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Ed,
He once refused to pitch a WS game, because it was on a Saturday, his Sabbath.
Actually, it was because it was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. Not because it was Sabbath. I think you knew that but were maybe typing too fast.
Ever hear of THAT before?
Yes, Hank Greenberg. Still very admirable...sort of...except that Koufax wasn't really observant. He didn't go to services that day, like he should have (see below), didn't marry a Jewish girl, never practiced the religion..... I guess it's STILL admirable that he didn't pitch...but....
Hoo-boy, am I going to piss some people off right now.
Put it this way. When my Jewish mother and my Jewish father don't go to work on Yom Kippur and instead attend services that day, it kind of strikes me that neither of them can read Hebrew, never attend services on any other day, don't keep Kosher, don't know jack squat about the teachings of the Torah and sure as heck don't follow most of them.... yet they observe Yom Kippur, because that's the "last call!" day for Jews to get written into the Book of Life by God for the coming year. And they'd like to be in the Book of Life for another year. I'd like them to, too, as I most surely do like them alive. But it all seems a bit, may I say, self-serving in the eyes of this atheist. It's hard to take such "religious" behavior seriously. Someone who really practices and keeps the faith all the time, that's different, to me, than someone who blows off 99.99% of his Jewish duties but selfishly hops back on board the bandwagon for fear he won't get a life-extension. Seems disingenuous to me.
But whatever. This has nothing to do with pitching. And maybe Sandy had other reasons besides literally believing he was getting a life extension. Maybe he thought he was standing up for .... something (that he didn't really believe in, but whatever...... I do believe in freedom of religion, so fine, let him do what he wants and observe what he selectively chooses to observe.)
I haven't, and I'll bet there were other Jews who pitched in WS and would not have dreamed of refusing to pitch. Sandy was a wonderful, unique kind of person, and his heart was worth a pitch or two. At least that's how I like to remember him. He was my hero.
Sandy was also seen eating ham (which isn't kosher) in the hotel room while "observing" Yom Kippur.
I'm sorry to put this so bluntly, but.....his heart isn't worth anything to me. How do I quantify his heart, how do I weigh it against Pedro's heart? Pedro does nice things too. Pedro built a church in his hometown with the first check he received for playing baseball. Because he promised God that if God got him into baseball, he'd use the money to spread God's word. Now Pedro's building another church. Actually, I think it's his third church he's building now. Pedro's entitled to his religious practices same as Sandy's entitled to his own (mighty selective) religious practices. Neither mean very much to me, but if it makes them happy, I say, then let' em be happy. But I'm not factoring them into any pitching evaluation.
Ed's 2 commandments: 1) Keep thy religion to thyself. 2)Play Ball!
(Bill - OK. I'm on unknown territory here. I'm not Jewish, but for some reason, a lot of my friends are. Strangely. Don't know how to account for it.
It seems to me, that Judaism, like Christianity/Islam has fragmented into many small group fragments. And like political parties, run the gamut from leftist, liberal reform denominations to rightist conservative ones. Difference seems to be, how either liberally/strictly does one interpret their scriptures.
All my pals are Jewish in blood only. Don't practice the religious part since childhood, when they were made to.
Is it possible that Sandy Koufax, who was such a private man, who guarded his privacy jealously, was a very liberal, Reform Jew, who felt little need of a group support system.
OK. He didn't eat Kosher, or marry a Jewish woman or attend services, but what if he felt some nebulous, vague belief, implanted as a child that the Jewish religion was the one true religion, and he didn't want to insult his culture publicly. So he abstained on Yom Kipper from pitching. I doubt if it was 100% PR. I think something in him responded to a belief that it would have been very wrong of him to flat-out flaunt that injunction. So, to that extent, I give him some credit.
I read he got HUGE props in Brooklyn for not pitching. Frankly, I had forgotten about Yom Kipper. It was a long time ago, but I guess something like that is hard to forget if you're Jewish. I'm not an atheist, I'm a member of ECKANKAR. But most of my Libertarian pals are atheist. Probably due to a bandwagon effect due to Ann Ryand, the who who wrote "Atlas Shrugged". Didn't read it.
