There’s a great scene in the movie Airplane! where one of the passengers asks a stewardess if she has “anything light to read” and the stewardess hands the passenger a pamphlet on “Famous Jewish Sports Legends.” Stereotypes aside, there actually are some really good or at least fairly notable Jewish athletes out there right now and since it’s currently Passover and I’m already doing two posts on those athletes, I decided that you lucky readers will get a third post because A: there actually are enough athletes for three posts and B: I’m indulging my inner laziness this week. Here goes part two.
1.Kevin Youkilis-dubbed the “Greek God of Walks” by Oakland A’s executives Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta before he even played a game, this third baseman has helped the Boston Red Sox win two World Series, including one in his rookie year in 2004. For his career, he has 826 hits, 114 HRs, 477 RBIs for those people who are into that particular statistic and has a .292 batting average, a .394 on-base percentage and an .890 OPS. Last year, he had 111 hits and 19 HRs.
2.Ian Kinsler-the Texas Rangers’ starting second baseman was a part of their pennant run last year despite missing 59 games because of rest or injuries. Kinsler hit 9 HRs with 112 hits and a .286 batting average in 2010 and he has 96 HRs and a .823 OPS for his career.
3.Jordan Farmar-alright, as members of the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers teams go, he’s not exactly Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Derek Fisher or Lamar Odom. On the plus side, he’s never married a Khardashian sister, he has two championship rings and three NBA Finals appearances and he averaged a respectable 9.6 points per game and 5.0 assists per game for the New Jersey Nets this year.
4.Omri Casspi-basketball has actually been popular in Israel almost as in the United States and more than a few American players have had stints with Israeli teams so it’s actually a little surprising that the country hadn’t sent any players to the NBA before the Sacramento Kings drafted Casspi in 2009. In his first two seasons in the NBA, Casspi has averaged 9.5 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists and endeared himself to the Jewish population of pretty much every city in the NBA.
5.Sue Bird-Farmar and Casspi are pretty good NBA players but nowhere near the best in the league. Bird, on the other hand, won two national titles at Connecticut, was drafted No. 1 overall by the Seattle Storm in 2002 and has helped the Storm win two titles of their own, while also leading the United States to two Olympic gold medals and the 2010 World Championship title. Oh and her WNBA career averages include 10.4 PPG and 5.0 APG.
