Baseball Insider

Perhaps the biggest shock for Tigers fans was the firing of president and general manager Dave Dombrowski after the trades of Price and Cespedes.

"It is my belief that if our clubs played a series on a best-of-nine basis, we would create great interest in baseball in our leagues and in our players. I also believe it would be a financial success."

The Philadelphia Phillies were impressed with his pitching prowess and promoted him to the major leagues in 1912.

By 1943 both Rosenthals were serving in the armed forces. Both used chutzpah and bluffed about their age.

Gray played the outfield better than most players with two hands.

While David was impressed with his great-uncle's past, he was working on his own life and future path.

The New York Giants’ Jewish catcher thrilled Giants fans by hitting for the cycle.

The Mets at least have hope for the future with some good young pitchers.

The big news this spring is that the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals will be leaving their old spring homes north of Port St. Lucie and moving south to a beautiful new complex scheduled to open in two years in West Palm Beach.

A famous face from that first '52 Topps set was Alvin Dark, who died in his South Carolina home recently at 92.

As the years flew by, one thing remained constant in Sid’s life – the New York Yankees.

During 1939, anti-Semitic groups such as Fritz Kuhn’s German American Bund held rallies in New York and other major cities across the country.

The two World Series combatants, the Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants, were Wild Card teams (meaning they didn't win their respective divisions) that got hot at the right time.

In 1914 Mayer became the first Jewish pitcher to win 20 games in a big league season, posting a 21-9 record with a superb earned run average of 2.58.

Many former baseball players who left us with happy memories also passed away in the past year.

"No kid is worth a million dollars to sign," Newhouser said, "but if one kid is, it's this kid."

Zimmer was popular with veteran teammates like Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese and Duke Snider – and with a rookie lefthander named Sandy Koufax.

I'm sure readers noticed those full-page advertisements that ran prior to last month's meeting about the situation at the Brooklyn home of Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff, rav of Agudas Yisroel Bais Binyomin. Avrohom chaired the even along with his brother Menachem, a prominent askan and the president of Lubicom.

I spoke twice during Pesach. The first topic was the Holocaust and Jewish ballplayers and the second was how I, a frum-from-birth Jew, ended up in major league baseball.

Even if a player reaches the big league level, there's still no guarantee he'll remain with one team for long. Former Jewish outfielder Richie Scheinblum comes to mind.

The snow has melted in most parts of the country and here in Florida, where I have my winter dugout in the Orthodox enclave of Century Village in West Palm Beach, I had the opportunity to take in several spring training games.

If you're visiting spring training sites, Arizona has two advantages – fewer games are rained out and the facilities are much closer to each other than is the case in Florida.

There were 15 Jews in the major leagues during the 2013 season, but only a few from a Jewish mother.

Musial told the taunted Jackie Robinson: "I want you to know that I'm not like many of the other guys on my team."

Brooklyn native Lipman Pike was one of baseball's earliest paid players.

The World Series was born 110 years ago. So were the New York Yankees, as New York inherited the remnants of the old Baltimore Orioles, a charter member of the new American League that was formed in 1901. A year later the team was headed to last place and bankruptcy. Manager John McGraw jumped to the National League New York Giants to assume the same position and brought some Orioles players with him.

Rewind eight decades to 1933. That year marked the rise of the greatest villain of our time and the biggest Jewish sports hero of all time.

The year 1973 was an interesting one indeed. Forty years ago, the Conservative movement’s commission on law and standards adopted a new regulation admitting women into the traditional minyan.

"I had to grow a tough little hide as everybody was fair game to be razzed and needled."

Rewind sixty years to 1953. Television was considered kosher by most and featured the likes of Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, George Burns, Red Buttons, Perry Como, Arthur Godfrey, Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger, Dinah Shore, Red Skelton, Danny Thomas, Jack Webb as Joe Friday on “Dragnet” and many others who provided great memories.