Koufax with Dodgers manager Joe Torre. Photo by Jewish Journal

The Los Angeles Jewish Journal published this piece on Sandy Koufax’s appearance at a Feb. 27 fund-raiser for Joe Torre’s Safe at Home Foundation.

Koufax seems to be stepping out more recently. He’s always good for a visit to the Dodgers’ spring training camp, as well as the Mets, owner Fred Wilpon being an old friend. Then there’s his participation in the upcoming film documentary about Jews and baseball, due out this summer.

Maybe he’s changed his philosophy, like fellow Hall-of-Famer Willie Mays. For decades, Mays declined to authorize an “official” biography. But with the advancing years, he decided the time was right to share his story with his legion of fans, the result of which is James Hirsch’s excellent new book, Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend.

Koufax shared an interesting anecdote with the audience in which he

spoke of one famous start that never actually happened. In 1964, Phillies manager Gene Mauch called off a game, allegedly due to the light rain that fell that morning. Legend says Mauch actually called the game because Koufax was set to start. And as Koufax explained to the audience, the next time the Dodgers would be in Philadelphia that year was on Yom Kippur, when Mauch knew he wouldn’t play.

So that got me to thinking: Pretty much every Jewish baseball fan knows that Koufax skipped his assignment in Game One of the 1965 World Series against the Minnesota Twins. But how many other late-season assignments did he miss because of the High Holy Days?

Seems like a trip to baseball-Reference.com/Retrosheet.org is in order.

Working with those sites and Hebcal.com, a perpetual Hebrew calendar website, I learned that Koufax, in fact, actually pitched twice on Yom Kippur.

In 1960, he tossed the seventh and eighth innings in a 10-8 loss to the Cubs on Oct. 1, a meaningless contest on the last day of the season. The next year he took his regular turn on Sept. 20 to beat the Cubs 3-2 in 13 innings, striking out 13, when the Dodgers were still in the hunt for the N.L. pennant. He might have taken off for Yom Kippur in 1966, his final campaign, but it’s difficult to make that attribution just from the paperwork, since he alternated between three and four days off that year. He beat the Phillies 11-1 on Sept. 20 and lost to the Cubs on Sept. 25, 2-1. Yom Kippur fell Sept. 23-24.

Perhaps he felt badly for pitching on the holiest day of the Jewish year; perhaps he took a lot of flack for it. Maybe it was the exaggerated spotlight of the World Series that made him decide not to take the ball for Game One.

Koufax appeared in four World Series: two games in 1959 against the Chicago White Sox; two in 1963 against the Yankees; three (!) against the Twins in ‘65, including the crucial 2-0 clincher on two days’ rest; and his last in 1966 against the Orioles. Other than Game One in ‘65, there were no holiday conflicts.

But hang on a minute, what’s this? Do we have a Neyer moment?

It seems questionable the event Koufax mentions could have taken as described.

The Dodgers had a poor season in 1964, and Koufax had his share of woes. According to Jews and Baseball, Volume 2 by Burton and Bonita Boxerman (McFarland), in an Aug. 8 game against the Milwaukee Braves

Koufax jammed his pitching arm while diving back to second base to beat a pick-off throw. He managed to win two more games in 1964. The morning after his nineteenth win, a shutout in which he fanned 13 batters, he could not straighten his left arm. The Dodgers’ team physician diagnosed his ailment as traumatic arthritis, and Koufax did not pitch the rest of the year. [emphasis added]

So here’s the thing: The morning after Koufax’s 19th win was Aug. 17, almost a month before Yom Kippur. So he would not have played when the Dodgers hosted a three-game series against the Phillies on Sept. 7-8 (doubleheader and single game) and visited Philadelphia for four games, Sept. 17-20 — just after Yom Kippur. (The Phillies hosted the Dodgers for a three-game set July 31-Aug. 2; Koufax beat the Pirates on Aug. 4. But there were no rainouts. Even if there had been, it’s hard to believe Mauch would have been ruminating the Dodgers’ pitching rotation more than a month ahead of time to see when Koufax’s turn would fall.)

