Baseball/Softball Encyclopedia: Josh Neufeld

Geek

[Originally posted April 12, 2006 — updated for 2024 with final 2023 stats]

 In honor of the new baseball season, I’ve asked Bill James and the good folks at Baseball-Reference.com to compile my career (so far) statistics. Unfortunately, the records are spotty. Though they date as far back as my 1982–1983 stint as a Little Leaguer playing baseball against such classic teams as 15th Street Iron Works and Aurora Phoenix Construction, there is a disturbing absence of information for almost the next twenty years!

I know! No stats from the glory days of the mid-1980s, when man_size, larrondo, thamesrhodes, pango_lafoote, and I tested the confines of Riverside Park during summer softball?! Or the three years at the helm of the Oberlin College intramural softball teams — The Dascomb Lords of Fresh (1987), Better Than You (1988), and Like a Big Dog (1989)? Or those great seasons in the early 90s as captain of The Nation magazine softball team, as we squared off against the likes of The Village Voice and Money magazine? I know: a travesty.

But, since I joined their “league” in 2003, the nutty nutjobs of Prospect Park Sunday softball have stepped up to the plate. With an obsessiveness for stats I can only stand back and admire with awe, they record every out of every game we play during our April–November season.

So sit back and peruse my (admittedly sparse) stats, which prove beyond doubt that I was a born softballer. As the records clearly show, I couldn’t hit a curve — or a fastball, for that matter. (Though I was a pesky hitter, working out a fair number of walks and wreaking some havoc on the basepaths.) And the results some years later weren’t any better: I was cut from the Oberlin College baseball team, a Division III team with no athletic scholarships!

Anyway, my softball stats are a bit better — at least I’m over the Mendoza Line. However, I believe hitting anything less than .400 in softball is nothing to be proud about, so I’ve got plenty of work to do. (The two stat lines for the 2004 season reflect two leagues I played in, the first being P.P. Sunday Softball, and the second being the weekday Zen League, featuring real umpires. My team, the Plug Uglies, won the championship, but I found it all a little too intense — and time-consuming — and didn’t return the subsequent season.)

So the 2006 season has just begun, and assuming I don’t break any more fingers, I hope to really get my swing in the groove as the summer moves along.

NEW! UPDATED FOR 2023 [with 2022 stats]!

JOSHUA MICHAEL ROSLER NEUFELD
Born: August 9, 1967 Home: Brooklyn, New York
Ht.: 5’9″ Wgt.: 210 Bats: Left Throws: Left

YEARGABRH2B3BHRRBIBBSOSBAVG.OBP.SLG.OPS
1982917530005966.177.391.177.568
198315176300031354.177.533.177.711
NO STATS KEPT
20036019256051840.417.453.7671.220
2004104223851429130.365.436.500.936
2004506173101440.340.389.440.829
2005246920263131890.377.449.5801.029
2006431274867132331170.528.568.7321.300
200740133427195350122.534.565.7441.309
2008238226418552742.500.667.9021.402
2009257830419222681.526.570.7691.339
2010268228438444391.524.542.8661.408
20112367263775230112.552.578.8661.444
201211377172101211.459.474.5681.042
2013144511194111233.422.458.6221.080
2014257440405334092.541.577.8111.388
2015197319369122512.499.500.6991.199
201641458100310.571.600.6431.243
20172734002610.571.625.1.4292.054
201851134010430.364.500.6361.136
2019?1745100030.294.400.353.753
20201136813200842.361.475.417.892
2021834516120831.471.513.6181.131
2022154819301122050.625.636.8131.449
2023166421325032072500.549.7191.268

19 thoughts on “Baseball/Softball Encyclopedia: Josh Neufeld

  1. So much to say here, how to fit it all in?
    Stolen Bases? This must have been in some strange league that doesn’t play on concrete.
    Riverside Park–
    You were a good hitter, despite the field being comically skewed towards right handed hitters. As I recall you showed some promise as a switch hitter. More importantly you were superb in the field (First Base). I played Shortstop.
    I seem to recall playing for “The Nation” also, against Money Magazine in Central Park. (Their Ringers were better than “our” ringers)
    How do I join a Sunday Softball team in Prospect Park?

    1. Re: So much to say here, how to fit it all in?
      Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing about the skewed fences– as a right handed opposite field hitter (and not so hot softball player,) I had problems with this as well.

      1. Re: So much to say here, how to fit it all in?
        i HATED that fricken fence! that’s the only reason i tried switch-hitting, because every time i hit a “home run” to rightfield, it was declared foul.

        1. Field of Dreams
          I know, you and David S. were screwed. I loved it. Tailored my one footed batting stance to own the left field fence.
          Did you know that I held the permit to that field 3 years running? I knew that unlike proper fields, there would be no competition. I would go to the Parks Department the first Monday in January and they would get out a map and say to me “You don’t want THAT field, its a hard top.” I would say, “I most certainly do want THAT field.” The permit was free.

    2. Re: So much to say here, how to fit it all in?
      sunday softball is on prospect park field 5 every sunday from 1 pm – 6 pm (they have two consecutive permits for that field). it’s a regular group of guys (and the occasional gal), so you’d have to work your way in slowly. my advice is to show up early — 12:30 or so — and talk to Dave Rawson, the organizer. regulars pay $50 and semi-regulars pay $35, to offset the cost of the permits and the brand-new softball we break out for each game.

  2. What about the SPX softball game? Or is that considered postseason play, thereby not appearing in your official stats? You must hit at least .500 in that game, with a fair amount of RBIs and runs scored.

    1. i’m bitter about SPX softball since Diamond kicks our ass EVERY TIME. i heard rumors that the year before i started playing, SPX beat Diamond, so i must be the jinx!

      1. The cartoonists are inherently at a disadvantage in that – the Diamond folks play together all the time, and we’re a rag-tag group. Plus, they field people who all can PLAY. Some are better than others, but they all know what to do. The SPX folks just let anyone who wants to grab a glove and take the field, with wildly varying results. That openness is part of the fun of the whole thing, but we’ll never win until that changes, unless we get lucky.

      1. They were latino, The mom would park a blanket on the grass and the son would play and sometimes the father. They were always there.
        I also remember that I used to drive my car down there.
        Can you imagine today, somebody driving their car through Riverside Park!?
        I think that I had a permit entitled me to some flexibility about this, but noone ever said anything.

  3. I’m noticing a significant spike in the stats froom 2005-2006, much like one saw with late-career Bonds and Clemens. Did your trainer give you the ‘clean’ or the ‘clear’?

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