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How ‘Pitching Ninja’ Rob Friedman accidentally became one of the most popular Jewish personalities in baseball
(JTA) — It’s safe to say that few people watch more baseball than Rob Friedman.
During the MLB season — which features 30 teams playing 162 games each from April through October — Friedman spends countless hours every day watching as much of the sport as he can from the comfort of a four-screen media center he set up in his home outside Atlanta.
His particular area of expertise is pitching — a complex, crucial and, he believes, underappreciated aspect of the game. His dissection of individual pitches, posted on social media, has made him an authority on the craft.
For nine years, posting as the “Pitching Ninja,” he has built a following of more than a million users across social media platforms. He highlights impressive performances from the mound and has gone on to work as an analyst on multiple TV networks as well as MLB’s own channels. Big league players have been spotted wearing his merchandise — with its recognizable logo of a baseball dressed as a ninja — and learning from his videos.
Dozens of times a day, on the platform popularly known as Twitter, Friedman shares pitching GIFs and edited videos of pitchers throwing multiple pitches, overlaid on top of each other to illustrate their variety. He also has a daily segment where he breaks down his “filthiest” pitches of the day, highlighting sliders, changeups or fastballs that he calls “nasty” or “dirty” — adjectives that all count as high praise in the baseball world.
Scott Effross, Slider and Sinker, Overlay.
pic.twitter.com/PUtpUtqOM9
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 11, 2022
How did Friedman, a lawyer by trade with only scant amateur baseball experience, become one of the most popular personalities in the sport?
“I have no idea,” he recently told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Friedman, 56, grew up in a Conservative Jewish family on Long Island, had a bar mitzvah and attended Hebrew school, where he fondly recalls melting crayons on the heater in his classroom.
And although he was born the same year Sandy Koufax retired, Friedman was a big fan of the Jewish Dodgers pitcher, saying that he has always admired “the way he carried himself his entire career.”
Friedman played baseball on and off through college But he said it wasn’t until he coached his son Jack that he discovered his love for the sport.
“That really made me love baseball even more, teaching it to somebody and having to learn the ins and outs of the game,” Friedman said.
As a coach, Friedman took a particular interest in pitching. He asked a lot of questions — a curiosity he attributed to his training as an attorney — and began to learn everything he could about the craft.
“It gave me a whole new appreciation for it, and also a way to break down mechanics and really kind of teach what actually pitchers do, as opposed to what coaches say they do,” said Friedman. “I think that was the fun part, delving deep into it.”
He began posting about the finer points of pitching on online message boards around 2007. In 2014, he started tweeting.
“I wanted to share this because not everybody is fanatical like I am,” Friedman said. “So I shared the stuff that I had and just kept getting more and more, a bigger, bigger following, MLB pitchers would start following it, too and asking questions. And it just blew up.”
Before he knew it, Friedman had become the “Pitching Ninja,” a name inspired by his family. Friedman’s wife is half-Japanese, and his son was once told he looked like one of the stealthy Japanese warriors when he wore a bandana while pitching. His son didn’t love the name, so Friedman happily adopted it for himself.
“After a while it was like, you know what, I want to be known as ‘Pitching Ninja’ versus ‘internet geolocation dude,’ which was my company that I started, or ‘lawyer dude,’” said Friedman, who co-founded the tech firm Digital Envoy. “I figured it was a better way to spread the love of something in the world. And a good use of social media, because [I’m] generally staying positive on stuff and showing people that social media can be good.”
Fellow baseball analysts have noticed. Jake Mintz, a baseball writer and podcaster who makes up half of the duo behind “Cespedes Family BBQ,” a popular baseball podcast and social media presence, said he first became aware of Friedman’s work back in 2016 or 2017.
“It doesn’t take too much baseball knowledge to understand why what he’s tweeting is awesome,” Mintz told JTA. “Him doing an interview on YouTube with a pitcher is a higher-level thing, obviously. And that is interesting for people who are super into the game. But just for a casual fan, him providing a light-hearted perspective on pitching is incredibly relatable.”
