The Only Jewish Dodger

There was exactly one player on the LA Dodgers that was Jewish in the early 2000s, Shawn Green. He was the starting right-fielder on my favorite team from 2000-2004 during my prime Dodger-watching year. He wasn’t my favorite player on the team, that was catcher Mike Piazza, but he was the one I could identify with most since he was Jewish, and I was Jewish.

I always wanted to be like Shawn Green. So much so that because the back of his baseball card had him listed as 6’ 4” tall and 225 pounds, I wanted to be the same height and weight as he was. I remember telling myself (and my friends), “if I could just get to 6’4”, 225 I’m definitely getting to the big leagues!”

Simple as that. If I’m big enough, I’ll make sure I’m good enough.

My freshman year baseball yearbook has me listed as 5’ 3” tall and 135 pounds. Suffice it to say, I had a lot of growing to do still. My senior year baseball yearbook has me listed as 6’ 1” tall and 195 pounds. I was a late bloomer. I grew a lot during my junior and senior years. And I was 17 when I graduated from high school… so I hoped I was still growing when I moved on to college!

Fast-forward to when I got drafted by the Red Sox. Did you know that the height and weight on the back of your baseball card is a CHOICE you can make? You fill out a questionnaire and choose for yourself. I didn’t know if I thought that was taken from medical records after a doctor’s visit or what?! But I guess everyone just gets to choose. So I chose to list myself on my first baseball card as 6’4”, 225. Just like Shawn. (Even though neither of those numbers was correct).

Fast-forward again to last year, 2020. In preparation for the Olympics, I was doing a virtual fundraiser for Team Israel. We did an “all-time Jewish baseball player fantasy draft.” And Shawn Green was involved as one of the team captains (and one of the first all-time Jewish players to be drafted).

After the event, I took the opportunity to write Shawn a message basically saying “Thank you for being a great role model for me,” and told him about the height and weight stats that I copied from the back of his baseball card.

His response: “Thank you for the nice note. I would have liked it if I had gotten to 6’4”, 225 also!”