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Author grew up Jewish … and obsessed with baseball
By John Mason
RED HOOK — Howard Megdal, author of the hot-off-presses “The Baseball Talmud,” from HarperCollins, grew up Jewish and obsessed with baseball.
“My father used to read me Hank Greenberg’s ‘Story of My Life,’” Megdal told a small gathering of baseball lovers at the Merritt Bookstore Saturday. “I had to do it.”
Baseball fans are notoriously fanatical about hierarchies — best batter, best fielder, most unassisted triple plays — and “The Baseball Talmud” is right up this alley. It’s a ranking, position by position, of every Jewish player in major league history, including statistics.
Mixed in with all the analysis is a good deal of storytelling.
Megdal selected the best player for each position, his all-time Jewish team, as well as six bench-sitters, five starting pitchers and six relievers.
And he picked the best Jewish ballplayer of all time. It came down to Sandy Koufax vs. Hank Greenberg.
“I have Greenberg as a slight edge over Koufax,” he said. “They’re polar opposites: Greenberg was a great hitter in a great hitters’ era, and Koufax was a great pitcher in a great pitchers’ era. Both their careers were cut short, Koufax’s by injuries, while Greenberg missed his four peak years because of World War II.
“I give him the nod because he fought the Nazis,” Megdal said. “I don’t know how you quantify that [in relation to on-base percentage or ERA], but if he hadn’t fought the Nazis, there wouldn’t have been a Koufax.”
Some of Megdal’s other decisions were made on a non-traditional basis. Catcher Brad Ausmus gained some ground in the book because his father was a rabbi, and catcher Steve Yeager as well because he is the only Jewish catcher to pose in “Playgirl Magazine.”
“He’s a trendsetter,” Megdal observed.
Likewise, Eliot Maddox went to Union High School in New Jersey, “where my parents went,” he said. Maddox converted to Judaism between the 1973 and 1974 seasons, and saw a significant improvement in his batting average thereafter.
“If Babe Ruth had converted before the 1927 season, he would have hit 72 home runs, instead of 60,” Megdal estimated. “As they test more for steroids, players will look for the next way to get an edge,” he added, and predicted more conversions.
Although Greenberg is the most famous Jewish player, there were Jews in organized ball at the start, with Lipman Pike and Nate Birkenstock both playing in the 1870s. Jesse Baker played in a rural Georgia team in the year that businessman Leo Frank was lynched for a crime he didn’t commit and half the Jews in Georgia left, Megdal said.
Greenberg played in Detroit, which was built on the vicious anti-semite Henry Ford, he said. The slugger started a tradition of not playing on Yom Kippur, which Koufax continued by sitting out the second game of a World Series.
Megdal said he sees three of today’s players as likely to enter the top 10 Jewish players in a few years: Kevin Youkilis of Boston, Ian Kinsler of the Texas Rangers, and Ryan Braun, “the Hebrew Hammer,” of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Vying with Koufax and Greenberg for the number one position is Lou Boudreau, who in 1948 posted “one of the greatest single seasons any player has had,” he said, batting .355 and striking out nine times.
Megdal, former sports editor at the Register-Star, covers baseball for the New York Observer and cohosts the radio program New York Baseball Live with Mike Silva. His daily haiku recapping each Mets game can be read on Metsgeek.com.
To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail jmason@registerstar.com.
“My father used to read me Hank Greenberg’s ‘Story of My Life,’” Megdal told a small gathering of baseball lovers at the Merritt Bookstore Saturday. “I had to do it.”
Baseball fans are notoriously fanatical about hierarchies — best batter, best fielder, most unassisted triple plays — and “The Baseball Talmud” is right up this alley. It’s a ranking, position by position, of every Jewish player in major league history, including statistics.
Mixed in with all the analysis is a good deal of storytelling.
Megdal selected the best player for each position, his all-time Jewish team, as well as six bench-sitters, five starting pitchers and six relievers.
And he picked the best Jewish ballplayer of all time. It came down to Sandy Koufax vs. Hank Greenberg.
“I have Greenberg as a slight edge over Koufax,” he said. “They’re polar opposites: Greenberg was a great hitter in a great hitters’ era, and Koufax was a great pitcher in a great pitchers’ era. Both their careers were cut short, Koufax’s by injuries, while Greenberg missed his four peak years because of World War II.
“I give him the nod because he fought the Nazis,” Megdal said. “I don’t know how you quantify that [in relation to on-base percentage or ERA], but if he hadn’t fought the Nazis, there wouldn’t have been a Koufax.”
Some of Megdal’s other decisions were made on a non-traditional basis. Catcher Brad Ausmus gained some ground in the book because his father was a rabbi, and catcher Steve Yeager as well because he is the only Jewish catcher to pose in “Playgirl Magazine.”
“He’s a trendsetter,” Megdal observed.
Likewise, Eliot Maddox went to Union High School in New Jersey, “where my parents went,” he said. Maddox converted to Judaism between the 1973 and 1974 seasons, and saw a significant improvement in his batting average thereafter.
“If Babe Ruth had converted before the 1927 season, he would have hit 72 home runs, instead of 60,” Megdal estimated. “As they test more for steroids, players will look for the next way to get an edge,” he added, and predicted more conversions.
Although Greenberg is the most famous Jewish player, there were Jews in organized ball at the start, with Lipman Pike and Nate Birkenstock both playing in the 1870s. Jesse Baker played in a rural Georgia team in the year that businessman Leo Frank was lynched for a crime he didn’t commit and half the Jews in Georgia left, Megdal said.
Greenberg played in Detroit, which was built on the vicious anti-semite Henry Ford, he said. The slugger started a tradition of not playing on Yom Kippur, which Koufax continued by sitting out the second game of a World Series.
Megdal said he sees three of today’s players as likely to enter the top 10 Jewish players in a few years: Kevin Youkilis of Boston, Ian Kinsler of the Texas Rangers, and Ryan Braun, “the Hebrew Hammer,” of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Vying with Koufax and Greenberg for the number one position is Lou Boudreau, who in 1948 posted “one of the greatest single seasons any player has had,” he said, batting .355 and striking out nine times.
Megdal, former sports editor at the Register-Star, covers baseball for the New York Observer and cohosts the radio program New York Baseball Live with Mike Silva. His daily haiku recapping each Mets game can be read on Metsgeek.com.
To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail jmason@registerstar.com.
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