985.

Don Rudick, executive director of the Michigan Jewish Sports Foundation, which oversees the Hall of Fame, said this year’s Hall of Fame inductees won’t be separated into classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022. They will all be 2022 honorees.

So will the Pillars of Excellence recipients, Dr. Steve and Evelyn Rosen Stars of Tomorrow scholarship winners and Jewish News High School Athletes of the Year, who also are honored at the banquet.

Applications for the Hall of Fame, Pillars of Excellence, Stars of Tomorrow scholarships and Athletes of the Year are on the foundation’s website, michiganjewishsports.org. The applications can be filled out online, which is something new.

There’s no need to fill out another application if one was turned in the past two years.

“But you can if you want,” Rudick said.

The duo of Kerry Chaben and Mike Klinger had a comfortable lead in the team competition of the weekly B’nai B’rith golf league as the league’s 10th season neared the one-third mark.

Chaben and Klinger had 68 points, nine in front of second-place Larry Shapiro and Bob Shapiro/Chuck Houmaian, who had 59 points, following the fifth week of the 17-week season.

Adam Vieder and Ryan Vieder were in third place among the 12 two-man teams with 56 points.

Ryan Vieder and Klinger were tied atop the league’s individual leader board, each with 35 points.

There was a logjam behind them among David Swimmer (29.5), Dale Taub (29.5), Rick Spalter (27.5), Stu Zorn (27.5), Larry Shapiro (27) and Gary Klinger (27).

League golfers receive points for winning holes and matches.

League competition, nine holes each week, takes place each Thursday at the Links of Novi.

GARY KLINGER

It took the No. 1 high school baseball team in the country and one of the nation’s best prep pitchers to derail the West Bloomfield express.

Orchard Lake St. Mary’s defeated Coach Josh Birnberg’s Lakers 11-1 on June 4 in the championship game of the Division 2 district tournament hosted by West Bloomfield.

The Oakland Activities Association White Division champion Lakers finished 32-8 overall this season. The 32 wins are a team season record, breaking the old mark of 26 victories in 2001.

St. Mary’s starting pitcher Brock Porter went 4 2/3 innings for the win against West Bloomfield.

The Clemson University recruit gave up four hits and one run. He had allowed three hits and one run all season leading into the game.

“The game was closer than the score indicates. We ran out of pitching late in the game,” Birnberg said. “It was a phenomenal atmosphere, a great experience for our guys.”

Speaking of phenomenal, West Bloomfield senior Josh Weiss had a great day June 4 in his final games for the Lakers.

The senior went the distance on the mound and was the winning pitcher in West Bloomfield’s 5-2 win over Troy in the district semifinals.

Weiss helped his cause at the plate with a pair of doubles.

He had one of West Bloomfield’s four hits off Porter, a single up the middle.

“Josh finished strong this season,” Birnberg said. “He hit over .400 in the second half and ended up with about a .300 batting average.”

Weiss had four pitching victories during the Lakers’ 16-game winning streak that stretched from May 2-28.

Sophomore catcher Max Gross was on the West Bloomfield baseball team this season. His name was inadvertently left off a list of Jewish players on the team in an earlier Jewish News story.

Temple Israel teams owned the top spot in two of the three divisions of the Inter-Congregational Men’s Club Summer Softball League as the weekly league’s season entered its third month.

Temple Israel No. 2 was in first place in the five-team Greenberg Division with a 5-0 record through games played June 5.

Temple Israel No. 3 and Temple Israel No. 1 each had a 4-2 record and led the five-team Koufax Division.

Temple Shir Shalom No. 3 and Congregation Beth Ahm shared first place in the four-team Rosen Division, each at 1-5. Shir Shalom and Beth Ahm had played just one divisional game.

Games in the Sunday league began April 24. The regular season will continue through July 31, taking time off for the July 4 weekend.

Three weeks of double-elimination playoffs will follow the regular season and end with division championship games Aug. 21.

Keith and Drake sports parks in West Bloomfield are the league’s homes. Drake has not been available this season and probably won’t be until mid-June because of parking lot work being done there.

This is the league’s 27th season.