So, as much as I hate to say it (damn you again, Neyer), and unless someone can show me otherwise, I have to call out Koufax on his claim.

Of course, Koufax does preface the anecdote with “Legend says….”

Regardless, his decision in 1965 remains the highlight of Jewish fans to this day.

Case in point: For the fourth year, the Society for American Baseball Research, of which I have been a proud member for more than 20 years, is offering at no charge, free, gratis, their very excellent Emerald Guide to Baseball. This 500-plus page volume features complete major and minor league statistics, as well as a host of other items, such as a directory for teams, associations, and other organizations connected with the national pastime; a 2009 season review with All-Star and post-season sections; debuts and transactions; necrologies; player drafts; and the wonderful “much, much more.”

Did I mention this is all free?

The only caveat is that the free version is available in PDF format, which is fine in many cases. If you want a hard copy, it will cost you about $25, which is still a bargain for this kind of information.

(Actually, there’s one more “warning”: What the editors, who have done a fine job presenting all this information — for free — deem “season preview,” is in fact a spring training roster and all-time franchise record holders. So what; it’s free! You don’t even have to be a SABR member.)

If you’re a fan of the defunct Sporting News guides, as I am, this will bring back some welcome memories.

To download your copy or for more information, click here.

The first volume, subtitled Entering the American Mainstream, 1871-1948, was published by McFarland in 2007.

Like its predecessor, this new “must-have” serves as a thorough resource for the Jews who not only played the game, but contributed in other ways, such as Marvin Miller, whose work as a union organizer brought the players out of the stone age and into the big bucks; Bud Selig, the first Jewish Commissioner; and Allan Roth, whose work with statistics changed how everyone — front office, managers, broadcasters, and fans — perceives baseball, for better or worse.

The text of the foreword appears below and serves as a testament to the devotion of the St.  Louis-based husband-and-wife writing team.

For more information, visit the McFarland website.

* * *

The Jewish major leaguers included in the first volume of Burton and Benita Boxerman’swatershed Jews and Baseball faced problems that were basically the tenor of times in the late 19^th – early 20^th century: stereotypes at best (“Jews make poor athletes”) and outright anti-Semitism at worst (when a Jewish batter came to the plate, an unruly fan would urge the pitcher, “Throw him a ham sandwich. He won’t bite.”). Those players who stuck it out might have changed their names to hide their identity not only from those who would beleaguer them with taunts, but also to hide their profession from their families. Nice Jewish boys were expected to get an education and improve upon their situations, working towards a better life than their shopkeeper or laborer parents, not fool around with a roughhouse sport.

But an article in the Jewish Daily Forward, a Yiddish-language newspaper, urged parents to learn this strange game, to embrace it, and understand it, and so truly become American.

Many of the ballplayers from this period were raised in Jewishly-observant households, with parents who came over from “the old country” where religious observances were considered of the utmost importance. But after Detroit Tiger superstar Hank Greenberg – the original “Hebrew Hammer” – showed a Jewish ballplayer could be both an outstanding player and “true to his religion” (in the words of poet Edgar Guest), those who followed had a somewhat easier time of it. Sure, you still had a Ron Blomberg, who grew up in the Deep South and had Klansmen as teammates, but as the generations became further removed from their predecessors, hiding one’s religion became less of an issue.

Some players – most notably Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax and Shawn Green – still felt obligated to refrain from playing games on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, regardless of how crucial those contests were. Koufax passed on the opening game assignment for the 1965 World Series, causing Don Drysdale to fill in. When manager Walt Alston came out to relieve Drysdale following rough treatment by the heavy-hitting Minnesota Twins, the tall righty said to his skipper, “I bet you wish I was Jewish too right about now.”

The post-World War II years have had their share of high-profile players, including Al Rosen, Mike Epstein, Art Shamsky, Ken Holtzman (who won even more games than Koufax), Cy Young-winner Steve Stone, and the afore-mentioned Blomberg (who used his fame as the DH for another meaning in his autobiography: Designated Hebrew).

