Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story

Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story is a 2010 American documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

narrated by Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....

, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Ira Berkow

Ira Berkow

Ira Berkow is an American Pulitzer Prize winning sports reporter, columnist and writer.-Life:Berkow earned his BA in English Literature at Miami University, and his MA from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University...

, and directed by award-winning documentary filmmaker Peter Miller. It is about the connection and history between American Jews

American Jews

American Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are American citizens of the Jewish faith or Jewish ethnicity. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe, and their U.S.-born descendants...

and baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

.

Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times, wrote that the "warm and enthusiastic" film "not only lives up to its title ... but also delivers a bit extra as well." The documentary received the Best Editing Award at the Breckenridge Film Festival, the Audience Choice Award at the 2011 Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival, and the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Documentary at the 2011 Seattle Jewish Film Festival.

Synopsis

The film was written by Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

winner Ira Berkow

Ira Berkow

, and narrated by two-time Academy Award winning actor Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....

. It was directed by Peter Miller, a documentary filmmaker known for his previous films A Class Apart, Sacco and Vanzetti
Sacco and Vanzetti (film)
Sacco and Vanzetti is a 2006 documentary film directed by Peter Miller. It presents interviews with researchers and historians of the lives of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, and their trial. It also presents forensic evidence that refutes that used by the prosecution during the trial...

, and The Internationale.

Dustin Hoffman does not normally narrate films, and initially turned down the project. But when he looked at the script, he changed his mind, saying: "Oh, this is about bigotry and overcoming anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

, about discrimination and these issues that I grew up with, that really matters to me".

The film opens with a clip from the 1980 satirical comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

Airplane!
Airplane!
Airplane! is a 1980 American satirical comedy film directed and written by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker and released by Paramount Pictures...

, in which a flight attendant is asked by a passenger if she has anything light to read. She responds by offering an ultra-thin leaflet, saying: "How about this leaflet, Famous Jewish Sports Legends?"

The stereotype of Jews as non-athletic, as well as anti-semitism, are two issues that many Jewish baseball players faced and had to overcome. Noted anti-semite Henry Ford

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...

wrote on May 22, 1920: “If fans wish to know the trouble with American baseball they have it in three words—too much Jew.” A number of early Jewish ballplayers changed their names, so that it would not be apparent that they were Jewish.

The movie discusses how in fact there have been key Jewish ballplayers in every decade since baseball started in the 1860s, and how that helped Jews assimilate and counteract the stereotype of Jews as cerebral but non-athletic. The film is in part about Jewish immigration and assimilation into American society, bigotry against Jews, the passing on of Jewish traditions even during assimilation, heroism, and the breaking of Jewish stereotypes.

Director Miller said:

At its heart, this is a film about overcoming stereotypes. Bigotry against Jews has faded a great deal...

The story of a once-marginalized people finding their way into the American mainstream offers lessons for a country that continues to grapple with its ideal as a place where talent should overcome prejudice, where we can retain our differences while still being American, where anyone who can hit or pitch or run can be a part of the magic and drama of our national game.

The documentary contains rare archival footage and photos, and music ranging from Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman

Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...

to Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...

to Rush

Rush (band)

Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...

Ballplayers, and interviewees

The documentary highlights Al Rosen

Al Rosen

Albert Leonard Rosen , nicknamed "Al", "Flip", and the "Hebrew Hammer", is a former American professional baseball player who was a third baseman and right-handed slugger in the Major Leagues for ten seasons in tthe 1940s and 1950s.He played his entire 10-year career with the Cleveland Indians in...

(rookie of the year in 1950, and MVP in 1953), who is frank about how he dealt with anti-Semitism: "There's a time that you let it be known that enough is enough.... You flatten [them]." It also discusses Moe Berg

Moe Berg

Morris "Moe" Berg was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II...

("he spoke seven languages, and couldn't hit in any of them"), Lipman Pike (his $20-per-week for the 1866 Philadelphia Athletics made him the first professional player; he led the National Association in home runs three times), pitcher Barney Pelty

Barney Pelty

Barney Pelty , was a major league baseball pitcher known as "the Yiddish Curver" because he was one of the first Jewish baseball players in the American League. His career ERA is 2.63, 60th-best of all pitchers in major league baseball...

(the "Yiddish Curver"), "Subway Sam" Nahem

Sam Nahem

Samuel Ralph "Subway Sam" Nahem born in New York, New York was a pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers , St...

