Cleaning out the emailbox gives you time for lots of Saturday links that you didn’t get around to putting up when you got them.
It’s the The Chosen Team, or, the team of baseball’s best Jewish players. Go forth and argue. It’s what we do, as Jews and as baseball fans.
Players I recognize: Ken Holtzmann, Al Rosen, Sandy Koufax, and Hank Greenberg. The rest, well, I’m not the biggest baseball fan around, and have fallen away from the sport in recent years. I don’t even have a sports category on this blog, which shows you how rarely I post about the topic.
HT: Longtime reader Ted.
I’ve seen differing reports on whether Brad Ausmus practices Christianity; that would take him off the list if so. Why pick Scott Schoenweiss as the closer when there’s Larry Sherry who was a genuine closer and a good one?
There’s also a question as to whether Buddy Myer was Jewish; there’s a good discussion of this in the later version of “The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract.”
Joel Horlen converted so he can be counted. He doesn’t make the team but special mention should be made of the player born Jewish with the least likely Jewish name imaginable: Jose Bautista. Turns out his mother was a refugee to the Dominican Republic, married a local; Jose was raised Jewish and was married to a Venezuelan Jewish woman.
And it’s always worth mentioning someone’s comment about catcher Moe Berg: “He could speak twelve languages but couldn’t hit in any of them.”
Incidentally, a few seasons ago there was a game where Al Clark was the home plate umpire, Jesse Leavis the catcher, and Shawn Green the batter. It’s believed to be the first time in history that everyone at home plate was Jewish.
I hope Meryl will keep her readership posted on the Israel Baseball League. Tel Aviv against Modi’in…can’t you feel the tension when these traditional rivals meet?
I hadn’t realized that Schoenweiss was Jewish. So the New York Mets actually have two Jews on their 25-man roster? Incredible.
Baseball gotta love it !
The Mets have three of the
Newhan, Green, Schoenweis (3!).