Sports

News from the       Israel Baseball League

TODAY'S ACTION—At left, Tel Aviv pitcher Adam Crabb hurls a pitch.  At upper right, Bet Shemesh catcher Scott Jamakowicz waits for the ball as Tel Aviv rightfielder Jeff Hastings scores a run.  Backing up the action behind the catcher is Bet Shemesh pitcher Juan Feliciano.  Bottom right: Tel Aviv first baseman Aaron Pribble dives for a ball.
IBL photos by Yehuda Boltshauser

Clutch single increases Bet Shemesh IBL lead to 3.5 games

By Nathaniel Edelstein

KIBBUTZ GEZER, Israel (Press Release)— The Bet Shemesh Blue Sox and the Tel Aviv Lightning were tied at one through 6.5 innings before Bet Shemesh centerfielder Sean Slaughter hit a bases-loaded single to win the game on this kibbutz's ballfield.
       
Slaughter's heroic walk-off single came after Dominican Juan Feliciano and Australian Adam Crabb battled in a pitcher's duel that eventually saw Feliciano come out on top.  Feliciano tossed seven innings and allowed just one run on four hits with 11 strikeouts and two walks to improve to 7-1.
       
Bet Shemesh's first run came in the first inning when rightfielder Jason Rees slugged his league-leading 16th homer of the season as the first-place Sox pull 3.5 games ahead of the second-place Lightning.

After winning one game of a doubleheader on Wednesday, the Petach Tikva Pioneers won for the second day in a row with a 6-5 victory over the Ra'anana Express at Tel Aviv's Sportek.

Down 5-3 in the top of the sixth, centerfielder Ben Dashefsky of New York knocked in two runs on his second single of the day to tie the game at five runs apiece.  Later in the inning third baseman Willis Bumphus of San Diego who went 2-for-3, drove in his second RBI with a sacrifice fly that scored the go-ahead run. Express leftfielder Ben Field raised his average to .330 by going 3-for-4 with a homerun and two RBI, but it wasn't enough as Ra'anana fell 11.5 games out of first.

In the night's late game the Netanya Tigers scored four runs in the sixth inning to break a 1-1 tie and beat the Modi'in Miracle 5-1 at Yarkon Field at the Baptist Village near Petach Tikva.  Israeli Shlomo Lipetz picked up his third win with seven innings of work, giving up just one run on four hits with six strikeouts and a walk.

Lipetz's only mistake came in the fourth inning when Dominican Eladio
Rodriguez launched his 15th homerun over the centerfield wall.  But the Netanya offense did enough as all but two starting position players collected a hit and manager Ami Baran's club won for the second consecutive game.


Summaries:
                            1   2   3   4   5   6   7   R   H   E
Tel Aviv              0   0   0   0   0   1   0   1    4   1
Bet Shemesh        1   0   0   0   0   0   1   2    6   0
W: Juan Feliciano (7-1); L: Adam Crabb (4-4); HR: Jason Rees (16)

                          1   2   3   4   5   6   7   R   H   E
Petach Tikva      1   0   2   0   0   3   0    6    9   3
Ra'anana            0   1   3   1   0   0   0    5    8   1
W: Ryan Butkowsky (1-2); L: Nat Ballenberg (1-1); SV: Alper Ulutas
(1); HR: Ben Field (5)

                       1   2   3   4   5   6   7   R   H   E
Modi'in            0   0   0   1   0   0   0    1   4   2
Netanya           0   0   0   1   0   4   x   5    7   0
W: Shlomo Lipetz (3-1); L: Ian Okorofsky (0-2); HR: Eladio Rodriguez (15)

Standings:

Team                               W    L     %     GB
Bet Shemesh Blue Sox     26    9    .743     -
Tel Aviv Lightning           23   13   .639   3.5
Modi'in Miracle                20   15   .571   6.0
Netanya Tigers                 15   20   .429   11.0
Ra'anana Express              15   21   .417   11.5
Petach Tikva Pioneers       7    28   .200   19.0
 

{Marc Kligman, who combines being a sports agent with his life as an observant Jew, invites you to listen. Click on the ad above for more information}

 

Life Styles

Doing It Better           Natasha Josefowitz, Ph.D

In performance-based society, maybe sensitivity to rejection is logical, if unhealthy, reaction

LA JOLLA, California—Do you sometimes wonder if people really like you? Do you worry when a friend seems curt with you? Do you fret over your not being included in a group? Do you ruminate over a possible slight?

