Download or read book The Big Book of Jewish Baseball written by Peter S. Horvitz and published by SP Books. This book was released on 2001 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive, encyclopaedic work devoted exclusively to every Jewish contributor, large and small, to Major League Baseball. Its packed with: Rare photographs of players on and off the field; Full player statistics; Rare memorabilia; Exclusive original interviews. Jews who impacted upon the Great American Pastime extend far beyond the record strikeouts and round trippers of the legendary Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg. And there are scores of ballplayers like Lipman Pike, Shawn Green, Cal Abrams and Eddie Zosky whose little-known Baseball stories will touch or amuse readers of any background. Beyond life-time batting averages, there are intriguing players like catcher Moe Berg who served his country as a secret agent during WWII. While the tragic life of Bruce Gardner may bring tears to readers eyes, the exploits of 'Clown Princes' Al Schact and Max Patkin will have fans rolling with laughter. Nowhere else will one read tributes to great Jewish baseball executives and owners whose vision built some of historys most successful teams. Al Rosen may have gone from the All-Star team to the front-office Hall of Fame, but some of the most famous self-made success stories of this century honed their competitive spirit on the stickball courts of Jewish ghettos. This one-of-a-kind book will be much-in-demand by both baseball and Judaica book buyers.
Download or read book American Jews and America s Game written by Larry Ruttman and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2013-04-01 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most fans don’t know how far the Jewish presence in baseball extends beyond a few famous players such as Greenberg, Rosen, Koufax, Holtzman, Green, Ausmus, Youkilis, Braun, and Kinsler. In fact, that presence extends to the baseball commissioner Bud Selig, labor leaders Marvin Miller and Don Fehr, owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Stuart Sternberg, officials Theo Epstein and Mark Shapiro, sportswriters Murray Chass, Ross Newhan, Ira Berkow, and Roger Kahn, and even famous Jewish baseball fans like Alan Dershowitz and Barney Frank. The life stories of these and many others, on and off the field, have been compiled from nearly fifty in-depth interviews and arranged by decade in this edifying and entertaining work of oral and cultural history. In American Jews and America’s Game each person talks about growing up Jewish and dealing with Jewish identity, assimilation, intermarriage, future viability, religious observance, anti-Semitism, and Israel. Each tells about being in the midst of the colorful pantheon of players who, over the past seventy-five years or more, have made baseball what it is. Their stories tell, as no previous book has, the history of the larger-than-life role of Jews in America’s pastime.
Download or read book Out of Left Field written by Rebecca Trachtenberg Alpert and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2016-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Out of Left Field, Rebecca Alpert explores how Jewish sports entrepreneurs, political radicals, and a team of black Jews from Belleville, Virginia called the Belleville Grays--the only Jewish team in the history of black baseball--made their mark on the segregated world of the Negro Leagues. Through in-depth research, Alpert tells the stories of the Jewish businessmen who owned and promoted teams as they both acted out and fell victim to pervasive stereotypes of Jews as greedy middlemen and hucksters. Some Jewish owners produced a kind of comedy baseball, akin to basketball's Harlem Globetrotters--indeed, Globetrotters owner Abe Saperstein was very active in black baseball--that reaped financial benefits for both owners and players but also played upon the worst stereotypes of African Americans and prevented these black "showmen" from being taken seriously by the major leagues. But Alpert also shows how Jewish entrepreneurs, motivated in part by the traditional Jewish commitment to social justice, helped grow the business of black baseball in the face of the oppressive Jim Crow restrictions, and how radical journalists writing for the Communist Daily Worker argued passionately for an end to baseball's segregation."--From publisher description.
Download or read book Jews and Baseball written by Burton A. Boxerman and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-10-10 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long before Hank Greenberg earned recognition as baseball's greatest Jewish player, Jews had developed a unique, and very close, relationship with the American pastime. In the late nineteenth century, as both the American Jewish population and baseball's popularity grew rapidly, baseball became an avenue by which Jewish immigrants could assimilate into American culture. Beyond the men (and, later, women) on the field, in the dugout, and at the front office, the Jewish community produced a huge base of fans and students of the game. This important book examines the interrelated histories of baseball and American Jews to 1948--the year Israel was established, the first full season that both major leagues were integrated, and the summer that Hank Greenberg retired. Covered are the many players, from Pike to Greenberg, as well as the managers, owners, executives, writers, statisticians, manufacturers and others who helped forge a bond between baseball and an emerging Jewish culture in America. Key reasons for baseball's early appeal to Jews are examined, including cultural assimilation, rebellion against perceived Old World sensibilities, and intellectual and philosophical ties to existing Jewish traditions. The authors also clearly demonstrate how both Jews and baseball have benefited from their relationship.
Download or read book Jewish Major Leaguers in Their Own Words written by Peter Ephross and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1870 and 2010, 165 Jewish Americans played Major League Baseball. This work presents oral histories featuring 23 of them. From Bob Berman, a catcher for the Washington Senators in 1918, to Adam Greenberg, an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs in 2005, the players discuss their careers and consider how their Jewish heritage affected them. Legends like Hank Greenberg and Al Rosen as well as lesser-known players reflect on the issue of whether to play on high holidays, responses to anti-Semitism on and off the field, bonds formed with black teammates also facing prejudice, and personal and Jewish pride in their accomplishments. Together, these oral histories paint a vivid portrait of what it was like to be a Jewish Major Leaguer.
