By Ron Kaplan, contributor Let the games begin! Richard Bleier picked up the win for the Baltimore Orioles, who beat the visiting Minnesota Twins, 3-2, in 11 innings thanks to a walk-off home run by cleanup hitter Adam Jones. Bleier gave up one hit in his single inning of work. Danny Valencia appeared as a pinch…
By Ron Kaplan, contributor Welcome back, faithful readers. The baseball season is upon us. Not only is this the earliest Opening Day in history, it’s the first time all 30 teams have debuted on the same day. So without further ado… The JML (Jewish major leaguer) roster to start the 2018 season includes: Richard Bleier,…
By Scott Barancik, Editor Major League Baseball’s 2018 Spring Training ended yesterday. So how did the 19 Jews who were invited to play perform? Here are the batting highlights: A total of 12 Jewish position players collectively hit .272 with 12 HRS and 53 RBIs in 372 at-bats. Alex Bregman’s 12 walks tied for #5 among all MLB players. His…
By Scott Barancik, Editor Braden Bishop, Jewish Baseball News’ 2017 Minor-League MVP, is a player to watch. Selected by the Seattle Mariners in the 3rd round of the 2015 amateur draft, the California native hit .320 in his first season of professional ball. He has continued to impress. In 2017, Bishop was named MVP of…
[updated 3/18/2018] By Scott Barancik, Editor At least 19 Jewish players have been invited to MLB Spring Training camp this year via their club’s active roster, 40-man roster, or as a non-roster invitee. Twelve players with Major League experience are on the list, including 2017 World Series standouts Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros and Joc Pederson of the…
By Scott Barancik, Editor Cory Jones, a 6-foot-5-inch pitcher with the Baltimore Orioles franchise, is the latest athlete to join the ranks of known Jewish ballplayers. The 26-year-old California native was plucked out of junior college by the St. Louis Cardinals in Round 5 of the 2012 amateur draft and given a $220,000 signing bonus….
2017 archives Games played August 28 — September 3, 2017 Games played August 21-27, 2017 Games played August 14-20, 2017 Games played August 7-13, 2017 Games played July 31-August 6, 2017 Games played July 24-30, 2017 Games played July 17-23, 2017 Games played July 10-16, 2017 Games played July 3-9, 2017 Games played June 26-July 2, 2017 Games played June 19-25, 2017 Games played June…
By Scott Barancik, Editor Sometimes, a player slips through the cracks. And it can take quite a while for us to find them. Thanks to our friends at Jewish Sports Review, we now know about another athlete selected in the 2016 MLB draft: Scott Manea, a 40th-round pick of the New York Mets. (Yes, I…
By Scott Barancik, Editor With 1,215 amateur players chosen in the 2017 MLB draft, it was perhaps inevitable that we’d miss a few. Mea culpa, Tyler Benson. A 21-year-old from New Jersey, Benson hit .377 his junior year at Bloomsburg University, adding 8 HRs, 41 RBIs, 15 stolen bases, and a sweet .505 on-base percentage….
By Scott Barancik, Editor Joc Pederson hit a solo home run last night to help the Los Angeles Dodgers earn a 3-1 win over the Houston Astros in Game 6 of the 2017 World Series and force a decisive seventh game. His post-homer celebration was jubilant: The homer, his third of the Series, set a…
By Scott Barancik, Editor Game 4 of the the 2017 World Series produced yet another record, says The Jewish Baseball Card Book author Bob Wechsler. In his team’s 6-2 win yesterday, Los Angeles Dodgers DH Joc Pederson hit a 3-run home run in the top of the 9th to pad a one-run lead. The 410-foot drive to right…
[Updated and corrected 10/26/2017 @ 11:15 am] By Scott Barancik, Editor The 2017 World Series is only two games old, but according to stats gathered by The Jewish Baseball Card Book author Bob Wechsler, it’s already making history. [Revised and corrected] For the first time since the 2011 World Series, when Ian Kinsler and Scott Feldman played…
By Scott Barancik, Editor If the 2017 minor-league season were a wine, it would be a good year. Three pitchers — Ryan Sherriff of the St. Louis Cardinals, Brad Goldberg of the Chicago White Sox, and Max Fried of the Atlanta Braves — made their Major League debuts. A number of minor-league players — marked…
By Scott Barancik, Editor Did your parents throw out the box of baseball cards you left in the attic or basement — including the ones of your favorite Jewish ballplayers? Have no fear. With help from two nonprofit groups, author Bob Wechsler has just published the The Jewish Baseball Card Book, a hardcover history of original cards issued…
By Ron Kaplan, contributor (Note: This entry covers just the last weekend of the 2017 regular season.) Well, this was a letdown. Only three JMLs participated in their teams’ final games on Sunday: Max Fried, Joc Pederson and Alex Bregman. Fried started the game for the Atlanta Braves. He pitched — mixed. On the one hand, he struck out…
By Ron Kaplan, contributor Alex Bregman had just one of the 17 hits by the Houston Astros (99-60), but it went for his 18th home run in a 12-2 pasting of the host Boston Red Sox, a possible opponent in the post-season. The shot over the Green Monster was good for two runs in the second inning. Bregman…
By Ron Kaplan, contributor Alex Bregman singled, doubled (#38), and drove in a run as the Houston Astros (98-60) once again roughed up their intrastate rivals, the Texas Rangers, this time by a score of 12-2. Richard Bleier gave up a hit in one scoreless inning of relief as the Baltimore Orioles (75-84) lost to the host…
By Ron Kaplan, contributor A Danny Valencia sighting! He got the start in right field and was 1-for-2 with his 15th home run, a a three-run blast to center in the seventh that helped the Seattle Mariners (77-81) beat the host Oakland As, 6-3. It was Valencia’s first home run in almost a month (8/28), but that’s…
By Ron Kaplan, contributor Max Fried made his third start and didn’t do badly. He gave up one earned run (two total) on seven hits in 5.1 innings, striking out two and walking one while taking the first loss of his Major League career as the Atlanta Braves (71-85) fell to the host NY Mets, 3-2,…
By Ron Kaplan, contributor Can it really be that we’re down to the last week of the regular season? Where did the time go? Ian Kinsler picked a bad time to get hot. Over the weekend, the second baseman was 4-for-13 with a double (#35), two home runs (#22), four RBIs and three runs scored. But the Detroit Tigers…
