Thomas Hobbes was born long before Major League Baseball, but when he wrote that life during anarchy was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,” he could have been talking about the Jews who have played professional baseball in New York.
Only about 40 players long, the ragged list now includes Kevin Youkilis, the former Red Sox third baseman who was signed by the Yankees this week to play third base. Without even playing a game in pinstripes, Youkilis has improved the talent pool of Jewish major leaguers in the city.
If an all-Jewish team of New York ballplayers walked through the corn stalks at the Field of Dreams, or the reeds at the Red Sea, it would include backup catchers, hard-luck relievers and schlemiels who came up for a cup of coffee when Calvin Coolidge was president. Some of them were barely Jews, and at least one black player chose to join the Chosen People.
Many of them even came to embrace their Jewishness through baseball as a way to distinguish themselves from the legions of right-handed relievers and utility infielders. During their years in the minor leagues, often in towns with small Jewish populations, many players accepted and appreciated their religion and culture so that when they reached New York, they welcomed the virtual hug from the country’s largest Jewish community.
“Sometimes your Jewishness is a way to get recognized professionally as ‘that Jewish guy,’ and sometimes it’s a way to make connections in the minor leagues and fans,” said William Ressler, a professor at Ithaca College who is studying Jews playing in the minor leagues. “There’s something about being in New York that magnifies that.”
Coming up with a list of Jewish ballplayers requires agreeing to some fuzzy boundaries. Players who were born Jewish but converted to another religion are often tossed out, while others who grew up as non-Jews but converted to Judaism are on the list. Then there are the guidelines for the World Baseball Classic, which adhere to local laws. In Israel’s case, any player with a Jewish grandparent or who is married to someone with a Jewish grandparent can join the Israeli team.
Whatever the definition, the headliner of any New York team would be Sandy Koufax, the most famous Jew to play in the major leagues, along with Hank Greenberg. He had five of the most incredible seasons ever, though all of them came after the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. The pride of Lafayette High School was just 9-10 when Dem Bums played in Brooklyn.
Ron Blomberg is another lock because he was baseball’s first designated hitter. He wandered through Yankee Stadium in the early 1970s during the team’s playoff drought and never made it to the World Series with the Bombers.
Some Jewish players were hyped because teams hoped to draw more Jewish fans. Andy Cohen, who played parts of three seasons with the Giants in the 1920s, was considered the Great Kosher Hope; he never turned into the Jewish Babe Ruth as billed.
Art Shamsky, on the other hand, was a mediocre outfielder who was blessed to play on the Miracle Mets in 1969. He batted .300, a career high, that year and came back to earth afterward.
“Shamsky got a lot of kudos at the time,” said Peter Kurz, who grew up a Mets fan in the 1960s and is now the secretary general of the Israel Association of Baseball. “As soon as you become a Jewish player in New York and you happen to be Jewish, the Jewish community gets behind you, and all of a sudden you become more Jewish.”
The Mets have had at least two other Jewish right fielders, both of whom were largely flops in Flushing. Shawn Green joined the team in 2006 and was famous for losing his cap when running for fly balls. Elliott Maddox, who converted, was cursed. He left the Yankees in 1976, the year they went to the World Series, and joined the Mets in 1978, during the team’s Dark Ages.
In recent years, the Mets have signed several Jewish players, most notably first baseman Ike Davis, who was not particularly observant but has embraced his family’s history, which includes relatives who survived the Holocaust. Josh Satin, also a first baseman; David Newhan, who is now Christian; and Scott Schoeneweis, who gave up the game-losing home run in the last game at Shea Stadium, have played less meaningful roles.
Several players, including Moe Berg, a catcher turned international spy, and Sam Bohne, played briefly with the Brooklyn Robins in the 1920s. Cal Abrams roamed the outfield at Ebbets Field in the 1940s. Lipman Pike, who played for the Metropolitans in 1887, was perhaps the first Jewish player in New York.
Perhaps the greatest day in New York Jewish baseball history was Sept. 21, 1941, when four Jews were in the lineup for the first game of a doubleheader at the Polo Grounds between the Giants and the Boston Braves. Harry Feldman, who pitched in three games that season, threw a complete-game shutout for the Giants. His catcher was Harry Danning, another Jew. Morrie Arnovich played left field, and Sid Gordon was in center field.
The Giants had five Jewish players in 1946. Arnovich, Feldman and Gordon were joined by Goody Rosen and Mike Schemer. Another Jew who played at the Polo Grounds was Ralph Branca, who grew up Roman Catholic but discovered recently that his mother was Jewish. Given how Branca became the poster child for the hapless Dodgers, this discovery made him a perfect addition to the short, brutish list of Jewish ballplayers.