Kaplan: 50 years since Sandy turned Dandy with Yom Kippur decision
From SABR member Ron Kaplan at New Jersey Jewish News on September 21, 2015, with mention of SABR members Rebecca Alpert, Jeff Katz, Jay Goldberg, Jane Leavy, and Howard Megdal:
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 inspired individuals as different as a Chabad rabbi who personally thanked Koufax the next day, a famed New York Met who would himself sit out during the High Holy Days, and a current Major Leaguer who calls Koufax a “role model.”
Read the full article here: http://njjewishnews.com/kaplanskorner/2015/09/21/50-years-since-sandy-turned-dandy-with-yom-kippur-decision/
Originally published: September 21, 2015. Last Updated: September 21, 2015.