Category: Baseball

Sparky Anderson

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date November 4, 2010

Growing up as a Tigers fan in Detroit, Sparky Anderson was the quintessential baseball manager. With his shocking white hair and humble leadership, Sparky was a Moses-like figure to me. While I’m not the most superstitious person, I have always taken a little hop over the white chalked foul lines on baseball diamonds because that’s what I saw Sparky do back when I was in grade school.

Being at the fifth and final game of the 1984 World Series at Tiger Stadium when I was in third grade is etched in my memory and I have Sparky to thank for leading his team there. May the memory of George “Sparky” Anderson forever be a blessing for his family, for Major League Baseball, and for the people of Detroit.

‎“People who live in the past generally are afraid to compete in the present. I’ve got my faults, but living in the past is not one of them. There’s no future in it.”

– Detroit Tigers Manager Sparky Anderson

LeBron, Circumcisions, Al Kaline, Tisha B’Av & Auschwitz Dancing

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date July 21, 2010

Admittedly, the title of this blog post might seem odd and perhaps you’re wondering how I’m going to tie all of these things together. However, this is what has been circling in my head over the past couple days. Allow me to explain.

The other night during a rain delay in the ninth inning of a Detroit Tigers-Cleveland Indians baseball game, I watched a half-hour tribute to Al Kaline. I had the pleasure of meeting this living legend a month ago at a local charity golf outing. Kaline, known throughout Detroit as “Mr. Tiger,” is more than a Hall-of-Famer. He’s a legend and is regarded for his generosity as well as his dedication to the Detroit Tigers’ franchise. He began his baseball career with the Tigers’ ball club on June 25, 1953 as a highly sought after 18-year-old outfielder from Baltimore who bypassed the minor leagues. Fifty-seven years later, Mr. Tiger is still with the organization, working in the front office as a special assistant to the president. He’s never left the team. Now that’s dedication!

I grew up watching Tiger baseball games on television with Al Kaline doing the color commentary to complement George Kell’s play-by-play so I felt nostalgic watching this tribute to him. But what I couldn’t get out of my head — and maybe it was because the Tigers were playing the Cleveland Indians at the time — was Kaline’s long-standing devotion to his team as contrasted to the way LeBron James handled his departure from the Cavaliers only a week prior.

The LeBron controversy continues. Aside from Miami Heat fans, LeBron James has very few fans left. The way he arranged for a one-hour ESPN special to announce his decision to leave Cleveland and sign with the Miami Heat as a free agent has soured his image. It has also led to a more accurate portrayal of LeBron’s on-court and off-court personality. The allegations that he devised a plan a couple years ago for his friends and fellow 2003 draftees Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade to all be on the Miami Heat for the 2010-11 season only highlights his lack of devotion to his former team. In his open letter to the fans, Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert accused his star player of tanking it on several occasions (and in the playoffs no less).

Basketball, like baseball, is a team sport. For LeBron it was always about LeBron and not the team. Dan Gilbert is now free to explain that LeBron was difficult to deal with, maintained special privileges, placed demands on team management and the coaching staff, and didn’t return the owner’s phone calls or text messages. Jesse Jackson took issue with Gilbert’s letter and accused him of thinking of himself as a modern day slave master. Jackson’s accusation is laughable since, in actuality, Gilbert was never in charge; LeBron was always calling the shots. (Although, it is funny that LeBron left Gilbert’s team after seven years, which is the mandatory time after which a slave is allowed to leave according to the Torah proving free agency is actually an old concept!)

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, writing about the LeBron James decision, looks to New Orleans Saints quarterback Archie Manning as an example of a pro athlete who was so devoted to his team but never won a championship. Perhaps even better than winning a Super Bowl, Boteach opines, was that Manning got to see each of his sons lead his respective team to a championship. Manning didn’t run from the Saints in search of a team that would be a sure bet to win the ring. When it’s a team sport, the team must take precedence. For LeBron, it was never about the team. Coincidentally, Al Kaline and LeBron James were the same age when they were rookies, but Kaline was (and always has been) a mensch – a gentleman who followed authority and worked as a team player to achieve victory. He allowed his teamates to shine. When he talks about the Tigers’ 1968 championship season, he talks about it in terms of the team effort and the team’s accomplishments.