Since the beginning of the new century, baseball has seen an unprecedented influx of Jewish players. More than a minyan (the Jewish quorum of 10 necessary to conduct services) appeared in 2009, including a few bordering on stardom such as Kevin Youkilis, Ryan Braun, and Ian Kinsler; and several touted rookies waiting for their chance.

The Boxermans have expanded their labor of love to include new generations of Jewish Major Leaguers. The profiles in this second volume reflect that story of progress and success (not always the same thing).

Like many of their coreligionists, these young men have become more assimilated with time and a debate has grown over who should be considered Jewish. Tradition holds that the mother’s religion dictates that of the child; others, including the bi-monthly Jewish Sports Review, employ a more liberal criteria. JSR’s philosophy: “an athlete is Jewish if they have at least one Jewish parent, do not practice another faith and identify ethnically as a Jew.” So by their definition, Ryan Braun, the son of an Israeli father and Christian woman, is a Jew.

Several athletes are the products of “mixed marriages”; some celebrate parts of their Jewish heritage, some none at all. It makes no difference; Jewish fans embrace all these players regardless of levels of observance. Nevertheless, they kvell all the more when a Jason Marquis recounts his bar mitzva for a story in an Israeli newspaper, or a Kevin Youkilis appears in a documentary about the Israel Baseball League.

And it’s not just players. Where would the game be without the contributions of Allan Roth? For better or worse, he’s the one responsible for the plethora of statistical analysis that have given broadcasters the material to fill those interminable rain delays and pitching changes, not to mention opening the door for a new industry: fantasy baseball. And where would the players be if not for the yeoman’s work of Marvin Miller, whose exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame is a shanda (shame)? Certainly a lot lighter in the wallet.

It doesn’t matter if these players were just up for a cup of coffee or they enjoyed long and fruitful careers. Like any proud parents, we love all our children.

As an author, his recent biography, Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain, has done well since its release this summer and his memoirs, Now Pitching for the Yankees: Spinning the News for Mickey, Reggie and George, is an illuminating look at a job that can be thankless most of the times (although I imagine working for the number one franchise in the number one market can have its perks as well). In addition, Appel has worked on books by such baseball personalities as Tom Seaver, Bowie Kuhn, Lee MacPhail, umpire Eric Gregg, and the aforementioned Munson, as well as countless forewords, articles, and essays.

A popular guest speaker, Appel attended the Yankees Fantasy Camp in November where he spoke about his experiences at Sabbath services for the first Kosher component. He even had time to put on the pinstripes himself, collecting a hit on the first (and only) pitch he saw, then quickly announcing his “retirement.” With all his accomplishments, he considers this one of his favorite moments.

Appel spent some time with the Bookshelf discussing the work that went into Munson, as well as the behind-the-scenes process of putting together various publications for the Yankees, one of his responsibilities while with the team.

Hear it here (scroll down to the bottom):

I enjoyed substantial boost just about a year ago when he linked to piece I did on sports and memory, following an episode of MOT Peter Sagal’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me in which I “called out” Moose Skowron’s recollections of a game about 40 years ago. It was Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends: The Truth, The Lies, and Everything in Between that brough me to question the former Yankee’s assertions, so there seems to be a lot of circularity going on here: His work leads to my work which goes back to his work which comes back to my work…

And don’t you think all the Jewish pro athletes who followed are peppered by the press come High Holy Day time with questions about their plans to play or sit?  Must get a bit tiresome.

There are thousands of articles you can read about Koufax, but here are a few of books to get a hold of:

• Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy, by Jane Leavy
• Koufax, by Edward Gruver
• You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?, Jonah Winter (juvenile)
• Then there’s Koufax’s eponymous book, written with Ed Linn in 1966, following his retirement. Haven’t read it, but willing to guarantee it’s nothing like the tell-alls of today.

Here’s Jimmy Durante’s musical tribute to Koufax:

One of his duties with the Yankees was to head up its publications, including yearbooks. So it was only natural he lend his expertise to the IBL publication.

To call this a collector’s item is to damn with faint praise, since the league shut down after its initial season.

