By Paul Goldfinger, Editor@Blogfinger.net
Immigrants often fell in love with baseball. And they often had particular reasons to cheer when Joe DiMaggio took the field or Hank Greenberg or Joe Cleary. Then there were others who identified with certain players such as Jackie Robinson. And other groups, such as Columbia University grads, would cheer for Lou Gehrig. And there were guys like me who admired DiMaggio for marrying Marilyn Monroe.
Later the game would be dominated by Hispanics such as Roberto Clemente. As for the Jews, they had pitcher Sandy Koufax who refused to pitch the first game of the 1965 World Series because of Yom Kippur. So he was an athlete whose actions taught a moral lesson to be admired by all.
In my childhood, my friends and I collected baseball cards and we played ball. But I was a lousy player, and they stuck me into right field where I prayed that no ball would come my way.
The most fun for us with the sport of baseball was a variation called “stick ball.” We played against a brick wall with a strike zone drawn with chalk, and we used a Spaldine ball and a broom handle.
In New York they played that game in the streets.
Below is Mandy Patinkin with a Yiddish version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame/ God Bless America.”