Mazel Tov to Ryan Braun, the 2007 National League Rookie of the Year.
And… Mazel Tov to Kevin Youkilis of the World Champion Boston Red Sox on winning a Gold Glove.
It was a good year for Jews in Major League Baseball!
Jesus Doesn’t Come to Bat for Rockies in First Two Games of World Series
After reading the article in Tuesday’s NY Times (“Rockies Place Their Faith in God, and One Another”) about the emphasis the Colorado Rockies baseball team places on Christianity, I couldn’t help but think about the devout Christian pitcher, Eddie Harris, from the movie “Major League.” Harris has a famous line (one of so many in the movie) where he questions Pedro Cerrano’s religious views: “You trying to say Jesus Christ can’t hit a curveball?”
The strong Christian values espoused by the Rockies franchise, according to the Times article, seem to focus more on “character” and less on proselytizing. The role of Christianity in the Colorado Rockies clubhouse was first reported in a May 2006 USA Today article which described the team following a “Christian-based code of conduct” where certain magazines were banned from the locker room. Another article (“The Rockies Pitch Religion”) soon followed in The Nation.
Baseball, our American pastime, has long emphasized Christianity inside the players’ clubhouse. The new issue of Moment Magazine has a long, well-written article exposing the Christian prostelyzation in Major League Baseball.
In “Is the Nation’s Favorite Pastime Pitching Jesus: It’s a Close Call,” Karin Tanabe explains what Washington Post reporter Laura Blumenfeld (daughter of Conservative rabbi David Blumenfeld) witnessed when she was in the Washington Nationals‘ clubhouse and chapel in 2005. The team chaplain, Jon Moeller, answered in the affirmative when a player asked if Jewish people will be doomed because they don’t believe in Jesus. There was a public outcry and the chaplain was eventually fired.
The article quotes my friend and colleague, Rabbi Ari Sunshine, who wrote a letter to Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig following Chaplain Moeller’s comments. Rabbi Sunshine criticized Major League Baseball for only offering Christian worship to baseball personnel. The next day, Selig (who is Jewish) responded that he found Moeller’s comments “disappointing and offensive” and that he will “take steps to insure that much of what you have written is implemented into Major League Baseball.”
The Moment Magazine article traces the history of Baseball Chapel, and Major League Baseball’s focus on Christian salvation, to a Detroit News sportswriter in 1958. Waddy Spoelstra, who covered the Detroit Tigers, was so grateful for his daughter’s miraculous recovery from a sudden brain aneurism that he created Baseball Chapel. Detroit Tigers Hall-of-Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell helped Spoelstra during Baseball Chapel’s early days by organizing chapel services. Harwell is quoted in the Moment Magazine article, saying, “Many made fun of the Christians. But our view is that God wants you to do your best and that you should do it for His glory. A lot of Christian ballplayers recognize that they have a great platform and can influence more people than a preacher can.” Baseball Chapel was also supported by then-Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, a devout Catholic (however, based on his last name I suspect his grandpa or great-grandpa was Jewish… and a Kohen!)
Personally, I think it’s nice that the Colorado Rockies team is prioritizing good, ethical values. It is certainly welcome news with all of the disgraceful antics that occur in professional sports these days. However, Major League Baseball must strive to be more religiously pluralistic. If Baseball Chapel is to continue, there must be opportunities for spiritual leaders from other religions to serve as chaplains of baseball teams as well. [Note to Detroit Tigers organization: Invite me to give a pre-game D’var Torah and I’ll guarantee a win!]
Going into game three of the World Series, it wouldn’t hurt for the Rockies to do some praying… so long as they can choose to whom their prayers are directed.
I was honored to be quoted in an unscientific study about the level of play in the Israel Baseball League during this inaugural season. Iblemetrician referenced my subjective impression of the IBL’s level of play from a blog entry I posted after watching my first professional baseball game in Israel at Sportek Field.
— Rabbi Jason Miller, after attending a game.
This Israeli software engineer has a very interesting (and thorough) website dedicated to IBL statistics. Maybe he’s trying to become the Michael Lewis (author of “Moneyball”) of Israel baseball?
A better judge of the level of IBL play would be Jay Sokol (right), who traveled to Israel with me and sat next to me during the Netanya Tigers-Raanana Express game. Jay is the General Manager for the Delaware Cows of the Great Lakes League, which is a summer league dedicated to helping college players get used to the wooden bats they’ll use in the minor leagues. Jay thought the level of play in the IBL was very similar to the wood bat summer league. He even recognized an IBL player whom he previously scouted for the Cows.