Yesterday I attended a “bris” – a Jewish ritual circumcision. There is no religious ritual act in Judaism that demonstrates more dedication to the Tradition and to the continuity of the people than a bris. This tribal ritual links hundreds of generations together. The Jewish people are a tribe — like a team — and while there has been some objection to the bris or brit milah from within the tribe, the majority of Jews have held firm and continued this practice which began with Abraham, the first Hebrew thousands of years ago.

At the bris yesterday, I heard my colleague Rabbi Aaron Bergman, say something that truly resonated with me. The bris took place on Erev Tisha B’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, but he said that the timing was perfect because it demonstrates the eternal optimism of the Jewish people. While Tisha B’Av marks the many calamities that took place on that day including the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem twice, the bris reminds us that the Jewish people have endured. The Babylonians destroyed the first temple, but they are gone. The Romans destroyed the rebuilt temple and they too are no more. The Jewish people, dedicated to the team throughout the generations, has survived. And a baby boy being brought into the covenant of the Jewish people is a sure sign of optimism and continuity.

And this brings us back to the Auschwitz Dancing video that has stirred so much controversy. This video of a Holocaust survivor dancing to Gloria Gaynor’s version of Donna Summer’s song “I Will Survive” is a beautiful expression of Jewish survival. It does not diminish our commemoration or respect for the six million who perished in the Holocaust, but it does remind us that human beings who were marked for death by the Nazis are able to return to those death camps with their grandchildren and proclaim their triumph.

Now that’s true dedication.

Baseball Biography News Sports Yom Kippur

Armando Galarraga & BP

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date June 14, 2010

This afternoon I had the chance to watch Armando Galarraga go up against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers. This was my first opportunity to see the Detroit Tigers pitcher live since his eventful, near perfect game ten days ago. Watching him on the mound, I kept thinking how graceful he acted following the perfect game that was taken from him by an umpire’s mistake and how other professional athletes might have reacted (or over-reacted) in the same situation.

Newsweek editor Jon Meacham (pictured) aptly characterized the level of maturity and class exemplified by both Galarraga and umpire Jim Joyce in his editorial comparing Joyce’s behavior with that of the CEO of British Petroleum (BP), Tony Hayward. In “What an Umpire Could Teach BP,” Meacham writes:

There is no comparison between a baseball game and the nation’s worst environmental disaster, but there is a lesson to be learned from how Jim Joyce and Armando Galarraga handled what was, in their world, an epic event. Be honest, admit mistakes, and keep moving. That is perhaps the only way to cope with tragedy of any scale.

Thank you Jon Meacham for helping me get started on my Yom Kippur sermon for this year. The comparison of Jim Joyce’s ability to admit error and apologize with BP’s series of gaffes in the gulf and lack of contrition sets the tone for a day of self-discovery and repentance.

Baseball Detroit Ethics Forgiveness Jewish Morals Sports

Perfection is Hard to Come By

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date June 3, 2010

While I often write about sports on this blog, I have always done so through a Jewish perspective. In fact, everything I write on this blog I write through a Jewish perspective.

So, why am I writing about last night’s Detroit Tigers baseball game in which pitcher Armando Galarraga had a perfect game until the 9th inning with two outs when 1st base umpire Jim Joyce blew an obvious call? Galarraga isn’t Jewish and neither is Jim Joyce. And yet, last night in my hometown of Detroit, as I watched Galarraga’s perfect game ended by a human error and all the emotional reactions to it, I found the entire episode to be full of Jewish lessons.

