Sports

I was lucky enough to be on the baseball beat in the 1970s when many of Babe Ruth's former teammates were still alive.

Ralph Kiner turns ninety on the 27th of October. Where have the years gone? Many Jewish Press readers grew up watching Kiner's Korner, the post-game television show featuring yesterday's heroes and the Mets' one-day wonders.

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

Gone are the days of the big games between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox as the BoSox are more in a rebuilding phase and have their best pitcher, Chris Sale, out for the season because of surgery.

Torah Tidbits 6 - Jerry’s Kids 4...Café Rimon 14 – Lakewood Heimishe Bake Shoppe 6...Café Rimon 14 – Lakewood Heimishe Bake Shoppe 6

What an unusual postseason it was. The Yankees looked inept against the ferocious Tigers and the Tigers in turn looked toothless against the San Francisco Giants as they were swept in the World Series.

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

Greenberg threatened to retire rather than play for the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, considered the worst team in the National League with no hope of reaching the World Series in 1947. Entertainer Bing Crosby one of the team of new owners on the Pirates lured Greenberg to Pittsburgh by making him the first player in baseball to earn $100,000.

It's been 10 years since the last game was played at Tiger Stadium. Memories of the storied ballpark have been turned into books and tapes, audio and video (I had a hand in adding to the aforementioned).

For the Jewish community in Ohio, the newest Cleveland Browns lineman is also a landsman. Mitchell Schwartz will arrive in Cleveland on Thursday, May 10...

I have many memories of him talking to Ralph Branca, who also pitched for the Tigers in the mid-fifties.

Yak Pak moved into a tie for first place with two wins and a Lobos loss.

Jewish baseball history was made by the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds on Sunday, September 21, 1941, as the team had four Jews in its starting lineup – the first and thus far only time that’s happened in the major leagues.

The year is passing quickly. The balls and bats, the lulavim and esrogim, the Phillies World Series memorabilia - all have been put away, and it's time to look back on the 2008 baseball season.

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

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.

The next day, I opened the paper to the first page of the sports section where Falls' column appeared several days a week. I was surprised to see my picture below his usual masthead.

Prior to the summer, Jewish tennis had been characterized by the men who performed well on the big stages, including Dudi Sela, Canadian Jesse Levine, Amir Weintraub and doubles stars Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram.

Bob Costas may soon make history by defying the International Olympic Committee and conducting an on-air memorial of his own.

The very first All-Star Game I ever saw was in 1950, a few weeks after our family got its first television. That was the year I started following baseball and collecting baseball cards.

We'll leave the serious stuff - the situation in Israel, the shidduch crisis, and other issues of concern to the Jewish community - to the other qualified Jewish Press columnists.

The 2008 baseball season is finally here. These are my predictions:

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

Jackie Robinson finished his tenth major league season with a .275 average and 10 home runs. He was slowing down and saw action in only 117 of the Dodgers' 154 games.

A campaign by the widows of two Israeli victims of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre have had their petition for a memorial at the 2012 Olympic games rejected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Jake Pitler was a caring Jew who agonized over the plight of his fellow Jews on the other side of the ocean as he continued his baseball career.

Adam Greenberg holds a major league record. He was hit in the head by the very first and only pitch he ever saw - or almost saw - in his big league career.

He was intelligent and a commanding presence, though much softer than his reputation as a player.

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

It was a great game and the Tigers held on to win 7-6. We had a good view of 19-year-old skinny rookie Al Kaline in right field. Kaline singled in four attempts and Harry Agganis and Ted Williams each had three hits. The second game was even more interesting.