Friedman is part of a group of Jewish baseball experts who have gained a following online. Mintz, who is also Jewish, collaborated with Friedman in 2019 on a baseball show called “Changeup,” where they would break down the top pitches of the week. He said Friedman is “an incredibly nice fella.”
Friedman recalled running into Mintz and his Jewish podcasting partner Jordan Shusterman at this year’s All-Star Game, along with Alex Fast, another Jewish baseball content creator. He said he’s also in touch with Jewish ESPN reporter Jeff Passan from time to time.
“There’s a camaraderie when you realize, yeah, there are guys that I didn’t know were Jewish that are, and like, ‘Oh, this is cool,’” Friedman said. “Like we talk about bar mitzvahs and stuff like that.”
Friedman also said he enjoys seeing and sharing highlights from Jewish pitchers like Max Fried, Dean Kremer and Scott Effross.
“I don’t highlight them extra-special, but I’m like, hey, it’s cool to see these guys succeed and to be carrying on the Jewish brand in baseball,” he said.
Rob Friedman, right, with Jewish pitcher Max Fried at the 2022 MLB All-Star Weekend red carpet event in Los Angeles. (Courtesy of Rob Friedman)
Friedman said the current slate of Jewish talent in the major leagues — 18 Jewish players have appeared this season — is an important step toward better representation.
“There were not a lot of Jews playing when I was growing up,” Friedman said. “As a Jewish kid, you always look for somebody because everybody tells you, ‘You should be a lawyer or a doctor,’ or something like that. And seeing somebody succeed definitely gives you a connection to them. I think seeing more Jews in baseball brings more Jews to baseball.”
Though Friedman isn’t a player himself, Mintz said he’s part of the elevated Jewish presence in the game today.
“The thing with him being Jewish is, my guy’s name is Rob Friedman,” Mintz said with a laugh. “He’s carrying that in a way that is unavoidable for him. Just by existing in the baseball internet with the name Rob Friedman makes him a visible Jew in that world.”
Mintz added that there is one thing that sets Friedman apart from most content creators in the sport: his popularity among players.
“You go into any clubhouse on any given day, and you’re gonna see people wearing the [‘Pitching Ninja’] shirt in the colors of their team,” Mintz said. “And that’s just because in a way, he’s kind of like a central clearinghouse, like a town hall meeting room for pitchers.”
Friedman said he is frequently in touch with MLB pitchers — and has even helped them improve their game.
“I’m lucky enough to have pitchers that follow me, major league guys that learn pitch grips from my account, which is fantastic,” Friedman said. “I’m always excited when I hear stuff like, a guy picked up somebody else’s grip because I interviewed the pitcher.”
Friedman said one key reason that pitchers follow him is that a lot of mainstream baseball coverage places an emphasis on hitting, since a 400-foot home run can be flashier to a casual fan than a whizzing curveball on the inside corner.
“Everybody always focuses on that aspect of the game, not as much on the pitching,” Friedman said. “So [pitchers] view it as their chance to shine. And they love it when they get featured.”
Friedman said Collin McHugh, a veteran pitcher on the Atlanta Braves, once called his account the “ESPN Top 10 for pitchers” because, Friedman recalls him saying, whenever he’s featured on a highlight reel of top plays on “SportsCenter,” “it’s always because I screwed up.”
As his profile rises among players and fans, Friedman said he remains grateful that he gets to spend his days watching, writing and talking about baseball.
“There are days I wake up and I’m like, how the heck did I get that lucky to do this?” he said. “This is so cool.”
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The post How ‘Pitching Ninja’ Rob Friedman accidentally became one of the most popular Jewish personalities in baseball appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Documents Reveal Hamas Uses Gaza Hospitals for Military Purposes, International NGOs Complicit in Operations
Israeli soldiers inspect the Al Shifa hospital complex, amid their ground operation against Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, in Gaza City, Nov. 15, 2023 in this handout image. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
Internal documents from Hamas’s Ministry of Interior and National Security dating back to 2020 reveal the Palestinian terrorist group has long used Gaza’s medical facilities for military purposes, according to a new report.
On Wednesday, NGO Monitor — an independent, Jerusalem-based research institute that tracks anti-Israel bias among nongovernmental organizations — released two documents declassified by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), revealing how Hamas has weaponized Gaza’s hospitals for years to shelter its operatives and leaders.