Perfect games in baseball are a rarity. (It is unusual that Galarraga’s would have been the third perfect game this season and we’re only a few days into June.) In Judaism, we understand that perfection is hard to come by. We’re taught that God created an imperfect world. The concept of Tikkun Olam urges us to be active participants in helping make the world perfect for future generations. But since no human is completely perfect, mistakes are made that constantly keep the world from being in perfect harmony. Umpire Jim Joyce made a mistake last night. His error had significant implications for another human being (Galarraga), but it also demonstrates that in our pursuit of perfection there will always be actions beyond our control that will keep us from attaining our goal.

The fact that Jim Joyce was so quick to admit his error and then apologize directly to Galarraga should not go unnoticed. Like every other Tigers fan, and indeed like any baseball fan, I was torn apart watching Jim Joyce ruin Galarraga’s perfect game last night. However, the umpire acted like a mensch in his contrition and apology. The Jewish concept of teshuvah (repentance) was brought to mind as Joyce’s admission was played repeatedly on ESPN Sportcenter. He admitted that he blew the call without any qualification (something umpires and referees rarely do) and then he admitted that he “just cost that kid a perfect game.”

There has already been much discussion and debate about whether baseball commissioner Bud Selig should reverse the call and give Galarraga the perfect game that he deserves, and there will be much more on this topic in the days to come. This will also serve as a platform for those who wish to see instant reply brought into Major League Baseball.

But what I wish to focus on is what transpired immediately after the umpire’s error. Galarraga kept his composure. He didn’t yell or scream. He didn’t lose his temper and push the umpire. He maintained his cool. After the game, he just shook his head and explained that he’d eventually tell his kids that he threw a perfect game on that night even if the record books didn’t record it that way. In an era in which we see professional athletes lie and cheat (see: the Steroid Scandal), get in opponents’ faces and taunt them, and hurl profanities at umpires and referees, it was refreshing to see Galarraga take the umpire’s mistake like a man — or better yet, as a mensch.

And the fact that Umpire Jim Joyce wasted no time after the game in asking to see Galarraga to offer his deepest apologies also serves as a good example for our children. When you make a mistake, acknowledge it and offer your genuine forgiveness (mechila in Hebrew) no matter how severe the offense.

Whether Bud Selig does the right thing and reverses the bad call or not, this episode in one of the American Pastime’s greatest games will go down in history as an example of how human error makes perfection hard to come by… and why owning up to our mistakes and asking for forgiveness is such a noble deed.

Baseball Detroit Ethics Obituary

Ernie Harwell – The Voice of Tigers Baseball

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date May 7, 2010

Hall of Fame baseball broadcaster Ernie Harwell died on Tuesday. He was 92. He had been battling cancer for over a year. It was his time to go and yet his passing has cast a pall over Detroit. Upon hearing of his death, I began to feel both sad and nostalgic. To paraphrase Ernie, “I stood there like the house by the side of the road.” Ernie Harwell was Detroit Tigers baseball and his legendary voice was the voice of my youth.

He looked frail the last time I saw him — at the Fox Theatre in Detroit sharing a conversation on stage with Mitch Albom in front of a packed house. He lived in a retirement community where my wife’s grandmother lives and she reported that he no longer ate in the dining room. Rumors spread that he was in hospice care, confined to his room at Fox Run in Novi. His death was expected. And yet, it stung the city and baseball fans everywhere.

My first inclination was to write about this loss and to pay tribute to the man. Yet, over the years I’ve only posted on this blog through a Jewish perspective. Where’s the Jewish angle in Ernie Harwell’s death, I wondered. He was a man of faith — he became a born-again Christian during a Billy Graham Easter service. He was even baptized in the Jordan River. He certainly wasn’t a Jew.

And yet, there was something about Ernie Harwell that strikes me as so-very-Jewish. He was the epitome of a mensch. No one had an unkind word to say about Ernie. The Emory University graduate was a gentleman and possessed a Southern charm. He was full of wit and wisdom. And he was more than charitable throughout his entire life. His foundation supports the arts and college scholarships. He also possessed what is known in Hebrew as a kol na’im — a pleasant voice. It was that memorable voice to which I would doze off as I listened to Ernie call Tiger games on the radio at summer camp. I listened to that voice on those long car rides Up North and as background noise when I did my homework in high school.