Within its scant pages are stories — in English and Hebrew — about the origins of the IBL,  the fundamentals of the game, and baseball in America, as well as a schedule for all of the six original teams, complete rosters, a unique scorecard that includes a “home run derby tie-breaker, ” and an English-Hebrew baseball dictionary.

So thanks again, Marty, for the belated Hanukka present.

Moe Berg is certainly one of the most interesting characters to ever done baseball flannels. A mediocre player — an apocryphal story quotes Casey Stengel saying “He can speak seven languages but can’t hit in any of them — Berg played for five teams over 15 seasons.

Had he just been one of the few Jewish Major Leaguers, dayenu — it would have been enough. But Berg — who graduated from Princeton, received a law degree, studied at the Sorbonne — was also a “charter member” of the OSS, the precursor of the CIA. Legend has it (and the story has changed over the years) that his contributions as a spy helped the U.S. plan the Doolittle air strikes over Japan as well as determining how close Germany was to developing an atomic weapon. These exploits are told in such non-fiction books as Moe Berg: Athlete, Scholar, Spy, by Louis Kaufman, Barbara Fitzgerald, and Tom Sewell, and, more recently, The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg, by Nicholas Dawidoff.

Kurt Willinger has taken this story and run with it in The Spy in a Catcher’s Mask, an engaging novel that embellishes Berg’s accomplishments. Since I am no expert on either World War II, spying, the OSS, or even Moe Berg’s life, I cannot say how much if fact and how much fiction. I can say, in comparison with many books of this type (i.e., self-published), The Spy in a Catcher’s Mask is better than most. The author present believable situations: Berg is no superman, and his mission is fraught with danger and the definite possibility of bad endings. Only the fact that it is based on actual events spoils the ending.

Sure, there are some stumbles and passages that are less than elegant, but Willinger plays the story out well, including the anti-Semitism that Jews faced, both on the ball field and in the real world. even in triumph, Berg can’t escape his heritage:

When at last they adjourned, Groves extended his fleshy hand to Moe and declared with uncharacteristic vehemence that he thought Moe ‘was just about the ballsiest, of your type,” he had ever met.

“What exactly do you mean by that?” Moe asked, coldly.

“Huh?” said Groves.

“When you say ‘your type’,” Moe repeated, “what do you mean?”

“Well, you know, brainy types–intellectuals,” Groves stammered.

“C’mon, General,” Moe persisted. “There’s not much intellectual about me. Heck, I’m just a ball player. So what do you really me?”

Groves’s expression betrayed his discomfort.

“Well, you know, your type. It’s unusual for you people to…to, you know,” stammered Groves.

“No, I don’t know,” Moe said close to his face. “Do you mean it’s unusual for a Jew to attempt as mission like this?”

“Yeah, kinda. I guess that’s what I meant,” Groves offered, hoping to have cleared it all up.

Moe was wrestling with the impulse to haul off and shove his fist through the general’s moustache….

“My enemies are the Nazis, General, are they yours too?” Moe asked as he stepped back from Groves.

“Of course,” answered the brigadier.

“Well, to listen to you one might think otherwise.”

There are a few other references to Berg’s religion, begining with the opening pages, as well as a quick nod to the Holocaust.

It’s not great literature, but it is a fair representation of what Berg — and his contemporaries — must have had to go through in America during the years surrounding the War.

But given a little more time, expect to see full-length books on the subject. The first to come across my desk is Summers in the Bronx: Attila the Hun and Other Yankee Stories, by Ira Berkow (Triumph)

Summers — mostly individual profiles of players and other Yankees personnel — is a collection of columns from Berkow’s days as a sportswriter for The New York Times and other publications. One that naturally caught my attention is an item on Ron Blomberg early in his career. Having just spent some time with “the Designated Hebrew” at Fantasy Camp, it was amazing to see that he hasn’t changed at all in almost 40 years: he’s just as open and enthusiastic now as he was at his first spring training.

