Amar'e Stoudemire Lights the Menorah? (and other weekly questions)

O.J. Simpson is still not a Jew, but if the newest New York Knick star, Amar'e Carsares Stoudemire, has his way, he may be considered for Adam Sandler's next "Hanukkah Song". Stoudemire says that he may have some Jewish roots on his mother's side and wants to find out more about them.  If you follow Amar'e on Twitter, you may have seen some odd tweets recently about his pilgrimage to Israel and his search for his "Hebrew" roots.We may have to change his Twitter handle from "Amareisreal" to "AmareIsrael", especially considering this interview he filmed with an Israeli news station (H/T Ian):

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Not a Good Way To Start a New Year

L'Shana Tova to all our Jewish readers. I saw there was a sign behind home plate at the Yankees game last night wishing everyone in Seattle the same but I figured I'd add my wishes.

Last night's game, however, did not end well for the Yankees. Mariano Rivera blew his first save after 36 straight conversions. Rivera got two easy outs with a one-run lead but allowed a double and then a two-run home run by Ichiro.

(Side Note: For those panicking about Rivera blowing a save, know this: let him blow it now and get it out of his system. Besides Brad Lidge last season, no one who goes into the playoffs with save streaks seems to make it out of it alive. Better he blow it now than Game 7 of the ALCS vs. the Red Sox.)

I have to disagree with Peter Abraham who says that Joe Girardi made the right decision not to walk Ichiro in the 9th. Ichiro has more hits than anyone over the past decade, has set the record for hits in a season and has set the record for consecutive 200-hit seasons all to start his career. There's a runner on second. Most of the time, you don't want to put the winning run on base when that person is as fast as Ichiro. And I know that Mo doesn't like to issue intentional walks...

But a single in that situation ties the game. The rest of the Mariners' lineup is atrocious. Ichiro had been hitting great in the game but made two huge baserunning mistakes that you knew he needed to make up for somehow. You need to walk him in that situation. Put him on base. Let someone else beat you. Normally I'm not a fan of intentional walks at all, but this was one situation that seemed to dictate it.

No, You're A Towel Readers Make a Difference!

I wrote about it yesterday on the blog and then you wrote in in droves after we found out that ESPN had changed the Yankees game to conflict with Yom Kippur...and we got results! The game has been moved back to 1 PM! My response from ESPN to the e-mail I sent:

Thanks for writing.

Major League Baseball and ESPN have agreed to move the September 27th Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees game from 8 p.m. ET to 1 p.m. ET so as to not conflict with Yom Kippur. The game will be televised exclusively on ESPN and ESPNHD.

Sincerely,
ESPN Viewer Response Team

Nice work people and thanks for reading (and Gemar Chatimah Tova)

Yanks/Sox on Yom Kippur (But Will Kevin Jew-kilis Play?)

(or Casey Kotchman for that matter?)

Yankees vs. Red Sox on Yom Kippur? ESPN will have to atone. From the New York Post (H/T @Stefmara):

Major League Baseball and ESPN must be atone deaf.

The Yankees' Sept. 27 home game against the Boston Red Sox has been rescheduled from 1 to 8 p.m. -- putting the first pitch well after the sundown start of Yom Kippur.

The move forces observant Jewish fans to miss the game or risk having a lot more to atone for next Yom Kippur.

"Baseball switched the time because ESPN selected the game," a spokeswoman for the Yankees told The Post. "We were upset by it, but we have no control.

In all seriousness, this sucks. The Yankees may have the division wrapped up, but for those who bought a plan before the season or paid ridiculous prices on StubHub for Yanks/Sox tickets, only to find out they'll be in Temple instead, are getting a really raw deal. I doubt they'd change it back now, but maybe if enough people write angry letters, ESPN will at least think twice about doing this next time.

