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Slugger Ryan Braun is facing a play-or-pray decision in his rookie season.
Will He?
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Suspense builds around Milwaukee
Brewers' Braun and High Holidays.
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38 September 13 • 2007
A
s the baseball seasons
heads into the home stretch
and the High Holidays
approach, Ryan Braun is supplying a
double dose of suspense:
Will the Milwaukee Brewers' slug-
ging third baseman become the first
Jewish player to be named Rookie of
the Year in either league? And does he
plan to take a day off on Yom Kippur
in the tradition of Hank Greenberg,
Sandy Koufax and Shawn Green?
Braun, 25, has made an impact
since his debut at the end of May.
The California native made history
in July by becoming the first player
to be named the National League's
Rookie of the Month and Player of
the Month.
As of Sunday, he was batting .328
with 30 home runs and 79 runs bat-
ted in.
If Braun, the son of an Israeli who
immigrated to the United States
at the age of 7, is selected by the
Baseball Writers' Association of
America as the N.L.'s top rookie, it
would mark a first for Jewish players
in Major League Baseball history.
Jewish Hall of Famers Hank
Greenberg and Lou Boudreau played
before the award was instituted in
1947. Koufax wasn't even close in
1955. Nor were the nine current
Jewish major leaguers: Shawn Green,
Brad Ausmus, Mike Lieberthal,
Jason Marquis, Kevin Youkilis, Scott
Schoeneweis and John Grabow, along
with promising second-year players
Ian Kinsler and Jason Hirsh.
The closest any Jewish player came
to winning Rookie of the Year was
another slugging third baseman, Al
Rosen of the Cleveland Indians. In
1950, he led the American League
with 37 home runs, but lost out in the
balloting to Red Sox first baseman
Walt Dropo, who batted .322 and was
the RBI leader with 144.
Rosen went on to become the
American League MVP in 1953, while
Dropo never came close to matching
his rookie totals.
Over the years, as the baseball
season has wound down toward the
playoffs, observers of Jews in baseball
traditionally wonder what the promi-
nent Jewish players will do on Yom
Kippur — play or pray?
In earlier decades, Greenberg and
Koufax made the American Jewish
community proud with their deci-
sions to sit out on the holy day