The Wuxi Jaywakers clinched the South Division Pennant of the China Expat Baseball League with a 8-3 victory over the Suzhou Green Hats in the final game of their three-game series held at the Wuxi's Landlord Stadium. Rabbi Yissocher Frand lead the Jaywalker offence getting four hits in five at-bats, hitting a home run, and driving in four runs. Rabbi Aron Tendler, after a slow start, pitched six perfect innings before being relieved by Rabbi Yehudah Prero for the ninth inning.
With the Jaywalkers magic number to clinch the South Division Title at one, an overflow crowd of 250,000 fans, including Prime Minister Mango and His Majesty the King of the Wuxi Expatdom: Gorzo the Mighty, packed WL Stadium on Sunday afternoon to witness hoping to witness pennant clinching celebrations. The huge throng, of Jaywalker fans, was stunned into an early silence as ace pitcher Tendler, the odds-on favorite to win the CEBL Cy Young Award for best pitcher, uncharacteristically allowed three runs over the first two innings to give the Green Hats a 3-0 lead.
But Tendler settled down to pitch perfect innings for the third to eighth innings. The Jaywalker offence, also uncharacteristically slow at the start, begin to show its usual hitting prowess as the game went on. The Jaywalkers never looked back as Shortstop's Rabbi Label Lam's run-scoring double in the top of the fifth game put the Jaywalkers ahead for good.
By the top of the ninth inning, the 250,000 Jaywalker fans, who had been eerily silent for the first two innings, were besides themselves in ecstasy. Their boos and whistles had become lusty cheers, loud enough to be heard in the Suzhou Expatdom. Many fans, who hadn't come to the game in a naturist mode already, proceeded to rip off their clothes. When Rabbi Yehudah Prero got Green Hat Shortstop Mister Robinson to ground out to first base to end the game, the fans streaked onto to the field to celebrate.
Asked to explain his slow start, Jaywalker pitcher Rabbi Aron Tendler said that he had become so absorbed in his weekly Torah reading that he forgot about his pitching. Said Tendler; "I was reading Bereshith 12:18-19 where Pharaoh summoned Avraham and said, How could you do this to me? Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say that she was your sister, that I would take her to myself as a wife? Now here is your wife! Take her and go! Pharaoh admitted that Avraham had done the right thing in telling his subjects that Sarah was his sister (since he knew that the Egyptians were an immoral people). Yet it angered Pharaoh that Avraham had told him the same story, for he felt that he himself could have been trusted to act morally. Avraham made no response to this, for although Pharaoh considered himself completely righteous, the truth is that he was no different from his subjects. It is very easy to detect someone else's faults, but detecting one's own shortcomings is very difficult indeed. In most cases, when one person criticizes another, he himself suffers from the same problem he is complaining about in the other person. Since he is well aware of all of the behind the scenes' factors which cause him to act that way, it is very easy for him to justify his own actions. When it comes to someone else, since we are not aware of all of the background information about their lives, it is difficult to view their actions in the same light as our own. Once, following a very inspiring lecture, someone who had come to hear the Rav went to speak with him privately. In the course of their dialogue it became clear to the Rav that the person speaking to him needed to work on the very problem he had addressed in his lecture. As they were finishing their conversation the listener thanked the Rav for his appropriate words, explaining that although they did not apply to him, he was aware that many members of the audience needed to hear what he had to say. The Shach was once summoned to a beith din, and the beith din decided in favor of the other party. Surprised by the ruling, the Shach pointed out to the judges a number of commentaries that supported his position. The judges responded that the halachah does not follow those opinions; rather we rule according to other opinions, which the Shach himself had ruled as the halachah. Convinced that he was right in this case, the Shach forgot that he was disagreeing with his own position! If it is natural for a person to be blind to his own faults, how can anyone ever come to recognize the truth about himself? If a person is searching for the truth and genuinely wishes to know it, then God will reveal to him what his weak points are, and will help him to correct them... That was a heavy lesson, as you can tell, and so it was hard to pitch till I settled down. So in awe I was of this teaching."
The Wuxi Jaywalkers will meet the North Division Pennant winner in the China Expat Baseball League World Series. Currently, the Beijing Green Caps and the Tianjin Luse Maozi are tied for first place in a race that will surely be decided on the final day of the season.
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