Omri Casspi Makes History

Cross-posted to SportsBiz

Ian Kinsler - The Next Shawn Green?

Is Ian Kinsler, the Texas Rangers slugging second baseman the second coming, so to speak, of Shawn Green? Maybe not in baseball terms, but perhaps in the minds and hearts of Jewish baseball fans around the country. That at least is the proposition put forth by Sports Illustrated Jeff Pearlman in today's must read article:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/jeff_pearlman/06/12/kinsler-jews/?eref=sircrc

Maccabiah Alums HelpLead US In FIFA Confederations Cup

The United States Men's National Soccer Team is currently in South Africa playing in this year's preview of the 2010 World Cup. It is the FIFA Confederations Cup, an eight nation tournament featuring the winners of each of FIFA's six continental federations' cup competitions held last year, plus the host country and the defending World Cup champion. It was the US' great fortune to open play against that defending champion, Italy, yesterday which the Yanks unfortunately lost 3-1. The US played well at times, especially playing a man down for much of the match. On the pitch at the start for the US were Maccabiah Games alumni Benny Feilhaber and Jonathan Bornstein. Also starting was Jonathan Spector who, while not a Maccabiah Games alum, is a valued team member and member of the tribe. Let's hope for a better result when the Yanks take on Brazil Thursday.

Mazel Tov to the Hall of Fame Inductees

The National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame held an induction ceremony over the weekend, inducting seven new honorees, whose exploits ranged from the broadcast desk at SportsCenter to Olympic gold and even to the courtroom. Yes, it was a mighty diverse lot. The seven honorees for this year consisted of 2 women and 5 men. Before we get to the honorees, go ahead, admit it - you didn't think there was such a thing as a Jewish Sports Hall of Fame now did you? It's not only real, but has a very impressive list of inductees compiled over the course of seventeen years.

The two women, both still active and inspirational, are Linda Cohn of SportsCenter fame and the "Grandma" of the Beijing US Olympic swim team, the incomparable Dara Torres. The five men were sportswriter Dick Schaap (posthumously), former New England Patriot linebacker Andre Tippett, former Baltimore Colts trainer Ed Block, Olympic weightlifter Gary Gubner and trailblazing executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association Marvin Miller.

Jake and the Iditarod

or what's a nice Jewish boy doing all the way up in here in the cold with a team of dogs going nowhere? What am I supposed to say, my son the musher? Jake Berkowitz, a 22 year old dog sled racer, originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, just completed in his second Iditarod, placing 31st out of 67 and the only one who finished with all 18 of his dogs. How did he get here and what should we expect from him in the future?

It was a bit of a roundabout journey to Alaska as you might guess. It took Jake from Talmud Torah in St. Paul to Israel to white water canoeing in Colorado and then a winter job in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan guiding dog sled trips. The company he was working for in Michigan, Nature's Kennel, asked him to run in the Iditarod and after competing once he was hooked. So he moved to Alaska and the rest is history.

Look for Jake in next year's race as his dogs should all be back with an additional year of training and experience. As Jake has said, his goal is a top ten finish. I don't if that would be a record for a Jewish dog sled racer, but I was hazard a guess that it just might be.

Cross-posted to SportsBiz

Major League Baseball Opening Day Rosters

As we near the end of the opening week of Major League Baseball, it's time to check in and see who made the opening day rosters. This year, the list of SportsYids fave ballplayers are:

• Brad Ausmus, C, Los Angeles, Dodgers
• Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers
• Craig Breslow, P, Minnesota Twins
• Scott Feldman, P, Texas Rangers
• John Grabow, Pittsburgh Pirates
• Gabe Kapler, OF, Tampa Bay Rays
• Ian Kinsler, 2B, Texas Rangers
• Jason Marquis, P, Colorado Rockies
• Scott Schoeneweis, P, Arizona Diamondbacks
• Kevin Youkilis, 1B, Boston Red Sox

You'll note that we now have a minyan, if they ever get together in one place.

HT to Kaplan's Korner (which has also been added to the blogroll, as have a couple of others)

Another Coach in the Tribe

With the relatively unexpeccted move of John Calipari to Kentucky, (unexpected by those of us who have watched Kentucky's boneheaded athletic director; Calipari had once said he would crawl to Lexington on his hands and knees for the job), the opening in Memphis was filled by a Calipari assistant, uber recruiter Josh Pastner. Pastner, only 31, is a protege of retired Arizona coach Lute Olson and is the latest MOT to join the college baskteball coaching ranks, joining such other BCS conference notables as Jim Boeheim at Syracuse and Seth Greenberg at Virginia Tech.

