A fine article by Bradford Pilcher (Bradford is a Jewish name?) where he seeks to convert the Jewish baseball fan from supporting the New York Yankees to supporting the Boston Red Sox. The article is filled with many gems that some of us would never have known, such as Seminal Moment #4:
Seminal moment #4: Involves the Red Sox. Twice. August 8, 2005. The Boston Red Sox host the Texas Rangers at Fenway. After shellacking them for eight innings, the Red Sox own an 11-6 lead. Manager Terry Francona makes defensive adjustments at the top of the ninth inning. Outfielder Gabe Kapler moves from left field to right field, making room for Adam Stern to enter the game at left. Kevin Youkilis, dubbed the “Greek God of Walks†in the widely read Moneyball book[10], enters the game at third base.
With that little bit of player shuffling, the Boston Red Sox fielded three Jewish players in a single game. That hasn’t happened before. Much. I should make a few caveats.
For starters, the Red Sox and Dodgers had played a game more than a year earlier, and counting Shawn Green of the Dodgers with Kapler and Youkilis, that makes three players. It turned out to be the first time three Jewish players had taken the field in one game since the early 1940s (when four Jews played the afternoon before Rosh Hashanah).
The record for most Jewish players in a game had thus been set more than sixty years before the Red Sox’s ninth inning moves. Three or more players wouldn’t grace the same field in a single game for 63 years, right up until that game against the Dodgers. So that August afternoon in ’05 didn’t break any records, and it had only been about a year since three Jews had last played in a single game.
But wait. This was three players on a single team playing in one game, and what team was that I ask? The Red Sox of Beantown. That’s a significant thing, especially when you consider this little factoid: Boston was also the only team to have four Jewish players on their roster at one time.
Well worth reading.
“the fact that Theo Epstein, the owner of the Sox, ”
Theo Epstein is the GM, not owner, of the Red Sox.
@themiddle:
Of course. This is our 4th season. I’m not playing this season (just running it), but my team last season went undefeated and won the tourney. Our name? The Green Monsters. (We also won the championship the season before that.)
Everyone’s welcome to chime in:
http://ammansoftball.blogspot.com/
Mude, there’s an Amman softball league?
Re: “Bradford is a Jewish name?”
From the article:
“It is partly due to my father’s entrenched dislike of the Yankees that I am a full-blown member of Red Sox Nation. And what did I do to thank him? I went AWOL from his faith and converted to Judaism.”
Go Sox!
I wouldn’t care if the Red Sox were an all-Jewish team! I’d still hate their guts! (Yankee Fan since 1947)
Not to mention that both Judaism and Red Sox Nation each venerate a particular wall.
Wade Boggs (wears a Sox cap in the Hall) drew a chai in the batter’s box every at bat.
Idiotic article. Just say they have more Jews on the team and be done with it, if that’s the point. But to pull Gibson into the discussion and base your experience on one drunken moron–many of my fellow Yankee fans are morons, unfortunately–is stupid.
plz do TM
retire somewhere warm, by the ocean…..
Well, some Jews might not like the fact that Theo Epstein, the owner of the Sox, married a shiksa and had a Catholc priest perform the ceremony. I’ll stick to the Yankees.
Thanks!
Finally, after about 700 posts, I receive a compliment. Should I retire now?
great blog submission TM