Showing posts with label baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baseball. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Fasting Before A Marathon - Hammerman on Ethics (Jewish Week)
Fasting Before A Marathon
Q - My brother and I are running the Chicago Marathon which is the day after Yom Kippur. We want to fast, however we have been told that it is unwise to do so the day before running 26 miles. Since this is an ethical dilemma, we need your advice.
A – Well, at the very least, by observing Yom Kippur you could label yourself a “fast runner.” Sorry.
This conflict has been a source of great consternation for Jewish runners in Chicago, but there is no consensus among doctors as to how dangerous it is to run after having fasted the day before.
So as a rabbi, what I can tell you is that fasting is required except in a situation where it is a matter of life and death. Basically, that means if a person is ill (or about to deliver a child) and fasting would make you sicker, that is an "out." The problem here is that it you're not really ill – only at risk of becoming ill. I would never want to advise you to do something that could potentially harm you.
The idea of fasting on Yom Kippur is really not as much about what goes into your mouth on a particular day as that you focus on what comes out of it the rest of the year. The most important thing is that YK be a meaningful day for you. So even if you decide to curtail your fast, you can still make the most out of the day.
I can’t recommend curtailing it, but I’ve heard of how Gabe Carimi, the stellar offensive lineman from the University of Wisconsin, when facing the dilemma of playing on Yom Kippur, actually adjusted his twenty four hour fast so that it would conclude just before game time. One might say that he fasted as if he were in Israel, where it’s already dark when it’s 1 PM in Madison. Unorthodox to say the least, but commendable. Now that he’s in the NFL, Carimi’s checked the Jewish calendar for the next decade and was relieved to know that a similar conflict is unlikely to occur. Just the fact that he is so concerned puts him in the Sandy Koufax stratosphere. Over the coming days, as Yom Kippur approaches and the baseball playoffs heat up, it is highly likely that Jewish baseball players Kevin Youkilis, Ryan Braun and Ian Kinsler will face the same dilemma.
A piece of good news this year is that because the holidays fall so late, it gets dark earlier, so Yom Kippur will end early enough on Sat. evening for you to hydrate to your heart's content. I’ve heard that the time of the traditional pasta dinner will be extended by Chicago marathon officials that Saturday night.
So what it comes down to is this. As a rabbi, I can’t give you an easy out from fasting. But I also would never want you to put yourself in any danger and certainly would not advise you to do that.
Meanwhile, let the people running the Chicago Marathon know that they picked a bad day!
Q - My brother and I are running the Chicago Marathon which is the day after Yom Kippur. We want to fast, however we have been told that it is unwise to do so the day before running 26 miles. Since this is an ethical dilemma, we need your advice.
A – Well, at the very least, by observing Yom Kippur you could label yourself a “fast runner.” Sorry.
This conflict has been a source of great consternation for Jewish runners in Chicago, but there is no consensus among doctors as to how dangerous it is to run after having fasted the day before.
So as a rabbi, what I can tell you is that fasting is required except in a situation where it is a matter of life and death. Basically, that means if a person is ill (or about to deliver a child) and fasting would make you sicker, that is an "out." The problem here is that it you're not really ill – only at risk of becoming ill. I would never want to advise you to do something that could potentially harm you.
The idea of fasting on Yom Kippur is really not as much about what goes into your mouth on a particular day as that you focus on what comes out of it the rest of the year. The most important thing is that YK be a meaningful day for you. So even if you decide to curtail your fast, you can still make the most out of the day.
I can’t recommend curtailing it, but I’ve heard of how Gabe Carimi, the stellar offensive lineman from the University of Wisconsin, when facing the dilemma of playing on Yom Kippur, actually adjusted his twenty four hour fast so that it would conclude just before game time. One might say that he fasted as if he were in Israel, where it’s already dark when it’s 1 PM in Madison. Unorthodox to say the least, but commendable. Now that he’s in the NFL, Carimi’s checked the Jewish calendar for the next decade and was relieved to know that a similar conflict is unlikely to occur. Just the fact that he is so concerned puts him in the Sandy Koufax stratosphere. Over the coming days, as Yom Kippur approaches and the baseball playoffs heat up, it is highly likely that Jewish baseball players Kevin Youkilis, Ryan Braun and Ian Kinsler will face the same dilemma.