Download or read book The Baseball Talmud written by Howard Megdal and published by Triumph Books. This book was released on 2022-05-03 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Updated and expanded edition! From the icons of the game to the players who got their big break but never quite broke through, The Baseball Talmud provides a wonderful historical narration of Major League Jewish Baseball in America. All the stats, the facts, the stories, and the (often unheralded) glory. This delightful compmendium reveals that there is far more to Jewish baseball than Hank Greenberg's powerful slugging and Sandy Koufax's masterful control. From Ausmus to Zinn, Berg to Kinsler, Holtzman to Yeager, and many others, Howard Megdal draws upon the lore and the little-known details that increase our enjoyment of the game. This new, expanded edition of The Baseball Talmud rewrites the history of Jewish baseball and is a book that every baseball fan should own.
Download or read book American Jews and America s Game written by Larry Ruttman and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2018-08-01 with total page 808 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most fans don’t know how far the Jewish presence in baseball extends beyond a few famous players such as Greenberg, Rosen, Koufax, Holtzman, Green, Ausmus, Youkilis, Braun, and Kinsler. In fact, that presence extends to the baseball commissioner Bud Selig, labor leaders Marvin Miller and Don Fehr, owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Stuart Sternberg, officials Theo Epstein and Mark Shapiro, sportswriters Murray Chass, Ross Newhan, Ira Berkow, and Roger Kahn, and even famous Jewish baseball fans like Alan Dershowitz and Barney Frank. The life stories of these and many others, on and off the field, have been compiled from nearly fifty in-depth interviews and arranged by decade in this edifying and entertaining work of oral and cultural history. In American Jews and America’s Game each person talks about growing up Jewish and dealing with Jewish identity, assimilation, intermarriage, future viability, religious observance, anti-Semitism, and Israel. Each tells about being in the midst of the colorful pantheon of players who, over the past seventy-five years or more, have made baseball what it is. Their stories tell, as no previous book has, the history of the larger-than-life role of Jews in America’s pastime.
Download or read book Tough Jews written by Rich Cohen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-06-18 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning writer Rich Cohen excavates the real stories behind the legend of infamous criminal enforcers Murder, Inc. and contemplates the question: Where did the tough Jews go? In 1930s Brooklyn, there lived a breed of men who now exist only in legend and in the memories of a few old-timers: Jewish gangsters, fearless thugs with nicknames like Kid Twist Reles and Pittsburgh Phil Strauss. Growing up in Brownsville, they made their way from street fights to underworld power, becoming the execution squad for a national crime syndicate. Murder Inc. did for organized crime what Henry Ford did for the automobile, and Tough Jews is the first in-depth portrait of these men, a thrilling glimpse at the muscle that made possible the success of gangster statesmen such as Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, and Lucky Luciano. For Rich Cohen, who grew up in suburban Illinois in the 1980s taunted by the stereotype of Jews as book-reading rule followers, the very idea of the Jewish gangster was a relief; for once, a Jew in jail did not have to be a white collar criminal. With a clear eye and a comic sensibility, Cohen looks beyond the blood and ultimately encounters each of these ruthless killers’ matzo-ball heart. Tough Jews shows what can happen when a member of the tribe combines brains, heart, and a dangerous determination never to back down.
Download or read book Jewish Jocks written by Franklin Foer and published by Twelve. This book was released on 2012-10-30 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of essays by today's preeminent writers on significant Jewish figures in sports, told with humor, heart, and an eye toward the ever elusive question of Jewish identity. Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame is a timeless collection of biographical musings, sociological riffs about assimilation, first-person reflections, and, above all, great writing on some of the most influential and unexpected pioneers in the world of sports. Featuring work by today's preeminent writers, these essays explore significant Jewish athletes, coaches, broadcasters, trainers, and even team owners (in the finite universe of Jewish Jocks, they count!). Contributors include some of today's most celebrated writers covering a vast assortment of topics, including David Remnick on the biggest mouth in sports, Howard Cosell; Jonathan Safran Foer on the prodigious and pugnacious Bobby Fischer; Man Booker Prize-winner Howard Jacobson writing elegantly on Marty Reisman, America's greatest ping-pong player and the sport's ultimate showman. Deborah Lipstadt examines the continuing legacy of the Munich Massacre, the fortieth anniversary of which coincided with the 2012 London Olympics. Jane Leavy reveals why Sandy Koufax agreed to attend her daughter's bat mitzvah. And we learn how Don Lerman single-handedly thrust competitive eating into the public eye with three pounds of butter and 120 jalapeño peppers. These essays are supplemented by a cover design and illustrations throughout by Mark Ulriksen. From settlement houses to stadiums and everywhere in between, Jewish Jock features men and women who do not always fit the standard athletic mold. Rather, they utilized talents long prized by a people of the book (and a people of commerce) to game these games to their advantage, in turn forcing the rest of the world to either copy their methods -- or be left in their dust.