Mitch Albom wrote a beautiful tribute to Ernie Harwell in yesterday’s Detroit Free Press. I was moved to tears reading his account of how Ernie would welcome new broadcasters into the press box. “[Someone] would nudge the new guy and say, ‘Do you know who that was? That was Ernie Harwell. THE Ernie Harwell.’ No one ever earned a ‘THE’ more than him.”

It’s difficult to explain why so many people feel so heartbroken about a 92-year-old baseball broadcaster dying. I suppose it’s because the voice of baseball is gone and baseball is more than just the American pastime; it’s a religion too. A friend of mine remarked that when Ernie Harwell died, his childhood finally ended.

This evening at my son’s little league game, one of the players hit a foul ball that was caught by the opposing team’s coach. Without even thinking, I said: “A fan from Farmington Hills caught that one.” I smiled. So did everyone around me. It was one of his trademark phrases.

This morning at 7 a.m. fans began to pay their respects to Ernie Harwell at a public viewing at Comerica Park. At midnight there was still a line around the stadium. A fitting tribute indeed.

I’ll close with the words of my boyhood hero, Tigers slugger Kirk Gibson: “”He was an icon. The saying that you treat people the way you want to be treated, he represented that to its fullest.”

Baseball Jewish Jewish Law Shabbat Sports

Negotiating With a Bar Mitzvah Boy

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date February 18, 2010

Like many rabbis, when I encounter an article about “Jewish life” in the mainstream press, I ask myself the age-old question: Is this good or bad for the Jews?

And that is precisely what I did yesterday when I read about the bar mitzvah party that is to take place at Yankee Stadium this June 5th and is now holding up the possibility of the stadium’s first boxing event that same night.

I’ve written about over-the-top bar mitzvah parties on this blog in the past, including the the $10 million Bat Mitzvahpalooza in 2005 featuring 50-Cent and Aerosmith. Now, Jonathan Ballan, the lead bond lawyer for the financing of Yankee Stadium, has reserved the stadium for his son’s bar mitzvah this June. The NY Times reports that “In addition to providing lounges, the Yankees promised to give the Ballan party access to the stadium’s giant scoreboard in center field for 30 minutes.”

Now, the Yankees are negotiating with the bar mitzvah family and the boxing promoter so everyone will be happy. They’ve promised seats at the boxing event to all the bar mitzvah guests, a private meeting for the bar mitzvah boy with the boxing champ, and autographed baseballs for all the bar mitzvah boy’s friends.

But here’s the best part of the story: The boxing champ is none other than Yuri Foreman, an Orthodox Jewish fighter who is studying on the side to become a rabbi. In an ironic twist, there was no question of hosting a lavish bar mitzvah party at Yankee Stadium in the middle of the Sabbath day where all sorts of activities that are antithetical to Sabbath observance will be taking place. However, the boxing match was scheduled for after sundown to accommodate Yuri Foreman’s many Sabbath-observant fans in the New York area who couldn’t get to Yankee Stadium during the Jewish Sabbath out of respect for Jewish law and tradition.

So, in essence what we have here is a Sabbath-observant championship boxing match that will be trumped by the Main Event, a mega-party for a 13-year-old Jewish kid that is throwing a sharp uppercut to the concept of Jewish values.

So, the headline could very well be: “Jewish Boxing Champion Knocked Out By Bar Mitzvah Kid.” And that just can’t be good for the Jews.

Baseball Ethics Jewish Sports

Mark McGwire

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date January 14, 2010

Last week, former Time Warner head Jerry Levin, marked the 10th anniversary of his disastrous merger deal with AOL by finally apologizing and accepting responsibility. Levin issued his mea culpa on CNBC explaining that he “presided over the worst deal of the century” and how sorry he is for “the pain and suffering and loss that was caused.”

I thought of Levin’s apology the other day when I watched former baseball slugger Mark McGwire finally admit to taking performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) as a player. Sure, McGwire’s is a different admission of guilt. He’s more of a guilt-ridden cheat than Levin, who made a horrible business decision. No one lost their job because McGwire took steroids to bulk up and hit more homers. Yet, both of these apologies came many years after the actual deed was done.

I’m not going to get into the debate about whether there was anything actually wrong with players “juicing up” during the steroid era of professional baseball. If you’re interested in an insightful discussion on the topic, I recommend the recent book Cooperstown Confidential, by Zev Chafets. The author explains the results of the Mitchell Commission and takes baseball purist George Will to task for arguing that the steroid era altered the very essence of the game.

The issue here is not only whether McGwire is truly contrite for using PEDs, but also whether he really feels remorse for his evasiveness and outright lying about his steroid use. While many of Mac’s fans (and Sammy Sosa’s) inevitably feel cheated knowing now that the famous homerun race of ’98 was between two ‘roid raging monsters, the real concern of baseball should be the unethical way McGwire handled the accusations over these many years.

The homer battle between Sosa and McGwire was actually a level playing field since both sluggers were juicing. Baseball purists will argue that McGwire’s numbers can’t be compared with the players of the past (e.g., Ruth, Maris, etc.) because of his unfair pharmaceutical advantage (Barry Bonds too for that matter). But these are debates to be had among stats fans and the history buffs of the game. The question of how the Hall of Fame will handle the stars of the steroid era is another thorny question, but not one that is germane to McGwire’s admission this week.

The question I ask as a rabbi is whether Mac’s confession should count as legitimate repentance (teshuvah). We’ve heard just about every form of “I’m sorry” from our sports stars throughout history (the philandering golfers, the wife-beating hoop stars, the drug-abusing baseball players, the gun-toting football players, the gambling refs, and on and on). But what exactly did McGwire apologize for? After all, he seemed to have plenty of excuses for his steroid use and even blamed the “steroid era” for what he did. He claimed he did it for his “health,” and not to be a better player. When asked if he could have hit all those dingers had he not juiced, without hesitation he said, “Absolutely. Look at my track record as far as hitting home runs. They still talk about home runs I hit in high school. I was given the gift to hit home runs.”

Doing real teshuvah and being contrite are not the same as regret or a confession. Whether he considers his juicing to be cheating or not, Mark McGwire still hasn’t owned up to his lying about what he did. It took him many years to finally admit that he used PEDs, but baseball fans everywhere are still waiting to hear him articulate that he understands how his evasiveness cheated the public. He must take responsibility for his actions.

McGwire returns to baseball this spring as the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals. There are, of course, many who believe this is the only reason he finally admitted his steroid use. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps, his admission now is because keeping those demons in the closet makes it difficult to live as a man. But in terms of performing teshuvah, Big Mac still has his work cut out for him. And no drug will make that task any easier.

Baseball Celebrities Detroit Jewish Yom Kippur

Calling it Right

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date October 2, 2009

I had the wonderful opportunity this past Wednesday night to see Detroit Tigers radio broadcasting legend Ernie Harwell interviewed by Mitch Albom at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. To raise money for several local Detroit organizations that help the homeless, author, sports journalist, and radio personality Mitch Albom hosted an event to launch his new book. “An Intimate Evening with Mitch Albom and Friends” featured Anita Baker, author Dave Barry, and Ernie Harwell.

Albom discussed his new book “Have a Little Faith,” and dialogued with Rev. Henry Covington (pictured at left), the former drug addict and ex-con who is now the Pentecostal pastor at Pilgrim Church and the founder of the I Am My Brother’s Keeper Ministry to Detroit’s homeless, who is one of the subjects of Albom’s book. He also interviewed local Detroit rabbi Harold Loss, the spiritual leader of the mega-church-sized Temple Israel in West Bloomfield who filled in for the late Rabbi Albert Lewis, Mitch Albom’s rabbi from Cherry Hill, NJ who is featured in “Have a Little Faith” as well.

For me, the highlight of the evening was not meeting with the likes of Dave Barry and Anita Baker backstage during the pre-glow event, but rather sitting back in the audience and watching Ernie Harwell shmooze up Mitch Albom on stage. Ernie Harwell is a part of my life; much of my childhood was spent listening to Ernie Harwell’s voice as he called the Tigers games on the radio as I laid in bed on school nights.

In July, the 91-year-old Ernie Harwell was diagnosed with brain cancer. He knows he doesn’t have long to live. The Detroit Tigers honored him a couple weeks ago during a home game at Comerica Park, but he hasn’t made many public appearances lately. He wasn’t sure he could even make it to the Fox Theatre for Mitch Albom’s event, but he did. And he was amazing!

Albom, sitting on a living room sofa asked Harwell to speak about his faith and how he has come to accept the life-ending disease he now faces. He talked about finding faith as a young man and how it has helped him persevere through many challenges in his life, including his current sickness.

Mitch Albom described Ernie Harwell’s voice as being “what baseball would sound like if baseball could talk.” Albom also praised Harwell for having the patience to let the game of baseball move at its slow pace, and to allow the sounds of the game to be heard and appreciated by the radio audience. Harwell paraphrased Shakespeare by explaining “The game’s the thing.” “It can’t be rushed,” he said.

I enjoyed listening to Harwell talk about the days when baseball clubs couldn’t afford to send their radio guys on the road with the team. The play-by-play would come over a telegraph and Harwell, sitting in a broadcast studio, would call the game from the telegraph making sound effects to add some excitement. Some of the broadcast, Harwell admitted, he would make up since all he actually knew about the game were the stats coming over the telegraph machine. While waiting for the stats to come through, Harwell would make up a story, saying a dog just ran across the field or a fan fell out of the stands. Harwell also spoke nostalgically about the Tigers winning the World Series in 1968 and calling a play in which Jackie Robinson stole home plate (see the video below).

Through the several standing ovations on Wednesday night at the Fox Theatre, all I could think about was what a true mentsch Ernie Harwell is and how much he’s a part of the fabric of Detroit and of major league baseball. Long after Ernie’s left this world, I know I will still hear his voice in my head calling baseball games. He will forever be the “Voice of Tigers Baseball.”

* * *

And speaking about calling baseball games on the radio, I couldn’t believe what I heard about Mike Blowers, the former Seattle Mariner and current radio commentator for the organization. On the radio last Sunday, as Jews were in synagogue listening to the Kol Nidrei service and being released from the vows they’d make in the coming year, Blowers made a vow that something would happen in the upcoming baseball game. His prediction was reminiscent of Nostradamus.

Jeremy Moses, in a post on the MyJewishLearning.com blog titled “The Messiah Does Baseball Color Commentary,” writes:

You don’t believe in the Messiah? You don’t think the Apocalypse is coming? As of yesterday morning, I’ll admit that I was skeptical as well. But now, I believe it is fair to say that former Major League Baseball player, Mike Blowers, is Moshiach.

But before I prove my point, let’s look at some of the pre-conditions. According to [an article on Messianism on MyJewishLearning.com], the Messiah will not come on Shabbat. Good, because I believe he came on Sunday. Second, the rabbis believed the Messiah would come on the eve of Passover. Well, Sunday was Erev Yom Kippur, so I think it’s fair to say that the rabbis had the right idea, but got the wrong holiday.

Finally, according to Sotah 9:15, “In the footsteps of the Messiah, arrogance [chutzpah] will increase; prices will rise; grapes will be abundant but wine will be costly; the government will turn into heresy; and there will be no reproach.” That kind of sounds like today’s world, especially in this economy.

Well, I don’t know that Mike Blowers is the messiah, but this really is an unbelievable prediction. Blowers calls it perfectly. First, he says Seattle Mariners rookie infielder Matt Tuiasosopo would be the Player of the Game. Next, he predicts that Tuiasosopo would hit his first Major League home run. Not only that, but he guesses it will come in his second at bat, off a fastball on a 3-1 count and that Tuiasosopo would hit it into the second deck. Unbelievable call!

Watch the video below and then try to figure out why Mike Blowers didn’t spend his time at the racetrack instead of trying to play professional baseball where he journeyed from team to team including three stints with the Mariners.

Baseball Holidays Jewish Passover

Baseball and Holiday Conflicts

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date April 8, 2009

The Detroit Tigers’ 2009 home opener is this Friday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. I would get tickets and attend if it weren’t the second day of Passover. According to T.S. O’Connell, sports historian and the editor of the Sports Collectors Digest, Jews shouldn’t be the only religious group upset with the date of the Tigers’ home opener this year. On his blog, The Infield Dirt, O’Connell writes:

I saw a news item recently that said the Detroit Tigers were taking a bit of heat because of the scheduling of their home opener on April 10, more precisely noting that some Catholics were upset that the 1:05 p.m. start time came during the noon to 3 p.m. period when traditional Christian belief holds that Jesus was hung on the cross.

O’Connell then writes how this news item caused him to wonder how this particular conflict (opening day an Good Friday) hadn’t come up before. He waxes nostalgic about the 1965 decision by Sandy Koufax to forgo pitching in the World Series opener against the Minnesota Twins because it fell on Yom Kippur. He writes:

I was just a 15-year-old kid, frantically following the approaching World Series in the New York Daily News, and I was just awestruck that somebody (actually my favorite pitcher) could take a pass on what I regarded as a secular assignment with near-religious overtones. Mostly it just impressed me with the seriousness of the Jewish faith; the decision only enhanced my view of Koufax, aided neatly by the later developments that saw the Dodgers win in seven games. By my way of thinking, it was no harm, no foul. I also found it fascinating to learn years later as I became something of an amateur baseball historian that there was never really any major decision involved for Sandy. He had long since made it clear to the Dodgers’ brass that he would not play on Yom Kippur, so when the prohibition coincided with one of the holiest days in the baseball world, it was what we would later call a “no brainer.” That same thirst for reading about baseball history would lead me to Hank Greenberg’s decision to skip a game during the 1934 pennant race for the same reason.

What a statement it would make if Mike Ilitch, owner of the Detroit Tigers, told the commissioner of baseball that the Tigers would have to reschedule their opening day game at Comerica Park because of Good Friday and Passover. Of course, with my luck, they’d reschedule the game to Shabbat and I still wouldn’t be able to go!

On the same subject, I laughed when I read an email circulating about the Boston Red Sox home opener this year. Here it is:

The Red Sox home opener this year will be postponed for Passover.

Red Sox general manager, Theo Epstein announced that the Boston Red Sox home opener will be postponed to April 14 to avoid the eight days of the Passover holiday. He noted, because three of his starters (Kevin Youkilis, Gabe Kapler and Adam Stern) are Jewish as are his box seat holders, he was forced to make this change in scheduling. There have been several complaints from fans, who are enraged at Epstein’s decision. In fact, protests are being tendered to the commissioner of baseball’s office. However, Bud Selig, commissioner of baseball, will not be able to address these protests; mainly due to a scheduling problem. This has been caused by the family seders he and Mrs. Selig will be attending.

Also, unable to attend the opener: Al Gore and Tipper will be unavailable as they will attend a seder at their son in law’s home. Bill and Hilary Clinton will be attending the seder at the home of their daughter Chelsea’s boyfriend. In addition, former mayor of NYC, Rudy Guiliani, whose wife will be busy preparing their seder. And finally the Obamas will be out of town enjoying a seder at Michele’s cousin’s house, Rabbi Capers Funnye.