A piece of good news this year is that because the holidays fall so late, it gets dark earlier, so Yom Kippur will end early enough on Sat. evening for you to hydrate to your heart's content. I’ve heard that the time of the traditional pasta dinner will be extended by Chicago marathon officials that Saturday night.
So what it comes down to is this. As a rabbi, I can’t give you an easy out from fasting. But I also would never want you to put yourself in any danger and certainly would not advise you to do that.
Meanwhile, let the people running the Chicago Marathon know that they picked a bad day!
Friday, February 18, 2011
Is Jeter a Cheater? Hammerman on Ethics
Is Jeter a Cheater? See the original at http://www.thejewishweek.com/features/hammerman_ethics/jeter_cheater
(In honor of Presidents Honest Abe and George "I-Cannot-Tell-A-Lie" Washington...)
Q - With baseball’s spring training underway, I’m reminded of an incident from last season. Derek Jeter, one of the few superstars from the past decade not implicated in baseball’s steroid sample, was caught on video pretending to be hit by a pitch. He was awarded first base although the ball clearly hit his bat. Is Jeter a cheater?
Yes he is – or at least was in that case. It was a big game too, which the Yankees eventually lost to Tampa Bay. He fessed up later on, but added, "It's part of the game. My job is to get on base." OK, that’s bad. But what’s worse is that the opposing manager, Joe Maddon, agreed that cheating is part of the game. "If our guys had did it,” he said, “I would have applauded that. It's a great performance on his part."
What’s wrong with this picture? Full disclosure: I’m a Boston fan, but I know that my teams have also prospered from the framed strike or phantom tag in baseball, the defender’s flop in basketball and the phony pass interference call in football. Speaking of football, my Patriots and the Jets seem to always be one-upping each other when it comes to spying and bending the rules.
So the question is not so much whether cheating is accepted – it is – but at what point does bending the rules turn into breaking the rules? At what point is the integrity of the game compromised? But the more important question is: How does this culture of cheating impact the kids who look to these athletes as role models – and what are the implications for society when these kids grow up?
The integrity of the baseball suffered greatly during the steroids era because those who played by the rules were punished for it. Stats were skewed and the playing field unleveled. But Jeter’s seemingly innocent acting job, while having little impact on the game, has a corrosive impact on society that is cumulative and dangerous. The more that cheating is accepted on the field, the more it will be seen as acceptable off it. As tractate Avot states, “Avera Goreret Avera,” “one transgression leads to another.”
Cheating in baseball is not new. Gaylord Perry rode his doctored pitches all the way to Cooperstown. The 1951 New York Giants’ stolen pitching signs fueled the “Shot heard round the world.” But maybe it all seemed more innocent back then, in those halcyon days before Madoff met the Mets. Now, cheating is dead serious and an enormous challenge for our culture (see my current column on the topic, “We Still Haven’t Put Bernie Away.” )
Fortunately, in the sheltered world of sports, there is a remedy: instant replay. If Tampa Bay had been allowed to challenge the call, Jeter would have looked even more the fool, and all faking would soon stop. The Yankee shortstop might have hit the next pitch for a homer – he is Derek Jeter, after all – but on some level we would have been able to say, “Jeters never prosper.”
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Jewish Baseball Site
For those who can't get enough baseball and Jews, here's the site for you:
http://www.jewishbaseballnews.com/
http://www.jewishbaseballnews.com/
Friday, November 6, 2009
Can I Congratulate the Yankees?
This one is hard. But not as difficult as it used to be. Back in the dark days B.C.E. (Before the Curse was Extinguished), in otherwords, pre 2004, it was much harder to smile in the face of Only Yankee Victories Every Year (acronym O.Y. V.E.Y.).
Now I can look on the bright side. For this century, at least, the Sox still have one more championship (counting 2001 as the first year of the new century), even though the Yankees still far outspend even the Bosox every year. My son Ethan has succinctly explained in a recent column why baseball's lack of a salary cap has become a joke. As he wrote,
"Let’s be frank for a moment. Baseball is dying a slow death as America’s pastime. The Super Bowl has already passed the World Series as the year’s premier sporting event. Regular season and playoff ratings were lower than ever this year. TBS is broadcasting playoff games, for heaven’s sake. TBS!"