Download or read book Lipman Pike written by Richard Michelson and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Profiles the life and baseball career of America's first home run king in the mid-1800s.
Download or read book Matzoh Balls and Baseballs written by Dave Cohen and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As "America's favorite pastime," perhaps no sport has chronicled the rise of an immigrant nation like baseball. From German-American parents came Babe Ruth, Italian-Americans proudly point to Joe DiMaggio, and Jackie Robinson shattered the color barrier for African Americans that had kept them out of the game since the 1880s. Certainly, almost every Jewish baseball fan knows the names of Hall of Famers Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax, but Jews have played professional baseball in the United States since the earliest days of the sport. Indeed, over 160 Jews are known to have played professional baseball during the modern era, contributing significantly to the game on every level. But who, other than Koufax, is the only other Jewish pitcher to win the Cy Young Award? Which Jewish ballplayer's place in baseball history is assured, as he has the distinction of being the first major leaguer to play a game as a DH? In his landmark book Matzoh Balls and Baseballs, popular sportscaster Dave Cohen uncovers this hidden history and goes right to the source for answers, interviewing 17 former Jewish MLB players to hear, in their own words, what it was like to play in the Majors - the triumphs, frustrations, and everything in between. Foreword by Steve Greenberg. Interviewees include: Larry Yellen, Ron Blomberg, Elliott Maddox, Jim Gaudet, Richie Scheinblum, Joe Ginsberg, Ross Baumgarten, Mike Epstein, Ken Holtzman, Norm Sherry, Steve Stone, Steve Hertz, Don Taussig, Norm Miller, Barry Latman, Morris Savransky, and Al Rosen.
Download or read book Pitching in the Promised Land written by Aaron Pribble and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was the first (and last) season of professional baseball in Israel. Aaron Pribble, twenty-seven, had been out of Minor League Baseball for three years while he pursued a career in education when, at his coach's suggestion, he tried out for the newly formed Israel Baseball League (IBL). Of Jewish descent (not a requirement, but definitely a plus) and former pro, Pribble was the ideal candidate for the upstart league. In many ways the league resembled the ultimate baseball fantasy camp with its unforgettable cast of characters: the DJ/street artist third baseman from the Bronx, the wildman catcher from Australia, the journeymen Dominicans who were much older than they claimed to be, and, of course, seventy-one-year-old Sandy Koufax, drafted in a symbolic gesture as the last player. After falling in love with a beautiful Yemenite Jew, enduring an alleged terrorist attack on opening day, witnessing a career-ending brain injury caused by improper field equipment, participating in a strike, and venturing into the West Bank despite being strongly advised against it, Pribble must decide whether to forgo a teaching career in order to become the first player from the IBL to sign a pro contract in the United States. His is a story of coming of age spiritually and athletically in one short season in the throes of romance, Middle Eastern politics, and the dreams of America's pastime far, far afield from home.
Download or read book Hank Greenberg written by Mark Kurlansky and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-29 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Profiles the Jewish-American baseball player who, in 1934, risked his chance to beat Babe Ruth's home run record by sitting out a game on Yom Kippur, and describes his impact on Jewish-American history.
Download or read book Sports and the American Jew written by Steven A. Riess and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 1998-06-01 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book debunks the conventional stereotype that Jews and sports are somehow anathema and clearly demonstrates that sports have long been a significant institution in Jewish American life. Jews were among the very first professional baseball players and the most outstanding early American track stars. In the 1920s and 1930s they dominated inner-city sports such as basketball and boxing and produced star athletes in virtually all sports. Many Jews were also prominent in the business, communication, and literary aspects of sport. These essays, written by leading contemporary sports historians, examine the contributions of Jewish men and women to American sports. Steven A. Riess's article on this topic is the most comprehensive overview ever written and will doubtless become a standard reference for years to come.
Download or read book The Jewish Baseball Card Book written by Bob Wechsler and published by . This book was released on 2017-10 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Out of Left Field written by Rebecca Trachtenberg Alpert and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An eye-opening look at one of baseball's little known stories the relationship between Jews and Black baseball in Jim Crow America, this text explores how Jewish sports entrepreneurs political radicals and a team of black Jews called the Belleville Grays made their mark on the segregated world of the Negro Leagues.
Download or read book Beyond Stereotypes written by Bruce Zuckerman and published by Purdue University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the decades after the Civil War, sports slowly gained a prominent position within American culture. This development provided Jews with opportunities to participate in one of the few American cultures not closed off to them. Jewish athleticism challenged anti-Semitic depictions of Jews' supposed physical inferiority and an Americanization narrative emerged that connected Jewish athleticism with full acceptance and integration into American society. This acceptance was not without struggle, but Jews succeeded and participated in the American sporting culture as athletes, coaches, owners, and fans. The contributions to this volume paint a broad picture of Jewish participation in sports, with essays written by respected historians who examine the impact of sport on Judaism. Despite the continued belief that Jewish religious or cultural identity remains somehow distinct from the American idea of the "athlete," the volume demonstrates that American Jews have made a tremendous contribution to American sports, and that sports have helped construct American Jewish culture and identity.
