Every day this week—Major League Baseball’s opening stretch—we have featured one story on The Scroll about baseball. We began by watching Jewish baseball players striking out, because watching people fail can be fun, and because it also provides for a life lesson. Then we learned about the intersection of Donald Trump and baseball, which, as you can imagine, is a tinge ugly. And yesterday, Tablet columnist Marjorie Ingall washed away the Trump grime by bringing us a list of excellent Jewish baseball books to read to the kids in your life, because youths and baseball are a match made in heaven, by which I mean Fenway Park.
We’ve covered quite a few topic about baseball and baseball-playing Jews over the years here at Tablet, and these articles are well worth a visit. They should get you amply amped for the 162-game season during which I am sure you will find yourself at a ballpark. And if you don’t, make it happen. Go alone. Bring a crossword. Buy a Bud. Lather yourself in SPF-50. Close your eyes and listen to the sounds. Breathe in.
Slugger, a Vox Tablet podcast
The One Where Bill Cosby Helps the New Kid in Town Own His Jewish Identity by Jonathan Zalman
Branca, of Fames Homer, Has Jewish Heritage by Marc Tracy
Lesson From Losers, by Marjorie Ingall
Play Ball by Sara Ivry
How a Jewish Kid From Connecticut Made it to the Major League by Adam Chandler
Why My Home Team Will Always Be Detroit, Even Though I Live in Boston by Steve Calechman
Hammertime: Al Rosen (1924-2015) by Bethlehem Shoals
The Hall of Fame Case for Lip Pike, by Richard Michelson
Jews Who Love the Mets by Hannah Vaitsblit and Jonathan Zalman
Marvin Miller, Baseball’s Union Head, Dies at 95 by Adam Chandler
Baseball’s Foul Past Returns, by Peter Ephross
Jewish Baseball Great Al Rosen Dies at 91 by Stephanie Butnick
Fans Vote Sandy Koufax as One of the Four Greatest Living Players by Jonathan Zalman
Did Sandy Koufax Lay Tefillin During the 1965 World Series? by Aaron R. Katz
Shawn Green, BuJew by Marc Tracy
Is Baseball’s Rod Carew Jewish? by Zachary Schrieber
The Little League Legend Who Lied by Jonathan Zalman
Israel’s National Baseball Squad Takes Shape by Marc Tracy
Who Are the All-Time Jewish Home Run Kings? by Jonathan Zalman
Spiritual Moneyball by Liel Liebowitz
Israel Wins Home Game in Baseball Classic by Adam Chandler
Sam Fuld, Your New Baseball Hero by Marc Tracy
Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.