5 Jewish Things About Baseball Opening Day

Kevin Youkilis Image by Getty Images

By Anne Cohen April 1, 2013

Who still says Jews can’t be good at sports?

With baseball season kicking off (or rather, batting off), we’ve rounded up the top five Jewish things you should know about the who’s who of America’s pastime.

These guys are all more kosher than the hot dogs at Citi Field.

1. Kevin Youkilis

No, he’s not Greek. Well, not really. Known as “Youks,” this former Red Sox player, who signed with the New York Yankees in December, is undeniably Jewish. His great-great-great grandfather was originally from Romania, but moved to Greece at the age of 16 to avoid conscription into the Cossacks. When he returned to Romania years later, he changed his name from Weiner to Youkilis. The first baseman was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Carolyn and Mike Youkilis, a wholesale jeweler. His mother converted to Judaism after her wedding.

Youkilis will be facing his old team Monday afternoon as the two rivals open the season in the Bronx.

2. Ryan Braun

The first Jewish player to be named Most Valuable Player since Sandy Koufax in 1963, this outfielder for the Milwaukee Brewers seemed like baseball’s golden boy. Recently though, his reputation has been somewhat tarnished by his supposed links to a Miami-area clinic that allegedly distributed performance-enhancement drugs to a number of stars.

3. Paul Goldschmidt

This first baseman for the Arizona Diamondbacks just agreed to a five-year, $32 million dollar extension. Goldschmidt, 25, was born in Wilmington, Delaware, and grew up in a suburb of Houston, Texas. Despite his last name, there has been much speculation about whether or not he is actually Jewish. Well, the verdict is in: his father is Jewish, his mother is Christian, and Goldschmidt himself was raised Christian.

Eh, he still counts.

4. Ike Davis

This first baseman for the New York Mets apparently greets his teammates with a casual “Shalom.” Isaac Benjamin Davis, 26, is the son of Ron Davis, who pitched in the majors for 11 years. Ron is a Baptist, but Davis’ mother, Millie, is Jewish. Davis, who was raised in Arizona, has the names of his mother’s two grandfathers, Isaac and Benjamin, to prove it.

Though Davis is not religious — he famously decided to play on Yom Kippour — he has been outspoken about his pride in his Jewish heritage. “It’s funny about Judaism,” Davis told the New York Post. “It doesn’t matter if you’re ultra-religious or not, as long as you know that it’s in you or you’re a part of it, everyone accepts you.”

5. This video of Mets PR man Jay Horwitz doing the “Citi Field Shake.”

Someone apparently forgot to tell the New York Mets that the Harlem Shake is so passé.

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO