Success for Brad Ausmus

Today was our 50th wedding anniversary, and my wife Lois and I were made even happier when our friend and Cape Cod neighbor, Brad Ausmus, was named the new manager of the Detroit Tigers. CBS Detroit, the Detroit Free Press, and the Jewish Daily Forward all excerpted sections of my story on Brad, an eighteen year star MLB player, from American Jews and America’s Game.

Selig Meeting with Ruttman at World Series

Photo courtesy of Major League Baseball.

On October 24, 2013, Larry Ruttman presented the ‘first copy’ of American Jews and America’s Game to the commissioner of Major League Baseball, Allan H. “Bud” Selig, at Fenway Park just prior to the second game of the 2013 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals. Selig wrote the Foreword for the book.

"American Jews and America's Game" Audiobook Released

Today, October 8, 2013, Audible released an unabridged audio edition of American Jews and America's Game. Actor and frequent audiobook performer Richard M. Davidson is the narrator. “There aren’t many 24-hour audios of 550-page nonfiction books made with star narrators!” Order the audio edition from Amazon.com.

Martha's Vineyard Sharks Game with Alan Dershowitz

Today, August 6, 2013, I joined Vineyard Haven maven Alan Dershowitz (in uniform above) for our Red Barber and Mel Allen annual redux, calling the telecast of the crucial game at the Shark's Tank which broke the first place tie existing between the slashing Martha's Vineyard Sharks and the Nashua Silver Knights, who succumbed 3-1. We colorfully described the baring of teeth and blood in the water on MV PBS, archived at www.mvsharks.com. We a few guests talked about issues in the greater world too, as well as Alan’s autobiography coming out in October, Taking the Stand, My Life in the Law, and my recently published oral history, American Jews and America’s Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball. Alan graciously presented me with an inscribed advance copy of his book. PLAY BALL!

Ausmus in Welfleet

Former MLB catcher Brad Ausmus (left), who managed Team Israel in the WBC Qualifier, (and is considered a future MLB manager by many), appeared this week at a talk in Wellfleet, MA (Cape Cod) with author Larry Ruttman - whose "American Jews & America's Game" book has been very well received. Ausmus, who is a chapter in the oral history, has Jewish bloodlines on his mother's side.

"American Jews and America's Game" Presented to Israeli Consul-General

On July 1, 2013, Ira Berkow, (right) Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former New York Times columnist, whose story appears in American Jews and America’s Game, presented a copy of American Jews and America’s Game to Ido Aharoni (left), Consul-General in New York of the Israeli Embassy to the United States in New York City. The book, held by the consul in the photograph at right, was my gift to the State of Israel. Photo by Marty Appel.

Massachusetts Historical Society Induction

Today, I was honored to be elected as a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society, joining such past fellows as John Adams, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and John F. Kennedy. I am humbled to be included among so many great historians, scholars, and leaders who are and have been Fellows of the Massachusetts Historical Society since 1791. I am proud to have told a little of the story of the Jews in America. History and biography are so important in giving us perspective on our place in the cosmos and the human condition here on earth. I look forward to participating in the important work of the society. It makes me even happier to be elected at the same time as my mentor, Professor Jonathan Sarna of Brandeis University, the prime historian today of American Judaism, and to be sponsored for election by Fellow Daniel Coquillette, eminent historian, professor at Harvard University, and former dean of Boston College Law School.

American Jews and America’s Game

American Jews and America’s Game
Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball
Larry Ruttman
Foreword by Bud Selig
Introduction by Martin Abramowitz

Most fans don’t know how far the Jewish presence in baseball extends beyond a few famous players such as Greenberg, Rosen, Koufax, Holtzman, Green, Ausmus, Youkilis, Braun, and Kinsler. In fact, its presence extends to the baseball commissioner Bud Selig, labor leaders Marvin Miller and Don Fehr, owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Stuart Sternberg, officials Theo Epstein and Mark Shapiro, sportswriters Murray Chass, Ross Newhan, Ira Berkow, and Roger Kahn, and even famous Jewish baseball fans like Alan Dershowitz and Barney Frank.

The life stories of these and many others, on and off the field, have been
compiled from nearly fifty in-depth interviews and arranged by decade in this edifying and entertaining work of oral and cultural history. In American Jews and America’s Game each person talks about growing up Jewish and dealing with Jewish identity, assimilation, intermarriage, future viability, religious observance, anti-Semitism, and Israel. Each tells about being in the midst of the colorful pantheon of players who, over the past seventy-five years or more, have made baseball what it is. Their stories tell, as no previous book has, the history of the larger-than-life role of Jews in America’s pastime.

“The historian Jacques Barzun was right when he said, ‘Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.’ Larry Ruttman knows that too, and that is why I chose to write the foreword to his book American Jews and America’s Game. His stories cover almost one hundred years of American history and the place of American Jews in that history. . . . This is a book that celebrates family—baseball’s, yours, and mine.”
—Allan H. “Bud” Selig, Commissioner of Major League Baseball

“This book of intimate and revealing conversations with Jews who care passionately about baseball is a surprise and delight. . . . In the tradition of Studs Terkel, Ruttman’s warm and folksy style lets us feel like we’re in the room with them as they share their thoughts and feelings about Judaism, baseball, and life. It’s a great read. Ruttman has a gift for bringing people out and the results are fabulous.”
—Rabbi Rebecca T. Alpert, associate professor of religion at Temple University and author of Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball

“There may well be more books about Jews and baseball than there are Jews who played professional baseball. But this one is different. Here baseball’s most interesting Jews speak in their own words about their lives, their love of the game, and above all about their Judaism. Informative, inspiring, historically significant and a pleasure to read, this is a book that anybody who cares about America’s game or America’s Jews will cherish.”
—Jonathan D. Sarna, author of American Judaism: A History and chief historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History

“American Jews and America’s Game is a highly accessible book about the game America’s Jews love to love. The author allows his subjects great latitude to comment on their Jewishness and their association with the game. The interviewees range from baseball’s best to ordinary fans, united around their faith and favorite sport. This is an enjoyable read.”
—Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt and Israel and the first Commissioner of the Israel Baseball League