In this regard, the Red Sox are every bit as culpable as the Yankees, even though they don't spend as much. The TV ratings speak for themselves, despite a healthy jump for the World Series (but even then, the best rating resulted from an NFL doubleheader lead-in that scored even higher).
So I have less pain watching the Yankees triumph now than I did following other pinstriped victories. There is no spectre of Wade Boggs on horseback or Roger Clemens being, well, Roger Clemens. There is no Bucky ("Mazal Tov") Dent hitting homers over the Wall or Aaron Boone ruining my one and only playoff visit to the old Yankee Stadium.
I no longer have to entertain vast theological questions about why God causes bad things to happen to good Bostonians. The Curse was eclipsed so long ago that kids now don't even know it existed. It's somewhat analogous to how today's younger generation never knew of a Jewish people without a state of Israel. We take our good fortune for granted.
So there is nothing holding me back from issuing at least a 3/4 - hearted Mazal Tov. And there are several good reasons to do it.
1) Because a number of people whom I love and admire are Yankee fanatics. If I'm going to work and live in Yankeeland, that's just something I have to accept. I actually feel good for at least some of them today.
2) Because I've gotten lots of mileage out of this rivalry. I do many bar mitzvahs and 13 is when baseball interest peaks, just after firetrucks and Barbie and just before attention turns to, well, other things. So my inner child is cryogenically forzen at 13, and as long as the Rivalry thrives, I've got instant material. If the Yankees had gone many more years without winning, things would have begun to get boring.
3) Because of Mel Allen, z'l, whose grave I visit in our cemetery all the time. He was the ultimate mensch.
4) Because Yankee fans have been so sensitive to their opponents over the years. Look at the paternal love given to Pedro Martinez!
5) Because it's the right thing to do. When your opponent wins, you rise above it and congratulate him. It's what we call "derech eretz." As Rabbi Joseph Telushkin has written in his magnum opus on Jewish ethics:
"An ancient rabbinic text teaches, kadmah derech eretz et ha-Torah, 'the commandment of good manners [i.e, considerate behavior] preceded the Torah' (Leviticus Rabbah 9:3). The Rabbis explain that while the Torah's commandments were revealed and became binding only at the time of the revelation at Mount Sinai, the obligation to act with courtesy and civility toward others originated with Adam and the creation of humanity. God could imagine humankind existing for thousands of years without the Torah, but He could not imagine human beings existing without the need for civility."
6) Because defeat is a prerequisite for victory, and acceptance of defeat a necessary stage of maturity. A win is meaningless without prior defeat.
Rabbi Soleveitchik, a.k.a. The Rav, put it this way:
"Man, in Judaism, was created for both victory and defeat - he is both king and saint. He must know how to fight for victory and also how to suffer defeat."
"Modern man is frustrated and perplexed because he cannot take defeat. He is simply incapable of retreating humbly. Modern man boasts quite often that he has never lost a war. He forgets that defeat is built into the very structure of victory, that there is, in fact, no total victory; man is finite, so is his victory. Whatever is finite is imperfect; so is man's triumph."
Losing is good for the soul.
"...the readiness to accept defeat purges the uncontrollable lust for victory."
So not only do I congratulate the Yankees, I THANK them. And I thank the Angels too, for making my October good and miserable. Great and miserable, in fact.
NEXT year's Red Sox championship will be all the sweeter for having had to follow this year's Yankee win.
So as a charter member of the O.Y. V.E.Y. club, I say "mazal tov" to the Bombers!
Now I can look on the bright side. For this century, at least, the Sox still have one more championship (counting 2001 as the first year of the new century), even though the Yankees still far outspend even the Bosox every year. My son Ethan has succinctly explained in a recent column why baseball's lack of a salary cap has become a joke. As he wrote,
"Let’s be frank for a moment. Baseball is dying a slow death as America’s pastime. The Super Bowl has already passed the World Series as the year’s premier sporting event. Regular season and playoff ratings were lower than ever this year. TBS is broadcasting playoff games, for heaven’s sake. TBS!"