While I was honored to be quoted in this biBlemetrics posting, I was saddened to read in another posting that the Sportek baseball field, one of the three remodeled fields of the IBL, would be returning to its pre-upgrade state.
While my “Save Tiger Stadium” campaign didn’t seem to work out too well, let’s see what we can do about Sportek Field.
Since my posting about the decisions that Jewish professional athletes make about whether to play on Yom Kippur, I’ve received many inquiries as to whether Ryan Braun actually played on the Day of Atonement. Yes, he did play, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Braun will play: Third baseman Ryan Braun said he would play during the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur this weekend in Atlanta. Braun’s father is Jewish, but his mother is a Catholic and said he had not observed that holy day in the past.
“I don’t really celebrate the (Jewish) holidays so it won’t be much of an issue with me,” Braun said. “Growing up half-Jewish, half-Catholic, I’ve never really celebrated one holiday over the other.”
Yom Kippur begins at sundown Friday and continues to sundown Saturday, and Jews are supposed to fast during that period, including drinking no water. The Brewers play a night game Friday and an afternoon game Saturday against the Braves.
After my post, however, I realized that the focus is always on famous professional athletes when it comes to the Yom Kippur decision. What about all the Jewish college athletes playing in Yom Kippur football games throughout the NCAA? Does it matter that they’re not getting paid? What about other famous Jews choosing to work on Yom Kippur? Are we as interested in Jewish actors who take the day off from filming their next blockbuster movie? What if Jon Stewart filmed an episode of the Daily Show on Yom Kippur? Does the Jewish community even look to these Jewish celebrities as Jewish role models anyway or should their decisions to not observe Yom Kippur be judged any differently than your average Jew who chooses to work on the holy day?
Perhaps we can learn a lesson from the case of Ryan Braun. Yes, the Jewish world should celebrate his All-Star year, and that he might be the first Jewish player* to win the Rookie of the Year award (even though many will call his Judaism into question because he is not Jewish by matrilineal descent — that is, his mom’s not Jewish). But since he doesn’t make a big deal about Yom Kippur, why should the media cover his decision to play on Yom Kippur as if it’s a big deal to us.
When I met Ryan Braun and some of his Milwaukee Brewers teammates in Phoenix last month, I asked one player on the team if Braun was the only Jewish player on the Brewers (I thought Gabe Gross might be). He told me that he didn’t even know that Braun was Jewish.
*The Rookie of the Year award did not exist when Hank Greenberg played
Every year before Yom Kippur there has to be at least one article about whether a Jewish baseball player will play on the holiest day of the year. The Jewish community seems to get all excited about whether baseball players will suit up on Yom Kippur ever since 1934 when Detroit Tigers Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg chose to attend Yom Kippur prayer services at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in lieu of playing against the Boston Red Sox in a critical game in the middle of a pennant race.
That year Greenberg played on Rosh Hashanah and hit two home runs that won the game, but didn’t play on Yom Kippur. Sandy Koufax made it a point to never play on Yom Kippur, even sitting out a World Series game in 1965 (although he did not go to synagogue). Some Jewish ballplayers like Shawn Green have been less consistent in taking off the Jewish holy day. In 2001, Green (then with the Dodgers) sat out an important pennant race game because of Yom Kippur. That same year Green appeared in more games than any other Dodger (161 of 162 games), and had the longest consecutive-game playing streak in the majors (408 games). That streak, however, came to an end when he didn’t play on Yom Kippur, a decision supported by the team. In more recent years, Shawn Green has opted to play in the night game on Erev Yom Kippur (Kol Nidrei) but not play on Yom Kippur day.“Though I didn’t grow up in a religious household, I was raised with a strong sense of identity. I was a huge baseball fan, just like lots of kids. At the time I was growing up, there really weren’t any well-known Jewish players (at least as far as I knew). I was, however, very aware of Greenberg and Koufax and the tremendous role models they were for Jewish people everywhere.
“As my baseball career progressed, I always remembered the decisions that the two greatest Jewish ballplayers made, and I told myself that if I was ever in their position to, in any way, fill that role, I would. Thus, I feel a strong responsibility to make the right choices when it comes to such topics as not playing on Yom Kippur. I’m not trying to be ‘the next Greenberg or Koufax,’ but I am trying to do my part as a Jewish ballplayer.”
Well, this year there’s a new Jewish player making news in the big leagues. Ryan (“The Hebrew Hammer”) Braun (pictured at right) is on his way to becoming the first Jewish Rookie of the Year. I met Ryan Braun last month when he was staying with his team at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona during the Milwaukee Brewers’ series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. I found Ryan to be very friendly and I told him how great it is to have a Jewish athlete playing as well as he has been this year. In a very “small world” story, Ryan told me that he lived with his grandfather for a while in the same house that once belonged to Hank Greenberg.
I haven’t posted to my blog since August 5th, the day I left for Israel. Much has happened in the past five weeks that I haven’t blogged about. The two weeks in Israel with the entire family were fantastic with too many highlights to name. However, one of the major highlights of the trip for me was throwing out the first pitch at an Israel Baseball League game.
This was the inaugural season for the IBL, Israel’s professional baseball league with six teams and three stadiums. When I called the IBL ticket office in Boston to order tickets for our synagogue group to see the Netanya Tigers take on the Ra’anana Express at Yarkon Field, I was asked if I would like to throw out the first pitch. Of course, I immediately replied that I would love to. The irony was that I was slated to throw out the opening pitch of a Columbus Clippers minor league game on Sunday, August 5, but since that was the day our group left for Israel I had to say no to the Clippers game. So now I was going to throw out the ceremonial first ball one week later in Petah Tikva. Even better!
Together with my eldest son Josh and about a dozen people from our group, we boarded a charter bus and rushed from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv in the middle of rush hour traffic to get to the game in time for my opening pitch. Fortunately, we made it in time and I threw a strike. Unfortunately, Josh had just woken up from a nap and started crying on the pitcher’s mound.
The game was a great experience. The playing field wasn’t much better than your average high school field, but the kosher “Burger Bar” concession stand was a great bonus. The level of play was somewhere between college ball and AA minor league. Most of the game was announced in English by an enthusiastic announcer who used some Hebrew every once in a while.
Proving what a small world it is, the winning pitcher for the Netanya Tigers was Justin Prinstein (pictured at right), who is from Detroit. Justin had a no-hitter going into the 7th and final inning, finally pitching a one-hit 4-0 shutout. We spoke after the game and Justin told me that he graduated from North Farmington High School (where my wife graduated), Farmington Hills Warner Middle School (where he knew my mother-in-law, the librarian), and Shaarey Zedek Religious School (where I taught hebrew school and remember meeting him and his sister Rachel).
Here is the video of my opening pitch along with some other photos from the baseball game. With my official Netanya Tigers jersey, inaugural season baseball signed by Commissioner Daniel Kurtzer (former U.S. ambassador to Israel), and the ball I threw to begin the game, I will long remember this great experience. And with Josh singing the Ra’anana Express fight song every day, how could I forget it. I hope that professional baseball in Israel thrives for many years to come.
I love Jews. I love baseball. And I love books. So, I’ve really been looking forward to Jews and Baseball, Volume I: Entering the American Mainstream, 1871-1948 by Burton A. Boxerman and Benita W.Boxerman (Published by McFarland & Company, Inc.).
The Forward published a fair review of this book. This is clearly not a coffee table book. Nor is it one of those “Famous Jews in Sports”-type books that shows nice photos of Mark Spitz and a few heavyweight boxers before explaining that most Jews in sports are the owners and agents. This is a book with statistics and footnotes.
As the reviewer explains, “Although ultimately this book is about the men who played a game, it has the feel of a thesis, and that’s too bad. When you want real-life anecdotes, instead you get citations that often are merely repeats of other bobe-mayses. The book is 184 pages of text, and it also includes an additional 20 pages of notes and an eight-page bibliography.”
I’m excited to buy a copy, read it, and then use it for reference. Even if there haven’t been too many Jewish baseball players in the big leagues (an average of one per year in the past 140 years of the game), it’s fun to learn more about the MOTs (Members of the Tribe) who made it to the show… even if they weren’t Hank Greenberg or Shawn Greene.
Jewish minor leaguer Adam Stern hit a home-run in addition to four RBIs to help Canada defeat the U.S. in the World Baseball Classic. While I hate to see the U.S. lose in our own national pastime, I must say it’s nice to see this Jewish player make headlines.
From the Associated Press
Stern leads Team Canada in Classic upset
PHOENIX, Ariz. – The country where hockey is king stole America’s pastime on a chilly Arizona afternoon.
Adam Stern, a young backup outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, hit an inside-the-park homer, drove in four runs and made two sensational catches in center to lead Canada over the U.S. 8-6 yesterday in the World Baseball Classic.
“We were definitely pumped up to play this team,” Stern said.
Jason Varitek’s 448-foot grand slam helped bring the United States back from an 8-0 deficit, but a Canadian team made up largely of minor leaguers held on.
“It’s a very quiet locker room right now,” U.S. manager Buck Martinez said. “I think everybody is feeling like they got kicked in the stomach.”