SINAI HOSPITAL
Sinai Hospital Ambulatory Services Division
is pleased to welcome
•
Laina Feinstein, M.D.
Cal Ripken Jr.
As A Role Model
GARY ROSENBLATT SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
R
in the practice of Internal Medicine.
Dr. Feinstein is fluent in the Russian language.
Her offices are located at:
Hechtman Health Center
Internal Medicine Associates
31500 Telegraph Rd., Suite 145
Bingham Farms, MI 48025
(810) 647-1770
Sinai Health Center
6450 Farmington Rd., Suite 105
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
(810) 661-9490
To schedule an appointment, please call
during normal business hours.
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abbi Tarfon, the scholar
who lived in Talmudic
times, would have loved
Cal Ripken Jr. True, Rip-
ken is blond, 6 feet 4 and a
church-going Christian; but he's
also the embodiment of a work
ethic espoused by rabbinic tradi-
tion. And his remarkable achieve-
ment of playing in more than
2,130 consecutive baseball games
extends beyond the ballpark and
may have a unique message for
us as Jews.
In setting a new standard for
consistency in professional base-
ball, the Orioles shortstop calls
to mind the most famous teach-
ing of Rabbi Tarfon, whose words
are found in the Ethics of the Fa-
thers: "The day is short; the task
is abundant; the laborers are lazy;
the wage is great, and the Mas-
ter is insistent. You are not re-
quired to complete the task," the
rabbi added, "yet you are not free
to withdraw from it."
In a shortened season still un-
der the cloud of last year's disas-
trous strike, Mr. Ripken has done
more than anyone to salvage the
heroic image youngsters have al-
ways had of major-league
ballplayers. The Orioles short-
stop didn't do this through media
hype or flashy style, but simply
by going out and doing his job
every day as a complete profes-
sional for the last 13 seasons.
Most fans feel that today's
players are spoiled and are paid
too much money —"the laborers
are lazy, the wage is great" — and
that the owners are greedy —
"the Master is insistent." But Mr.
Ripken's professional excellence
and personal modesty echo the
style of Lou Gehrig, the revered
New York Yankee who held the
record for most consecutive
games played for more than six
decades.
Watching Cal Ripken play
takes me back to the time when
baseball was more about fathers
and sons than markets and
shares; for despite Caps financial
success, we sense that he would
still be out there playing for the
love of the game. You can't say
that about too many ballplayers
these days. More likely they
check with their agents before
tagging up from third on a sacri-
fice fly.
Rooting for a team that's far
away can be tough, I've learned
since leaving Baltimore two years
ago. But on nights this summer
that I found myself drawn to the
Gary Rosenblatt is editor and
publisher of the Jewish Week of
New York.
O's, I had my own private way of
connecting. I couldn't pick up the
games on any radio at home, but
discovered that our car radio had
excellent reception. So more than
a few times I would go out to our
driveway, get in the car, turn on
the radio and sit there, listening
to the friendly voices of Jon Miller
and Fred Manfra broadcasting
from WBAL, 200 miles away.
And as I sat there in the still
night, with the fate of the Orioles
fading in the air waves, I'd smile
with the memory of my dad fid-
dling with the radio in our
kitchen late at night, more than
three decades ago. He would of-
ten try to pick up his beloved
Dodgers, who had abandoned
Brooklyn and moved to the West
Coast, where games didn't even
start until 11 p.m. our time, and
results wouldn't even make it into
the morning newspaper.
This sense of connecting our-
selves to the fortunes of a team
may be illogical — my mother of-
ten would remind me that
"Brooks Robinson doesn't mope
Mr. Ripken reminds
us that there are no
shortcuts to long-
term success.
around when YOU have a bad
day" — but it's a powerful lesson
in caring and identifying, and a
parallel that should not be lost on
Jewish educators teaching young-
sters about what it means to be
part of "the chosen people."
In embracing Cal Ripken, as
so many fans have, we are almost
palpably pining for the simpler
times when heroes really were
heroic and when cynicism was
not so pervasive. In this age of the
quick fix, when it is more expe-
dient to buy new gadgets than re-
pair old ones, when centuries-old
conflicts are expected to end
overnight, Mr. Ripken comes to
remind us that there are no short-
cuts to long-term success.
That's an important lesson for
an American Jewish community
struggling to deal with a steady
increase in assimilation and in-
termarriage and a decrease in
giving to Jewish philanthropic
causes. In a search for answers,
we sometimes latch onto various
innovative ideas as a quick fix, or
panacea. Cal Ripken, playing his
position day in and day out with
grace and efficiency, confidence
and calmness, reminds us that
our task is not to perform mira-
cles but to keep our focus.