Yes, I recall the infamous joke from the film "Airplane!".
"Would you like something to read?"
"Do you have anything light?"
"How about this leaflet, Famous Jewish Sports Legends."

However, a longtime friend of mine from Los Angeles sent me this really interesting article on Jewish ballplayers finally getting recognized at the Hall of Fame. There is more than just the legendary Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg. I remember getting so excited when Ken Holtzman was traded to the Yankees in the mid-1970's. Too bad he didn't pitch two no-hitters for the Yanks like he did for the Cubs. Anyway, there are some well-known players in the game today including the very hunky Shawn Green of the Dodgers, and Gabe Kapler and Kevin Youkilis of that team from Massachusetts. Oy, if I could be there to see this event!

Yahoo! Sports - MLB - Jewish ballplayers shalt not steal
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-j...ov=ap&type=lgns

Cattledog, the only line I could remember from Airplane was 'Don't call me Shirley!' but your quote is funnier. Gabe Kapler?? I thought we weren't allowed to use his name on the board . I often thought GK is Jewish, and this confirms it. Every time I hear his name, I think of the old TV show Welcome Back Kotter which starred Gabe Kaplan, who I believe is also Jewish. Jews have contributed greatly in many fields, and it's good to see they have some claim to fame in baseball too. And I think there may even be a few Jewish fans of the game wink .

[ August 15, 2004, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: Marc ]

Oh, Marc, that is only for silly superstitious fans of that red team from Massachusetts. wink
Gabe Kapler, Gabe Kapler, Gabe Kapler!

I believe Brad Ausmus is Jewish.

NJ

You are correct, NJ.

A current list of Jewish Major League baseball players includes:
Brad Ausmus
Matt Ford
John Grabow
Shawn Green
Gabe Kapler
Al Levine
Mike Lieberthal
Andrew Lorraine
Jason Marquis
David Newhan
Mike Saipe
Scott Schoeneweiss
Justin Wayne
Kevin Youkilis

Amazingly it didn't take me that long to type this list! wink

The Yahoo article mentions how Youkilis was immortalized in the book "Moneyball." They gave him the nickname "Euclis -- the Greek God of Walks."

Doing a google search on "Euclis" I found a bunch of Youkilis references and one leading to a website from a teacher who gave his kids an assignment to choose one from a list of 5 mathematicians (including Euclis) and write a short article. So how one goes from being a mathematician to a greek god, let alone god of walks, I'm not sure. wink And the fact that Youkilis is Jewish just makes you wonder more and more about these "Moneyball" aficionados.

There's an article on this in today's Toronto Star.

From the Hall of Fame website:

Come on... What is next? An expose of Latter Day Saints sports heroes?

When has religion ever been a factor in sports abilities? If they are role models in the Jewish community, great, but I would rather see kids have role models based on performance, not preaching.

UH, Judaism is more than a religion, it's a culture. At one time Jews were severely discriminated against in this country and it was socially acceptable to be blunt and outspoken against Jews. Players like Hank Greenberg had to put up with a lot of bigoted BS in their time but like Jackie Robinson they broke down barriers. Your comment is so ignorant--study your history and learn it. A good place to start is an excellent documentary entitled The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg.

Exactly! In Sandy Koufax's A Lefty's Legacy, I found this particular excerpt in which Don Newcombe explains the resentment of some of the Dodger players towards Koufax being on the roster very interesting:
"We had our reasons, our one reason--it was because he was a Jew," Newcombe said. "Some of the players did not like him because he was a Jew. They villified him because he was a bonus baby and had to stay on the roster. It wasn't his fault. He wanted to go to the minors. I couldn't understand the narrow-mindedness of these players when they would come to us and talk about Sandy as 'this kike' and 'this Jew bastard' or 'Jew sonofabitch that's gonna take my job.' And: 'I've to go to the minor leagues because he's on the ball club and he can't throw the ball in the batting cage but he's gonna take somebody's job.' And saying it in front of us about Sandy! They hated Jews as much as they hated blacks.

shall we start a list?

Jeff Kent is a Mormon (hmm... didn't think they approved of motorcycles)

Dale Murphy makes two from baseball and Steve Young makes one from football--and both very handsome, but that's beside the point. wink

Since Moe Berg will be part of the celebration of Jews in baseball, he faced the usual "dirty kike" comments from opposing teams and also "dirty Jewboy" from some of his own teammates, even though he was (at best) ambivilant about his Judaism--far less willing to identify with the Jewish community than Hank Greenberg or Andy Cohen, as examples. Favorite Cohen story: in 1928, he was so popular with fans, vendors would offer "ice cream Cohens."

~Adam

Just saw the trailer for a new documentary called Jews and Baseball about, as you might expect, Jewish baseball players. It doesn't open in Toronto until October. I'll check it out then.

Wally Joyner is Mormon as is, reportedly, Bryce Harper.

wikipedia has an entry List of Jews in sports, which includes baseball players.