Let’s talk some sports.
If you’ve been following my columns for almost 20 years in The Jewish Press, you know that baseball is my favorite sport. Here’s how I rate the other sports: Football, then ice hockey, and finally basketball dribbles to fourth.
I root for all of the Detroit teams and Detroit has been energized by the recent success of the Tigers baseball team and the football Lions. But now basketball has become my third favorite and the Brooklyn Nets have replaced the Detroit Pistons as my favorite hoopsters. That’s because the Nets will have two guys with Israeli citizenship. They’re the tallest Jews many have ever seen.
Ben Saraf is only 6’6″ and only 19 years old. Maybe he’s still growing but the Brooklyn Nets think he’s ready to play with the big boys after playing pro ball in Germany and Israel. Born to Israeli parents in Johannesburg, South Africa, his father worked in the diamond industry and the family returned to Israel when Ben was three. His parents played pro basketball in Israel before they were married.
Danny Wolf is 21 years old and seven feet tall. Born to tall parents (father, 6’8″), (mother, 5’10″) in a Chicago suburb, he attended a conservative Jewish day school through the fourth grade and had his bar mitzvah at the Kotel in Jerusalem. The family keeps kosher and Danny still checks items for the right kosher symbols. Danny is used to the limelight as he played for the University of Michigan college team in the March Madness playoffs.
Kevin Pillar was one of the most exciting major league baseball players to watch at his center field position. He made many catches that made highlights on sports broadcasts around the country. My favorite was when he somehow ran up a straight wall, turned around and made the catch. Broadcasters tagged him with the nickname “Superman.”
Pillar, who played for 10 teams in a 12-year big league career, was released by the Texas Rangers recently. After mulling the situation over, he decided not to pursue trying to continue playing and to retire at the age of 36. Kevin will be 37 early next year and wants to stay in “baseball shape” and hopes to earn a spot on the Team Israel roster and be ready to play next March. Pillar, who was raised by a Jewish mother and a Catholic father, is looking forward to visiting Israel in the future.
Kevin had a bar mitzvah out of respect to his grandparents who kept the faith and the former player established the Pillar-Lambert scholarship in accounting at Tel Aviv University in memory of his grandfather. I think we’ll hear more from Pillar in the near future as a commentator on one of the major networks.
He had an interesting comment after his release from the Texas Rangers. “Twenty-five players. twenty-five cabs,” he reflected about his former teammates. A great comment on the togetherness of the team and their lackluster play this season. If you want to see a team that plays together and roots for each other and makes things happen together on the field, take a look at the Detroit Tigers.
And take a look at the standings in the paper and check the record of the Tigers against the 29 other major league teams.
