mag
Heeb Issue #5 : FeaturesWhere Have You Gone, Sandy Koufax
(excerpted from original article)
Four decades after Los Angeles Dodger Sandy Koufax refused to pitch on Yom Kippur during the World Series and ignited Jewish pride, the Jewish-athlete-obsession business is red hot. But times have changed since 1965. Now every Jew who lifts a dumbbell at a Muscle Beach competition or warms a bench as a third-string professional is heralded by sports fans as a mini-Koufax.
There are 18 Jewish Sports Halls of Fame in the United States, dozens of websites on Jewish athletes, a bear market in Jewish sports memorabilia ($535 for a baseball signed by 1940s Detroit Slugger Hank Greenberg), a newly issued set of Jewish Major Leaguers baseball cards covering the years 1870 to 2003 and a new Judaica Sports Collectibles Library from New York City-based S.p.i. Books, which includes the forthcoming title The Big Book of Jewish Athletes: Biographies & Anecdotes of Great Jews in Sports.
This is serious business to many people. Few things raise the ire of brissed-out ball fans more than jokes like the one in the 1980 movie Airplane:
“May I offer you anything to read, ma’am?”
“Do you have anything light?”
“How about this leaflet, Famous Jewish Sports Legends?”
Four decades after Los Angeles Dodger Sandy Koufax refused to pitch on Yom Kippur during the World Series and ignited Jewish pride, the Jewish-athlete-obsession business is red hot. But times have changed since 1965. Now every Jew who lifts a dumbbell at a Muscle Beach competition or warms a bench as a third-string professional is heralded by sports fans as a mini-Koufax.
There are 18 Jewish Sports Halls of Fame in the United States, dozens of websites on Jewish athletes, a bear market in Jewish sports memorabilia ($535 for a baseball signed by 1940s Detroit Slugger Hank Greenberg), a newly issued set of Jewish Major Leaguers baseball cards covering the years 1870 to 2003 and a new Judaica Sports Collectibles Library from New York City-based S.p.i. Books, which includes the forthcoming title The Big Book of Jewish Athletes: Biographies & Anecdotes of Great Jews in Sports.
This is serious business to many people. Few things raise the ire of brissed-out ball fans more than jokes like the one in the 1980 movie Airplane:
“May I offer you anything to read, ma’am?”
“Do you have anything light?”
“How about this leaflet, Famous Jewish Sports Legends?”
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