Pretty much any Yankee who ever made an impact during Berkow’s tenure is here, divided by relative position: batters, pitchers, managers, and a handful of opponents (including Sandy Koufax), as well as an homage to The Boss, aka Steinbrenner (including a piece on his portrayal as George Costanza’s boss on Seinfeld). It’s a breezy, nostalgic experience that will no doubt lead to other memories the reader might have of his favorite Yankee moments.

Berkow, who won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2001, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame earlier this year.

(By the way, the Attila the Hun bit refers to Steinbrenner’s style of management.)

I have them set up by subject matter: biographies, statistics, team histories, etc. But of all the sub-genres of baseball books, my favorite is are the coffee table editions. Usually published as “gift books,” they are among the most well-produced, handsome, and eclectic titles available each year.

This year’s “leader” has to be Baseball Americana: Treasures from the Library of Congress (Harper Collins). It combines the best of all worlds: concise text, gorgeous illustrations, and a thoughtful layout. Many books of this kind rely on the classic photos: Ty Cobb sliding into a base with his spikes high; Mantle and Maris standing back to back in a 1961 pose; Yankees skipper Casey Stengel winking at the photographer. Not so here. According to Frank Ceresi, one of the all-stars behind the project, the Library of Congress has hundreds of thousands of illustrations and publications from which these few hundred were culled. Imagine the fun of sifting through all those old photos, pieces of sheet music, baseball cards, etc. Ceresi said the project took two and a half years; time well spent.

Ceresi — the East Coast director of acquisitions and consignments for SCP/Southeby’s Sports Auctions and principal of FC Associates, an outfit that provides consulting, professional appraisals, and legal service for museums and other venues — spent a few minutes with The Bookshelf discussing the laborious — but fun — process of doing the research, making the selections, and possible future projects, along with a few bits of behind-the-scenes trivia and why the book “stops” in the late 1960s.

You can listen to an interview with Ceresi on my other blog, Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf.

These are just a few samples of the wonderful photos and illustrations you’ll find in Baseball Americana:

Frank Chance baseball card...

and the original photo.

Sandy Koufax signs for some lucky fans.

Visit the Harper Collins website for another good sampling of the book. You should also drop by the Library of Congress’s website for further information about their baseball collections as well as see what baseball items (almost 10,000 items) are included in their on-line catalog.

In a telephone message, Ira Berkow, author of the 2009 release The Corporal Was a Pitcher: The Courage of Lou Brissie, was kind enough to answer a list of questions sent via email while traveling cross-country as part of the Jewish Book Network to give a talk about his latest project.

He said he got the idea from reading about Brissie in a column from the late Red Smith (who would later become Berkow’s mentor at The New York Times) while still a student at Miami University in 1960.

Brissie, a standout prospect who was planning on a career with the Philadelphia Athletics, was severely wounded in December 1944. For awhile it looked like he might lose his left foot, but he implored doctors to save it.

After 23 operations, Brissie was able to live his dream, signing with the As in 1946. He had a few good years, going 14-10 in 1948 and 16-11 the following year, when he also made the All-Star team. He was traded to the Indians in the middle of the ‘51 season and used mostly as a reliever, to his disappointment. Brissie wound up his career at the age of 29 with a record of 44-48 and a 4.07 ERA. He was also no slouch at the plate, finishing with a .227 batting average. And while opponents did try to take advantage of his condition by bunting their way on base, (See The Monty Stratton Story with Jimmy Stewart), Brissie was able to field his position well enough so the tactic stopped.

After Brissie retired, he became director of American Legion Baseball, and also served as a scout. These days, he makes regular visits to Veteran’s hospitals where he spends time with wounded veterans from the latest wars. The closing chapter is very touching with its intimate dialogue between Brissie and his new friends.

Like many veterans, Brissie was reluctant to talk about his war experiences, but Berkow, who received a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for his article, “The Minority Quarterback,” in the Times, was obviously a good sounding board and was able to relay the story in his usual muted but effective style. Brissie comes across as representative of his generation: men and women who served their country when called and returned home to pick up their lives as best they could.

