DISCLAIMER: This thread is not about impugning the athletic abilities of Jews on the whole. It is merely a request for information.
In The Hanukah Song, Adam Sandler professes that Hall-of-Famer Rod Carew(sp?) is Jewish (he converted)?
Who can name some great (or at least, pretty darn good) Jewish athletes? ISTR reading somewhere that Don Drysdale was Jewish. He and Rod Carew are the only ones I’m coming up with.
Who else?
Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg (I think that’s his name…yeah) from the Brooklyn Dodgers and Detroit Tigers were both Jewish.
The only one that leaps immediately to mind is Harold Abrahams, a British sprinter at the 1928 Olympics in Paris - as chronicled in the film ‘Chariots of Fire’. Can’t quite remember, but I think he won Gold.
Johnny Weissmuller - 4 Olympic gold medals.
Heavyweight Max Baer (father of Jethro Bodine)
OK…i got a question…Has there ever been a jewish proffesional hockey player?
Shawn Green of the LA Dodgers is Jewish.
The Cohen Brothers: Andy of the NY Giants and Syd with the Washington Senators.
They’re the reason the El Paso, TX minor-league ballpark is called Cohen Stadium.
According to http://www.jewishsports.com ,
Steve Dubinsky of the Chicago Blackhawk, Jeff Halpern of the Washington Capitals, Matthieu Schneider of the LA Kings, and Ronne Stern of the San Jose Sharks are Jewish.
According to “Airplane” there’s a pamphlet you can get.
Jimmie Reese and (IIRC) Heinie Manus©h.
Prominent Jewish major leaguers not already mentioned:
[ul]
[li]Ron Blomberg, a first round draft pick and the first man to appear in a major league game as a DH.[/li][li]Moe Berg, of whom it was said “he can speak seven languages but can’t hit in any of them”.[/li][li]Al Rosen, AL MVP in 1953.[/li][li]Sid Gordon[/li][li]Ken Holtzman.[/li][li]Mike Epstein[/li][li]Steve Stone[/li][li]Erskine Mayer[/li][li]Larry Sherry[/li][li]Art Shamsky[/li][li]Mike Lieberthal*[/li][li]Gabe Kapler*[/li][li]Scott Radinsky*[/li][li]Scott Schoeneweis*[/li][/ul]
*active
Hey! I read a WHOLE BOOK of 'em–NOT a pamphlet!
They had to stretch with some of them–driver Pete Revson’s father was Jewish but not his mother and he was not raised in the faith. But there was a surprising number.
Much of the original NBA was Jewish–the urban Jewish boys clubs pushed basketball in the '40s.
I was going to say Steve Stone (Cy Young winner), but rackensack beat me to it. The best color man in baseball these days. I think he’s fairly observant.
Ed Reulbach
And, BTW, Rod Carew is NOT Jewish. He was seriously planning to convert, but never finished the process. Neither is Don Drysdale.
Moe Berg may have been a poor hitter, but he was a very successful spy for the U.S. A lot of his observations on his barnstorming visits to Japan in the 1930s helped the army plan for the invasion of Japan in 1945.
Have you tried jewhoo.com?
http://www.jewhoo.com/cgi-bin/f2b/jewhoo/catagory.cgi?sports
If you know of any that are not mentioned there you can email them with the info and they’ll add it.
Benny Leonard, one of the two or three best lightweight boxers who ever laced on a glove.
Thomas Sowell once put it this way: “You know you’re really old if you can remember when all the best basketball players were Jewish.”
There are at least two Jewish NFL Hall of Famers: offensive lineman Ron Mix and quarterback Sid Luckman. I’m pretty sure all-pro offensive lineman Harris Barton is Jewish, too.
Going way back, there was the great sprinter (and later sportscaster) Marty Glickman, who argues (plausibly) that he was dropped from the U.S. Olympic relay team at the 1936 Berlin games because Hitler didn’t want Jews running in his nice, clean Aryan stadium.
Johnny Weissmuller and Steve Stone come as a suprise to me. Especially since I’ve been listening to Stoney call games for as long as I can remember. Too bad he’s calling it quits, its not gonna be the same any more.
I figure its worth mentioning that Bill Goldberg, the WCW wrestler is Jewish. I’m pretty sure about that first name. Yeah, its a borderline sport but I think the guys is one hell of an athlete and definately very famous for it. Side note, he was a hot prospect for the Atlanta Falcons before a knee injury.
I would counter that several of the names mentioned are pretty borderline on the “great (or at least, pretty darn good)” criteria, especially the baseball players. Lieberthal is a quick example. Some are long before my time so I can’t comment there, but I question the standards were comparing here.
Carry on.
As long as we’re allowing professional wrestlers here, Dean Malenko (real name Dean Simon), Raven (Scott Levy), and Diamond Dallas Page (Page Faulkenberg) are also Jewish. I think the only one of them that would really qualify as great would be Malenko, since he’s one of the best technical wrestlers in the world. Depends on what you think of as a great wrestler, though.