On July 10th, the 2022 MSB season came to an exhilarating conclusion. The postseason kicked off the week prior and we witnessed the underdog Team SAFE, captained by Leo Esses and Ike Chazzanoff, take care of business against the higher seeded Team Care in extra innings. The Care team featured reigning Cy Young, Ray Sakkal, MVP Jack Harary, and captain Mordy Chrem.
As soon as the Wild Card Game concluded, the top seeded Maskeel El Dal was waiting on the sidelines to take on the winner. Maskeel El Dal is captained by the soon-to-be-named Cy Young winner Dan Braun.
The semi-finals matchups were set: Maskeel El Dal vs. SAFE and Bnei Malachim (captained by Ralph Wamma Shama) vs. SBH (captained by Edmund Beyda).
SAFE vs. MED
In Game One, Dan Braun squared off against Joe Sefaradi and battled to a 3-1 victory. In Game Two however, with an opportunity for a sweep, MED choked away a late lead on two costly errors in the 7th and allowed SAFE to push this series to a decisive game three.
Bnei Malachim vs. SBH
Team SBH finished the regular season as the number two seed. The team was led by their captain, sophomore Edmund Beyda on the mound and powered by the league MVP, Batting Champ, and perennial winner Steven J Gindi. A team well-rounded and defensively sound all season long came into the postseason matchup as poised as ever and swept Bnei Malchim to punch their ticket to the World Series and take on the winner of Game Three of the other semi-finals matchup.
Game 3: Team SAFE vs. Club Med
SAFE came out swinging and grabbed a quick 3-0 lead. Eli Harary hit a 2-run double in the gap followed by an RBI by Joey Levy. The lead, however, didn’t last long, as the slick defensive shortstop Michael Mann hit a mammoth grand slam to take a 4-3 lead. David Paul Sutton tied the game at 4 with a triple in the 4th, followed by a Victor Chrem Sac Fly to take the lead. But in the bottom of the 6th, Dan Braun tied it up with a sac fly of his own as the game was knotted up at five. Club Med then went on to load the bases for Shnuer “Tree” Silverstein. Tree delivered a base knock through the right side, only to see the back-to-back Gold Glove Winner Lawrence Kurtz peg out the runner at first from right to send this game to the 7th. This game went to the 10th inning and with two outs and a runner on, Sauly “The Kid” Esses delivered a clutch double to give SAFE the lead. Esses scored on a base hit by Kurtz and Safe took a 7-5 lead and wound up winning 7-6 in 10 innings. They advanced to the World Series to take on team SBH.
World Series: SAFE vs. SBH We were privileged to have two representatives from the amazing SBH organization, Simon Nissim and Carey Sutton. Mr. Carey Sutton threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
SAFE, who already played Game 3 of the semis just 20 minutes prior, came into this game red y hot and into the swing of things, as opposed to SBH who was on the sidelines, cold and waiting. Boy, did that seem to help SAFE as they pounced early as Kurtz drove in the series’ first run followed by an RBI triple by David Paul Sutton. After rallying again a few innings later, SAFE found themselves up by a commanding 5-0 lead. It could have been more, but Gold Glover Alan Jemal laid out in CF and held them at bay. In the bottom of the 4th, Aaron J. Levy got SBH on the board to make it a 5-1 game. Ike Salem then drove in a pair to make it 5-3. The captain came to the plate and tied it at 5, but Bernie Pindek broke the tie and gave SBH its first lead. SBH took Game One by a final score of 8-5.
Game Two
SBH was now one game away from Softball immortality, but SAFE was 5-0 in elimination games during this magical run. On the mound for SAFE was Joe, who was battling a hamstring injury, opposing the very hungry Edmund Beyda who infamously lost in Game 3 in the 7th last year. In the bottom of the 4th, Victor Chrem hit one up the middle to give SAFE the lead. In the 6th, Steven Gindi tied the game on a hot shot. Then the game got really interesting. In the 7th, with two runners on and two out, the newly married Abe Anteby came through with a clutch base hit. However the winning run stumbled while rounding third and the inning was short-circuited. The game went to the bottom of the 7th giving SAFE an opportunity to walk it off!
David Paul Sutton, who had a postseason for the ages, hit a towering fly ball that appeared to be a sure-fire walk-off homer. But he was robbed as Aaron J. Levy came up with the biggest defensive play of the postseason! Levy made a ridiculous snow cone grab while turning to send the game to extra innings.
With two out in the top of the 8th, Steven J. Gindi capped off his magical season with yet another clutch 2-run dinger to give SBH a 3-1 lead. In the bottom of the 8th, Edmund Beyda closed the door and took home the World Series MVP honors.
CY Young: Dan Braun
Rookie of the Year: Leo Setton
Ike Miz Character Award: Jack Bibi
Batting Champion: Steven J. Gindi
MVP: Steven J. Gindi
Gold Glove Winners:
Catcher: Vic Boussu
Starting Pitcher: Edmund Beyda
First Base: Marc Richter
Second Base: David Tawil
Short Center Field: Jack Mosseri
Shortstop: Steven J. Gindi
Third Base: Albert Richter
Left Field: Lawrence Kurtz
Center Field: Alan Jemal
Right Field: Leo Setton
MSB would like to thank our award presenters: Former Commissioners Ike Mavorah and Sammy Esses. A special thanks to the legendary Ike Miz who presented the Ike Miz Character award, Simon Nissim of SBH, Max Sutton, and Carey Sutton of SBH, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
MSB would like to thank its sponsor, Sam I Am Productions – video productions for all occasions: samjsutton@gmail.com or call 732-272-7255.