American Jews and America's Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball

Many fans don’t know how far the Jewish presence in baseball extends beyond a few famous players such as Greenberg, Rosen, Koufax, Holtzman, Green, Ausmus, Youkilis, Braun, and Kinsler. In fact, that presence extends to the baseball commissioner Bud Selig; labor leaders Marvin Miller and Don Fehr; owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Stuart Sternberg; officials Theo Epstein and Mark Shapiro; sportswriters Murray Chass, Ross Newhan, Ira Berkow, and Roger Kahn; and even famous Jewish baseball fans like Alan Dershowitz and Barney Frank.

The life stories of these and many others, on and off the field, have been compiled from nearly fifty in-depth interviews and arranged by decade in this edifying and entertaining work of oral and cultural history. In American Jews and America’s Game each person talks about growing up Jewish and dealing with Jewish identity, assimilation, intermarriage, future viability, religious observance, anti-Semitism, and Israel. Their stories tell the history, as never before, of the larger-than-life role of Jews in America’s pastime.