IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING WHAT TO GET US FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Diamond Jews -- and we don't mean jewlery: There have been 141 Jewish baseball players in the Major Leagues. Now you can collect them all in a unique new baseball card set. (Joe Eskenazi August 25, 2003, Jewsweek)

For anyone who says a Jew can't make it as a big-time athlete, Martin Abramowitz has an answer. Well, 141 answers, in actuality. The Newton, Mass.-based fan has created a baseball card set encapsulating every Jew who ever laced up a pair of spikes and stepped between the lines, going back to the days before pitching mounds and mitts.

Even the most ardent Jewish baseball fan will probably pause to utter a lengthy "uhhhhhh" after naming Sandy Koufax, Hank Greenberg and, maybe, Shawn Green. But Abramowitz's 141-card set has them all: Lipman Pike, Andy Cohen, Harry "The Horse" Danning, and Ken Holtzman get their due. [...]

The card set, known as "American Jews in America's Game," was born in Abramowitz's kitchen when he had a baseball epiphany. "I collect vintage Jewish baseball player cards," says Abramowitz, who is planning director for Boston's Combined Jewish Philanthropies when he isn't collecting cards or sitting at Fenway Park.

"So we were sitting at the table one day and [my son] Jacob was looking at his Ken Griffey Jr. and Michael Jordan cards and I was looking at my cards and I said I could never have a complete set because about 40 of these guys never had cards.

"He was half paying attention and he said, 'Make 'em yourself.' And he took out a piece of paper and scribbled a logo with a baseball and a Jewish star." [...]

The set is now distributed by the AJHS and can be ordered at www.ajhs.org. It will also be sold at the Hall of Fame, incidentally.

Before Shawn Green and Gabe Kapler made it to the majors a few years ago, there was a period when the only Jewish player was J. J. (Jose Juan) Batista. It always seemed particularly ironic that the Tribe's sole representative was named John the Baptist. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 25, 2003 9:34 AM