The Maccabiah Games are a celebration of Jewish heritage and culture. And yes, they are exclusionary, in the same sense that not every athlete may...

David Ortiz, the recently retired Hall of Fame-bound star of the Boston Red Sox, pulls few punches as he reflects on his career in his latest memoir. He calls out sports journalists, managers, officials, teammates and opponents who he feels disrespected him and the sport itself, both early on as he sought to find his role in the game, and more recently, as age and injuries presented the opportunity by some to write him off. These comments, excerpted in the sports sections and online...

Lou Piniella is a baseball “lifer,” one of those guys who has enjoyed a career in the national pastime for decades. He began as a minor leaguer after a promising amateur career, then played for 18 years, primarily for the New York Yankees, before changing over from labor to management. He was recognized for his skills both as a player (Rookie of the Year Award in 1969) and as a three-time Manager of the Year.

When I first began work on my new book, "Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War," it was going to be a fairly straightforward look at his assault on one of the biggest records in sports, sprinkled with a bit of pop culture.

Nostalgia is always a popular topic when it comes to baseball books. This year it seems especially so. I would dare to say that most millennial and Gen X baseball fans have not heard of either Casey Stengel or Leo Durocher (unless, in the case of the latter, they saw the 2013 Jackie Robinson biopic, 42). These baseball lifers serve as the themes of two biographies written by veteran authors, whose reputation in their profession rivals that of their subjects.

In baseball, they say time begins on Opening Day. Everyone has a chance for a fresh start. Most of the old familiar names are back, although some have new addresses. If you count Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, there are nine Jews who begin the year on Major League rosters. But then there’s the question of what to do about **Ty Kelly **of the New York Mets: Is he or isn’t he? That’s still a matter of debate among those who decide on such matters.

By Ron Kaplan, correspondent “Slide, Kelly, Slide!” was usually heard in association with the great 19th-century player King Kelly, who played for several Major League teams and was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945. But fans of the Israeli team that will be participating for the first time in the upcoming World Baseball Classic hope to shout it out for perhaps the most unlikely-sounding member of the roster: Tyler Patrick “Ty” Kelly. The 28-year-old outfielder, who made his ML

(JTA) — This season promised to be a banner year for Jewish Major League Baseball players — and by and large, the class of ’16 fared pretty well. Many had their best seasons in years and fans were introduced to a couple of promising newcomers. As the big league calendar reaches its climax with the World Series, here’s a look at what all the Jewish major leaguers accomplished (or not) during the regular season.

Perry Barber was on her way to umpire a game at Boston’s famed Fenway Park. That it was for a women’s fantasy camp and not a Red Sox contest didn’t lessen her excitement. “Fantasy camp for umpires is umpiring school,” said Barber who has been patrolling the field for more than 30 years, in a phone interview last month. She attended six sessions at the famous  Umpiring School (founded by the late National League arbiter Harry) from 1982-85 and again in 2005, and another program run by Zach Rebac

There is a passage from the film Men in Black where the wizened agent “K” discusses alien life on Earth, telling an MIB recruit, “Fifteen hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.” What we believe we know is the basis of Chuck Klosterman’s thought-provoking new book, BUT WHAT IF WE’RE WRONG? How

If he had just been a Jewish ballplayer, dayenu, it would have been enough. If he had just been arguably the best pitcher of his generation, dayenu. But when Sandy Koufax declined to take the mound for the first game of the 1965 World Series? More than enough. Fifty years later, Koufax’s decision to sit out the game is a signal moment in American-Jewish history, one that even a black Baptist preacher like the Rev. Jesse Jackson called “one of the great statements in American athletics.” It in

In this age of “boo-hoo” journalism, it seems anyone who has ever been the subject of abuse, illness, or loss --- or who knows someone in such conditions --- has or soon will come out with a memoir. A quick look at the new book section in my local library shows MY JOURNEY WITH FARRAH: A Story of Life, Love, and Friendship, written by Alana Stewart and published less than two months after the pop culture icon died in June 2009, and Patrick Swayze’s posthumous THE TIME OF MY LIFE,...

When Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life hit the bookstores in 2001, many baseball fans were surprised and even angered with Richard Ben Cramer's portrayal of the Yankee Clipper. After all, Joe D. was an cherished icon for a generation of Americans and the revelations that he was, among other things, a wife beater, an indifferent father, a poor friend, and a miser, did not sit well. How did it happen, they bemoaned, that the veneer should be stripped off our heroes so casually? Maybe we don't want to

Not only was Hank Greenberg baseball’s first Jewish superstar, he was also the first major professional athlete to enlist for service in World War II. But according to a presentation delivered at the national convention of the Society for American Baseball Research, Greenberg’s patriotism and altruism was tempered by pragmatism. SABR, a 7,000-member international organization of scholars, authors, and aficionados, held its 39th annual convention in Washington, DC last week.

‘No more secrets’ A campaign to raise awareness of suicide’s impact on families SideBars: Where to turn for help Walking the walk Beth Randall Branigan participated in the first American Foundation for Suicide Prevention walk in 2003 simply “to make a statement to terms of the way people view mental health.” She never expected those issues to touch her life so personally. Later that year, Michael Jakovich, a beloved cousin, would take his life. The saddest part, Branigan told NJ Jewish News