As a Mormon boy, I often saw the baseball season as a version of the Plan of Salvation. Spring training was the pre-existence with its preparation and commitments, the regular season was mortal life and the post season was the afterlife, where champions were crowned.
My point is, baseball is game that all of us filter through our own lives and traditions.
And that's especially true for Jewish people.
Now, with the baseball playoffs upon us and the Jewish High Holy Days about to begin, today seems a good day to talk about a recent DVD, "Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story."
I found the documentary to be an eye-opener.
The film claims that after the big Jewish immigration in the 1880s, the game of baseball became a way for the new immigrants to show they had embraced America to the core. Besides, the game spoke to them. It was a game of disappointments, but also one filled with hope.
The Jews would say, "Next year in Jerusalem."
Baseball fans would say, "Wait'll next year."
Baseball became a value that Jewish families passed down the line along with stories and rituals. Baseball was a game of statistics, a game of strategy, hustle and overcoming enormous obstacles.
The Jews felt the game in their bones.
The first great baseball hero for the Jews was Hank Greenberg, the Detroit slugger. Scholars even make the claim that Greenberg, for the way he rallied the Jewish community and gave them pride, may have been the most important American Jew of the 20th century.
Other players followed — Al Rosen, Sandy Koufax, Shawn Green, Ian Kinsler. Many of them sat out games rather than play on a Jewish Holy Day. Another Greenberg, Adam, was beaned in his first Major League at bat and never recovered. Still, he kept trying. He keeps trying today. And his comments sum up much of the film.
In the documentary he says, as a Jew, "You never have to be taught to never give up. It's just part of your tribe … everyone keeps striving for excellence."
My own LDS ancestors — not to mention current family and friends — will hear a familiar note in those remarks.
Hope, hustle and never-say-die optimism.
They are the calling cards of athletics.
They are also the calling cards of Judaism — and many other religions that make "striving for excellence" a way of life.
EMAIL: jerjohn@desnews.com