It's A Long Way From Israel to Toledo

There was a very interesting article in the Jerusalem Post recently about the first female Orthodox Jewish NCAA Division I basketball player. Her name is Na'ama Shafir and she is a freshman point guard at the University of Toledo, of all places. What was most striking, and heartwarming about the article was the lengths to which her teammates and the Toledo athletic department would go to accommodate Shafir's religious beliefs and the obligations those beliefs placed upon her. I also found her rabbi's interpretation of Shabbat work in the context of basketball to be creative. Playing games is play while practice is work may make some degree of logical sense but I'm not sure that you will be able to find total agreement to that sentiment among most Orthodox rabbis. I'm not knocking Shafir's rabbi. Far from it, I think his solution is creative and responsive to her needs and just the sort of religious adaption to reality that marks Conservative Judaism but is not usually associated with the Orthodox. It's good to see and I commend the article to you.

WTA Fines Dubai $300,000 For Pe'er Ban

The WTA levied a $300,000 fine on the organizers of the Dubai Tennis Championships, more than twice as much as the previous record fine, after Shahar Pe'er was denied a visa from Dubai. The WTA also took steps to compensate Pe'er and her doubles partner for lost income and tour points as a result of being banned from the tournament. Pe'er will receive $44,250 from the fine and 130 ranking points, equivalent to what she earned in the same week last year. Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany, her doubles partner, will receive $7,950, roughly equal to her average weekly doubles earnings last year. The balance of the fine will go to a charity selected by the WTA and Pe'er.

The WTA felt justified in fining the tournament organizers in part due to their association with Dubai Duty Free, a company owned by the Dubai government. In addition, the tournament is: "Under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai."

In announcing the fine, WTA CEO Larry Scott told the AP: "I think what we hope with this decision is that we're sending a very clear message that we're not going to tolerate discrimination of any kind. We wanted to send a clear signal that this is the most egregious action the world of tennis has seen in recent history. And we felt that it should be at least double what the previous highest penalty was."

The WTA is taking all the right steps so far. With the granting of a visa to Andy Ram for next week's ATP tournament, it is clear that Dubai is getting the message. Hopefully, there will not be a repeat of this affair next year and there will be no need to remove this tournament from Dubai permanently. However, it cannot stop with tennis. Israel is systematically excluded from competition in Arab states. It is forced to compete in European competitions instead of Asian because Arab states refused to allow it to compete in their groups. These boycotts must end. The Olympic movement must end its tacit acceptance of this discrimination and stand up for what is right and fair and just. It's long past time to end anti-Semitism in world sport.

Cross-posted with SportsBiz - The Business of Sports Illuminated

WTA Fines Dubai $300,000 For Pe'er Ban

The WTA levied a $300,000 fine on the organizers of the Dubai Tennis Championships, more than twice as much as the previous record fine, after Shahar Pe'er was denied a visa from Dubai. The WTA also took steps to compensate Pe'er and her doubles partner for lost income and tour points as a result of being banned from the tournament. Pe'er will receive $44,250 from the fine and 130 ranking points, equivalent to what she earned in the same week last year. Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany, her doubles partner, will receive $7,950, roughly equal to her average weekly doubles earnings last year. The balance of the fine will go to a charity selected by the WTA and Pe'er.

The WTA felt justified in fining the tournament organizers in part due to their association with Dubai Duty Free, a company owned by the Dubai government. In addition, the tournament is: "Under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai."

In announcing the fine, WTA CEO Larry Scott told the AP: "I think what we hope with this decision is that we're sending a very clear message that we're not going to tolerate discrimination of any kind. We wanted to send a clear signal that this is the most egregious action the world of tennis has seen in recent history. And we felt that it should be at least double what the previous highest penalty was."

The WTA is taking all the right steps so far. With the granting of a visa to Andy Ram for next week's ATP tournament, it is clear that Dubai is getting the message. Hopefully, there will not be a repeat of this affair next year and there will be no need to remove this tournament from Dubai permanently. However, it cannot stop with tennis. Israel is systematically excluded from competition in Arab states. It is forced to compete in European competitions instead of Asian because Arab states refused to allow it to compete in their groups. These boycotts must end. The Olympic movement must end its tacit acceptance of this discrimination and stand up for what is right and fair and just. It's long past time to end anti-Semitism in world sport.

Dubai Will Grant Israeli Men's Tennis Player a Visa

In the continuing saga of Dubai's blatant discriminatory treatment of Jewish athletes, comes word that the emirate is going to grant a visa to Israeli Andy Ram allowing him to play in next week's ATP Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. Apparently, following US pressure and a realization that perhaps they made a public relations blunder, Dubai officials have changed their mind. It may also be an attempt to salvage both tennis tournaments, as there are serious moves afoot to remove the WTA event from the next year's calendar.

