Major league Hebrews
The following list of Jewish baseball players was prepared with the help of Jewish Sports Review newsletter. All these players have at least one Jewish parent, were raised Jewish or without religion, and do not practice a faith other than Judaism as an adult.
As of opening day, a “minyan” of Jewish players were on major league rosters: Brad Ausmus (catcher), Los Angeles Dodgers; Ryan Braun (outfielder), Milwaukee; Craig Breslow (pitcher) Minnesota; Burlingame native Scott Feldman (pitcher), Texas; John Grabow (pitcher), Pittsburgh; Gabe Kapler (outfielder), Tampa Bay; Ian Kinsler (second baseman), Texas; Jason Marquis (pitcher), Colorado; Scott Schoeneweis (pitcher), Arizona; and Kevin Youkilis (first baseman), Boston.
Three of those players made their league’s all-star team in 2008: Braun, Youkilis and Kinsler.
There are three more players who have spent some time in the majors, but did not make the cut for their respective major league teams coming out of spring training.
They are now playing for a minor league team affiliated with the major league team noted, and there is a good chance that one or more could be called-up to the majors during the season: Jason Hirsh (pitcher), Colorado; Josh Whitesell (first baseman), Arizona; Brian Horwitz (outfielder), San Francisco.
Also, 6-foot-6 left-handed pitcher Aaron Poreda, a Walnut Creek native who had his bar mitzvah at Lafayette’s Temple Isaiah and attended the University of San Francisco, is considered a very hot prospect in the Chicago White Sox system. He was on the major league club’s roster during spring training until March 25, when he was sent down for a bit more seasoning.
TV premieres
“Parks and Recreation,” an NBC sitcom starring Amy Poehler (of “Saturday Night Live”) started last week and airs Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. It’s filmed in mock documentary style. Documentary cameras follow Leslie Knope (Poehler), a ditzy deputy commissioner of the parks department of a small Indiana city, as she tries to beautify her town. Knope has an ally in a local nurse played by Rashida Jones, 33 (the fiancée in “I Love You, Man”).
Jones, by the way, was once engaged to top music producer Mark Ronson, 34. Mark’s sister, DJ Samantha Ronson, was the romantic steady of actress Lindsay Lohan. Last week, the couple broke up amid rumors that Lohan was using drugs again. There was even a story that Ronson’s mother looked into getting a restraining order to keep Lohan away from herself, Mark and Samantha, but Samantha later denied it.
Also starting last week was the ABC police series “The Unusuals” (airing Wednesdays at 10 p.m.). The show features a large cast playing New York City homicide detectives. Adam Goldberg (“Saving Private Ryan,” “The Hebrew Hammer”) plays an emotionally disturbed detective who is trying to get killed in the line of duty (!). Goldberg, 38, plays crazy quite well. He was convincingly “scary crazy” when he played “the roommate from hell” in an early episode of “Friends.”
Starting Sunday, April 19 at 8:30 p.m. on Fox is the new animated series “Sit Down, Shut Up.” Based on an Australian series, the American version is produced by Mitch Hurwitz, who also created “Arrested Development.” It’s a sharp social satire about the dysfunctional staff and faculty of a high school in a small Florida fishing town. The (voice) cast features Henry Winkler, 63, co-starring as the voice of Willard Deutschebog, a “suicidal German teacher.” (I guess Winkler and Adam Goldberg could compare notes on how to play suicidal.)
Columnist Nate Bloom, an Oaklander, can be reached at [email protected].