The Temple Shalom Brotherhood and the Temple Shalom Brotherhood Softball League, is now accepting Applications for the 18th Annual Phyllis Unell Temple Shalom Brotherhood and Softball League Scholarship!

 In the spirit of both Phyllis and the Temple Shalom Brotherhood’s commitment to education and promotion of social progress, the Scholarship’s recipient will be awarded $500.00 for tuition, books and other related collegiate expenses for the upcoming school year.

The Phyllis Unell Temple Shalom Brotherhood and Softball League Scholarship is an annual award to a dependent child of a current Shalom Softball League player based upon the criteria defined below.  Due to Covid-19, the Temple Shalom Brotherhood Awards Breakfast will not be held this year, so the recipient will instead be announced on the Temple Shalom Softball League website at https://www.shalomsoftball.org

A committee comprised of Temple Shalom Brotherhood Executive Officers and Shalom League Softball Officers will select this year’s scholarship recipient.

Use the button to download the application.

In what has to be record time, all spots for the upcoming Spring 2021 season are full and a waiting list has formed.  If you are part of the 192, make sure to get your payments in within 5 business days or you will be bumped for next up on the wait list.  The 2021 season will be a great one with some awesome things planned already to enhance the player experience.  If you are a new player to the league or have been out of the league a while and returning, you will get an email soon with instructions on evaluations.  Have an awesome holiday season and see you all soon!

The following message is an update from our commissioner Scott Lawrence.

Your Spring 2021 Teams are as follows:

Weinfeld's Pirates

Silverman's Rangers

Unell's Clowns

Casper's Red Sox

Hauf's Sea Dogs

Muck's Rubber Ducks

Eusay's Astros (Bringin back the rainbows)

Alford's Iron Pigs

Buhrow's Bats

Miller's Mariners

Dyer/Cuddles' Tacos

Garber's Grasshoppers

Brooke's (Prim) Brewers

Cova's Marauders

Kravitz's ?

Williams' ?

The budget for the 2021 season should hopefully be finalized this week which will mean you should have a final total on what the Spring and Fall sessions will both cost. I hope to have the number by next Monday. As was stated previously, there will be an increase in cost and that is simply because the plan is to enhance the experience in both the Spring and the Fall. From the Captain's think tank, there have been some outstanding ideas on how to enhance your experience. The first idea came from Leo Cova who put together a "TSSL Awards Proposal". Included in this there are some awards that will stay the same like MVP, Captain of the Year, Mr. Softball and Rookie of the Year. New awards that will be handed out will include the CY Young to the best pitcher of each division, Gold Glove awards, 10 per division, per position, Silver Slugger Awards, 10 per position (Best offensive player per position for the entire league, not based on division), the Brotherhood Player of the Year, the Most Improved Player of the Year and the Championship Series MVP. Custom-designed shirts for the Championship winners (Spring and Fall) will happen as well.

We are going to have a "traveling trophy" created for the Champions of both the Spring and the Fall. This trophy will be substantial in size and have enough room on it to include the past 45 winners with their own plate on the trophy and room for at least 40 more winners to be added to it. The Fall will have one as well. Once the trophy is created, it will first be handed off to the Prim's. They will have the trophy for one year and then it will be handed off to the winners of the 2021 season in the same fashion the green jacket is handed over at The Masters. Schedule a party around the trophy with your team, this should make for a cool tradition I would think. All of the Individual Awards will be named after a Hall of Famer who came before us. I think it's important for the Hall of Famers who built the foundation of this League should be properly recognized from here on out. The traveling trophy for the Spring will be called the Bob Weinfeld _________ (suggestions are welcome). The name of the Fall traveling trophy is yet to be determined.

Lastly, the subs for 2021. We will have a total of 16 teams this year which should mean that our less than optimal sub situation should in theory be less problematic for 2021. In order to clean up the sub list this year, we are going to be charging the subs $40 to sign up as subs. Within the $40 charge, they will be guaranteed a uniform with the same logo that is used on the hoodies that JJ put together. The uniform cost is $25/person so, in essence, the cost to play would be $15 after the uniform cost. Kyle Kravitz gets credit for this one, thank you, sir! This should make it easier for the Captains to choose from and the Sub Chairman to choose from when acquiring the subs for the regular season and the playoffs.

That's all for now. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving.

2020 Season Award Winners

Handsome Captains Division

Player of the Year- Justin Reed (Hauf's Astros)

Rookie of the Year- Dalton Fallaw (Haas' Bulls)

Gold Glove- Greg "Badger" Hurst (Haas' Bulls)

Captain of the Year- Brian Strull (Pirates)

Goofball Captains Division

Player of the Year - Darius Wu (Unell's Dash)

Rookie of the Year-  Ryan Richardson (Kravitz's Rangers)

Gold Glove- Tanner Gandy (Nutt's/McDonald's Cubs)

Captain of the Year- Brooke Prim (Muckdogs)

Batting Champion:  Ryan Richardson  .785 BA

HR Champion:  Darius Wu  28 HR

RBI Champion:  Darius Wu 86 RBI

Mr. Softball:  Darius Wu (Unell's Dash)

Commissioner award:  Scott Lawrence (Alford's Iron Pigs)

Fan of the Year:  Jan Unell (Dash)

2020 League Championship Series

Samsel’s Yard Goats vs. Prim’s Muckdogs

Spirit Park-Allen Field 1 (Temps in low 70’s at game time wind 20 mph out of SE)

(Wind will be blowing across the field from right to left carrying most balls to the left side out.  Tough sledding to RF/RCF)

Season Series: Muckdogs won 10-3

The wacky 2020 Spring Shalom season is coming to it’s exciting conclusion as the Championship Series takes place Sunday.  I have gone 8-2 on my playoff predictions of the winners advancing each week, but this one will be a challenge.  Both of these teams look primed to win it all, displayed by their unbeaten run through the playoffs.  One team will walk away the winner and be etched in Shalom League history while the other will have their great run to reflect on.  Regardless, congrats to both teams for making it to this point and my advice would be to enjoy the moment because you don’t know when or if you will be back at this point again.  So now to the game itself.

These two teams met back on August 16 in Allen on Field 2 where the Muckdogs earned a convincing 10-3 victory.  In this contest, the Muckdogs held the dangerous combos of Tyler Samsel and Air Loiben to just one hit.  The Goats were without Tony Martin and Zak Edgerton but sub Matt Martinez was solid in driving in 2 of the 3 runs they scored on two hits.  The Dogs, on the other hand, got bombs from Donald Prim and Miguel Duron to power them to victory.  Duron is on a tear in the playoffs, sporting a .857 avg with an eye popping 9 homers in just six games.  When breaking this one down, I first looked at who exactly the teams beat on their journey through the playoffs.  The Goats defeated the bottom seeded Lugnuts easily, then upset the second seeded Pirates in two and capped it off with taking care of the red hot Bulls in two.  The Muckdogs took care of the fifth seeded Royals with half the team made up of subs, then knocked off the two seed Rangers in easy fashion and finished by taking care of the top seeded Iron Pigs in just two games.  As far as seedings, the Muckdogs run was more impressive, however I feel the teams the Goats beat were paying much hotter softball when they played them.  The Dogs have scored a whopping 115 runs in six games, averaging out to 19 runs per game!  Couple that will only allowing just over 11 runs per game.  Although Prim and Duron are doing the heavy lifting, do not look past the other steady hitters all through this lineup.  The Goats, on the other hand, have scored 86 runs in 6 games which averages to just over 14 runs per.  They have allowed just 48 for an average of 8 runs per.  Two very similar teams that win in almost identical ways defensively and opposite ways offensively.  The Dogs will rely on the long ball more but can also base hit you to death while the Goats will use their speed to stress your defense into mistakes and take advantage.  They manufacture runs and back it up with solid defense.  Something has to give here as neither have list a game and faced elimination.  Will the team that loses game one be able to handle the stress of having their backs against the wall?  This will be a fun one to watch.  What a great way to finish an amazing season.

Keys to Victory:

Goats:  The key here is their top two hitters in the lineup.  They MUST get on base and create havoc.  They will need to take risks early on the bases and get the Muckdogs frustrated and make them chase.  Put pressure on their hitters to keep up and you have a shot.  They can’t allow the Dogs to get a big lead and play catch-up.  They aren’t built for that and it will be playing into the opponent’s hands.  Their pitcher MUST find a way to keep Duron and Prim in the park and to play base to base.  Their bottom has been solid all playoffs but you have to make them beat you. 

Muckdogs:  They MUST resist the urge to swing for the bombs because those will come.  If they can get up by five or so early, it plays to their strength.  We beat them once this year and ONLY because we scored 16 in our first at bat.  THAT is what they have to avoid.  You CANNOT chase their speed on the bases and make the smart play.  Don’t turn singles and doubles into doubles and triples.  They won’t hurt you with the long ball so much so make them earn every run. 

My Pick:  I honestly went back and forth all week on this one.  At the end of the day I have to go with my gut.  Having played the Muckdogs twice, I know how hard it is to beat them once, much less twice.  Although the Goats have played tremendous and are a legit contender, I just feel like the Muckdogs are built for this.  Credit Larry Goldstein for putting the core together and to Brooke Prim for fine tuning it and managing it through the season and playoffs.  I think they take this one and not even give the Goats hope.  MUCKDOGS IN 2.

**BONUS

The 2nd Annual HR Derby sponsored by Apligian Real Estate will take place immediately following the Championship Game.  All proceed will go to the family of Plano umpire Mario Reyes who was injured in a car accident with his wife.  Mario will also throw out the first pitch of the Championship series.  It would be awesome to have as many people out there as possible to say hi to Mario.