Well, you’re not the only one! Our DNA has made us prone to be sensitive to slights as a possible indication of a potential rejection. In our dim past, when being part of a small group was survival and ostracism meant death because being left alone to fend for ourselves and fighting predators was certain demise.

Our anxieties about acceptance and rejection are rising, according to New York psychologist Robert Leahy. We have become a performance-based culture, to wit, all the TV shows that emphasize being in the spotlight, whether singing, dancing, telling jokes, touting inventions, winning a race, or being the last survivor in the jungle.

Just 200 years ago, most of us lived in a stable society, living in the same town all our lives. We now have become a mobile society, living in a variety of neighborhoods, states, and even countries. This means we have to learn the ways of the new strangers, looking for cues of acceptable behaviors and weary of possible misinterpretations and thus rejection. Not only do we move more, but our families as frequently either not intact or blended, which leads to insecurity. Insecurity leads to uncertainty which makes us more vulnerable to depression. And all of the above increases the chance that we become more anxious about possible rejections.

According to Leahy, major depression which is linked to rejection sensitivity is on the rise among all age groups except for the elderly, for we were born before the disrupted families and fragmented societies began to take root.

Some people are so sensitive to any possible slight that those around them have learned to tip toe in their presence increasing the potential of picking up negative cues where none were meant.

The only way around getting over being rejection sensitive is to form the kind of friendships that can withstand the constant demand for reassurance. There is a genetic component to being overly sensitive to perceived rejection but also an environmental one. Overly critical, abusive, or neglectful parents or being bullied at school can set the stage for a child and then an adult being always on the look out for the next rebuff.

Today’s parents have been taught to enhance their children’s self-esteem—and in their attempt to do so, they have exaggerated the amount of praise heaped upon their children. Generalized praise does not feel good for it is not behavior specific. Telling a child how smart he or she is does not help as it is not clear what it is exactly that is praise-worthy, so it makes children anxious. Instead, being specific—you did well on your test because you studied hard for it is a replicable behavior.

All children wear an invisible sign around their necks that says, “Please admire me”—but it is for specific things that they do or say—they are loved for who they are: our children.

It is interesting to wonder what signs, we as adults secretly. My sign says, “I’m not OK, you’re not OK, and that’s OK!”

This column also ran in the La Jolla Light

Arts & Entertainment

 

Cynthia Citron's L.A. Beat

Stand-up comic—playwright finds humor in death

LOS ANGELES—My friend Ted Seifman invited me and 98 other people to the 99-seat Pico Playhouse to listen to a reading of a new play that he will be producing on Broadway later this year.  So hang onto this early review, because after Broadway, can L.A. be far behind?

The play is called Rest, In Pieces and it was written by Steve Bluestein who, in another life, is a hilarious stand-up comedian.  Which explains why Rest, In Pieces is laugh-out-loud funny.  Even though it’s a play in which everybody dies.  (Or as the old joke goes: “In a Russian tragedy everybody dies.  In a Russian comedy everybody dies.  But they die happy!”)

This play, like my favorite Broadway play from last year, Faith Healer, tells its simple story from three different points of view.  In each segment one member of a close-knit family dies and the two survivors have to adjust and cope with the loss. And their anger, their unspoken emotions, and all the unfinished business.   And right from the beginning, it’s a family you care about.

In this presentation the family is Jewish.  The mother and father are played by Lainie Kazan and Stuart Pankin and their son is played by Richard Israel.  Since it was a reading, there was also a narrator, John Sala, who provided all the stage directions.

It’s Bluestein’s intention to have a revolving cast—different actors who would each do the parts for a limited period of time, like the very successful Love Letters of a few years back.  And, since families are families no matter what their ethnicity, he plans to have versions of the play in which the protagonists are Italian, or African American, or Asian.  With a change of jokes, it would certainly work.  After all, every family has its own recognizable mishigass.

In this version, the action takes place in an apartment on New York’s Upper East Side.  And as in so many other comedies, (see any Neil Simon play) the venue has its own quirky personality.  As does Lainie Kazan, who is nothing short of terrific.  She is a drama queen, a tragic and poignant wife and mother, and a superb comic who brings the lead character to vibrant life.  I hope Steve Bluestein and my friend Ted will keep her for the Broadway production.  The role belongs to her!

But no matter who’s in it when it gets to L.A., you’ll want to see it.  It’s very nearly a completely perfect play.

(Return to top)