A monkey can’t blow the shofar, read the Torah or circumcise a baby boy — and, by God, we hope no one ever puts that to the test.
But a monkey sure can serve as a good luck charm for a baseball team, and is evidently luckier than even the most enthusiastic rabbi.
More than 38,000 fans laughed good and hard when Rabbi Yosef Langer of Chabad of S.F. was anointed the San Francisco Giants’ “Rally Rabbi” on the stadium’s big screen when the team desperately needed a clutch hit — a play on the Los Angeles Angels’ “Rally Monkey” shtick.
Unfortunately, not even the ultra-energetic Langer and his trusty shofar could put the Giants over the top, as the home side fell to the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday, Aug. 24, Jewish Heritage Night.
For the 1,700 Jewish fans who bought the special event tickets (claiming a hat and a seat among Jewish peers in the left field upper deck), even a 6-3 San Francisco loss eerily resembling all too many other Giants losses this season wasn’t enough to dampen the mood.
“My parents are Israeli so I don’t understand the game. But I like Jews. Lots of Jews. Teeming sums of Jews,” said San Jose’s Tomer Altman, who writes the “Oy-Bay” Jewish Web log.
Altman made sure to wear a Greek fisherman’s cap not unlike one a Tevye impersonator would don (and clips of the cinematic version of “Fiddler on the Roof” playing between innings made Altman’s point for him) and a Yo Semite T-shirt. In fact, the black-and-orange souvenir Giants caps with “Go Giants!” emblazoned in Hebrew on the bill were even bigger giveaways of a wearer’s Jewishness than long skirts with sneakers or Magen David necklaces.
The 1,700 tickets sold topped last year’s Jewish night total by 500, which was music to the ears of Craig Solomon, the Giants’ season ticket manager, and Frank Winston, commissioner of the Northern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, a co-sponsor of the evening. The ticket sales topped all the other Giants “ethnic nights” save for Irish Heritage Night.
Just as more Jews showed up than last year, the team was obviously more prepared. The aforementioned clips of “Fiddler” played between innings, and Giants successes were celebrated with images of Woody Allen, Jackie Mason and Mike Myers’ Linda Richman character (“Talk amongst yourselves”) on the big board. Attentive listeners heard the music of Jewish performers ranging from Neil Diamond to Sammy Davis Jr. to the Beastie Boys to Matisyahu.
Rabbi Larry Raphael of San Francisco’s Congregation Sherith Israel short-hopped the ceremonial first pitch, but when Langer blew “Charge!” on the shofar, Ray Durham responded with a double.
A baseball with the stitching cleverly arranged in the pattern of a Star of David was the evening’s official logo, and a late-inning matzah-eating contest gave the crowd something to cheer about on an unseasonably frigid evening (winner Joshua Cohen of Pleasanton deserved a win on the Jewish fashion front as well, showing up in a pink shirt with a pink sweater, pink J. Lo glasses and even a pink kippah. He told j. his winning strategy was to starve himself for five hours prior to the contest).
And on a chilly night in which the Giants gave up six unanswered runs after taking a 3-0 lead, the sight of many Jews provided a little warmth.
“You get a group together and no one really knows each other,” said Steve Herbstman of Novato, who attended the game with his wife and two children. “But we’re bound together by all being Jewish and Giants fans.”