SHOULD A BASEBALL CLUBHOUSE BE A GROUND FOR CHRISTIAN MISSIONARYS?

Should a Clubhouse Be a Chapel? (NYT)
The highlight of Josh Miller’s eight-year minor league umpiring career came last June, when he was the plate umpire in Roger Clemens’s final warm-up start before he resumed his major league career with the Yankees.

The lowlight of Miller’s career — besides being released at the end of last season, that is — was the discomfort he experienced throughout his career over participating in baseball chapel services every Sunday morning.

“From Day 1 it was uncomfortable,” Miller, 31, said. “I was in extended spring training, and on Sunday there was a knock on the door. I thought it was a joke. This guy was coming to preach to us in our little locker room. He had two little handouts that said Baseball Chapel and prayer of the week.”

Baseball Chapel, an evangelical group, has existed for 35 years and supplies Sunday morning chapel leaders to all major and minor league teams. “Our purpose is to glorify Jesus Christ!” its Web site, baseballchapel.org, proclaims.

“They preach to you,” Miller said in a telephone interview. “Some are more overbearing than others. At the end they ask if you have anything ‘you want me to pray for.’ The other guys would say ‘our families, safe travel.’ I’d say nothing. Then they would pray. It was very uncomfortable. They’d say Jesus this and Jesus that. At the end they’d say ‘in Jesus’ name.’ ”

In chapel services for the teams, players have the option of attending or not. Umpires may not realistically have that option.

“The players go to a separate room,” Miller said of the chapel services for the team. “For umpires, they always came to our room. They didn’t want to mix players with umpires even though they often mix the teams.”

The Sunday routine left Jewish umpires, like Miller, in a difficult position. With the umpires’ locker room as a setting for Christian prayer, they could not avoid it.

“Minor league locker rooms are small,” Miller said. “It’s not like I could hide.”

The chapel sessions, Miller added, intruded on pregame routines.

“We’d get there an hour before the game,” he related. “I always stretched and got mentally prepared. You have a guy coming in and preaching to you about something you don’t believe in, it throws you off mentally.”

Leaving the locker room was not an option for various reasons, Miller said.

“You don’t want to be rude to them because it might get back to somebody and it could affect your chances,” he said. Citing one umpire evaluator as an example, he added: “He’s a very religious guy, so I was really uncomfortable leaving. He’d ask, ‘Why are you leaving?’ I’d tell him I’m Jewish, and who knows what that would do. It was something I didn’t want to have to deal with.”...

At times, Miller said, he would advise the chaplain he was Jewish.

“Half the time they’d forget and pray in Jesus’ name and pray to Jesus,” he recalled. “One time this guy found out I was Jewish, and he started talking about nonbelievers and looking at me.”

JEWISH BASEBALL PLAYERS HONORED

Jewish rookie makes baseball history (JTA)
Ryan Braun became baseball's first Jewish Rookie of the Year. Braun, the slugging third baseman for the Milwaukee Brewers, picked up the award Monday in the National League. In the voting by the Baseball Writers of America, Braun edged Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, 128-126.

Called up from the minor leagues in May, Braun batted .324 with 34 home runs and 97 runs batted in while leading the league with a slugging percentage of .634.

Braun, who turns 24 on Saturday, is the son of an Israeli father and a Christian mother. Although he wasn't raised Jewish, the California native spoke this spring of the pride he takes in his Jewish heritage.

Last week, another Jewish player earned distinction when first baseman Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox was selected by his peers as a Gold Glove winner for his defensive excellence. Youkilis did not make an error this season.

AGAIN!!

BETTER THAN PLAYING GOLF WITH DEREK JETER

IS BASEBALL PUSHING JESUS?

Is the Nation’s Favorite Pastime Pitching Jesus? (Moment Magazine)
For 35 years an evangelical group has run baseball’s official chapel program. Does this brand of Christianity belong in baseball’s locker rooms?

18 BEST JEWISH BASEBALL PLAYERS EVER

The 18 best Jewish ballplayers of all time (Salon)
With bashin' boychiks knocking the seam off the ball this year, Salon highlights the greatest Hebrew hammers and fireballers to step onto the diamond.

WILL JEWISH PLAYER WIN MLB ROY AWARD, SIT ON YOM KIPPUR?

Suspense builds around Brewers' Braun (JTA)
Power-hitting Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers is supplying a double dose of suspense: Will the third baseman become the first Jewish player to be named Rookie of the Year, and will he take off for Yom Kippur? Full Story

THE MILWAUKEE BREWERS' JEWISH 3RD BASEMAN

More Than Hitting Prowess Connects Rookie to Hall of Famer (NYT)
ST. LOUIS, July 29 — Ryan Braun grew up spending holidays at his maternal grandfather’s home in Van Nuys, Calif. And as Braun got older, and learned more about the historical significance of the house’s former owner, the special occasions grew more special.

For almost 40 years, his grandfather Bob Robinson has lived in a house that once belonged to Hank Greenberg, a Hall of Fame slugger and one of the game’s best Jewish players. Braun, the sensational Milwaukee Brewers rookie third baseman, is half-Jewish; his father, Joe, was born in Tel Aviv and emigrated to the United States at age 7.

