For the sports-minded
OK, I grant you, this isn’t exactly my usual territory, but I just had to share with you all. Salon contributor Jonah Keri writes about the 18 best Jewish ballplayers of all time. I’m not sure whether that’s exactly a special honor (I mean, how many are there total? He had to count people who didn’t even count themselves as Jewish, like Rod Carew) but in these last lingering days of summer, as I notice all the pools closing for the last time tomorrow, I am feeling the call of my old baseball summers, when I would listen to the Orioles on the radio, which is, IMO, the best way to follow a baseball game, if you’re not actually playing, yourself.
The best thing, of course, is to haul out to a field with a mitt and scare people into dropping their bats while the ball shaves their chest hair (if they’re guys).
14) Kevin Youkilis
In Michael Lewis’ bestseller “Moneyball,” Billy Beane famously referred to Youkilis as “the Greek God of Walks.” Not quite. The Red Sox first baseman has parlayed a great batting eye into a key role on baseball’s best team. But he’s actually Jewish, not Greek. He’s also the inspiration for the funniest Internet clip ever about Jews in baseball. “Where’s Mel Gibson now?! Where’s Mel Gibson now?! He’s in rehab, and Youkilis is at first base!”
Kol ra’ash- To see a full list, check out: jewishmajorleaguers.org
You can even buy baseball cards.
On another note, everyone should look at the comments to the article on Salon.com. A lot of people seem upset that Salon bother to post such a particularist article. From a website for a literate, cerebral set, I was surprised to see such a plethora of narrow-minded responses.
I see someone finally fixed the Wikipedia page on Youkilis. It used to say that the Greek God of Walks not only was not Greek, but that his last name is Romanian. Yeah, sure.
Now, citing a SF Gate article, it says his Romanian grandfather adopted the Greek name (though it does not say why). (SF Gate did not mention that he’s Jewish.)
Having grown up non-Jewish, I can thank Sandy Koufax for my knowing what Yom Kipuur was, even as a kid.
Hadn’t occurred to me that the likely NL Rookie of Year was a MoT.