A JBM Q/A with former Kansas City and San Francisco pitcher Bob Tufts, who converted to Judaism while playing in the big leagues.
“I started questioning the idea that you can say or do everything bad as long as you say ‘Sorry’ at the end. That’s not how one should live one’s life. One should basically be focused on the here and now, as opposed to promises thereafter.”
Baseball in Israel? Yes that most American of games is growing in popularity in the Promised Land thanks to individuals like Peter Kurz. In a special JBM Q/A, Kurz talks about the state of baseball in Israel and hopes for the future.
Jeff Passan has interviewed many famous athletes during his years as a sportswriter. But Sandy Koufax was different.
It was a bucket list moment for Passan, the lead baseball writer for Yahoo Sports. A part of him felt as if he was back in Hebrew school, awed at the notion of getting to talk to the Jewish sports legend.
“I was more nervous for that interview than I’ve ever been before,” Passan said. “I didn’t want to screw it up.”
People scoffed at Justine Siegal when she said she wanted a career in baseball.
“The person I told my dream to laughed at me: my coach from the camp I was at,” Siegal said. “He said that a man would never listen to a woman on the baseball field. … I felt sick to my stomach.”
It turned Siegal has had the last laugh. She is having a career in baseball. In autumn 2015, she coached for the Oakland Athletics’ club in the Arizona Instructional League.
Then test your knowledge with our trivia game which will truly separate the scholars from the yutzes.
What does Jewish baseball mean to you? Did you have a brush with greatness? A family story that connects your religion and your love of the game?