In related news, the Sweden-Israel Davis Cup match to be played March6-8, in Malmo, Sweden, will be played before an empty stadium. The Malmo recreational committee, citing security concerns, decided to ban spectators from the stadium. The International Tennis Federation, in a typically feckless statement, reacted to the ban: "“very unfortunate” and “not in the long-term interests of the Davis Cup," but took no action. The ITF deferred to the local authhority. Again, imagine the outcry, if this had been done in Israel.

Cross-posted with SportsBiz - The Business of Sports Illuminated

Tennis Channel Won't Televise Dubai Open

The Tennis Channel is refusing to televise the Barclays Duabi Tennis Championships this weekend to protest the emirate's refusal to grant a visa to Israeli tennis star Shahar Pe'er to allow her to play in the tournament. According to Ken Solomon, chairman and CEO of the network:

"This is an easy decision to come by, based on what is right and wrong. Sports are about merit, absent of background, class, race, creed, color or religion. They are simply about talent. This is a classic case, not about what country did what to another country. If the state of Israel were barring a citizen of an Arab nation, we would have made the same."

It's good to see the Tennis Channel stand up for Pe'er. You can bet that had the roles been reversed and it was Israel that had refused a visa to an Arab tennis player for participation in a tournament in Israel, it would have been front page news around the world. There would have been denunciations coming from world capitals around the world and calls for immediate sessions of the UN Security Council to enforce an economic boycott on Israel for the injustice against humanity. The outcries would have been led by America's staunchest European allies, well, maybe not the UK. What is most interesting here is the deafening silence which with this affair has been greeted outside the sporting world.

Cross-posted with SportsBiz - The Business of Sports Illuminated

Dubai Tarnishes Golden Sports Hopes; Denies Israeli Tennis Star Visa

The WTA has been gambling since 2001 when it decided to stage a tournament in the United Arab Emirates. This year it came up snake eyes when Dubai barred Israeli tennis star Shahar Pe'er from competing in this week's Barclay's Dubai Tennis Championships. In the months leading up to the tournament, Pe'er had received assurances that she would be allowed to play. Last year, she became the first Israeli athlete to play in a Gulf state when she played in a WTA event in Qatar. She was informed on Saturday that she would not be granted a visa to enter Dubai to participate in the tournament.

The WTA was apparently taken by surprise as well, since it had included Pe'er in the draw. To its credit, WTA Chairman and CEO Larry Scott released a statement that was strongly supportive of Pe'er and called into question the future of the Dubai tournament:

"We are deeply disappointed by the decision of the UAE denying Shahar Pe'er a visa that would permit her to enter the country to play in the Dubai Tennis Championships. Ms. Pe'er has earned the right to play in the tournament and it is regrettable that the UAE is denying her this right.

The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour believes very strongly, and has a clear rule and policy, that no host country should deny a player the right to compete at a tournament for which she has qualified by ranking,

The Tour is reviewing appropriate remedies for Ms. Pe'er and also will review appropriate future actions with regard to the future of the Dubai tournament."

“All the players support Shahar,” American tennis champion Venus Williams told the New York Times. “We are all athletes, and we stand for tennis.”

It's likely now that Dubai has limited not only its ability to host WTA events but future events in other sports as well. While Israel does not have nearly as many friends in other international governing bodies, perhaps the precedent has been set, and no barring of athletes merely on the ground of their Israeli passport will be permitted if events are awarded to Dubai in the future. It is also likely that in the continuing contest between rivals Qatar and Dubai, Qatar has just won a major international sporting victory.

Cross-posted from SportsBiz-The Business of Sports Illuminated

Ralph Kaplowitz, Played in NBA's First Game, Dies

My condolences to the family of Ralph Kaplowitz, of blessed memory, who passed away on February 2 at his home in Queens. He was 89. Mr. Kaplowitz, a 6'2" guard out of NYU, when NYU was a college powerhouse, played for the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia Warriors. Mr. Kaplowitz took the court for the Knicks against the Toronto Huskies on November 1, 1946, at Maple Leaf Gardens in what is now recognized as the first NBA game ever played. At the time, the league was known as the Basketball Association of America. Kaplowitz was traded that season to the Warriors, who went on to win the championship, so he has the unique distinction of playing in the first game and winning the first championship.

In an interesting sidelight, that first Knick team was broken up - not because of huge salaries and lousy performance like the Knicks teams of recent vintage but because of anti-Semitism. As Kaplowitz's daughter recalls: "“My father often told us that the first Knicks team, which had other Jewish players on it, was broken up because fans, especially on the road, would often chant nasty things,” Barbara Kaplowitz said. “But my father was too self-confident a man to ever let stuff like that bother him."

Cross-posted from SportsBiz- The Business of Sports Illuminated