KKK vs. The Hebrew All-Star Baseball Game

Very interesting article from The Atlantic only gets started with that headline. Wow

(H/T Rob Neyer)

Awesome Jewish Rap

It's not every Saturday night you get to hear a private listening of Jewish rap while out on the town. And when you do, it usually sucks. But this was awesome (like really awesome). So for your viewing pleasure, Chozinn's "The Original Heeb Hop Hit":

March Madness Day 1 Links

Big evening of sitting front of the TV watching college basketball (when, in fact, I could easily have gone to the gym and done the same thing...oh well)

-Coach K says the President should worry about the economy and not the tournament -- AKA as Barack-etology (H/T Deadspin on that name). In other news, Coach K is a HUGE Republican. In other, other news, I now have even more reason to hate Coach K

-Reviews of the new stadiums for the Mets and Yankees from the New Yorker

-One of my favorite baseball subjects is Jewish ballplayers. From Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg to Shawn Green and Kevin Jew-kilis, it makes me proud to be a part of the Tribe. This article from LoHud's Sam Borden looks into just that (H/T Pete Abraham)

-This A-Rod situation keeps on getting wierder and wierder. What Madonna song is he talking about here???

-Matt Mosley puts the Giants on the clock and talks about draft prospects. Even if they think Plax may be out part of the season, they may be better off drafting someone like Nicks if he falls to them.

-Watch With Kristen asks if someone on The Office is pregnant (and other Dundler Mifflin news)

-Her frenemy, Ausiello, has his weekly Ask Ausiello and says this about Big Love:

Question: I am hooked on Big Love. I'm begging for scoop on Sunday's season finale! --Heather
Ausiello: Bill Paxton...revealed that, unlike last season's capper, this one ends with a cliffhanger. And here's a little season 4 scoop: Damages' Zeljko Ivanek, who debuted two weeks ago as a creep who may or may not have fathered a child with Nikki way back when, will be back next season in a major way.

-Next, the New York Times advises to take advantage of the low air fares because they won't last (H/T Sarah). I just saw $399 each way to New Zealand and Australia on Qantas.

-MarketingProfs Daily Fix talks about getting a job through Twitter. Another way to use social networking to get hired.

-A very, very in-depth look at Bernard L. Madoff from Traders Magazine (H/T Wendy)

-Aaron Boone opens up to the New York Times about his upcoming open heart surgery

-Obama/Leno tonight. The battle should be like camping: INTENSE!

-I linked before on the blog about a suggestion to revive the White House "kitchen garden" and Yahoo! reports that it's coming back

-NPR goes over which politicians got the most from AIG donations (*hint* you may have heard of the first guy...but then he got a lot of donations from EVERYONE)

-Another reason for guys to go to hockey games (as if they needed any more!)

-And, lastly, is Marc Savard a bigger vagina than Sidney Crosby? That would be QUITE a feat

President's Day Links

A mother of all links post on a day where no President's were born, but we celebrate them anyways...with a day off

-Well I've ready a Michael Lewis book about football and baseball...and now it seems like he's getting ready to write one about basketball as well.

-I still think that the Yankees should use their "Type A advantage" (having signed three Type A's already, all they would have to give up to sign a Type A would be a fourth round draft pick) and do a sign-and-trade with another team. This article seems to think that a sign-and-trade directly with the team who owns the Type A rights directly would be the best course of action, but those people would want to be compensated close to a 1st round pick while the Yankees would be looking to be compensated close to a 4th round pick...just throwing that out there.

-Before I had said that John Smoltz was a lock for the Hall of Fame. I still believe that. Jack Curry of the New York Times agrees with me. Smoltz may actually get hurt by Maddux and Glavine getting in. But he should be a no-doubt first-ballot Hall of Famer.

-I don't know why they're doing this while he's still alive (it looks way too much like a dead man's tribute), but this is a really cool look back at the life of Senator Edward Kennedy. Definitely worth looking through some of the awesome pictures and videos from the Kennedy boys' youth throughout the article. Looks like quite a book.

-Also, they have the front page from the day Kathleen Kennedy was killed in a plane crash. It's also the day Israel declared it's independence. Pretty crazy.

-Speaking of Jews, in the end, Joe Lieberman stepped up for the Dems. It almost seems like a movie where the guy does something wrong, but in the end, comes back and redeems himself.

