Baseball Insider

Like the fans, she adored him. By the time his career as a player, coach, and manager ended, Yogi had collected

Detroit is in mourning. The most popular sports figure around these parts will no longer be wearing a Detroit Tigers uniform.

All of the players respected him. There wasn't a finer player or finer man.

As we clean for Pesach, several players will be cleaning out their lockers after being released by teams paring down their rosters for Opening Day.

Those of us who grew up when television was considered kosher in its black and white days remember "The Stratton Story," a 1949 movie that aired often on TV in the '50s starring Jimmy Stewart as Chicago White Sox pitcher Monty Stratton, who lost a leg in an off-season hunting accident in 1938 near his Greenville, Texas home.

The year was1948 and a great baseball season was unfolding.

At the time the first player with the last name Cohen was playing in the major leagues. Pitching under the name Harry Kane, he made his big league debut a year earlier in 1902 with the St. Louis Browns of the American League.

As of early December, some 72 former major leaguers had died in 2012. The number is much higher than any of us would have guessed.

It was the 20th yahrzeit of Andy Cohen (no relation) recently, and he was remembered by some of the fans in my favorite shul.

The Cubs have the most players I'll be watching.

Wilson had no problem finding whiskey during Prohibition and drank most of his money until his wallet was dry.

For the first time, Israel will participate in the qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic. That's the good news. The bad news concerns the dates they'll be playing in Florida. Earlier in the year it was thought the early rounds would start in other countries before moving to Florida in November. Assuming Israel would still be in the WBC games, the Florida site would be Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter.

I was lucky enough to have met and interviewed many Hall of Famers including Joe DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg, Ted Williams and Stan Musial. I also had the chance to meet and gab with many of the stars from the old Negro Leagues who went on to play in the major leagues after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier – Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Larry Doby, Monte Irvin and Satchel Paige. But I never had the chance to meet Jackie Robinson.

It was a sad day for me when I learned of the firing of Chaim Bloom, who had the title of the Chief Baseball Officer of the Boston Red Sox.

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

A chance phone call to a sports call-in radio program would change the course of my life. But it wasn't by chance. It was orchestrated by Hashem.

It was Hank Greenberg's 25th yahrzeit recently and I said Kaddish for baseball's biggest Jewish superstar.

It's hard enough to be a good player in the major leagues, But Robinson had to listen to racial taunts from other teams and fans in the stands when the Dodgers played on the road.

Last month I predicted the Yankees, Indians and Angels would top their divisions in the American League, while the Mets, Cubs and Diamondbacks would do the same in the National League.

I was surprised the Nats won Game 6 and was rooting for Houston to pull out a win in the final game before the home crowd.

It's been all over the news. You had to be in solitary confinement not to hear about umpire Jim Joyce's blown call at first base that should have ended the perfect game by Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga against the Cleveland Indians in Detroit.

The 1947 baseball season was Jackie Robinson's first and Hank Greenberg's last. It also marked the debut of another Jewish slugger, Al Rosen.

Craig Breslow and Jason Marquis will be wearing different uniforms this season. The two pitchers also share a unique trait among those labeled “Jewish players” by the media: Breslow and Marquis both have two Jewish parents.

The host never mentioned that when Aaron would pass Ruth's mark, he would have many more at-bats than Ruth had. I decided to call in and state the facts.

The tall, handsome, charismatic ballplayer topped several polls during his playing days as the most heroic figure among Jews in America.

The fan who caught the ball that Judge hit for his 62nd home run of the 2022 season on October 4, while watching the game between the Yankees and Texas Rangers in suburban Dallas, sold it through an auction house for $1.5 million.

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.

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

While I never attended a religious service in a non-orthodox house of worship, I spoke in every synagogue and Temple in the Detroit area. Some more than once. I also did some radio and television there, besides writing for some local publications, too. I was born in Detroit; it was my home my whole life.

A local Orthodox attendance record was set at Detroit's Comerica Park on Sunday Chol Hamoed Pesach as an estimated 500 frum fans were in the stands. They saw a good game as the Tigers downed the White Sox 3-0 on a beautiful sunny day. Seven families from my shul returned with suntans and they reported many shuls were represented in all sections of the downtown ballpark, about a 20-minute ride from my dugout.