SubscribeIs Dan Warthen keeping his Judaism under his cap?
Received a couple of inquires/links about the Mystery of the Mets Kipa.
An enterprising photographer caught these shots of pitching coach Dan Warthen from the game against the Giants on Mothers Day.
Well, it didn’t take long for Mets broadcaster and former All-Star first baseman Keith Hernandez to put his foot in his mouth. The following exchange comes from the very excellent Uniwatch blog (motto: “The obsessive study of athletics aesthetics”):
This prompted an absolutely surreal exchange between broadcasters Keith Hernandez and Gary Cohen (the latter of whom, presumably, is Jewish):
Hernandez: Was that a Met yamulke right there?
Cohen: That’s exactly what that looked like.
Hernandez: How about that.
Cohen [apparently unaware of Warthen's chosen personhood]: It’s a bit of a surprise.
Hernandez: Well, it’s Sunday. [Painfully awkward pause follows.]
Cohen: Yeah?
Hernandez: Did you, did you go to temple today?
Cohen: Not on Sunday, Keith. Saturday.
Hernandez: Oh! Excuse me, I’ve got it wrong, don’t I. I’ve gotta get my facts straight.
Cohen [cracking up]: We’ll have the course in comparative religion right after the game.
Hernandez: No no no, we don’t have to. I had my catechism when I was young, please.
(Actually, I’m kind of impressed that Hernandez even knew the word “Yarmulke.” You may recall the hot water he got into with his comments about Kelly Calabrese, the female trainer for the San Diego Padres a few years ago.)
The blog entry continues:
…does Warthen always wear a kippah, or was it just a one-day thing? I asked former Mets batboy Matt Harris, who said, “Wow, I never saw that the whole time we shared a clubhouse in New York. Not even when he came in for the day and was wearing street clothes. Never saw him wear it when they left in suits for a road trip either.”
Hmmm, so is Warthen even Jewish? Is he studying to convert, or maybe he has a case of Jew envy? Has he been talking about more than pitching with Fred Wilpon’s pal Sandy Koufax? Or is he getting current Met Sean “Not a Jew” Green mixed up with the former Met Shawn “Very Much a Jew” Green? We’ll have to see if Warthen leaves a space on the dugout bench for Elijah.
ESPN picked up on the “controversy” in a post that read, in part,
Yes, that was Dan Warthen spotted wearing a yarmulke in the dugout when he removed his Mets cap during Sunday’s game. The pitching coach explained that Ike Davis had received Mets yarmulkes from a rabbi, and gave one to Warthen. Warthen, who is Jewish, forgot he had it on when he placed his cap on and went out for the game, he indicated. “I wear them all the time. That’s why I have that little bald spot,” quipped Warthen, who attends temple.
Davis’ mother, incidentally, was raised Jewish but is not practicing. The first baseman has only been to a temple once in his life, by his recollection.
Well, if Warthen does “wear them all the time” (personally, I think he was just joshin’) and “attends temple,” it’s because he’s accompanying his wife, who is Jewish; Warthen is not, according to Jay Horwitz, the Mets’ vice president of media relation.
In an effort to clear things up, I had called the Mets office yesterday. Evidently, in these days of politically correctness carried to the Nth degree, the Mets were a bit worried about the impressions this might make, which might explain why Horwitz himself called, rather than assign it to one of his staffers at best, or ignore it at worst.
It seems a few Mets kipot were passed along from Mets third base coach Chip Hale (whose wife is Jewish) to Ike Davis as a present from a rabbi and Warthen was simply trying one on.
“He took one, he put it under his hat to wear it for awhile and he didn’t realize that he still had it on when he took his hat off. That’s what it was,” said Horwitz, who sounded like this was just another dumb issue he had to deal with. “It was caught on camera and some people thought it was wrong. I just wanted to clear it up. There was nothing mocking, making fun, or whatever.”
From the email I’ve received, I don’t think the Mets have anything to worry about. The senders seemed more tickled than anything else.
Hey Ron, I had a hunch the Ike Davis Jewish media frenzy was somehow involved when I just saw the pic on this entry. Good eye by that photographer and too bad I missed this particular SNY broadcast, as the Cohen-Hernandez exchange sounds pretty hilarious.
Incidentally, why does the ESPN entry have to include that Davis’s mom wasn’t a practicing Jew? Does that really matter? I hate when Jewish themed sports entries include qualifiers like that, as if downplaying that someone with a Jewish identity could be succesful in sports. I once read a real doozy attributed to Ryan Braun’s mom (not Jewish) that really ticked me off. Anyway, being Jewish is as much a cultural identity as being religious in my opinion, so it really doesn’t matter how religious you are, and let’s be honest, most of these Jewish athletes are not very religious in the traditional sense (except maybe the Foreman/Salita boxing duo). Oh well, maybe I’m just being too sensitive here.
P.S., Wow Michael Cammalleri just scored another goal, as I have the game on in the background. Habs look like they are well on their way to another huge playoff upset, and MC is having a playoff run for the ages here.
I’ll go one better, Ari. I’m getting a bit tire of the fuss they’re making about his Jewiness (as Sarah Silverman would say), period. Enough already. Maybe it’s because he’s in NY; maybe he has to go around the whole league once for the media to get it out of their system.
And Habs up 4-2, and the minute I tune in MC gets hit with a penalty? Now that’s timing.
Saw the penalty, Ron. MC almost had a little tussle off that one. Agree with your comments, and love Sarah Silverman by the way.