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Who do you think is among the top Jewish Athletes of all Time?
Hank Greenberg
Sid Luckman qb of the chicago Bears in the 40s broke all kinds of records, in baseball i guess i’d have to say Hank Greenberg, or maybe Rod Carew :), and in Olympic sports it would have to be Mark Spit.
Sandy Koufax. He was one of the best pitchers ever. From 1963-1966, he went 97-27, with an ERA of 1.86 over 1,192.2 innings pitched. He had 1,228 strikeouts over those 4 years.
How about MOSHE RABEINU (How many people you know that can jump their own height? Approximately 19 Feet
Daniel Mendoza
Doug Shapiro
Amare 🙂
hmmmmmmmm. this is a tough one and I’ll have to think about it a while.
BTW, contrary to what Adam Sandler may have told you, Rod Carew is not Jewish. He is married to a Jewish woman, has Jewish daughters, but never converted to Judaism.
There is a great movie out now called Jews and Baseball. Well worth seeing. Haven’t been to a movie theater since I was a child, but made an exception for this.
My vote goes to Sam Zeitlin. Who’s that, you ask? He’s the cyclist that was in line to win a medal, yet walked away from the ’72 olympics because he became a BT (which saved his life, both literaly and figurativley)
Shimshon Hagibor
This is a no-brainer.
Sandy Koufax.
Saw him pitch.
dear shlomozalman, I saw Koufax pitch, too, and it was a sight to behold.
The reason I am hesitant to say Koufax, is that the stellar part of his career only covered six seasons. I think that the greatest athlete should be someone who played well over a long career.
If you asked me who pitched better than anyone else ever, I would not hesitate to say Sandy Koufax.
If you asked me who was the best pitcher of all time, I’d have to name someone other than Koufax.
ShlomoZalman, in the above movie, they have a lot of footage of his playing, and also an interview of him now, which he rarely does.
You can see that aside from his overpowering speed, he had such control of the ball, and kept it wrapped in his hands for an extra few milliseconds or so to be able to guide it exactly where he wanted it.
He would whiff greats like Mickey Mantle effortlessly. He had a problem which he tried to work on that his pitches would be obvious to the hitters based on his windup. Another great hitter of the time said, we always knew what he was about to throw, but we still couldn’t hit it.
However, I was reading some info on him, and in the beginning of his career, he had such problems with control that he was about to give up baseball after a year or two in the majors, he got so frustrated. He decided to give it one more chance, and worked very hard on getting into the best shape he could, and practicing his throwing, and it paid off. It is a shame that he threw out his arm at an early age and was left with arthritis that ended his career.
Ronrsr, if you look at Koufax’s plaque in the Hall, you will see that despite his short career, he set numerous records.
yes, dear Pashuteh Yid, that is so. As I said, Koufax pitched better than anyone ever pitched, period. But only over a span of six years.
Compare this to someone like Warren Spahn who pitched in the majors for 24 years in the majors, and set records when he was in his twenties, as well as his forties.
The greatest jewish athelete of all time has to be Tamir Goodman. 😉 jk
Adolph Schayes was at the time of his retirement the leading scorer in the history of the NBA. He is almost certainly the greatest Jewish basketball player ever.
Dear ronrsr,
I think we can agree that determining the “greatest ever” in anything will never be a consensus choice.
From 1957-1966, the last ten years of his career, batters hit .203 against him. In his best six years, they hit (I don’t remember exactly) in the .170s. That is enough for me to place him above all others, Jewish and not.
Mark Spitz
Kako, you mean the Spitzer Rov?
1. Mantle struck out against Koufax 3 times and hit 1 homer against him.
2. It is far from clear that Koufax was the greatest pitcher ever. (Walter Johnson, for example, who won 417 games and had a career ERA of 2.17, would get some support.) However, Koufax was, seemingly, the best JEWISH pitcher. Though Greenberg rivals him as a player.
I think it’s appropriate to mention Bob Feller today. My father ybl”a thinks he was the greatest pitcher of all time, and he saw many of the great ones.
As to Walter Johnson, it’s hard to argue. This of course brings up the eternal problem of comparing greats from different time eras. Mantle is not a good example, he struck out against everyone. Koufax said himself that his toughest out was Hank Aaron, who batted around .320 career against him, I think the only player who batted over .300 against Koufax.
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