Bill Burgess
He once refused to pitch a WS game, because it was on a Saturday, his Sabbath.
Actually, it was because it was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. Not because it was Sabbath. I think you knew that but were maybe typing too fast.
Ever hear of THAT before?
Yes, Hank Greenberg. Still very admirable...sort of...except that Koufax wasn't really observant. He didn't go to services that day, like he should have (see below), didn't marry a Jewish girl, never practiced the religion..... I guess it's STILL admirable that he didn't pitch...but....
Hoo-boy, am I going to piss some people off right now.
Put it this way. When my Jewish mother and my Jewish father don't go to work on Yom Kippur and instead attend services that day, it kind of strikes me that neither of them can read Hebrew, never attend services on any other day, don't keep Kosher, don't know jack squat about the teachings of the Torah and sure as heck don't follow most of them.... yet they observe Yom Kippur, because that's the "last call!" day for Jews to get written into the Book of Life by God for the coming year. And they'd like to be in the Book of Life for another year. I'd like them to, too, as I most surely do like them alive. But it all seems a bit, may I say, self-serving in the eyes of this atheist. It's hard to take such "religious" behavior seriously. Someone who really practices and keeps the faith all the time, that's different, to me, than someone who blows off 99.99% of his Jewish duties but selfishly hops back on board the bandwagon for fear he won't get a life-extension. Seems disingenuous to me.
But whatever. This has nothing to do with pitching. And maybe Sandy had other reasons besides literally believing he was getting a life extension. Maybe he thought he was standing up for .... something (that he didn't really believe in, but whatever...... I do believe in freedom of religion, so fine, let him do what he wants and observe what he selectively chooses to observe.)
I haven't, and I'll bet there were other Jews who pitched in WS and would not have dreamed of refusing to pitch. Sandy was a wonderful, unique kind of person, and his heart was worth a pitch or two. At least that's how I like to remember him. He was my hero.
Sandy was also seen eating ham (which isn't kosher) in the hotel room while "observing" Yom Kippur.
I'm sorry to put this so bluntly, but.....his heart isn't worth anything to me. How do I quantify his heart, how do I weigh it against Pedro's heart? Pedro does nice things too. Pedro built a church in his hometown with the first check he received for playing baseball. Because he promised God that if God got him into baseball, he'd use the money to spread God's word. Now Pedro's building another church. Actually, I think it's his third church he's building now. Pedro's entitled to his religious practices same as Sandy's entitled to his own (mighty selective) religious practices. Neither mean very much to me, but if it makes them happy, I say, then let' em be happy. But I'm not factoring them into any pitching evaluation.
Ed's 2 commandments: 1) Keep thy religion to thyself. 2)Play Ball!
(Bill - OK. I'm on unknown territory here. I'm not Jewish, but for some reason, a lot of my friends are. Strangely. Don't know how to account for it.
It seems to me, that Judaism, like Christianity/Islam has fragmented into many small group fragments. And like political parties, run the gamut from leftist, liberal reform denominations to rightist conservative ones. Difference seems to be, how either liberally/strictly does one interpret their scriptures.
All my pals are Jewish in blood only. Don't practice the religious part since childhood, when they were made to.
Is it possible that Sandy Koufax, who was such a private man, who guarded his privacy jealously, was a very liberal, Reform Jew, who felt little need of a group support system.
OK. He didn't eat Kosher, or marry a Jewish woman or attend services, but what if he felt some nebulous, vague belief, implanted as a child that the Jewish religion was the one true religion, and he didn't want to insult his culture publicly. So he abstained on Yom Kipper from pitching. I doubt if it was 100% PR. I think something in him responded to a belief that it would have been very wrong of him to flat-out flaunt that injunction. So, to that extent, I give him some credit.
I read he got HUGE props in Brooklyn for not pitching. Frankly, I had forgotten about Yom Kipper. It was a long time ago, but I guess something like that is hard to forget if you're Jewish. I'm not an atheist, I'm a member of ECKANKAR. But most of my Libertarian pals are atheist. Probably due to a bandwagon effect due to Ann Ryand, the who who wrote "Atlas Shrugged". Didn't read it.
Bill Burgess
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