The New Crew has seen quite the evolution over the years. The team was founded as the Lancers, over thirty years ago by long time Bnai Yeshurun members Itzy Weinberger and Mike Roth. The name was changed to Pru Crew when Rabbi Pruzansky joined the team, as a gold glove first baseman. Rabbi Pruzansky has not played a game for the team in close to 5 years, so it was time to think about a new name. Last year, three of the team’s longest tenured players left the team, forcing the crew to bring in some “new” blood. Hence, a new name was adopted: “New Crew”.
The Crew won back to back A league championships in 2006 – 2007 and have been to the semi-finals 3 more times since, including last year when the team lost in the semi’s following a first place regular season finish. However, the storied franchise can’t seem to get back to the big game. When asked about the lack of recent success, team captain Moshe Weinberger says it’s “Probably because we are getting old.”
This season the New Crew sported much needed new uniforms, inspired by the New York Yankees. One of the trademark quirks of the New Crew is Slugger Chanan Vogel’s Khakis. While all other players show up Sunday morning in track pants (except star shortstop Dov Wiener, who plays in shorts because he doesn’t know how to slide. Wiener only gets away with this because he is the team’s best hitter. Pressed on the matter, Wiener’s agent responded “Why would Dov have to slide if he always gets to third base standing up?”) , Vogel is always in khakis. While no one on the team could provide a definitive response, and Chanan adhered to his “no speaking to the media during the season policy”, big brother and Center Fielder Avi proposed a theory. “Chanan thinks that when the other team sees him wearing khakis at the plate they won’t take him seriously and will play him shallow, making it easier to hit it over their heads in the outfield. The better question is why does he get them dry-cleaned and pressed before every game?”
Finally, in response to how long he felt the current version of the New Crew would keep playing, Weinberger had a definitive answer. “At least five more years is the plan. My son, Danny, and Yitz Feit’s son, Akiva, will be eligible to join the team in 5 years; it would be pretty cool to have played on the same team in two different decades with my father and my son. Who knows? Maybe my father will even come out of retirement for a game?”
Will the new name and uniforms lead to a new trophy? Will Chanan’s khaki’s hold up all season?
We look forward to finding out!
