Sports All the Jewish Major League Baseball players we’ll see in 2022 By Jacob Gurvis, JTA Apr 7, 2022 After two pandemic-altered seasons, a three-month lockout and a truncated free agent frenzy, the 2022 Major League Baseball season has finally arrived. For Jewish fans of America’s Pastime, there…
Talking With ... Reporter heading to Maccabiah in Israel sees sports as ‘uniting force’ By Gabe Fisher Jun 16, 2022 Griffin Epstein, 21, grew up in Petaluma and is now a rising senior at Indiana University, studying media with a sports media concentration. The Petaluma native will head to Israel for the first time…
Sports Giants manager Gabe Kapler is skipping pregame national anthems By Philissa Cramer, JTA May 31, 2022 In the summer of 2020, Gabe Kapler, then in his first season as manager of the San Francisco Giants, joined figures across sports in taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police…
Sports Jewish slugger Joc Pederson returns home to play for Giants By Michael Gutnick Mar 22, 2022 After the San Francisco Giants won their first World Series in 2010, a teenage Joc Pederson traveled with some friends from Palo Alto to attend the victory parade in downtown San Francisco — with…
From the Archives In early 20th century, sports were measure of 'Jewish manhood' By Maya Mirsky Jul 6, 2022 Why don’t more Jews play sports? In 1911, that question was on the mind of Rabbi Martin Meyer, who favored the moral and physical virtues of a nice outdoor game. “While it may be sporadically noted…
Sports Locals on Israeli baseball team looking toward Tokyo Olympics By Gabe Stutman Dec 9, 2019 A construction worker. A substitute teacher. An insurance salesman. In their day jobs, the players on Israel’s national baseball team look like your average 20- or 30-somethings. Some are recent…
Sports Team Israel’s Olympic baseball hopes ends after 9th-inning loss By JTA, Philissa Cramer Aug 3, 2021 Israel’s improbable quest for an Olympic medal in baseball ended Aug. 3 after the team, which features several former Major League ballplayers, fell in a close match to the Dominican Republic. Israel…
Sports Israel advances in Olympic baseball qualifiers, with Santa Rosa native on team By JTA, J. Staff Sep 13, 2019 Israel’s national baseball team advanced to the quarterfinals of the European Baseball Championship being held in Germany, an early Olympic qualifying tournament. Israel finished second in its pool…
Film Israel's baseball underdogs get documentary treatment By Rob Gloster Feb 28, 2019 When filmmaker Jeremy Newberger started shooting footage for his story on Israel’s national baseball team, he envisioned telling a feel-good tale of a scrappy bunch of American athletes discovering…
Sports 2 Bay Area ballplayers to join Team Israel at Tokyo Olympics By Gabe Stutman May 6, 2021 “Are the Olympics still happening?” That’s the question Joey Wagman of Danville — a right-handed pitcher for Team Israel — says he’s been getting ever since the pandemic postponed the 2020 Summer…
Sports Israeli baseball team qualifies for 2020 Olympics with help of two Bay Area boys By JTA, J. Staff Sep 23, 2019 In a first, Israel’s national baseball team has qualified for a spot in the Olympics, with the team set for the 2020 summer games in Tokyo. The squad of mostly Jewish American college players and…
Sports Baseball talker joins Jewish sports hall of fame By Rob Gloster Sep 5, 2018 To Marty Lurie, one of this year’s five inductees to the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California, baseball is a lot like Judaism — in its rules, its veneration of numbers and its values.…
Sports Gabe Kapler wins top baseball manager award after historic season By Jacob Gurvis, JTA Nov 17, 2021 Gabe Kapler, the Jewish manager of the San Francisco Giants, was named the National League Manager of the Year on Tuesday. In his second year at the helm of the Giants, Kapler guided a team with low…
Sports S.F. native raising money to build ‘field of dreams’ in Israel By Andrew Esensten Mar 16, 2020 When Nathan Gadye tried to check five large duffel bags full of baseball bats, gloves and balls onto his flight from SFO to Israel a few months ago, El Al security had some questions for him. First,…
Sports Israel will send largest delegation ever to 2020 Tokyo Olympics By JTA Oct 23, 2019 Israel will send its largest delegation ever for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Team Israel will include about 85 athletes in 18 sports for the quadrennial event in July, NoCamels reported. Israeli…
Sports Olympic baseball puts Israel's US players in touch with Jewish identity By Gabe Friedman, JTA Jul 14, 2021 In May, as the latest violent Israel-Gaza conflict heated up, Ty Kelly did something he could never do in any other professional baseball dugout: He turned to some teammates to learn more about the…
Bay Area Two camps, two assistant directors, one case of brotherly love By Dan Pine Mar 14, 2022 Whenever the assistant directors of URJ Camp Newman and the JCC Maccabi Sports Camp, both Bay Area Jewish summer camps, bump into each other at a professional gathering, one of them might razz the…
Sports 3 Jewish baseball players could make or break the 2021 World Series By Jacob Gurvis, JTA Oct 26, 2021 The World Series is upon us, and there are likely more Jewish players in this year’s edition than there have been in decades. The American League champion Houston Astros, who ousted Chaim…
Sports Second Orthodox baseball player drafted into the MLB in 2 days By Gabe Friedman, JTA Jul 15, 2021 It has now become a doubly historic Major League Baseball draft. The Washington Nationals selected Elie Kligman with their final and 20th round pick on Tuesday, making him the second observant…
Sports Giants manager Gabe Kapler is playing video games to stay sharp for baseball season By Marc Brodsky, JTA Apr 6, 2020 Like the rest of the world, San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler is on hold waiting for his life to resume. But he’s trying to make sure the sitting around prepares him for a Major League…
Sports A record year for Israel at the Olympics? By Gabe Friedman, JTA Jul 20, 2021 Will it be a historic Olympics for Israel? The Associated Press thinks so. On its list of predicted medalists for each event in Tokyo published Monday, the news agency includes seven Israeli…
Sports Orthodox baseball prospect Jacob Steinmetz: ‘Why can’t I be the first?’ By Rob Charry, JTA Jul 21, 2021 If all goes well for Jacob Steinmetz, he could run into a kosher food problem in the near future. Steinmetz, a 17-year-old pitcher from suburban New York with a blazing fastball, made history on last…
Sports Sam Fuld: From Stanford, Israel and the A's to the Phillies front office By Rob Charry, JTA Mar 10, 2021 Sam Fuld, the new general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, says he’s just getting acquainted with one of his predecessors in the job, Ruben Amaro Jr., now a broadcaster for the club. Their paths…
Sports Giants ink Gabe Kapler deal through 2024 By Gabe Stutman Nov 15, 2021 Singing the praises of their 46-year-old Jewish manager, the San Francisco Giants announced last week they had extended Gabe Kapler’s contract by two years after an impressive 2021 season, his second…
Sports Baseball’s all-star all-Jewish lineup of all time By Peter Dreier, Forward Mar 31, 2021 As Major League Baseball opens, here’s a question for a certain type of avid sports fan: Who would play on the ultimate all-star Jewish baseball team? The choices are surprisingly vast. Over the past…