Conference taveng::bagels

    I didn't know he was Jewish.

    Shame on you, and you're from the NY/NJ area?
    
    D.C.

    Who's Tom Seaver?
    
    			8-)
    

    
    Re: .0
    
    	Who cares ?

    re .0
    
    	If this were true, my Father (who followed baseball very closely
    until he died, and who was nothing if not proud of Jewish athletes)
    would have taken notice.  But he never did, so I assume this is
    fiction.
    
    		David

    re: .5
    
    David, I don't believe that this is fiction, I'll double check in
    the Jewish Almanac.
    
    re: .4
    
    Why not?  Not all the notes in this file have to deal with "Sturm
    und Drang" topics.  When I folowed baseball closely as a kid, I
    always made an extra effort to find the Jewish players.  Anti-Semites
    always maintained that Jews were too "frail" to play sports, I always
    tried to counter those accusations(mostly by getting myself killed
    in football).
    
    David

    What team was Sandy Koufax on?
    
    Just for interest sake, "The Book of Lists", by David Wallechinsky,
    Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace have a section entitled "Harry Stein's
    All-Time All-Star Argument Starter (5 All-Time Ethnic Baseball Teams)",
    which include the Latins, the Poles, the Blacks, the Italians as
    well as the Jews (who Harry Stein is, I don't know).  Nevertheless,
    they include:
    
    	Ed Reulbach (1905-1917), rhp	Rod Carew (1967-   ), 2b
    	Sandy Koufax (1956-1966), lhp   Buddy Myer (1925-1941), ss
    	Larry Sherry (1958-1968), rp	Al Rosen (1947-1956), 3b
    	Johnny Kling (1900-1913), c	Sid Gordon (1941-1955), lf
    	Hank Greenberg (1930-1947), 1b	Benny Kauff (1912-1920), cf
    					George Stone (1903-1910), rf
    
    	(in proper batting order, after the pitcher)
    
    This was actually reprinted from ESQUIRE Magazine (July, 1976).
    No doubt some of the above will live in infamy...    %^}
    
    What I'd like to know is, has there ever been a Jewish major league
    hockey player (considering 99.44% are French-Canadien)?
    
    Anita
    

     
     re .7:
     
     I haven't a clue why you think most hockey players are French-
     Canadian; however, you are mistaken.  The largest percentage of hockey
     players (in the NHL) are English-speaking Canadians (which makes sense
     -- more than 65% of Candians are native English-speaking). American-
     born players are now nearly as common as French-Canadians, and there
     are also many Europeans (esp. Swedes, Finns, and Czechs).
     
     Two Jewish ex-NHL players that come to mind are Ross Brooks
     (goaltender with the Bruins in the mid-70s) and Larry Zeidel (played
     with the Flyers in the late 60s).
     
     --Don

    I stand corrected (I guess), though that wasn't the gist of the
    reply.  
    
    Regardless, thanks for the info on the hockey players!
    
    Anita

    re: .8
    
    Your're absolutely right, and the duck will come down and give you
    $50!
    
    P.S.: I'm still checking on Seaver.  By the way Anita, Koufax played
    on the Brooklyn/LA dodgers.
    
    David

    Posing a question ...
    
    If Tom Seaver is Jewish,,,, is it not forbidden for him to pitch
    on Shabbot ???
    
    /jmp
    
    

     
     re .11:
     
     In a World Series (late 50s or early 60s), Koufax and Sherry both
     stayed away from the ballpark on one of the game days that coincided
     with Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur.  
     
     --Mr Topaz

    Art Shamsky (sp.) I think was Jewish too.  I seem to recall that
    he stayed away from a World Series game for the same reason as Koufax
    and Sherry.  Was Sherry a pitcher, could they adjust his rotation
    like they might have been able to do for Koufax.
    
    I'd be very surprised if one was able to find any very observant
    Jew in any professional sport or at a world-class level.  The training
    normally requires seven day attention, and many competitions are
    on Shabbat.                                     

    	Are there any Black Jewish basketball players? N.Y. has a large
    Black Jewish population so I thought there may be some who are pro
    basketball players. 

    As far as the U.S. is concerned, I don't think that there are Black
    Jewish basketball players.  However there is one who plays for the
    Maccabi-Tel Aviv team(which plays in the European pro league). 
    
    His name is Aulsie Perry, he was the center for them when last I
    remember.  I think that when he converted, he adopted a Hebrew name,
    but people still referred to him by his English name.  By the way
    before coming over to Israel he used to be a benchwarmer in the
    old ABA.
    
    David

    Re: .15
    
    Many of the formerly non Jewish BB players who come to play on Israeli
    teams "convert" so that they may be included in European games.
    So I really wouldn't consider these as Jewish Black BB players.
    
    There is one player, Kevin Mcgee, who according to the Israeli press
    is Jewish by virtue of the fact that his mother is Jewish.
    
    Cb.
    

    Huh?  Why do players have to convert to be included in European
    games?  Do they not accept non-Jewish Israeli players?
    
    Israel only recognizes Orthodox conversions, and then only by
    certain Rabbis.  Who performs these conversions?
    