In this regard, the Red Sox are every bit as culpable as the Yankees, even though they don't spend as much. The TV ratings speak for themselves, despite a healthy jump for the World Series (but even then, the best rating resulted from an NFL doubleheader lead-in that scored even higher).
So I have less pain watching the Yankees triumph now than I did following other pinstriped victories. There is no spectre of Wade Boggs on horseback or Roger Clemens being, well, Roger Clemens. There is no Bucky ("Mazal Tov") Dent hitting homers over the Wall or Aaron Boone ruining my one and only playoff visit to the old Yankee Stadium.
I no longer have to entertain vast theological questions about why God causes bad things to happen to good Bostonians. The Curse was eclipsed so long ago that kids now don't even know it existed. It's somewhat analogous to how today's younger generation never knew of a Jewish people without a state of Israel. We take our good fortune for granted.
So there is nothing holding me back from issuing at least a 3/4 - hearted Mazal Tov. And there are several good reasons to do it.
1) Because a number of people whom I love and admire are Yankee fanatics. If I'm going to work and live in Yankeeland, that's just something I have to accept. I actually feel good for at least some of them today.
2) Because I've gotten lots of mileage out of this rivalry. I do many bar mitzvahs and 13 is when baseball interest peaks, just after firetrucks and Barbie and just before attention turns to, well, other things. So my inner child is cryogenically forzen at 13, and as long as the Rivalry thrives, I've got instant material. If the Yankees had gone many more years without winning, things would have begun to get boring.
3) Because of Mel Allen, z'l, whose grave I visit in our cemetery all the time. He was the ultimate mensch.
4) Because Yankee fans have been so sensitive to their opponents over the years. Look at the paternal love given to Pedro Martinez!
5) Because it's the right thing to do. When your opponent wins, you rise above it and congratulate him. It's what we call "derech eretz." As Rabbi Joseph Telushkin has written in his magnum opus on Jewish ethics:
"An ancient rabbinic text teaches, kadmah derech eretz et ha-Torah, 'the commandment of good manners [i.e, considerate behavior] preceded the Torah' (Leviticus Rabbah 9:3). The Rabbis explain that while the Torah's commandments were revealed and became binding only at the time of the revelation at Mount Sinai, the obligation to act with courtesy and civility toward others originated with Adam and the creation of humanity. God could imagine humankind existing for thousands of years without the Torah, but He could not imagine human beings existing without the need for civility."
6) Because defeat is a prerequisite for victory, and acceptance of defeat a necessary stage of maturity. A win is meaningless without prior defeat.
Rabbi Soleveitchik, a.k.a. The Rav, put it this way:
"Man, in Judaism, was created for both victory and defeat - he is both king and saint. He must know how to fight for victory and also how to suffer defeat."
"Modern man is frustrated and perplexed because he cannot take defeat. He is simply incapable of retreating humbly. Modern man boasts quite often that he has never lost a war. He forgets that defeat is built into the very structure of victory, that there is, in fact, no total victory; man is finite, so is his victory. Whatever is finite is imperfect; so is man's triumph."
Losing is good for the soul.
"...the readiness to accept defeat purges the uncontrollable lust for victory."
So not only do I congratulate the Yankees, I THANK them. And I thank the Angels too, for making my October good and miserable. Great and miserable, in fact.
NEXT year's Red Sox championship will be all the sweeter for having had to follow this year's Yankee win.
So as a charter member of the O.Y. V.E.Y. club, I say "mazal tov" to the Bombers!
Friday, September 19, 2008
Yankee Stadium: An October Requiem
The world will say goodbye to the House that Ruth Built this weekend. It is a supreme irony that the place that was built for October will bid adieu in late September, as for the first time in a decade and a half, the Yankees will (likely) not see postseason action.
I have few positive memories of the place, but I must say that I took Ethan to his first major league game there, not Fenway. I was given the tickets by Yankee executive Arthur Richman, president of the team, following Mel Allen’s funeral in 1996. The funeral was one of Beth El’s most dramatic moments. I love pointing out to Yankee-supporting Bar Mitzvah students where Joe DiMaggio sat in our sanctuary, along with Steinbrenner, Berra, Ford and host of legends.