Translated from Arabic, the documents also reveal that international organizations — including the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders — are aware of Hamas’s presence in Gaza’s medical facilities, even as they publicly deny or downplay it.
“While repeatedly echoing Hamas allegations and condemning Israel’s operations to end the exploitation of hospitals for terror, these groups clearly knew that Hamas exploited these facilities and chose to remain silent,” Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, said in a statement.
BREAKING: Leaked docs show Hamas admits to using Gaza hospitals as terror infrastructure, in files authored by its Interior Security Mechanism and obtained by NGO Monitor. Hospitals served as command hubs while NGOs went along under Hamas rules.
Here’s what they reveal
pic.twitter.com/HXI6hULYTG
— NGO Monitor (@NGOmonitor) September 10, 2025
Since the start of the war in Gaza, Hamas’s exploitation of hospitals has drawn heightened attention, with Israel facing international criticism for its operations near medical facilities as it seeks to crack down on the terrorist group.
According to NGO Monitor, the internal Hamas documents show a deliberate strategy of “embedding its military infrastructure, fighters, and leadership within hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza … thereby violating international law and endangering civilian lives.”
The documents also show that foreign NGOs have not only been aware of Hamas’s presence in Gaza’s medical facilities but also have sometimes worked alongside them.
For example, one internal memo notes that the Red Cross occupied a wing in the Al-Shifa medical complex directly adjacent to offices used by Hamas.
Despite international claims to the contrary, the documents show that the Palestinian terrorist group views medical facilities not as neutral spaces but as integral parts of its infrastructure.
“These facilities are considered to be of interest to hostile security parties and an important source for intelligence gathering, especially in times of war, since these health facilities are a place of gathering for the wounded during times of escalation, and these wounded cases hold sensitive positions in the resistance,” one of the internal memos reads.
“Furthermore, these health facilities are a place of gathering for numerous leaders of the movement and the government during times of escalation,” it continues.
The documents also reveal how Hamas closely monitors and controls foreign NGOs working in hospitals due to fears that they might serve as channels for Israeli intelligence.
“Do not let these associations have their own locations to work inside health facilities. When a location is allocated for these associations, it shall be outside the main building of the clinic or hospital, and far away from movement locations, and following security authorization,” one of the internal memos reads.
“Medical members from the Gaza Strip must join incoming delegations, whether the delegations work in hospitals or their own locations,” it adds.
Under this structured oversight, NGO Monitor explains that foreign organizations had to operate according to Hamas’s rules, “making them complicit in a system” that exploits medical centers for terrorist purposes.
“The internal Hamas documents reviewed in this report expose a systematic Hamas strategy to militarize Gaza’s health-care system, using hospitals and medical facilities as extensions of its military and security apparatus,” NGO Monitor says.
“This arrangement is fundamentally inconsistent with the principle of medical neutrality in Gaza, transforming humanitarian spaces into dual-use facilities that serve both medical and military purposes,” it continues.
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Mamdani Maintains Comfortable Lead in New York City Mayoral Race, Despite Jewish Opposition
Candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Democratic New York City mayoral primary debate, June 4, 2025, in New York, US. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Pool via REUTERS
Zohran Mamdani maintains a substantial lead in New York City’s mayoral contest, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Tuesday, as discontent with City Hall continues to rattle the electorate.
The survey of likely voters found Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens, taking 45 percent in a four-way matchup, well ahead of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at 23 percent, Republican activist Curtis Sliwa at 15 percent, and embattled incumbent Eric Adams at just 12 percent.
If Adams were to exit the race, Mamdani’s margin would narrow, with 46 percent support compared to Cuomo’s 30 percent. Sliwa would hold 17 percent of the electorate.
The poll underscores Adams’s strong standing among certain demographics, particularly Jewish voters, who make up a crucial bloc in several boroughs. Among Jewish voters, Adams receives 42 percent support, while Mamdani and Cuomo are tied at 21 percent each. Moreover, 75 percent of Jewish voters view Mamdani unfavorably, according to the poll, highlighting a key vulnerability for the progressive candidate.