, Moe Solomon

Moe Solomon

Mose Hirsch Solomon, nicknamed the Rabbi of Swat was an American left-handed baseball player who briefly played for the New York Giants in 1923.-Early life:...

("The Rabbi of Swat"), and Shawn Green

Shawn Green

Shawn David Green is a former Major League Baseball player.Green was a 1st round draft pick and a two-time major league All-Star...

. Those interviewed also include Norm Sherry

Norm Sherry

Norman Burt Sherry is an American former catcher, manager, and coach in Major League Baseball. He is best known as the man who, while still an active player as the second-string catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, helped the great lefthanded pitcher Sandy Koufax harness his talent and transform...

, Ron Blomberg

Ron Blomberg

Ronald Mark Blomberg , nicknamed Boomer, is a former Major League Baseball designated hitter, first baseman, and right fielder...

, Elliott Maddox

Elliott Maddox

Elliott Maddox is an African-American former Major League Baseball American player. Maddox, from 1970 to 1980, played for the Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators/Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, and New York Mets.-Early and personal life:Maddox attended Union High School in...

, and Bob Feller

Bob Feller

On December 8, 1941, Feller enlisted in the Navy, volunteering immediately for combat service, becoming the first Major League Baseball player to do so following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7. Feller served as Gun Captain aboard the USS Alabama, and missed four seasons during his service...

. Also featured in the film are Norm Sherry

Norm Sherry

, Ron Blomberg

Ron Blomberg

Ronald Mark Blomberg , nicknamed Boomer, is a former Major League Baseball designated hitter, first baseman, and right fielder...

, Maury Allen

Maury Allen

Maury Allen was an American sportswriter, actor, and former columnist for the New York Post and the Journal-News. He was also a voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Allen wrote 40 books on American sports icons...

, Larry King

Larry King

Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....

, Ron Howard

Ron Howard

Ronald William "Ron" Howard is an American actor, director, and producer. He came to prominence as a child actor, playing Opie Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show for eight years, and later the teenaged Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days for six years...

, and Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra is a former American Major League Baseball catcher, outfielder, and manager. He played almost his entire 19-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...

.http://www.jewsandbaseball.com/
The documentary focuses especially on two players. One is Hank Greenberg

Hank Greenberg

Henry Benjamin "Hank" Greenberg , nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank" or "The Hebrew Hammer," was an American professional baseball player in the 1930s and 1940s. A first baseman primarily for the Detroit Tigers, Greenberg was one of the premier power hitters of his generation...

, a two-time American League MVP, five-time All Star, and Hall of Famer. Anti-Semitic barbs directed at him from the stands served to motivate him, he said. He sat out Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...

during a tight pennant race on the advice of his mother. The film notes a column in the Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep"...

, in which Edgar Guest

Edgar Guest

Edgar Albert Guest was a prolific English-born American poet who was popular in the first half of the 20th century and became known as the People's Poet.In 1891, Guest came with his family to the United States from England...

wrote in response to Greenberg's absence from the lineup: “We shall miss him on the infield, and shall miss him at the bat, but he’s true to his religion and we honor him for that.”

The other is Sandy Koufax

Sandy Koufax

Sanford "Sandy" Koufax is a former left-handed baseball pitcher who played his entire 12-year Major League Baseball career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers...

, Hall of Fame pitcher, three-time Cy Young Award winner, and 7-time All Star who sat out a World Series

World Series

The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...

game to observe Yom Kippur. When Koufax went to synagogue instead of pitching the first game of the 1965 World Series

1965 World Series

The 1965 World Series featured the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers against the American League champion Minnesota Twins, who had won their first pennant since 1933 when the team was known as the Washington Senators...

, Don Drysdale

Don Drysdale

Donald Scott "Don" Drysdale was a Major League Baseball player and Hall of Fame right-handed pitcher with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was one of the dominant starting pitchers of the 1960s, and became a radio and television broadcaster following his playing career...

replaced him and was bombed; when Dodgers Manager Walter Alston

Walter Alston

Walter Emmons Alston , nicknamed "Smokey," was an American baseball player and manager. He was born in Venice, Ohio but grew up in Darrtown. He is a graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he lettered three years in both basketball and baseball and is a member of the University's Hall...

arrived at the mound to take him out of the game, Drysdale quipped: "Right now I bet you wish I was Jewish too." Koufax agreed to a rare filmed interview for the documentary.
More-current ballplayers are also discussed, including All Stars Kevin Youkilis

Kevin Youkilis

Kevin Edmund Youkilis , also known as "Youk" , is an American professional baseball player with the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball...

