Ruth, Maris, and Greenberg

There are a couple of books out this year that deal with athletes — Roger Maris and Hank Aaron– who were vilified by the press and the public for the audacity in approaching the home run numbers put up by Hall of Famer Babe Ruth, albeit for different reasons.

Maris, who broke the single season mark of 60 with 61 in ‘61,was deemed an inferior ballplayer, someone who wasn’t even good enough to carry Ruth’s… glove. Ford Frick, then the commissioner of baseball (not to mention a former Ruth crony), went so far as to decree that the record would not count unless Maris reached 60 in 154 games (rather than the scheduled 162), just as Ruth had done.

Aaron, on the other hand, received a different kind of ugliness, including death threats, when he approached Ruth’s lifetime total of 714.

According to Howard Megdal, author of The Baseball Talmud: The Definitive Position-by-Position Ranking of Baseball’s Chosen Players, one has to look at the ledger to see if Hank Greenberg was cheated out of the chance to beat the single-season figure.

In today’s Times sports section, Megdal published “Religion Aided a Home Run Chase, and May Have Led to Its Failure,” in which he suggests “When Hank Greenberg…made a run at Babe Ruth’s season home run record, falling two short with 58 in 1938, was he pitched around because he was Jewish?”

Jewish paranoia? Perhaps, but Megdal makes a compelling case by comparing the amount of walks Greenberg received in the last few weeks of the season with those of the rest of the year.

“It is impossible to know what was in pitchers’ hearts, but it is also impossible to ignore the statistical record. In short, the American League didn’t seem exactly thrilled with Greenberg’s pursuit,” Megdal writes.

Italian Jews protest soccer star

From the JTA:

ROME -– Italian Jews are protesting an apparent fascist salute given by a player on Rome’s Lazio soccer team.

A statement issued by the Jewish Youth Union of Italy called the gesture by Argentina-born Mauro Zarate during a match Sunday between Lazio and Bari “intolerable.”

Zarate, who had been suspended from play in Sunday’s match because of an on-field incident in an earlier match, was photographed in the stands as he apparently gave the stiff-armed fascist salute along with militant Lazio supporters, who in the past have been known for expressing ultra-right-wing sympathies.

The fascist salute, said Jewish Youth Union president Giuseppe Piperno, “evokes tragic historical periods that culminated in the ways we all know well.” The episode, he said, “is all the more serious for the effect it could have on children who look at Zarate as an idol to follow.”

Piperno called on Zarate to apologize and for sports authorities to evaluate the situation and take any further appropriate steps.

Wanted: Revolving door?

Tony Kornheiser only recently returned to work following a two-week suspension for his comments about co-worker Hannah Storm’s wardrobe choices.

So what’s gonna happen with this? Without appearing too much of a Kornheiser apologist, come on already. What, is he going to have to turn into Mr. Rogers now? Funny how people might find a personality who’s known for being a curmudgeon amusing until he turns his attention to them.

Does anyone really think Kornheiser wants motorists to actually run down bicyclists? It reminds me of the movie Twelve Angry Men in which Henry Fonda argues that phrases such as “I’m gonna kill you” shouldn’t always be taken as emmes.

Jewps, NBA issue

This will be easy:

Omri Casspi and the Sacramento Kings lost to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Jordan Farmar and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Sacramento Kings.

The Tuesday night game (sorry for the delay), saw the Lakers take to context 106 to 99.

Casspi came off the bench to play 18 minutes, scoring 10 points (including two three-pointers) and pulling down two rebounds. Farmar played eight minutes and scored no points, still hampered by his recent injury.

This marks the third times the teams have faced each other. In their first regular-season game — a 112-103 Lakers win — Casspi scored 15 points to Farmar’s two. Six days later, the Lakers won a close one, 109-108, with Casspi contributing 23 points to another deuce for Farmar.

The Lakers and Kings will meet once more on April 13.

How would you take it?

Jamie and Frank McCourt are in the middle of a typical high-profile, contentious Los Angeles divorce. Jamie McCourt — nee Luskin — was the guest speaker at a Women’s Philanthropy of Jewish Federation conference in Irvine earlier this week where she discussed myriad issues, including the marital woes, during which time she made the following remark, according to the Ocean County Register:

“I do keep saying, ‘I’m Jewish. I can be bought,’” she jokingly said to a reception of laughter and applause. “But he likes litigation. We’ll see what happens.”

But not everyone is happy with her portrayal of Jews as money-grubbers.

Larry Brown, a sportswriter and sports radio anchor in Los Angeles  (and not the basketball coach), put this on his website:

I’m not quite sure what Jamie is, but whatever she is I don’t want to be included in the same category. I do know that Jamie speaks for herself and that her comments make her look like a money-hungry, utter fool. Check that — we already knew from Jamie’s million-dollar-a-month spousal support demands that she was all about the money — this remark only confirms it. What’s worse is that Jamie wasn’t content letting her pathetic views on life speak for herself; she had to speak for the rest of the Jewish people instead. Let me just say that putting a price tag on dignity is an individual choice and has nothing to do with culture or religion. It has everything to do with character. Quite obviously Jamie has little of that. Ditto the people in attendance who found her remark to be humorous.

The only side I’m on is the one that eschews celebrities as held in esteem for no other reason than they are in the spotlight.

Jewps “madness”

The NCAA Tournament is under way. A quick recap shows the following Jewish athletes participating in the March Madness:

• Jon Scheyer, Duke
• Brandon Reese, Syracuse
• Ethan Chemerinski, Cornell
• Carmel Couchman, Temple
• Steve Pearl, Tennessee (little nepotism here?)
• Nimrod Tishman, Florida
• Jordan Weiner, UC Santa Barbara

In addition, Tennessee is coached by Bruce Pearl and Ben Jacobson leads Northern Iowa.

In last’s night’s opening round, Tennessee beat San Diego State 62-59. They’ll take on Ohio in the second round.

Tishman and his team fell to BYU, 99-92, in double overtime.

In the Southern Region Duke (#1 seed) faces Arkansas-Pine Bluff. In the East, Temple (5) takes on Cornell (12). In the Midwest, Ohio State (2) goes against UC Santa Barbara (15) while Tennessee (6) vies with Ohio (14). And finally, in the West, it’s Syracuse (1) vs. Vermont (16).

What price glory?

A while back I wrote about a student-athlete who was selected for a special peer program. As such, this young person gets to travel around to various countries, meeting his peers, taking in the sights, and serving as a role model for other youths.

Parents of (mostly) high school-aged students know that these offers come in the mail occasionally, playing to the emotions of those who want to give their children every opportunity to succeed (hidden motto: If you don’t spend oodles of money on these programs, you don’t love your kids and they will get into inferior colleges).

As the author of this piece in The Jerusalem Post notes, not every Jewish parent can afford to send their sons and daughters to these programs or, in this case, to the Maccabiah/Maccabi events. And that’s a shame. I’m sure there are lots of talented kids to would do well at the games, perhaps even those who have the benefits of private lessons and top-of-the-line gear, but can’t participate because they can’t cobble together the two or three grand necessary to attend. Some synagogues/JCCs/communities will hold a fundraiser here or there, but I think that’s the exception rather than the rule.

(Sorry for the JP format, it’s a bit hard to read through).

Fill in the blank

Had to get a tire replaced this morning. While sitting in the waiting room, I picked up a recent copy of The Sporting News which carried feature about the questionnaires the publication would hand out to players each year in preparation for the defunct Player Register.

This article included reproductions of the forms from Willie Mays in 1951; Rocky Colavito (undated); Warren Spahn (1947); Bill Mazeroski (Jan. 2, but no year); Ted Williams (1939); and Roger Maris (1957). They asked for such information as hobbies, playing experience, name of spouse and children, etc.

What caught my eye was the space for “ancestry.”

The form changed over the years. In earlier versions, it was just a blank line for the player to fill in. Later on, there were a series of “check lines”:

___ English   ___ French  ___ German ___ Hebrew ___Irish  ___ Other

You get the idea. Mays wrote “Negro” on his blank line. Maz put down “Polish” in his “other” line; Williams wrote “Welsch/French,” neglecting to include his maternal Mexican heritage. Conspicuous by its absence: Italian. (Of course, there were practically no Latin America presence in those days.)

Maybe I’m being too sensitive, but one of these designations is not like the others.

Steve Gietschier, former senior managing editor of research at The Sporting News, said in an email

The Sporting News began the practice of distributing biographical questionnaires to major league players and prospects as part of the effort to publish the Baseball Register starting in 1940. As you know, each Register entry included not only stats but also biographical data, including such questions as: Hobbies, How Your Name is Pronounced, and Most Outstanding Achievement in Baseball.

Most players filled out the questionnaires. Some did so year after year. The early ones make for interesting reading.

When I started at TSN in 1986, we were no longer distributing questionnaires. The thinking was two-fold: first, we were getting the data we needed directly from the clubs, and second, modern players were simply not willing to fill out questionnaires.

Tim Wiles, director of research at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown said

For much of the 20th century, the Hall of Fame sent very similar questionnaires to players, stopping sometime in the 1980s after the return rate plummeted in reverse proportion to player incomes…

Our questionnaires also have an ethnicity line, with some interesting results.

When I started here, Greg Maddux and Steve Carlton were the only guys to win 4 Cy Youngs.  While both are a bit iconoclastic and have senses of humor, they both list “Native American” as their ethnicity.

In a subsequent note, Wiles wrote, “It all comes down to: By whose definition? My favorite permutation is: Is Fergie Jenkins an African-American, even though he’s Canadian?

The more things stay the same…

Received a great book the other day: Baseball/Literature/Culture Essays, edited by Kates and Tormey (McFarland).

One of the many excellent contributions comes from Andrew Hazucha, a professor at Ottawa University (Kansas), who writes “Proselytizing Pastime: Appropriating Jesus at Coor Field.”

This isn’t new. We’ve heard about the encroachment of Baseball Chapel and its affect on non-Christian personnel for some time. But there was one line attributed the Colorado Rockies leadership that struck me as a bit queer. Team field manager Clint Hurdle is quoted as saying “We look for men of character, men of skills. That those have a common fabric with Christianity is not a coincidence.”

I have two comments:

• Is he saying that non-Christians do not have character?
• He might want to take a look at one of the mainstays of his pitching rotation last season. Jason Marquis won 15 games for the Rockies to help them win the National League Wild Card. Does Hurdle think Marquis — whose teams have never failed to make a post-season appearance since his debut in 2000 — is missing that attribute? Just curious (and perhaps a bit too sensitive).

Welcome to Jersey, Omri Casspi

The NJ Nets will host Casspi and the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday, March 24, as they celebrate Jewish Family Night.

Ticket prices, ranging from $18-$100, include a Jewish Family Night T-shirt. In addition there will be a Glatt Kosher concession stand and halftime entertainment will feature the Hazamir Choir.

For ticket information, contact John Warnick at 201-635-3157 or jwarnick@njnets.com.

Kaplan’s Korner on Jews and Sports © 2010 New Jersey Jewish News

Powered by WordPress | ElegantBlue theme by Nathan Rice