The results came days after another poll showed similar results.
Mamdani holds a commanding 22-point advantage over his chief rival in the mayoral race, Cuomo, 46 percent to 24 percent, according to the poll by the New York Times and Siena College. Sliwa polled at 15 percent, and incumbent Adams polled at 9 percent among likely New York City voters.
Perhaps most striking, the survey found that Mamdani would still beat Cuomo in November’s election, 48 percent to 44 percent, if the other candidates dropped out and it was a one-on-one matchup.
Adams and Cuomo are both running as independents.
A little-known politician before this year’s Democratic primary campaign, Mamdani is an outspoken supporter of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination.
Mamdani has also repeatedly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, falsely suggesting the country does not offer “equal rights” for all its citizens, and promised to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York.
Mamdani also initially defended the phrase “globalize the intifada”— which references previous periods of sustained Palestinian terrorism against Jews and Israels and has been widely interpreted as a call to expand political violence — by invoking the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during World War II. However, Mamdani has since backpedaled on his support for the phrase, saying that he would discourage his supporters from using the slogan.
Mamdani’s overall strength appears to rest not only on name recognition among progressives but also on enthusiasm. Approximately 91 percent of his supporters say they’re enthusiastic about their choice, far outpacing backers of other candidates, the Quinnipiac data found. Cuomo, despite his experience and political legacy, is hurt by a 56 percent unfavorable rating.
Voters rank crime — 30 percent — and affordable housing — 21 percent — as the most pressing concerns, with inflation a distant third.
Moreover, Mamdani’s adversarial and combative rhetoric aimed at President Donald Trump seems to help him in the race.
“The name not on the ballot but seen having influence on this race is President Trump. And likely voters in New York City make it clear they want the next occupant of Gracie Mansion to stand up to Trump when it comes to issues inside New York City,” said Quinnipiac University Poll Assistant Director Mary Snow.
The findings paint a picture of a fractured electorate, with Mamdani consolidating left-leaning voters while Adams maintains strongholds among more moderate constituencies, including Jewish neighborhoods, and Cuomo tries to galvanize support among voters as various scandals loom over his campaign. Sliwa remains in the mid-teens but could play spoiler if the race tightens.
Mamdani has also sought to distance himself from some of the most radical policies he previously advocated for, such as defunding the police. Mamdani’s attempt to strike a more moderate tone seems to be paying dividends thus far. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), a Democrat from a swing district, endorsed Mamdani on Wednesday.
“@ZohranKMamdani fights for the PEOPLE. Andrew Cuomo is a selfish POS who only fights for himself and other corrupt elites. I know whose side I’m on. I’m with the people. I’m with Zohran,” Ryan posted on social media.
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‘Pro-Hamas Terror Ties’: US Sen. Tom Cotton Warns of CAIR’s Push Into Philadelphia Schools
CAIR officials give press conference on the Israel-Hamas war. Photo: Kyle Mazza / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has warned in a letter to the Department of Education that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a nonprofit advocacy group long accused of having ties to terrorist organizations including Hamas, is seeking to infiltrate the city of Philadelphia’s public education system.
The letter was dated Tuesday, about two weeks after the Philadelphia chapter of CAIR announced that it was partnering with local schools.
“CAIR-Philadelphia is partnering with schools this year to make sure every student feels seen, safe, and supported,” the group said in an Instagram post. “Invite the CAIR Philly staff for a training to educators and staff on cultural competency, anti-bullying, and inclusive practices.”
“The CAIR Philadelphia staff works not only with staff and administration, but also directly with students!” the post continued. “We can visit classrooms as guest facilitators to lead student-centered discussions.”
Given CAIR’s controversial history, the federal government should act to prevent such a program from becoming reality, according to Cotton.
“It is well documented that CAIR has deep ties to pro-Hamas terrorist organizations and publicly supports Hamas’s terrorist activities,” Cotton wrote in the letter to US Education Secretary Linda McMahon. “As I noted in a previous letter, the Department of Justice listed CAIR as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee in the largest terrorism-financing case in US history. Further, CAIR-Philadelphia’s executive director, Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu, stated that Israeli ‘occupation’ was the reason for the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel.”
