You may not be familiar with Rickwood Field, America's oldest baseball field. It isn't used by any Major League Baseball teams. It's not even regularly used by the team it was built for, the Minor League Birmingham Barons in Alabama. But it's still standing—more of a working museum than a proper field, hosting occasional games and special events, preserving the sport's complicated history. That will change on June 20, 2024, when the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants face off at Rickwood to commemorate Juneteenth, in honour of the field's status during the Negro leagues. The field wi ..read more

By now, you've probably had one seder. You may have even had two seders. But it's time for an annual CJN tradition totally unlike those slow-moving family get-togethers: the Menschwarmers' Jewish baseball seder. Combining the start of baseball season with the week of Passover, our Jewish sports experts have rewritten the haggadah to focus on Jewish baseball legends and potential future stars, from Hank Greenberg to Spencer Horwitz, with commemorations and celebrations in between. And before that, as always, the boys give a roundup of the latest news of Jews in sports, including Jewish NHL star ..read more

This weekend, the long-running Jewish comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm will air its final episode. Over more than 20 years, creator Larry David did more than redefine what improv comedy could look like in a single-camera sitcom—he also showed the world what diehard Jewish sports fandom looked like. But before the show plays its iconic theme song one last time, the hosts of our Jewish sports podcast, Menschwarmers, wanted to pay tribute to what they've decided is the most Jewish sports TV show of all time. It's unlikely we'll see another TV program so unabashedly Jewish embrace baseball, basketball ..read more

In Game 6 of the Major League Baseball World Series in November 2021, in the bottom of the second inning, the Houston Astros' two-time All-Star Alex Bregman stepped up to bat. He faced off against the Atlanta Braves' Max Fried, slammed the ball high into the right field, and found himself out of luck when outfielder Joc Pederson caught the ball. Jewish baseball fans recognized the significance of this swift moment, in which all three players in this high-stakes game were themselves Jewish. It has since been called the most Jewish play in any MLB matchup, let alone a World Series. But Bregman h ..read more

Mitch Albom has sold tens of millions of copies of his popular inspirational books—among them Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven and The Stranger in the Lifeboat—but never has the Jewish author focused so explicitly on Judaism until his latest book, The Little Liar. Set in Greece during the Holocaust, the novel tells the story of a young boy who never tells a lie—until he is tricked into doing so by a Nazi officer, changing the trajectory of his life after he war. Albom will be in Toronto to discuss the book at Beth Tzedec Congregation on Feb. 29, but before heading north ..read more

They say two events can be a coincidence, but three make a trend. And in the past month, three Jewish or Israeli athletes have been controversially kicked out of the public sphere. First, Israel's hockey team was barred from competing in an international match in Bulgaria—the decision was reversed, and Israel wound up winning the tournament. Around the same time, the Jewish captain of South Africa's cricket team, David Teeger, was relieved from his captaincy after vocally supporting Israel on a public stage; the saga resulted in tremendous backlash from activists on both sides. Finally, this w ..read more

Feb. 7, 2024, marks the 28th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day, a global movement that aims to inspire and encourage young girls and women around the world to get active, play sports and break boundaries. But the barriers are real. There are societal prejudices and fewer opportunities for girls to get into sports—and even more stereotypes about Jews as un-athletic, giving young Jewish girls twice as many hurdles to overcome. Chelsey Goldberg knows those hurdles firsthand. Growing up in California, her only option to play hockey was to play in a local boys' league, eventually rising ..read more

This weekend, on Feb. 3, Toronto will host the NHL All-Star Weekend—and it might just be the most Jewish one yet. There are three (maybe four?) Jews playing, including two of the three Hughes brothers (Quinn and Jack), the New York Rangers' Artemi Panarin, and Jeremy Swayman—who may or may not be Jewish, with different media outlets putting out conflicting reports. It's just one of the big Jewish sports stories happening this month. A major Super Bowl ad on antisemitism is debuting next weekend (listen to The CJN Daily episode about the making of that commercial); Israel's U20 national hockey ..read more

This is the most recent episode of The CJN Daily, about the recent fracas between the International Ice Hockey Federation and Israel's national teams. We thought Menschwarmers subscribers would be especially interested, so we're cross-posting it on this feed—listen and enjoy. Last week, the International Ice Hockey Federation—the sport’s governing body—announced they were barring Israeli national teams from competing in crucial championship matches this winter. The move is seen by many as an unfair penalty against the Jewish State in the wake of the war with Hamas, in which an estimated 25,000 ..read more

On January 6, 2024, a record-breaking 13,361 attendees filled an arena in Minnesota to watch their new women's hockey team trounce visitors from Montreal. The game made history as the biggest crowd on record to turn out to watch women's hockey—and it happened less than a week into the start of the newly formed Professional Women's Hockey League. Kaleigh Fratkin was excited to see it happen. She wasn't in Minnesota that day, instead preparing for her own matchup as part of Boston's PWHL team. (As a new league, none of the teams have monikers or logos yet.) But Fratkin—possibly the PWHL's only C ..read more