Jews and Baseball

You saw the title of today's post and probably started to wonder.  What kind of snarky entry will this be?  Jews and baseball.  No such thing.

Wrong.  There have been some Jewish baseball players.  Enough to warrant the making of this very compelling documentary. 

When I was a kid, I didn't think one iota about the religion of my favorite baseball players.  On the baseball cards I had, any player that I could see wearing a chain around his neck I just assumed was Catholic.  Why?  Because most of the kids in my neighborhood were Catholic.  Every ballplayer without a religious medal was a Protestant.  Done.  I figured the population of the major leagues mirrored my own world.  There were no Jewish kids on our block.  Consequently, there were no Jews in baseball.

Truth be told, I didn't know any Jewish people at all.  I know the public school system in Mount Vernon gave us the September high holy days off, so there must have some Jewish folks someplace.  Just not around me.  And, frankly, the prospects of this religion scared me.  There was a Bronx synagogue on the drive home from my church.  As my dad motored us past the temple, I'd see the strange writing on the walls and a lot of funny looking old men with long beards outside.  I was totally creeped out.

The very first time I started to comprehend the tenets of this religion happened when it was revealed that Sandy Koufax was Jewish.  He was actually going to sit out of one World Series game because the date coincided with Yom Kippur.  I asked my mother to explain this, which she did.  Little did I know but she had quite a few Jewish friends.  So did my dad.  They just never talked about it.  Why not?  Because, to them, it didn't make a difference. 

My very first exposure to religious tolerance.

"Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story" is the fascinating tale of those ballplayers who were Jewish.  Naturally, a lot of the film focuses on just two stars: Detroit Tiger Hank Greenberg and, of course, Koufax.  But, there are other wonderful sidebars.  Back in the 20s and 30s, the New York Giants realized that the Jewish fan base of the city was under represented on the baseball diamond, especially with the vanilla-like composition of the crosstown Yankees.  They went out of their way to sign Jewish ball players.  One of them had such a good game that the fans in attendance carried him off like it was a bar mitzvah. 

Then, there was Moe Berg.  A Jewish major league and later a spy during World War II.  One colorful story after another emerges about ball players long forgotten.

But, naturally, the real focus and hook of the movie is Sandy.  To hear in a movie theater the voice of Vin Scully and his legendary call of Koufax' 1965 perfect game is sheer nirvana.  One of the folks listening on the radio that very night was actor/director Ron Howard who idolized the Dodger lefthander. 

Ron tells a terrific story about the salary holdout engineered in 1966 by Koufax and fellow teammate Don Drysdale.  Both were shooting for a salary of...gasp...$100,000.  As a young co-star on "The Andy Griffith Show," Ron relates the surprise and ultimate horror when he figured out that his diamond hero was being paid less than he was for playing Opie Taylor.  A delicious anecdote.

Once again, we find in our theaters another documentary that makes you smarter and invites you to think.  Certainly a wonderful respite from the latest comedy with Seth Rogan or some action shit with Denzel Washington.

Now if only they will do the sequel.

"Lutherans and Baseball."

Dinner last night:  Virginia ham and German potato salad at the soon-to-be-renovated NY apartment.