By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — During Jewish American Heritage Month in May, the San Diego Padres will play five teams at Petco Park. Two of them have Jewish players: Colorado Rockies pitcher Jake Bird and New York Yankees pitcher Scott Effross. The Padres, who do not have a Jewish player this season, have designated the middle game of the May 13-15 series with the Rockies as the day to celebrate Jewish heritage at Petco Park.
Otherwise in May, the Padres will play one home game against the Cincinnati Reds (May 1), three against the Los Angeles Dodgers (May 10-12), three against the New York Yankees (May 24-26), and three against the Miami Marlins (May 27-29).
Of course, rosters may change and Jewish rookies might be recruited before the late March opening of the 2024 Major League Baseball season, but as of today 15 Major League teams have one Jewish player, and one, the Atlanta Braves, has two players. This year, 13 of the 17 Jewish players are expected at Petco Park for regular season play. The San Francisco Giants with outfielder Joc Pederson come to town March 28-31. April brings four teams with Jewish players: the Chicago Cubs with first baseman Matt Mervis, April 8-10; the Toronto Blue Jays with infielder Spencer Horwitz, April 19-21; the aforementioned Colorado Rockies, April 22-25, and the Philadelphia Phillies with Garrett Stubbs, April 26-28. Stubbs was raised in San Diego County.
Infielder Zack Gelof and the Oakland A’s come June 10-12 and two days later outfielder Harrison Bader and the New York Mets arrive for a three-game set, June 14-16. Atlanta Braves pitching star Max Fried and outfielder Kevin Pillar come July 12-14. The Rockies return Aug. 2-4, and again on Aug. 16-18, bringing to 13 the number of games the Colorado team will play against the Padres at Petco Park, more than any other team.
Rowdy Tellez and the Pittsburgh Pirates play here Aug. 6-8, and again Aug. 12-14. They will be followed by a return visit of Bader and the Mets Aug. 22-25. Pederson’s San Francisco Giants return Sept. 6-8. Infielder Alex Bregman and the Houston Astros play Sept.16-18, and pitcher Jared Shuster and the Chicago White Sox come Sept. 20-22
Four Jewish Major League pitchers are not on teams that will play at Petco Park this year. They are Dean Kremer of the Baltimore Orioles, Eli Morgan of the Cleveland Guardians, Kenny Rosenberg of the Los Angeles Angels, and Zack Weiss of the Boston Red Sox.
Only two Jewish baseball players have ever been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame: Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers and Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The consensus among Jewish sportswriters is that if any of the current crop of Jewish ballplayers has a chance of joining Greenberg and Koufax at the museum in Cooperstown, New York, the best bets would be Max Fried of the Braves and Alex Bregman of the Astros.
If those predictions prove to be correct, then the best dates at Petco Park to see Jewish heritage of the future would be July 12-14 for the Atlanta series and Sept. 16-18 for the games against Houston.
*
Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via sdheritage@cox.net