SubscribeCan’t anybody here play this game?
And by “this game” I mean photo slide shows featuring “prominent” Jewish athletes. (The name comes from the title of an old Jimmy Breslin book about the early years of the New York Mets.)
First it was the Sports Illustrated website (still waiting to hear back from them about their selections.) Now it’s this from TMZ.
Right off the bat (ha) I want to say I do not frequent gossip/celebrity outfits (I don’t even seldom them (ha)); this came to me via my Google search.
Anyway, since TMZ does align itself with the dishing crowd, you can’t blame them for not being as up on their Jewish athletes as SI. Their choices, in their order:
- Sandy Koufax
- Race car driver Mauri Rose — (Wha?? Why not bullfighter Sidney Franklin?)
- Dara Torres
- Ed Newman (an 11-year guard for the Miami Dolphins; certainly there have been more high profile Jewish players in the NFL)
- Jordan Farmer (same in the NBA)
- Taylor Mays (another odd chccie for football)
- Mark Spitz (two Olympic swimmers?)
- Sid Luckman (now you’re talking)
- Rod Carew (for once and for all, Carew is not Jewish!)
- Hank Greenberg
Still some very strange choices.
And speaking of very strange, I have to say, just as I was writing this — and I mean literally — I received an email from a relative of Sidney Franklin regarding a recently published biography, Double-Edged Sword: The Many Lives of Hemingway’s Friend, the American Matador Sidney Franklin, by Bart Paul (University of Nebraska Press). It’s on my to-read list (along with 1,932 other things) and I’ll be writing about that soon.
M Rose, do we know he is actually Jewish? I may be wrong but I think I remember that there was some doubt or outright denial.
Jewish enough to be inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.
What does Gal Fridman need to do to get some respect around here?