When I entered the stadium with Ethan for that day game, I was surprised at how awestruck I was at the simple beauty of the façade and the greenness of the field. Richman told me, “We’re going to win you over.” That didn’t quite happen regarding the team, but the stadium definitely did. And I must add that the team acted with great affection toward Mel’s family throughout that sad time and I was impressed by the dignified and professional way they do business.
My other main memory of Yankee Stadium is not so pleasant. I was at game seven of the 2003 ALCS, way up in right field. It was one of the most dramatic games in the history of the place and I was on the wrong end of it. When Aaron Boone hit his dramatic series-ending home run, I immediately went into survival mode. Everyone around was high fiving, so I high fived right back. The screaming did not end as everyone stood and screamed for a half hour before people finally started to make for the exits. The cheering lasted forever – or more accurately, almost exactly one year.
I picked the wrong Game 7 to attend. 2004’s was one that I savored, and still savor. It has a permanent place on my TiVo.
Last week’s Bar Mitzvah boy wanted me to talk about that Red Sox – Yankees rivalry. Since this young man, a huge Yankee fan, has never seen the Yanks fail to make the playoffs, I took the opportunity to perform a public service. I suggested some things that Yankee fans might do with all their extra time this October. It occurred to me that it would be only appropriate for a Red Sox fan to make these suggestions, since we’ve had so many empty Octobers (though not recently). I also thought that it would be nice to come up with 26 such suggestions, one for each Yankee championship banner, so I am calling upon the rest of you to help me complete the list.
There are obvious ones like “watch the Red Sox and Mets,” but that’s too easy. I’m looking for something more creative, like “Work off those Reggie Bars” or “Hit fungo grouders to Chuck Knobloch” or “Add monster seats to the Wall in Bucky Dent’s backyard.”
Please send me your suggestions at rabbi@tbe.org and I’ll share them next week – that is, unless the Sox collapse….
Yankee Stadium, thanks for the memories!
I have few positive memories of the place, but I must say that I took Ethan to his first major league game there, not Fenway. I was given the tickets by Yankee executive Arthur Richman, president of the team, following Mel Allen’s funeral in 1996. The funeral was one of Beth El’s most dramatic moments. I love pointing out to Yankee-supporting Bar Mitzvah students where Joe DiMaggio sat in our sanctuary, along with Steinbrenner, Berra, Ford and host of legends.
When I entered the stadium with Ethan for that day game, I was surprised at how awestruck I was at the simple beauty of the façade and the greenness of the field. Richman told me, “We’re going to win you over.” That didn’t quite happen regarding the team, but the stadium definitely did. And I must add that the team acted with great affection toward Mel’s family throughout that sad time and I was impressed by the dignified and professional way they do business.
My other main memory of Yankee Stadium is not so pleasant. I was at game seven of the 2003 ALCS, way up in right field. It was one of the most dramatic games in the history of the place and I was on the wrong end of it. When Aaron Boone hit his dramatic series-ending home run, I immediately went into survival mode. Everyone around was high fiving, so I high fived right back. The screaming did not end as everyone stood and screamed for a half hour before people finally started to make for the exits. The cheering lasted forever – or more accurately, almost exactly one year.
I picked the wrong Game 7 to attend. 2004’s was one that I savored, and still savor. It has a permanent place on my TiVo.
Last week’s Bar Mitzvah boy wanted me to talk about that Red Sox – Yankees rivalry. Since this young man, a huge Yankee fan, has never seen the Yanks fail to make the playoffs, I took the opportunity to perform a public service. I suggested some things that Yankee fans might do with all their extra time this October. It occurred to me that it would be only appropriate for a Red Sox fan to make these suggestions, since we’ve had so many empty Octobers (though not recently). I also thought that it would be nice to come up with 26 such suggestions, one for each Yankee championship banner, so I am calling upon the rest of you to help me complete the list.
There are obvious ones like “watch the Red Sox and Mets,” but that’s too easy. I’m looking for something more creative, like “Work off those Reggie Bars” or “Hit fungo grouders to Chuck Knobloch” or “Add monster seats to the Wall in Bucky Dent’s backyard.”
Please send me your suggestions at rabbi@tbe.org and I’ll share them next week – that is, unless the Sox collapse….
Yankee Stadium, thanks for the memories!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
The Eclipse of The Curse (Jewish Week)
Side by side in my office hang photos of Boston and Jerusalem. My exilic existence has been marked by a constant yearning for redemption in both of my ancestral homes. For one that meant a thriving Israel, freed from fear.
For the other it meant a Red Sox World Series championship.
Through the misty sky last Wednesday night, a ruddy moon glowed from behind the earth's shadow. At the precise time of the lunar eclipse, the Red Sox won the World Series and Yasir Arafat lost his grip on the reins of terror. In the scheme of things, I would classify that as a very good day. At long last, it appeared, definitive proof that there is a God.
Too many things broke right for the Sox this year, too many of their prior indignities were undone in uncanny ways, for their improbable victory not to have been written in the stars. Even before this season began, the Sox had couched this campaign in religious terms -- witness the huge "Keep the Faith" sign towering about the Western Wall, I mean the Green Monster -- and the numerous televised images of fans in various states of prayer.
Their epic series with the Yankees played out these redemptive themes, carrying the Sox and their fandom from the brink of disaster to the greatest comeback seen since the Exodus, climaxing with the parting of Cardinal fandom at its own self-proclaimed Red Sea.
The resurrection was so captivating that at a recent wedding reception I found myself transfixed at the lobby bar watching a rally and was not in the ballroom when my name was called to lead the blessing over the bread.
"Where's the rabbi?"
"He's at the bar, watching the game."
No matter. The bride's father was out there with me.
Let's assume that this victory was indeed divinely ordained. If that is so, my theological problems begin to multiply like the Yankees payroll: Why this baseball team and not another -- say that innocent group of clean-cut professionals from the Bronx? And why now, after so many years of torture?
Why was the Curse finally lifted?
It was because of my 13-year-old son, Ethan.
At least that's what Ethan thinks, and I'm having a hard time dissuading him. After all, wasn't I the one who suggested he put in a good word for the Sox when he scribbled his note to place into the cracks of the Western Wall (the "other" one) when we were in Jerusalem in August? He had already written the note, containing the usual prayers for family and peace, when I suggested that one little addition. Sure enough, as soon as the note was inserted the team went off on an unparalleled hot streak. So if Ethan was led to believe that direct requests of God could have such an immediate impact, I created this monster.
I shouldn't have been surprised then that the morning after the disastrous third game against the Yankees, with the Sox all but dead, Ethan informed me that he had informed God that if the Red Sox didn't win it all this time, he would become an atheist.
Imagine your child telling you this when no team in history had ever come back from the kind of deficit the Sox were facing. He was asking for a miracle. No, he wasn't merely asking, he was threatening God.
And it worked.
God, omniscient as always, evidently had read the latest National Jewish Population Survey and didn't want to lose Ethan from the fold. Or maybe God was impressed by Ethan's undying loyalty to a team whose season was nearing extinction.
True to my fatalistic Red Sox roots, I had spent my energy steeling my boys to accept the divine decree, or as Martin Buber called it in his aptly titled essay "The Eclipse of God," "the still unredeemed concreteness of the human world in all its horror." But the news just kept on getting better, and with last Wednesday's eclipse of this eclipse, I found myself becoming more and more troubled by the theological implications of victory.
If the Sox lose, my kid becomes a hardened skeptic, like the rest of us. But if they win because of this audacious wager, he could sink into a fundamentalist morass, totally convinced that God can be manipulated magically.
And if the Sox win again next year?
At that point he would become so smug as to render him indistinguishable from a Yankee fan.
Who says Red Sox fans no longer have anything to whine about?
I imagined what could come next:"God, get this cute girl to notice me ... or ELSE ... you know what!"
Please God, stop answering my child's prayers!
Among the dozens of congratulatory e-mails and calls I received the day after the Eclipse of the Curse, this message stood out:
"In this world of so much discouraging news, how wonderful to have something to cheer about! The eclipse underscored this night of sports history and affirmed the importance and joy of believing in your dreams against all odds."
As I read this, I understood that Ethan's impudence was in fact a statement of profound faith from one condemned by his father to live out his entire life in Yankee territory, in second place. His was a simple Joban cry against the injustice of it all.
This time, the Universe listened.
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