Given his heritage, Braun revels in the connection to Greenberg, a two-time American League most valuable player and a hero to the pre- and post-World War II generation. Greenberg hit 331 home runs, mostly with Detroit.

JEWS IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL MOVE AROUND

The boys of summer and seder: Baseball, Passover share openers (JTA)
BOSTON (JTA) — This certainly won't be the first time that opening day of baseball season coincides with the first Passover seder, but the confluence seems particularly appropriate this year. Why is this spring training different from all other spring trainings?

It turns out that this winter saw the greatest exodus of Jewish Major Leaguers, or JMLs, in the history of the sport. Six of last year’s record-tying 13 JMLs will begin the 2007 season with new franchises, and three are among the top 10 Jewish players in career rankings.

After fading as a starter for St. Louis in the second half of last season -- and being left off the post-season roster that eventually took the Cardinals to a World Series championship -- Jason Marquis took advantage of his free agent status to sign a three-year, $21 million contract with the Chicago Cubs. If Marquis wins as few as four games this year, it will send him past Barry Latman into seventh place on the all-time victory list for Jewish pitchers, with 60. If Marquis has three decent years as a starter with the Cubs, he could become just the fifth Jewish pitcher with 100 victories – and he’d still be only 32 years old. The other four 100-game winners, in descending order of victories, are Ken Holtzman, Sandy Koufax, Steve Stone and Dave Roberts.

Mike Lieberthal, a catcher who had spent his 13-year career with the Philadelphia Phillies, signed a one-year, $1.15 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers to back up Russell Martin. Lieberthal’s first hit and first homer, in 1994, both came in Los Angeles. Apparently in the twilight of his career, Lieberthal is in fifth place among Jewish home-run hitters with 150, and seventh in runs batted in with 609 and hits with 1,137.

Scott Schoeneweis struggled in the Toronto bullpen during the first half of 2006 and was traded to Cincinnati, where he went 2-0 with a 0.63 ERA and three saves in 16 appearances. The second-half success for the Reds apparently helped the lefty earn a three-year, $10.8 million contract with the New York Mets, the fifth franchise of his career. Schoeneweis is particularly effective against left-handed hitters, whom he has held to a .231 average over his eight-year career. He has 466 career strikeouts, 10th overall in the history of Jewish players. If he makes 41 relief appearances this year, Schoeneweis will pass Larry Sherry and Allan Levine to move into third place on the all-time appearance list for Jewish relievers.

Late-season callup Jason Hirsch was traded from the Houston Astros, where he went 3-4 with a 6.04 earned run average, to the Colorado Rockies. The right-hander was the Texas League Pitcher of the Year in 2005 and the MLB.com Triple-A Starting Pitcher of the Year last season. In pitching to catcher Brad Ausmus last year, Hirsch was part of the first Jewish battery since the days of Koufax and the Sherry brothers.

The Boston Red Sox will open with at least two fewer JMLs than their 2006 complement of four. Outfielder Adam Stern was the "player to be named later" in the deal with Baltimore for catcher Javy Lopez, and outfielder Gabe Kapler retired to begin a managing career at the helm of the Sox’s Single-A Greenville franchise in the South Atlantic League.

If Kapler works his way back to the major leagues as a coach and manager, he would be the first former JML to manage in the bigs since Andy Cohen stepped in as Phillies skipper – for one game in 1960.

The seven JMLs who return to their 2006 teams are Mets outfielder Shawn Green; Ausmus, a Golden Glove catcher for the Astros; first baseman Kevin Youkilis and lefty pitcher Craig Breslow of the Red Sox; second baseman Ian Kinsler and right-hander Scott Feldman of the Texas Rangers; and lefty reliever John Grabow of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

NEW ISRAELI BASEBALL LEAGUE

Israeli baseball gets star boost, Former Major League pros come to Israel to kick-start local baseball league (YNet)
Three former American Jewish Major League baseball stars will arrive in Israel to manage teams in the newly created Israeli Baseball League, the former US ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer, announced. Ron Blomberg, Ken Holtzman and Art Shamsky, will manage three of the six teams in the league, which will begin play on June 24.

"A 45-game schedule will culminate in a championship, as Israelis are introduced to the professional game for the first time," a written press statement added.

"None of the three have had managing experience before, but readily embraced the offer to be part of history, to help bring a wonderful pastime to the Israeli people, and to embrace their own heritage with this opportunity," the statement said.

Holtzman pitched for teams such as the Cubs, Athletics, Orioles, and the Yankees, winning 174 games (US Jewish baseball legend Sandy Koufax won 165 games).

Shamsky, 65, played for the Reds, the Mets, the Athletics and the Cubs over eight seasons, "and once hit four consecutive home runs for the Reds," the statement said. He is also authored a book on New York sports teams.

Ron Blomberg "was the nation's number one draft pick in 1967 and spent eight seasons in the majors with the Yankees and White Sox," the statement added. He is the author of an autobiography, "Designated Hebrew."

The Israel Baseball league will be composed of "international players of all races, religions and nationalities, with 20 players per team. Many of the players have been selected from tryout camps run by Dan Duquette, the former general manager of the Montreal Expos and Boston Red Sox," the statement said, adding that "the teams will be announced later this month."

SEE ALSO: Can baseball make it in Israel? (YNet)