JEWISH BASEBALL NEWS — An update from the world of Jewish baseball players:

• Boston Red Sox 1B Kevin Youkilis recently was hit by a pitch for the 63rd time in his career, leading one Beantown reporter to dub him the Prince of Plunk. The bruise leaves him eight behind Red Sox career leader Mo Vaughn (71) and well behind former Houston Astro 2B Craig Biggio, who was hit 285 times during a 20-year career and is the modern-era record holder. Though we may joke about it, getting hit by a pitch is one reason Youkilis ranked 2nd in the AL last year in on-base percentage (.413). He was hit by pitches 16 times in 2009, 4th most in the AL. So far in 2010, Youkilis has been hit five times and has a .433 on-base percentage.
• If New York Mets 1B Ike Davis hadn’t chosen to pursue baseball as a career, he might have made an outstanding pole dancer. In just his first month as a major leaguer, Davis has tumbled into a dugout three times in order to catch a pop foul, all successfully. Here’s a video of his most recent catch, and another last week.
• Here’s the good news about Washington Nationals SP Jason Marquis, who’s on the disabled list with bone chips in his elbow: he pitched 3 and 2/3 innings in a rehab assignment with the Single-A Potomac Nationals last night (5/11/2010) and reportedly left the game feeling healthy. Now the not-so-good news: Marquis performed a lot like he has in the majors this year, giving up six hits and three earned runs to the Winston-Salem Dash and getting credit for the loss. THIS JUST IN: A Washington Post blogger — the same one that earlier called Marquis “healthy” — says Marquis may in fact need surgery:

…after a rehabilitation start on Tuesday, Marquis woke up with pain in his arm and said he and the Nationals were weighing whether he will be forced to undergo an operation…Asked if surgery would be necessary, Marquis said: “It’s definitely a strong possibility…”

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