What surprised Berkow the most in the research and preparation of his newest book? “That all wars are alike,” he said. “And the post-traumatic syndrome that [Brissie] had — that wasn’t identified at that time, exists to a tremendous agree.

“The war never leaves anybody.”

Brissie’s story fairly cries out for a movie treatment.

“So far we’ve had mild interest,” Berkow said. “Nothing special. Not yet anyway,” Berkow said. “Sometimes things take awhile.”

Here’s an interview with Brissie:

* * *

In addition to Berkow’s book, several titles released since 2006 note the sacrifices made by baseball players, including:

When Baseball Went to War, edited by Todd Anton and Bill Nowlin (Triumph). Features a bonus DVD with player interviews.

Playing with the Enemy: A Baseball Prodigy, World War II, and the Long Journey Home, by Garry W. Moore (Savas Beatie)

An American Journey: My Life on the Field, in the Air, and on the Air, by Jerry Coleman and Richard Goldstein. Like Ted Williams, Coleman, an all-star second baseman with the New York Yankees, served in both Wold War II and Korea. After his playing career ended in 1957, he went on to a colorful career as a broadcaster, most notably for the San Diego Padres.

And a couple of good websites cover the baseball/war theme:

• Garry Bedingfield’s Baseball in Wartime
• The military publication Stars and Stripes hosts Baseball and the Military.

Roll, an author and psychotherapist as well as a pulpit rabbi, has collected an assortment of life lessons in his latest self-help/spiritual guide. Like baseball, many of life’s joys and obstacles can be summed up in terms of sportsmanship, teamwork, and sacrifice in pursuit of higher goals.

His lessons are at once comforting and thought-provoking. Each chapter begins with an analogy to the ball field. For example, in “A Stan-Up Double: Love,” Roll writes “Remember, everyone would rather hit a double than a single, and when it comes to physical pleasure and love, all the delicious pleasures in the world don’t even compare to the pleasure of loving another person.”

In other words — and forgive me for speaking somewhat unkindly on this worthwhile publication — but the sports angle is just a lure, a bit of honey to draw the reader in. And with all due respect, I find such ploys somewhat dishonest. Any reader buying this book based on the title and cover will wonder where, precisely, is the baseball, other than the fleetest of passing references and metaphors, building up to the real lesson to be learned?

Roll has written previous books on the general topic of religious well-being, so one wonders why he felt it necessary to go this route?

Visit Targum.com for more information. (Note: the sample pages link was not active as of this writing.)

Ninety years after the fact, baseball scholars are still coming out with books and articles, vindicating some (especially Shoeless Joe Jackson) and demonizing others (Charles Comiskey, the penurious owner of the Chicago White Sox).

Long story short: The White Sox were the New York Yankees of their era, hard-fighting, dominating, and perennially in contention for the American league Pennant. Comiskey stiffed them on their bonus when they won in 1919, trying to pass of the celebratory champagne as their reward for a job well done. In retaliation, a group of malcontents led by first baseman Chick Gandil and shortstop Swede Risberg brokered meetings with gamblers and conspired to throw the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

The Sox did indeed lose the Series, raising a lot of suspicions along the way which ultimately led to indictments and a trial. Although the eight players were acquitted — key evidence mysteriously disappeared — Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was hired as baseball’s first commissioner to clean up the game, banished them all from organized ball.

Hence the title of the classic book Eight Men Out by the late Eliot Asinof (later a credible feature film by John Sayles in 1988). Many volumes followed Asinof’s initial offering, including biographies on some of the key figures involved. (Asinof — who played minor league baseball for a few years –  also wrote the novel Man on Spikes, basing his protagonist on real-life Jewish Major Leaguer Mickey Rutner.)

I bring this up in part because I saw the name Abe Attell as an inductee to the San Francisco Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Attell, a champion featherweight boxer known as The Little Hebrew, was one of the gamblers involved in the scandal, an associate of the notorious Arnold Rothstein. (Seems like an odd honor for such a character, but Attell is also an inductee at the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Israel.)

