Monday, September 04, 2006

Welcome

Welcome to SportsYids, Celebrating Jews in Sports. This blog will be devoted to finding and celebrating the accomplishments of Jewish athletes in America and around the world. I will need your help in making this possible, both in tracking down Jewish stars and confirming the Jewish heritage and identity of athletes which have been identified as possibly being Jewish.

So who am I? I am sort of your stereotypical fifty-something (yes, even we 50 somethings blog), Jewish (although I suppose that's redudant given this blog) attorney who follows sports passionately. I played sports avidly, if not always well, while growing up and following sports has always been a part of my life and that of my most of my family. It is something I have shared with my wife and children and we find our social lives often revolve around home games of our favorite teams, during college football and baskteball season. You see, I don't live in a city large enough to support major league professional sports, so our local university is our professional sports franchise.

So, there you have it. The short hand synopsis of who I am. Now, as to why I decided to start this blog, well, I have always noticed that whenever a Jewish athlete accomplishes something, Jewish sports followers are quick to notice and tell other Jews. It quickly becomes a topic of discussion. Why? We are a proud group and are particularly proud of our athletes because it is one area that is traditionaly under-represented. As I looked around the blogosphere, I didn't notice any blogs devoted to this topic and thought I would fill the void.

However, I can't do this without your help. I will need your submissions to make this work. Please send me news about any Jewish athletes you find. Stories are greatly appreciated and will make this a better blog for all of us. Any contributions will be suitably acknowledged and gratefully appreciated. Let's have some fun with this. Send all tips, story ideas, and suggestions to sportsyids@gmail.com.