Cotton’s letter cited materials which CAIR distributes across the city and promotes in its programming — notably its “American Jews and Political Power” course — and other attempts to revise the history of Sharia law, which severely restricts the rights of women and is opposed to other core features of liberal societies.
One of CAIR’s most controversial documents demands that teachers omit key facts about the 9/11 terrorist attacks which, in addition to destroying the World Trade Centers and severely damaging the Pentagon, claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 Americans.
“Avoid using language that validates the claims of the 9/11 attackers by associating their acts of mass murder with Islam and Muslims,” CAIR insists in the material. “For example, avoid using inaccurate and inflammatory terms such as ‘Islamic terrorists,’ ‘jihadists,’ or ‘radical Islamic terrorists.’”
Additionally, since the Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, CAIR-Philadelphia has lobbied the state government to enact anti-Israel policies and accused Gov. Josh Shapiro of ignoring the plight of Palestinians.
In a 2023 speech following Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities, CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, said he was “happy to see” Palestinians “breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas.” CAIR has disputed the accuracy of the ADL’s claim, despite government trial exhibits indicating its founders participated in meetings with Hamas supporters in Philadelphia. The organization has asserted that it “unequivocally condemn[s] all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the US Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”
“Such an organization should never have access to our nation’s children,” Cotton wrote in his letter, urging the Education Department to “ensure” that CAIR is not able to push its ideology on American schoolchildren.
“Sen. Cotton’s comments bring much needed scrutiny to the alarming trend of unchecked outside groups influencing public school curricula. CAIR, with their ties to Hamas, should have no involvement with the Philadelphia School District,” said Steve Rosenberg, Philadelphia Regional Director for the North American Values Institute (NAVI). “This raises serious concerns about balance, transparency, and educational integrity, not to mention basic decision making. Parents and taxpayers deserve assurance that their children aren’t being exposed to ideologically driven lessons — especially from groups with dangerous political affiliations.”
CAIR’s pushing into K-12 education comes at a time of rising antisemitism in public schools.
In August, for example, the Education Department promptly opened an investigation into allegations of antisemitism in Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) following the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) filing a complaint regarding the matter.
Jewish students allegedly experienced relentless bullying in BCPS, where students pantomimed Nazi salutes, treated campuses as a canvas for Nazi-inspired and antisemitic graffiti, and sent text messages threatening that the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas will be summoned to kill Jewish students the bullies do not like, the ADL complaint said, noting that teachers behaved even worse than students. At Bard High School, an English teacher allegedly performed the Nazi salute three times and later admitted to administrative officials that he did so intentionally to harm “the sole Jewish student” enrolled in his class. Following the incident, he suggested that the student unregister for his class because the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be discussed in it.
“The allegations that Baltimore City Public Schools tolerate virulent Nazi-inspired antisemitic harassment of its Jewish students is at once appalling and infuriating. When a teacher allegedly directs a Nazi salute toward a Jewish student, or non-Jewish students harass their Jewish contemporaries by saying ‘all Jews should die,’ we are not simply talking about contemptible bullying; we are talking about a shocking abdication of educator responsibility that constitutes unlawful antisemitic harassment under Title VI,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
Last month, The Algemeiner reported that the Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) in California, which stands accused of refusing to address antisemitism, ruled that a teacher who allegedly showed her students antisemitic, discriminatory, and biased content violated policy when she screened an offensive video about the Holocaust in her classroom.
The move came without the prompting of the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, with which two Jewish civil rights groups, StandWithUs (SWU) and the Bay Area Jewish Coalition (BAJC), filed a complaint against the district in April.
Among other things, SWU and BAJC alleged that an SCUSD employee, Wilcox High School teacher Kauser Adenwala, screened a documentary produced in Turkey which compared the war in Gaza to the Holocaust. The graphic film at one point “displays a picture of a young Jewish child who was branded with a number by the Nazis during World War II and then suddenly shows an untraceable image of children with Arabic writing on their arms,” according to the complaint, which alleged the teacher’s conduct violated numerous district policies and potentially state law.
She remains employed by the district to this day.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.