Jews in baseball
Jews have been involved in baseball since the sport's beginnings in the mid-19th century and have contributed to its evolution in many capacities, including players, agents, team owners, executives, umpires, broadcasters, and fans.
On the field, Jewish baseball players faced constant antisemitic heckles from opponents and fans, with many hiding their heritage to avoid discrimination in the league.
Similarly, off the field, Jews were involved deeply in the evolution of the game with executive Barney Dreyfuss, a Jewish immigrant who responsible for the founding of the World Series, the most prestigious event in baseball, and Marvin Miller who revolutionized the relationship between players and owners by unionizing players and helping usher in the era of free agency.
[3] The first Jewish baseball star would be Hank Greenberg, the son of Orthodox Romanian-Jewish immigrants, who broke into the Majors with the Detroit Tigers.
Finishing his injury-shortened career as a three-time Cy Young Award winner and two-time World Series MVP, he became the second Jewish player elected to the Hall of Fame.
[10] Rabbi Rebecca Alpert stated that Koufax, who faced antisemitism as well, helped break stereotypes of Jewish men who were seen as being weak and bookish.
His decision to sit out a World Series game became one of the most iconic moments for American Jews, making him "an important role model, and a real hero.
Before the 1966 season, Koufax, who had previous contract disputes with his team's front office, particularly with Dodgers general manager Buzzie Bavasi, played a leading role in the joint holdout with teammate and fellow pitcher Don Drysdale.
Recalling how he was treated by his former team before his trade to the Pittsburgh Pirates, he testified that the "reserve clause should be eliminated entirely, thereby creating a new image for baseball".
[13] Koufax was also one of the few former star players to publicly express support for Flood's cause: "I have to give Curt the greatest amount of credit for believing in what he's doing.
"[14] Besides Koufax and Greenberg, other notable Jewish stars in Major League Baseball have been: Harry Danning, Sid Gordon, Al Rosen, Ryan Braun, Ken Holtzman, Shawn Green, and Max Fried.
[15] Green made headlines in 2001 when he followed the footsteps of Koufax and Greenberg and chose to sit out Yom Kippur despite his team being in a tight divisional race.
"[18] During World War II, Berg served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services, traveling around Europe to gather information on the German nuclear weapons program.
In the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), which started during World War II, there were at least three Jewish players: Thelma "Tiby" Eisen, Anita Foss, and Blanche Schachter.
[20] Eisen in particular became one of the league's star players and would later spend her time advocating for women's sports and helped keep the memory of the AAGPBL alive.
[26] As both acting commissioner and commissioner, Selig helped Major League Baseball grow as an industry and implemented a number of changes, including: expansion of MLB playoffs, introduction of interleague play, consolidating the AL and NL–which had acted separately for nearly a century–into a single entity which allowed for rapid growth and easier rule changes.
[30] One of the most impactful contributions is considered to be that of Marvin Miller, the first executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA).
More importantly, the deal brought a formal structure to owner–player relations, including written procedures for the arbitration of player grievances before the commissioner.
[33] In 1974, Miller encouraged pitchers Andy Messersmith of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Dave McNally of the Baltimore Orioles to play out the succeeding year without signing a contract.
Miller taught MLB players the basics of human capital as a commodity they were selling to club owners and educated them on trade-union thinking.
[35] In 1992, broadcaster Red Barber remarked of "Marvin Miller, along with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson, is one of the two or three most important men in baseball history", while former players Henry Aaron and Tom Seaver actively lobbied for his induction into the Hall of Fame.
[44] At the 2017 World Baseball Classic championship, with a roster of Jewish American players, the Israeli team had what was called a "Cinderella run", advancing to the second round before being eliminated.
[48] Additionally, Jewish community groups such as Young Judea promote amateur baseball outside the United States, particularly in countries such as Canada and Israel.
The most notable of these is Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story, a documentary film by Peter Miller which was written by sportswriter Ira Berkow.
[50] While Greenberg and Koufax were the main subjects of the film, the movie also discussed how baseball was used to fight against stereotypes of Jews as non-athletic and bookish.
