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The Jewish Sport Report: Talking Jews in baseball with ESPN’s Jeff Passan
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Good afternoon and happy Spring Training Opening Day!
OK, so the games don’t count, but Major League Baseball teams are playing today, and I, for one, am excited. So is Jeff Passan, ESPN’s senior MLB insider, who I spoke to this week as he traversed the Phoenix area visiting a number of big league camps.
Read on for our conversation — and sign up for our event Jews on First: A Celebration at the World Baseball Classic to see Jeff, alongside other exciting Jewish baseball experts and personalities, talk baseball and the WBC.
Jeff Passan on Hebrew school, Sandy Koufax and Jewish baseball history
Jeff Passan at his bar mitzvah, Oct. 9, 1993. (Courtesy of Passan)
Since joining ESPN in 2019, Jeff Passan has quickly become one of the most prominent and trusted baseball reporters in the industry. He constantly breaks news to his million Twitter followers and shows up across ESPN’s TV, radio and podcast shows.
But like many of us, Passan also grew up going to Hebrew School and looking up to Sandy Koufax.
So when it came time to interview Koufax for his book on pitchers and Tommy John surgery — which itself was an arduous process, as Koufax rarely grants interviews — Passan was, understandably, nervous.
“I was in awe the whole time,” he told me. “Generally speaking, when I’m talking to people, I’ll call them by their first name. He was Mr. Koufax.”
Passan also told me about his Jewish upbringing, finding camaraderie with fellow Jewish reporters and players and why he thinks Jews love baseball so much.
Halftime report
MACCA-SEE YOU LATER. The Yeshiva University men’s basketball team lost in the Skyline Conference semifinals on Thursday, bringing the Maccabees’ season to an end. The club had forfeited a crucial matchup last Saturday, citing inadequate warmup time after Shabbat. The no contest cost Y.U. a shot at the top seed.
SPEAKING OF FORFEITS. The Miami Catholic school team that had brawled with a team from a nearby Jewish school forfeited its semifinal game in a state soccer tournament last weekend. The school’s athletic director confirmed the decision was made due to the brawl, but he didn’t offer further details about the incident.
A SECOND CHANCE. Meyers Leonard, the NBA player whose career took a turn in 2020 after he used an antisemitic slur online, has signed a contract with the Milwaukee Bucks. Leonard has apologized numerous times — including in a recent interview with Jewish ESPN reporter Jeremy Schaap — and has engaged with the Jewish community to make amends. The Bucks cited Leonard’s Jewish community work when they signed him this week.
BEST OF THE BEST. MLB Network has been slowly releasing its list of the top 100 players entering the 2023 season, and Max Fried (a fitting number 36) and Alex Bregman (24) both ranked fairly high. Both players also improved over their 2022 ranking (Fried was 48th; Bregman was 29th).
BOBBLE BABY BOBBLE. The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee — whose Jewish founder I wrote about in 2021 — has announced its newest bobble: Jewish Olympian Jason Brown.
IN OTHER JASON NEWS. Two-time All-Star second baseman Jason Kipnis officially announced his retirement this week. Kipnis is now a practicing Roman Catholic, but his father is Jewish and he reportedly grew up self-identifying as Jewish. Kipnis once celebrated a home run with a “Hava Nagila” dugout dance.
Jews in sports to watch this weekend
IN HOCKEY…
Zach Hyman and the second-place Edmonton Oilers face off against the last-place Columbus Blue Jackets tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. ET. On Sunday at 5 p.m. ET, Adam Fox and the New York Rangers host the LA Kings, while Jakob Chychrun and the Arizona Coyotes play the Nashville Predators at 7 p.m. ET. Chychrun is expected to be traded imminently.
IN BASKETBALL…
Deni Avdija and the Washington Wizards host the New York Knicks tonight at 7 p.m. ET and face the Chicago Bulls Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET. Over in the G League, Ryan Turell’s Motor City Cruise, who have won five straight, play the Delaware Blue Coats tonight at 7 p.m. ET and the Raptors 905 Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.
IN BASEBALL…
Spring Training games begin today — here is the full league schedule. The Boston Red Sox and new reliever Richard Bleier hosted Northeastern University for their annual exhibition game at 1:05 p.m. ET today. There are 17 games tomorrow (yes, there are only 30 teams, Spring Training is weird). Baseball is back!
A yeshiva wrestling tournament returns
The Henry Wittenberg Invitational Wrestling Tournament was held last weekend at the Frisch School in Paramus, New Jersey. (Courtesy Yeshiva Wrestling Association)
The Henry Wittenberg Invitational Wrestling Tournament, an annual competition sponsored by the Yeshiva Wrestling Association, returned for its 26th year last weekend after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.
Hosted by the Frisch School in Paramus, New Jersey, the competition featured 120 wrestlers from a dozen schools in New York, New Jersey, Boston, Atlanta and Chicago. The host school won the championship.
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The post The Jewish Sport Report: Talking Jews in baseball with ESPN’s Jeff Passan appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Australia Lists Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard as State Sponsor of Terrorism
Commanders and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Australia has listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a state sponsor of terrorism, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Thursday, following an intelligence assessment that it had orchestrated attacks against Australia‘s Jewish Community.
Australia in August accused Iran of directing two antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne and gave Tehran’s ambassador seven days to leave the country, its first such expulsion since World War II.
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After Meeting Pope, Erdogan Praises His ‘Astute Stance’ on Palestinian Issue
Pope Leo XIV and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan shake hands as they meet at the Presidential Palace, during the pope’s first apostolic journey, in Ankara, Turkey, Nov. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan praised Pope Leo’s stance on the Palestinian issue after meeting him in Ankara on Thursday, and said he hoped his first overseas visit as Catholic leader will benefit humanity at a time of tension and uncertainty.
“We commend [Pope Leo’s] astute stance on the Palestinian issue,” Erdogan said in an address to the pope and political and religious leaders at the presidential library in the Turkish capital Ankara.
“Our debt to the Palestinian people is justice, and the foundation of this is to immediately implement the vision of a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. Similarly, preserving the historic status of Jerusalem is crucial,” Erdogan said.
Pope Leo’s calls for peace and diplomacy regarding the war in Ukraine are also very meaningful, Erdogan said.
In September, Leo met at the Vatican with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and raised the “tragic situation” in Gaza with him.
Turkey has emerged as among the harshest critics of Israel’s military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
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Hamas Continues to Reject Disarmament as Fragile US-Backed Gaza Peace Plan Faces Hurdles
Palestinians walk among piles of rubble and damaged buildings in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Nov. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
As the US-backed Gaza peace plan falters amid mutual accusations of ceasefire violations, Hamas continues to refuse to disarm in accordance with the agreement, insisting that any decisions about the terrorist group’s weapons should be resolved through “internal Palestinian dialogue.”
In an interview published Wednesday with Saudi media outlet Al-Arabiya, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said that any move toward disarmament “is connected to internal consensus, and is also tied to a real political process that leads to an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
The senior terrorist figure also said Hamas has “fully committed to everything required in the first stage in order to open the way for transitioning to the second stage, which Israel continues to obstruct.”
Last week, the United Nations Security Council formally backed US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan — which went into effect last month — calling for an interim technocratic Palestinian government in the war-torn enclave, overseen by an international “board of peace” and supported by an International Stabilization Force (ISF) for at least two years.
Under Trump’s plan, the ISF — comprising troops from multiple participating countries — will oversee the Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, train local security forces, secure Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt, and protect civilians while maintaining humanitarian corridors.
In addition, the ISF would seemingly be expected to take on the responsibility of disarming Hamas — a key component of Trump’s peace plan to end the war in Gaza which the Palestinian terrorist group has repeatedly rejected.
Earlier this week, Hamas leader and chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said that the group’s disarmament remains under discussion, emphasizing that the issue “is tied to the end of the Israeli occupation.”
Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups have not only consistently refused to give up their weapons but also rejected key elements of Trump’s plan — including the ISF, which they have threatened to treat as a “foreign occupying force” and actively fight it.
Hamas officials rejected any “foreign guardianship” over Gaza and vowed to oppose any attempts to disarm “the Palestinian resistance.”
“Assigning the international force tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation,” the terrorist group said in a statement.
In his Wednesday interview, Qassem emphasized that Hamas’s senior delegation visit to Cairo this week reflects the group’s seriousness, signaling its intent to move forward and lay the groundwork for the next stage.
According to Qassem, Hamas has been meeting with Qatari, Turkish, and Egyptian mediators, as well as with Palestinian factions, “to consult and engage in dialogue, and to reach agreed-upon national political understandings.”
Turkey and Qatar, both longtime backers of Hamas, have been trying to expand their roles in Gaza’s reconstruction and post-war efforts, which experts have warned could potentially strengthen Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure.
Israeli officials have repeatedly rejected any Turkish or Qatari involvement in post-war Gaza.
Under phase one of Trump’s peace plan, Hamas released the remaining 20 living hostages still held in Gaza, along with the remains of most of the 28 others who died in captivity, while Israel freed 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including several hundred convicted terrorists.
Two deceased hostages – an Israeli and a Thai national – still remain in Gaza who were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.