Arts Life
On The Bookshelf
Sports Mania
Jewish author explains America's love a air with sports.
and design, corresponds to one of three social and eco-
nomic periods in the nation's history
Baseball is the agrarian sport, evoking traditional
ichael Mandelbaum, who was educated at
rural life; football is the industrial sport — representing
Yale, Cambridge and Harvard and is the
the factory — born in an age when the growth of cities
provided large numbers of people to play and watch
son of two college professors, is one of the
nation's leading authorities on American foreign policy
the game; and basketball didn't come into its own until
the late 20th century, the post-industrial period of
and international relations. The topic of his latest
book? The meaning of sports.
office workers, satellite television and the Internet.
It's easy to understand the reasons for Mandelbaum's
"Football and basketball are ruled by the clock, like
previous eight books, on such topics as Reagan and
their fans who worked in the factories and mills," the
Gorbachev, nuclear weapons, peace, democracy and
author points out.
free world markets — but sports?
Mandelbaum, raised in a Reform Jewish home in
The explanation is that California native
Berkeley; Calif, draws a parallel with team sports in
Mandelbaum, 58, is really a serious sports fan. Not
general and Jewish immigrants, most of whom started
only has he followed sports closely all of his
coming to the United States in the late
life, he played some sports in high school
1800s.
and, heck, even enjoyed watching the
"Many of these Jews were poor, then
Oakland (Calif.) Oaks minor league base-
prospered and became part of the American
ball team.
culture, and so did these sports at the same
His new book, The Meaning ofSports:
time," he said. 'Another parallel is that Jews
Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football and
always believe strongly in the rule of law
Basketball and What They See When They Do
because of their talmudic tradition, and, of
(Public Affairs; $26), examines America's
course, each sport is governed by a set of
century-long love affair with those three
rules, or laws.
sports, describing how they respond to deep
'Also, all sports are based on merit — the
human needs.
game starts with the score 0-0, so the teams
He explains how baseball, football and
have to prove themselves. That corresponds
Michael
basketball have become national institu-
to other features in American life.
Mandelbaum:
tions, followed almost religiously by mil-
"The Jewish immigrants also had to prove
Lifelong sports fan
lions of Americans, and how they reached
themselves in the American culture and
and one of the
their present forms.
adhere to a certain set of principles; the
nation's leading
He covers the evolution of rules, the rise
same was true of all of the other ethnic
authorities on
and fall of the most successful teams and
groups that came to this country. There's no
American foreign
the historical significance of figures like
question as to the extreme popularity of
policy and interna-
Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Barry Bonds, Red
sports
among 211 of these ethnic cultures."
tional relations.
Grange, Knute Rockne, Vince Lombardi,
The baseball portion of the book pays
Bill Russell, Michael Jordan and George
rightful homage to the two top Jewish play-
Steinbrenner.
ers of all time — Hank Greenberg, the Detroit Tigers'
In a frequently chaotic world, Mandelbaum points
slugger of the 1930s and 1940s, and Sandy Koufax, the
out, team sports provide some type of structure to mil-
star Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher of the 1960s, who
lions of Americans.
retired with arm trouble at the age of 30.
"While the news sections of the daily newspapers
Mandelbaum calls Greenberg an "ethnic pioneer,"
might report the baffling and the unintelligible," he
who took almost as much abuse as Jackie Robinson,
writes, "the sports sections feature succinct histories
who broke baseball's racial barrier in 1946. Jewish foot-
that everyone can understand, with a clear-cut begin-
ball players, a rare breed, are difficult to find in the
ning, middle and end."
book, except for a brief mention of Chicago Bears star
A better name for this 284-page book might be The
quarterback Sid Luckman.
History of Sports, because the volume covers everything
However, Jewish players figure prominently in bas-
and everybody involved with those three sports since
ketball lore, mainly because it was the most popular
their inceptions. Mandelbaum even devotes four pages
sport in the crowded ethnic neighborhoods of the large
to a meticulous description of the designated hitter rule urban areas, requiring less space to play than baseball
in baseball's American League — he says it "created
and football.
moral havoc"— and delves into other details that
Four of the five starting players on the St. John's
would delight many rabid sports fans.
(N.Y.) University "Wonder Five" of the 1929-1931 sea-
"I tried to show how sports are woven very tightly
sons were Jewish. Eddie Gottlieb organized the famous
into the fabric of American life," he explained in an
South Philadelphia Hebrew Association team, known
interview from his Washington, D.C., office. 'And
as the SPHAs, and later owned the Philadelphia NBA
franchise.
baseball, football and basketball especially have a pow-
erful grip on the national imagination."
Arnold "Red" Auerbach and William
' "Red"
Mandelbaum says each of these games, in its history
Holzman were championship coaches. Detroit Pistons
BILL CARROLL
Special to the Jewish News
IVI
12/31
2004
44
Coach Larry Brown,
who also is Jewish, has
outshone them, win-
ning a college basket-
ball championship, an
NBA title and an
Olympic bronze
medal.
MICHAEL MAAIDELHAUM
Two of the three
professional sports'
commissioners are
At the heart of Mandelbaums
Jewish: Bud Selig of
argument lies an account of how
baseball and David
the games we watch tell stories
Stern of basketball.
about the work we do and the
What are the
social order in which we do it.
prospects for these
three sports in the
21st century?
Mandelbaum feels basketball has the widest appeal
of the three, and seems set to become American team
sports' gift to the world and the future. "
He adds, "Baseball will remain a way of recapturing
the rural American past, and football will stay a riveting
spectacle, an exercise in controlled violence.
"At the end of the century, the U.S. will continue to
be a country in which the three team sports thrive, and
Americans will continue to be people for whom base-
ball, football and basketball are a source of complex,
rich and intensely felt meaning."
Mandelbaum played some basketball in high school
and a lot in India, where he spent two years while his
father was on a teaching assignment. His father was an
anthropology professor at the University of California,
and his mother directed a graduate internship program
there.
Mandelbaum earned a bachelor's degree at Yale, a
master's degree at England's Cambridge University and
a Ph.D. at Harvard University. He later taught at
Harvard and at the U.S. Naval Academy. He and his
wife, Ann, have been married for 26 years.
Mandelbaum now is the Christian A. Herter profes-
sor of American foreign policy at the Johns Hopkins
University School of Advanced International Studies in
Washington. But he's reluctant to discuss his foreign
policy expertise, deferring to his sports prowess.
"I'd really rather just talk about the meaning of
sports," he said.
A periodic guest on TV's Fox News Channel and
CNN, he was coaxed off the subject of sports long
enough to give his views on the Middle East.
"Israel's new wall defense has been a controversial
issue, but it has been successful so far," he said. "The
wall and the debate over new settlements must be
decided by Israel and the Palestinians, not outsiders.
And Yasser Arafat certainly [was] no partner in the
),
peace process.
While Mandelbaum's book can help explain America
and its love affair with sports to Americans, it also is a
subtle extension of his own foreign policy knowledge
and may help explain the U.S. to the rest of the often-
baffled world. P1