My Hanukka wish list

Trying to keep it real this year.

I’ve already had one wish fulfilled, actually, 13 years after the fact.

In 1995 I delivered my first “scholarly paper” at the centennial celebration of Babe Ruth’s birth. The topic was “The Books on the Babe: The Later Biographies of George Herman Ruth.” It was kind of cool, my first experience at a symposium, which was held at Hofstra University. Even though I wasn’t an academic, as were 99% of the rest of the attendees, I was still treated politely and the presentation was well received.

The plan was that all the papers would be published as a compendium by the conference organizers. Little did we all know it would take more than a decade to get it done. A lot of the information is outdated and, certainly in my case, new material has been published, but it was still a nice surprise to receive Baseball and the Sultan of Swat: Babe Ruth at 100.

So, the rest of the list:

• An updated set of the Jewish Major Leaguer card set
• The second volume of Jews and Baseball, by Burton and Bonita Boxerman
• An all-expense paid trip to the Society of American Baseball Research’s 2009 convention
• The resurrection (can I say that?) of the Israel Baseball League. Better yet, a spot on one of the rosters.
• And last, but certainly not least, a one-on-one interview with Sandy Koufax. He will certainly remember me from that dinner in the mid 1980s for his good friend and Mets owner Fred Wilpon, who was the American Jewish Congress “Man of the Year.” I was working PR there at the time and cozied up to the photographer to get him to snap the picture. Of course I had to act like a stalker to find Koufax alone. Talk about your “deer in the headlights” moment (as evidenced below).

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Kaplan’s Korner on Jews and Sports © 2008 New Jersey Jewish News

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