-Speaking some more about Jews, we have some all-stars going to our Hall of Fame it seems...and some athletes who are still discriminated against

-So that's how baseball players get in shape! (H/T Rob Neyer)

-A list of the worst contracts in the American League and National League. Amazingly the Yankees don't make one of those lists for once. I guess Jason Giambi, Carl Pavano, Kyle Farnsworth and the like coming off the books would do that...

-A look at the New York Football Giants' Free Agents. No potential big losses besides Derrick Ward now that they've slapped the franchise tag on Brandon Jacobs...and they seem quite content to go with Ahmad Bradshaw as the #2 and Danny Ware as the #3. Sad that Amani Toomer's tenure has to end like this...Another bit in that article linked to this Daily News piece which says (buried within the article): "Amani Toomer is right: The Giants don't want him. His recent whining only solidified the organization's stance. Truth is, the Giants grew tired of him a couple of years ago, when they started questioning his dedication and attitude, according to a person familiar with the team's thinking."

-Freakonomics pointed me to this interesting article about not subsidizing shareholders for insolvent banks. He does make a lot of interesting and thought-provoking points. The article ends with this: "The present practice of subsidizing shareholders and debt holders of large insolvent bank holding companies is unprecedented, improper, and unwise. It is time to take strong capitalist action — and that requires wiping out the existing owners of the insolvent banks and giving the system much needed new equity capital, which, at this time, can come only from the government."

-Deadspin is pretty funny sometimes.

-So is this link about Pokey (H/T Jay)

-So maybe Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind will actually come true...scary. I'll start with 8th grade, thank you.

-I have a turtle quite like this. We call her Pam. I would recommend that Tyler Kepner and Pete Abraham wash their hands because they are quite full of salmonella.

-Let her fight!

-I don't even want to talk about the Rangers. When you allow a 3 on 5 shorthanded goal, you don't deserve to win a Stanley Cup.

-Peter Gammons on A-Ro[i]d

-I don't think I've seen a story that can get any more ridiculous than this one in England. When do we find out it's all made up?

-Good thing the Yankees didn't make this trade

-One guy I'm counting on for the Yanks 'pen this year: Mark Melancon (H/T Pete Abraham)

-CC looks [relatively] thin

-Wow...way to ruin your public image, Jim Leyritz

-From journalist to strip club owner.

-In Buster Olney's latest blog entry, he brings up an interesting part of the Torre book that I've heard from a few other people is one of his more objectionable parts:

• Carl Pavano doesn't want to address Joe Torre's book, but many others in the game are appalled by the manager's seeming willingness to cast blame or disparagement in the pages while taking very little responsibility for what went wrong when the Yankees lost.

In the book, Mariano Rivera is blamed, in part, for the postseason defeats in 2001 and 2004. But there is nothing about Torre's handling of the Yankees' bullpen from 2001 to 2007, which consistently resulted in late-season burnout for a parade of set-up men: Steve Karsay, Paul Quantrill, Tom Gordon, Tanyon Sturtze, Ron Villone, Scott Proctor, etc.

Part of the reason Rivera pitched less than his best at the end of the 2004 season was that Quantrill and Gordon were flat-out gassed by mid-September, and Rivera was asked to shoulder a heavier burden than usual. For Torre to write a book about his tenure as Yankee manager and not address the bullpen problems after the departure of Jeff Nelson would be like if George Bush were to write a book about his presidency and not mention the economy.

And remember Torre's version of Dave Roberts' pivotal steal in the 2004 playoffs against Rivera, how he thought Rivera aided Roberts' stolen-base attempt by throwing to first base repeatedly before making his first pitch? Well, in response to this, numerous coaches and executives have asked this question: If Torre was sure Roberts would steal, why didn't he call for a pitch-out?

-Bipartisanship isn't so easy. Wall Street gets some new bonus limits

-The Japanese Madoff and his "Yen From Heaven"

-I liked when Shaq and Kobe were fighting. It's just not fun anymore. This from Shaqtus' (how did you get all those Q's?) Twitter: THE_REAL_SHAQ Kobe is the best, he told me to take the trophy hm for my sons, class act, thanks bro. Though I do love this commercial:

-Lastly, this is amazing: