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Issue: 6.11
Lenn
Zonder looks at the modern Jewish sports scene!
First many colleges have rules against identifying players by their religion. Secondly, the question can be embarrassing as it proved to be with a former University of Connecticut women’s basketball player, and a professional baseball player whom I once umpired behind in a high school game. Neither person followed the Jewish religion, nor wished to have their religion a reportable issue.
This brings me to the nut of this article.
Stimulated by the recent resignation of Theo Epstein as General Manager of the Boston Red Sox, Alan Wunsch, Executive Director of Congregation B’nai Jacob in Woodbridge, CT, was wondering how many Jews actually take part as owners, managers and players in major professional sports. The results of his research, most by his own admission off the Internet, are somewhat mind boggling to say the least.
For instance, did you know that the commissioners of all four major sports, baseball, football, hockey and basketball, are Jewish? They are Paul Tagliabue (National Football League), Bud Selig (Major League Baseball), Gary Bettman (National Hockey League), and David Stern (National Basketball Association).
I knew about Selig, Bettman, and Stern, but Tagliabue was a surprise to me.
Further, Wunsch wrote in the B’nai Jacob Bulletin, eight and a half of the 32 NFL teams are owned by Jews. They are Art Modell, Baltimore Ravens; Al Lerner, Cleveland Browns; Arthur Blank, Atlanta Falcons; Bob Kraft, New England Patriots; Al Davis, Oakland Raiders; Daniel Snyder, Washington Redskins; Malcom Glazer, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jeffrey Lurie, Philadelphia Eagles; and the late Robert Tish, half owner of the New York Football Giants with the late Wellington Mara.
Nine of the 30 professional basketball owners also are members of the tribe. Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks and Jerry Reinsdorf of the Chicago Bulls are the most prominent, but then add Leslie Alexander, Houston Rockets; Micky Arison, Miami Heat; William Davidson, Detroit Pistons; Abe Pollin, Washington Wizards; Donald Sterling, Los Angeles Clippers; Herb Kohl, Milwaukee Bucks; and Howard Schultz (founder of Starbuck’s coffee shops) the Seattle Supersonics.
Moving on to baseball, four of the 32 teams have Jewish owners. Reinsdorf leads the group owning the World Champion Chicago White Sox; Fred Wilpon, the New York Mets; Stuart Steinberg, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays; and Jamie McCourt, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Fooled me on that one.
And lastly, there are two Jewish team owners in the NHL, Steve Ellman of the Phoenix Coyotes, and Philadelphia Flyers owner Ed Snider.
As a Jew, I am proud of these men. Combined, they provide employment for thousands of people. Not just the millionaire players, but team executives of all levels, the hawkers selling hotdogs and beer in the stands, to the ticket takers and the parking lot attendants outside the stadium. For many of the lesser employees, they might be unemployed or scraping by on charity without the teams.
Indirectly, the owners are responsible for a major portion of the employment sector in their respective communities and for the success of many nearby businesses that live on the entertainment they provide.
And one more important point. Possibly spurred on by the Jewish owners and league presidents, many teams now operate kosher food stands and have a special place in their facilities for their more orthodox fans to meet for ma'ariv services.
The idea of Jewish team owners is not new. The owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, back at the turn of the century was Barney Dreyfuss who bought the team in 1900, bringing with him Hall of Famers Honus Wagner and Fred Clarke. Three years later (1903), Dreyfuss’s team played the Boston Red Sox in the first World Series. The Pirates one the first two games but lost the series 5 games to 3.
Later, in the 1940’s a Russian-Jewish immigrant who grew up in New Haven, CT. was named president of the American Hockey League. A lawyer, his name was Maurice Podoloff, one of several brothers who owned an operated the New Haven Arena and the New Haven franchise in the American Hockey League.
Podoloff, a businessman who had no real interest in sports, got the AHL on its feet. A few years later, 1946, he was named president of the National Basketball League. In 1954, he and Boston Celtics owner Walter Brown created the 24-second clock that turned professional basketball from a stagnant game of keep-away into the exciting sport it is today. The turn around in the quality of the action led to a television contract that turned the game into the mass-media event it is today.
At a time when black athletes had no place in professional sports, Saperstein assembled a team without peer. Not only could they play basketball with the best athletes, they toured the country playing one-night stands and turned the sport into a standing-room only spectacle with white people cheering, applauding and laughing at their antic performances.
Not too bad for a people who are not known to embrace athletics professionally.
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