I bring this up to recommend Rothstein: The Life and Times and Murder of The Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series, by David Pietrusza (Carroll & Graf, 2003). This massive volume portrays “A.R.” as typical of his generation when it comes to Judaism. He grew up in an Orthodox household, and his brother kept the faith pretty well. But that stuff wasn’t for Rothstein; he wanted to slough off the old ways and become a “real” American. Although he did attend the local cheder, he could often be found hanging out with other rebellious boys, smoking cigarettes on the steps of the shul and generally causing tzouris for their folks. It’s no surprise that he met such a grisly end.

The ex-big-leaguer, who made headlines back in 1973 when he and teammate Mike Kekich traded families, was on hand to promote his new book, Mickey Mantle is Going to Heaven.

Peterson, 67, pitched for 11 seasons, primarily for the Yankees, but also with the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers before retiring in 1976. He finished with a career record of 133-131, an earned run average of 3.30, and holds the record for lowest ERA at Yankee Stadium at 2.52.

Unfortunately, Peterson is dealing with serious health issues which prodded him to published his book now.

* * *

Very small pictures.
Records major and minor.
DL data, too.

(Most lines are either
“filed for free agency” or
“on disabled list…”)

Jeter gets a page
(post-season states included);
Ben Zobrist comes last.

Pitchers and batters —
position segregation —
split the book in two.

Nowhere else can one
find such great information,
so thank you, Who’s Who.

A good day for Jewish sports authors on WNYC recently. Both Howard Megdal (The Baseball Talmud) and Lee Lowenfish (Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman) were interviewed on The Leonard Lopate Show.

You can listen to the Megdal segment here: Megdal

and the Lowenfish interview here:

Lowenfish

Looking for some good beach reading? Try some of these baseball novels with Jewish themes or characters. A word of warning: some of these titles are long out of print, but you can find them on used book sites, such as Amazon.com.

I may be wrong, but I doubt you’ll find too much adult fiction about Jews in other sports.

• Voices of a Summer Day, Irwin Shaw

• The Chosen, Chaim Potok

• Sam’s Legacy, Jay Neugeboren

• The Great American Novel, Philip Roth

• Rachel, the Rabbi’s Wife, Syvia Tennenbaum

• The Celebrant, Eric Rolfe Greenberg

• The Grace of Shortstops, Robert Mayer

• Brooklyn Boy, Alan Lelchuk

• This is Next Year, Philip Goldberg

• In Days of Awe, Eric Goodman

• The Spy in a Catcher’s Mask, Kurt Willinger (a work of historical fiction about Moe Berg)

• Snow in August, Pete Hamill

• The Rabbi of Swat, Peter Levine

• The Golem’s Mighty Swing, James Sturm (a graphic novel)

Source: The Baseball Novel: A History and Annotated Bibliography of Adult Fiction, by Noel Schraufnagel (McFarland)

And another from The Hardball Times.

Upshot:

Chafets doesn’t portray himself as a baseball expert, a la Bill James. He clearly is a fan of the game—and a passionate one—make no mistake about it, but his focus is different. This isn’t a book about if the Hall inducted the right players. (The one time Chafets delves heavily into those waters provides the weakest part of the book.) Instead, it’s more about how other items unrelated to on-field merits impact selection.

***

The book does have one annoying feature: I think Chafets gets a little carried away with his caustic attitude. Any time an issue is brought up, he shows how it creates a tension between the Hall’s official standards and stature and reality. By and large this works well, but seems reflexive.

***

It’s a book worth reading if you’re interested in Cooperstown’s contemporary controversies, but not if you’re looking for analysis on who belongs in/out based on his playing ability.

There’s cheating and then there’s cheating. Or is there? Is it like being “a little bit pregnant?” Some hate Chafets for letting some light in on the subject, wanting to believe their game is pure. But players have been taking cortisone shots — which contains a steroid, albeit not anabolic — for decades without public outrage. Then there are the other “performance enhanceers” such as amphetamines. Hell, even caffeine can be considered a substance that can give a boost. Should that be banned, too?

On the other hand, I would hope Chafets isn’t just being an iconoclast for the publicity it has and will garner him.