    I've thought this entire note to be a bit hypocritical. The idea
    of rooting for a basketball player because he is Jewish offends
    me a bit; he could be an otherwise terrible person and even a
    lousy ball player.  But to convert to a different religion for a
    job (or for Jews to allow/encourage this!!!) seems very wrong to
    me.
    
    				Paul
    

    Re:-1
    
    Take it easy Paul, when Chaim was referring to conversions of
    basketball players, he qualified that word with quotation marks(refer
    back to .16).  Imported players can play for there respected clubs
    during the regular season and league playoffs, but they are restricted
    from playing on the national team of that country.  In order for
    the Maccabi-Tel Aviv imports to play on the Israeli national team
    in international competition, they had to "convert", and by virtue
    of the Law of Return they can become citizens, Le Voila.
    
    By the way I wrote the basenote, and I've never seen anything wrong
    with rooting extra hard for Jewish athletes, they're my
    brothers/sisters whether they are good people or not.  Besides there
    aren't that many that obtain major status, and have to run up against
    racial stereotyping on their way up there.
    
    David
                                              

    Max Baer, a heavyweight challenger for the title in the mid-30s,
    wore a Star-of-David on his boxing trunks.  Anyone know whether
    or not he was Jewish?

    Re:-1
    
    I'm not sure about Max Baer, but two other famous boxers from that
    era were Jewish, one was ("Slapsie")Maxie Rosenbloom, and the other
    was Benny Leonard - one of the greatest welterweights ever.
    
    David

    	The Baers are Jewish. Max, Buddy and their m and dad. Also wasn't
    Goldie Locks Jewish like Goldie Hawn and Goldie Mair?

    Re: .18
    
    I can understand rooting for the Jewish players, just as I can
    understand rooting for the U.S. team in the Olympics.
    
    It still doesn't answer my question about who converts basketball
    players orthodox, knowing that they are not converting because they
    belive in Judiasm.
    
    Re .21
    
    No, Goldie Locks wasn't Jewish; if she was she would not have eaten
    the porridge, it could have been traif.  Also, she is Goldie Locks,
    not Goldie Lox.
    
    				Paul
    

    I've always found this topic to be interesting. Listed below 
    are famous athletes that are  'Our People':
    
    US Olympians: 
    		  Mark Spitz
    		  Mitch Gaylord
    
    Football: 
      		Sid Luckman
    		former Colts and Rams owner, Carroll Rosenbloom
    
    Soccer: 	
    		Mordecai Shpiegler
    
    Basketball:
    		Red Holzman
    		Henry Finkel  (ex-celt)
    
    Baseball:
    		Ron Blomberg
    		Joe Gordon
    		Elliot Maddox
    		Bill Singer
    		Steve Stone
    		Ken Holtzman
    
    Why is it that the majority of Jewish baseball players are pitchers?
    
    BTW- Tom Seaver does not belong to the above group!
    
    Warren
    

    re:.23
    
    It's still not decided as to whether Tom Seaver is Jewish or not.
    he could be a "closet Yid" for all we know.  And btw, that list
    of Jewish athletes that you listed is very incomplete.
    
    re:.22
    
    I don't know who does the converting, and frankly don't care.  If
    it's a for-real conversion, then obviously it would have to be an
    Orhtodox one.
    
    David

    re .22
    
    	Uh, Henry Finkel is definitely not a triple-O (One Of Ours).
    Else why did he cross himself before he shot free throws?
    
    	I'll give you a few Jewish pro basketball players, though:
    
    		Dave Newmark
    		Neil Walk
    		Dolph Schayes
    		Danny Schayes
    		Red Holtzman, Red Auerbach (coaches)
    		Larry Brown
    
    I'm sure there's more.  Back in basketball pre-history (before 1950)
    there were a lot of top Jewish players.  Some of the Original Celtics
    (from the '20s) were Jewish, I believe.
    
    			David

    .25 should have referred to .23, not .22.

     
     A few more BB people:
              
              Red Klotz  (player/coach of the team that always 
                          loses to the Globetrotters)
              Abe Saperstein (who started the Globetrotters)
              Maurice Podoloff (1st NBA Commissioner)
     
     --Mr Topaz

    re .24
    
    I never claimed to give the complete list--just a few people that
    came to mind when I read the topic.  By the way, if you know the
    list is incomplete, how come you haven't added any names to it?
    
    re: Tom Seaver
    
    The fact that no one has corroborated (and more have questioned)
    David's incredible claim about Tom Seaver being Jewish leads me
    to believe that he isn't.
                                
    To add to my incomplete list:
    
    NBA Commissioner David Stern
    Tennis player Harold Salomon

    The Jewish Catalog and Almanac has a 6 page list of Jews in baseball.
    Tom Seaver is not listed.
    
    Jack

    After a week off, I see that people are still jumping on my case
    re: Tom Seaver being Jewish.  Yes, I couldn't find his name listed
    in the Jewish Almanac either, but I'm still not totally convinced.
    
    David

    
Drop em Tom !

    From a review in today's NY Times of a book entitled, "NAMES: A
    Collector's Compendium of Rare and Unusual, Bold and Beautiful,
    Odd and Whimsical Names", by Paul Dickson.
    
    ...Moe Solomon, who played two games for the 1923 NY Giants, is
    still known in "The Baseball Encyclopedia" as "The Rabbi of Swat".