WALLACH WONDERS

A road runs through Lansmans Bungalow Colony, the Catskill resort where I spent almost all my childhood summers. One side of the road contained (and still does)the casino with its pinball machines and restaurant, the paddleball, basketball and tennis courts, the swimming pool, day camp grounds and parking lot. The other side, my side, was much better.

We had the softball field!

It was on that field, on so many glorious Sunday mornings, that the fabled Mens Softball Team, often with me leading off, won championship after championship. It is not about that team or that day that I write.

I want to tell you about Saturdays.

That's when everyone got together for a colony softball game. We kept no records and no standings but everyone loved those games. Most of the men came out and wanted to play. Much of the rest of the colony came to watch and cheer. Every Saturday. Everyone loved that game.

But no one loved it as much as me.

I couldn't wait for Saturday. Even when I was too young to play. I would chase fly balls in the outfield during batting practice and then settle down to watch the game. Sometimes I'd keep score. Always I'd cheer for our team.

And our team consisted of the guys from our side (the good side) of the road. And the captain of our team, the person who got to decide who played and where, was my uncle Lou Wallach! What an honor! And how proud that made me feel!

And that's not all. Not only did he get to make all those vital decision...the team was actually named after him!! The Wallach Wonders! What a great name! Who could possible beat a wonderful team made up of Wonders! Why, it would take a miracle to beat a team like ours!

Unfortunately, that's what we faced: The Muriello Miracles represented the other (not as good) side of the road. It's captain was Johnny Muriello, an elegant, somewhat overweight man, very sweet but not very athletic (unlike his son Tony who was the fastest, best athlete I'd ever seen up to that time...but that's another story). The thing about Johnny is he tended to move v...e...r...y s...l...o...w...l...y in all that he did. And he was the pitcher for The Muriello Miracles. As you might imagine if you are a knowledgable softball/baseball person (and would I be friends with any other type of person?), Johnny's pitches were very, very, well, you know, slow.

How could The Muriello Miracles ever possibly beat The Wallach Wonders? My Uncle Lou was a TREMENDOUS athlete. A really good point guard in his youth (sadly I never saw him play basketball), he was a lefty throwing, lefty swinging powerhitter. I remember one summer when he unveiled a new swing: He'd begin his backswing by dramatically lifting his right leg into the air as the pitch was released and violently bringing it down as he started to move forward into the ball. Truthfully (and I've never said this in all these years) I don't think this helped his hitting. But Uncle Lou loved it! He told me many times that this was how Mel Ott, the great NY Giant, had hit.

Wow! No way a team lead by a slow moving, slow throwing pitcher, now matter how Miraculous, could possibly beat a team lead by a slugger who hit like Mel Ott!

And here's kind of the funny thing. I have NO memory of how any of those games turned out. Probably The Muriello Miracles won some games. Of course I plan on always thinking that we won the majority. But it really doesn't matter. Because what I do remember is how much I loved that The Wallach Wonders was named after my uncle Lou.

He was a really good hitter and outfielder. And uncle.