Baseball Detroit Holocaust Jewish Sports

Sacred Space

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date December 29, 2008

I’ve been thinking a lot about sacred space recently. Of course, I give much thought to the concept of what makes a place holy (or sacred) whenever I am in Israel. At each turn one encounters a sacred location from Jewish history.

However, what turns a place that is generally considered to be a secular place into a sacred one?

Last week, after I taught my monthly class on Jewish business ethics at a Downtown Detroit law firm I began to drive back uptown to the suburbs. When I turned to get on the highway I saw the old Tiger Stadium in the distance. While Tiger Stadium hasn’t been used as the home field of the Detroit Tigers since the Tigers last played there on September 27, 1999, it is still very much on the minds of Detroiters and Tigers fans. Seeing the vacant stadium (or what’s left of it since some of it was demolished earlier this year) standing there at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull, I was lured to go pay a visit. I parked my car along the street where the Right Field wall once stood — the area where my favorite player Kirk Gibson used to defend the outfield. I got out and took some photos of the snow-covered park. I felt extremely nostalgic about the baseball stadium where I viewed my first Major League game (and many more after that).

There is much debate about what will become of the old Tiger Stadium, but no matter what it is used for (hopefully little league games) or how it is memorialized (hopefully a museum) there is no question that for me it is sacred space.

This is true of other places in my life as well. I’m sure that many years from now, the Palace of Auburn Hills (home to the Detroit Pistons for the past twenty years) will also become a sacred space to Pistons fans like me who have enjoyed watching them play there (even though I have fond memories of watching the Pistons play at the Pontiac Silverdome as well).

Some places have sentimental value because they haven’t changed much over the years. My oldest son is a preschool student in the exact same classroom where I was a preschool student at Adat Shalom Synagogue in the early 1980s. The classroom hasn’t changed much since then, so each time I walk in to drop him off for school I experience yet another flashback to my childhood. Of course, it has been transformed into a more modern classroom to keep pace with the educational advances of the past three decades. A few years ago I even taught a class in that same room for teenagers and found that to be a surreal experience (at least during the first class). That classroom is certainly a sacred space for me as it is the location where both my formal education and my first born child’s formal education commenced. Independent of the fact that it is in a holy place (synagogue), it still carries sacredness. It is sacred space.

In some cases, it is specifically the way in which a sacred space has been transformed that gives it meaning and value. In the case of the original location of the Detroit Holocaust Memorial Center (America’s First Freestanding Holocaust Memorial Center), the transformation is stark and conveys an interesting message. Several years ago, the Detroit Holocaust Memorial Center moved to a new location a few miles away leaving the JCC with the decision of what to do with the space. A new, state-of-the-art teen center now occupies the entire building where the Holocaust center was once located.

A couple days ago I was given a tour of the JCC’s new Beverly Prentis Wagner Teen Center (right) by director Lindsey Fox. It is a very impressive site with ping pong tables, foosball, Nintendo Wii spots, computer labs, a snack-bar, video games, and more. The fact that thousands of Jewish teens will now gather socially in a space once occupied by a memorial to the Holocaust was not lost on me. As soon as I entered the teen center I remembered the chill I felt each time I visited the Holocaust center. I remembered the buzzing sound of the lights above and the coldness of the brick walls. Certain things haven’t changed much in the space. The movie auditorium where I once viewed survivor testimonies looks the same — although now teenagers will watch High School Musical and Adam Sandler movies there. The small seating areas where I once watched films of the Nazi killing machine on small televisions will now be used for Jewish youth to play video games on flat screen monitors. And the conference room where Holocaust researchers once lectured will now be filled with Jewish youth group members eating pizza and socializing.

This is the best way to demonstrate that some sixty years since the end of the Holocaust the Jewish people have endured. This is a loud statement that the Nazi attempts to eradicate the Jewish people were unsuccessful.

A beloved baseball stadium left vacant that will soon be used for youth baseball. A nursery school classroom occupied by multi-generations. A Holocaust memorial center transformed into a Jewish teen center. Each of these is a sacred space transformed to preserve its sacredness.