![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/jewball.jpg\")
There
\n aren’t many Jewish ballplayers left in the major leagues, but the Red
\n Sox have one. Now Gabe "the Body" Kaplan can take his place alongside
\n all 141 other Jewish major leaguers featured in a new Collectors Edition
\n of Fleer Baseball Cards. <\/p>\n
The collection, titled somewhat unfortunately "America’s Jews in America’s
\n Game," is exhaustively inclusive; even players who appeared in a single
\n game get cards.<\/p>\n
Personally, as a Jew and a baseball fan, I was somewhat dismayed at
\n the paucity of Jews in the history of the game. Those 142 Jews
\n are amongst 15,650 other ballplayers of diverse religion, race and national
\n origin. That’s about 0.8%<\/p>\n
Jews in the Bigs had their heyday in the early years of the century,
\n when their representation in the league was actually higher than in the
\n general population. As far as I am concerned, those were the days. Jews
\n were everywhere in sports, even brutish ones like boxing and football,
\n they dominated the mob and organized crime, gambling and drugs, and Hollywood
\n was lousy with Jews
\n on both
\n sides
\n of the
\n cameras
\n who had
\n changed their names to avoid stereotyping and anti-semitism. <\/p>\n
The obvious explanation is that they were at that point all immigrants
\n or the children of immigrants who had not yet earned enough money to
\n send their kids to Harvard and BU to become lawyers and doctors, and
\n like all hard-scrabble newcomers they had to fight their way to the top. The
\n history of Israel shows, if nothing else, that Jews are vicious fighters
\n when their backs are to the wall.<\/p>\n
The cards are available only through a $100 contribution to the American
\n Jewish Historical Society, but I’m sure they will be real popular with
\n collectors and Jews. Jewish collectors will probably get multiple
\n sets. What really sounds interesting are the tidbits and anecdotes that
\n fill the back sides of the cards (due probably to the paucity of statistics
\n accumulated by some of the honorees). Here’s an example:<\/p>\n
Consider, especially, the tale of Bob Tufts, a Massachusetts native
\n who pitched in 27 big-league games during the early 1980s and is now
\n an institutional broker. When Tufts converted to Judaism during his playing
\n days, he was asked by the rabbi at the ceremony if he wanted to choose
\n a Jewish name, a traditional occurrence. <\/p>\n
”Yes,” he quickly replied. ”Sandy Koufax.” <\/p>\n
from There aren’t many Jewish ballplayers left in the major leagues, but the Red Sox have one. Now Gabe "the Body" Kaplan can take his place alongside all 141 other Jewish major leaguers featured in a new Collectors Edition of Fleer … Continue reading
\n the Boston Globe<\/a><\/a> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"