, Ian Kinsler

Ian Kinsler

Ian Michael Kinsler is a Major League Baseball All-Star second baseman for the Texas Rangers.Despite having been drafted in only the 17th round out of college, Kinsler has risen to become a two-time All Star, and a member of the Sporting News 2009 list of the 50 greatest current players in baseball...

, and Ryan Braun

Ryan Braun

Ryan Joseph Braun is an American right-handed Major League Baseball left fielder for the Milwaukee Brewers. A perennial standout, he was ranked No...

. Youkilis notes in the film:

It’s something that I probably won’t realize until my career is over, how many people are really rooting for me and cheering for me. And it’s not just because I went 3-for-4, or had a great game. It’s just the fact that I represent a lot of Jewish people and a lot of the Jewish heritage and the struggles that a lot of our people have had.

As of 2010, there had been 166 Jewish major leaguers, the newest being Ike Davis

Ike Davis

Isaac Benjamin "Ike" Davis is a Major League Baseball first baseman for the New York Mets. He and his father Ron Davis, who pitched in the majors for 11 years, are the 197th father-son combination to have both played in the major leagues.He led his high school team to three straight Arizona state...

with the New York Mets and Danny Valencia

Danny Valencia

Daniel Paul Valencia is a third baseman for the Minnesota Twins.In high school, he was all-county three times and all-state twice. In college, he was Southern Conference Freshman of the Year, second-team all-conference, and on his all-regional team...

with the Minnesota Twins.

Release

Among the film's notable festival appearances and special screenings in 2010 were July 15 & 16 at the Jerusalem Film Festival

Jerusalem Film Festival

The Jerusalem Film Festival is an international film festival held annually in Jerusalem, Israel. The festival was the brainchild of Lia van Leer, who inaugurated it on May 17, 1984...

, July 25 at the Stony Brook Film Festival

Stony Brook Film Festival

The Stony Brook Film Festival, produced by Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University, presents a program of new, independent films every summer since 1996. Features and short films from the U.S. and around the world are screened over ten days at Staller Center, which has been the venue...

, July 25 at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is the oldest and largest Jewish film festival in the world. The three-week summer festival is held in San Francisco, California, usually at the Castro Theater in San Francisco and other cinemas in San Francisco, Berkeley, San Rafael, and Palo Alto, and features...

, July 31 & August 1 & 8 at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

, August 10–15 at the Rhode Island International Film Festival

Rhode Island International Film Festival

Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival takes place every year in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island as well as satellite locations throughout the state. Started in 1997, the Festival is produced by Flickers, the Newport Film/Video Society & Arts Collaborative, a 501 non-profit...

, October 3 at the Baseball Hall of Fame, and October 14 & 16 at the Jacksonville Film Festival

Jacksonville Film Festival

The Jacksonville Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Jacksonville, Florida. Founded in 2002, the festival screens dozens of the hundreds of films submitted for its consideration...

. It was the opening night film at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival on February 8, 2011, playing for an audience of over 3,000 at Atlanta's Fox Theater. It was released theatrically in New York, Los Angeles, and a number of other cities. The DVD will be released by New Video on April 19, 2011.

Critical response

Kenneth Turan

Kenneth Turan is an American film critic and Lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.-Background:...

of The Los Angeles Times, describing it as warm and enthusiastic, wrote that the documentary: "not only lives up to its title ... but also delivers a bit extra as well." John Anderson wrote in Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

that "With terrific narration by Dustin Hoffman, Jews and Baseball makes effective use of archival footage and interviews, the most spectacular of which is a lengthy sequence featuring the usually reclusive Koufax". Andrew Schenker of Time Out New York described it as: "a breezy compendium of fun facts and colorful figures ... likely to prove irresistible to baseball fans, Hebraic or otherwise." Newsday described it as, "Stirring, revelatory and affectionate. Jews and Baseball knocks it out of the park."

Awards

The film received the Best Editing Award at the Breckenridge Film Festival, recognizing the work of film editor Amy Linton,
the Audience Choice Award at the 2011 Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival, and the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Documentary at the 2011 Seattle Jewish Film Festival.

Synopsis

Ballplayers, and interviewees

Release

Critical response

Awards

See also

Books