This article was sent as a newsletter. Sign up for our weekly Jewish sports newsletter here.
Hello! The Olympics have come and gone, the NFL Preseason is in full swing, the Premier League is back and the MLB playoff push is just around the corner. It’s a good time to be a sports fan.
Malcolm Gladwell tells JTA about Hitler’s influence on the modern Olympics
L-R: Bronze medalist Naoto Tajima of Japan, gold medalist Jesse Owens of the U.S. and silver medalist Luz Long of Germany on the podium for the long jump competition at the Berlin Olympics, Aug. 8, 1936. (Bettman/Getty)
The Paris Olympics concluded Sunday with a star-studded closing ceremony featuring light shows, acrobatics and, yes, a Tom Cruise stunt.
In a new podcast series, author Malcolm Gladwell offers an explanation for how the Olympics became the full-blown spectacle they are today. Spoiler: He credits Adolf Hitler.
“The Games we have now are the Games that, in the broadest sense, Hitler and his people created,” Gladwell told me in a phone interview this week. “It’s really Hitler who understands that the Games have this broader symbolic potential, and can boost the status of the host country. We’re still living in that world in a certain sense.”
Gladwell examines the 1936 Berlin Olympics in the newest season of his “Revisionist History” podcast, introducing listeners to the complex cast of characters and political developments that led to Nazi Germany hosting the Summer Olympics in the first place, and exploring what led countries across the world to participate.
Click here for my conversation with the bestselling author.
Halftime report
MEET THE MEDALISTS. Israel won two more silver medals last weekend as the Games wrapped up in Paris, bringing the total medal count for all the Jewish and Israeli athletes to a fitting 18, including six golds, awarded to 21 Olympians. Catch up on all their accomplishments here.
OVER THE LINE. The French Athletics Federation suspended a track athlete on Wednesday after several of his anti-Israel and antisemitic social media posts surfaced. Muhammad Abdallah Kounta, who competed for France at the Olympics, shared posts that supported Hamas and wished the “most terrible and horrible degree of hell” for Zionists.
MATTER OF TIME. The Metropolitan Yeshiva High School Athletic League has, for the first time, instituted a 35-second shot clock for its varsity basketball program, a rule change commissioner Seth Gordon told me was “only a matter of time” — literally. The change brings the organization in line with other high-school, collegiate and pro leagues, where shot clocks are the norm. The league held a vote on the change, which passed unanimously.
HAVE NO FEAR. Former NBA player Patrick Beverley, who signed with the Israeli basketball team Hapoel Tel Aviv, said on his podcast that he is not concerned for his safety in Israel, but added, “Bomb go off, I’m gone.” And in reference to the contract he signed with the team, Beverley also quipped, “Not all Jewish people are cheap. The guy who gave me this contract — he was pretty generous.”
HANGING UP THE MIC. New York Rangers broadcaster Sam Rosen will retire after the 2024-2025 NHL season, bringing to an end a four-decade Hall-of-Fame career. Rosen called primetime games for Fox Sports and ESPN, but New Yorkers will remember him for his signature line, “It’s a power play goal!” and for his call of the Rangers’ 1994 Stanley Cup win.
Joc Pederson’s historic strikeout
For an 11-year MLB veteran like Joc Pederson, there’s nothing glamorous about a strikeout. But last Saturday, Pederson’s disappointing at-bat made history, as the pitcher and catcher on the play were also Jewish.
Philadelphia Phillies rookie Max Lazar made his MLB debut on the mound, throwing to catcher Garrett Stubbs, when Pederson, the Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder, stepped into the batter’s box. According to the Jewish Baseball Museum, it was only the third time in MLB history that a Jewish pitcher, catcher and batter participated in the same at-bat.
The last all-Jewish trifecta happened 11 years ago, when Boston Red Sox reliever Craig Breslow struck out Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Kevin Pillar on Aug. 15, 2013, with Ryan Lavarnway catching. The first instance was 62 years earlier, when Detroit Tigers pitcher Saul Rogovin gave up a home run to Philadelphia Athletics first baseman Lou Limmer, with Joe Ginsberg catching.
Click the button below to read more about the historic moment.
Jews in sports to watch this weekend (all times ET)
⚾️ IN BASEBALL…
Red-hot Alex Bregman and the Houston Astros host reliever Jared Shuster and the Chicago White Sox in a three-game series this weekend. Bregman, who shared American League Player of the Week honors with his teammate Yordan Alvarez for the week of Aug. 5-12, has been on a tear in August, with a .340 batting average and five home runs in 12 games. Spencer Horwitz and the Toronto Blue Jays face the Chicago Cubs this weekend, while Harrison Bader and the New York Mets host the Miami Marlins.
⚽️ IN SOCCER…
Tai Baribo and the Philadelphia Union host Liga MX club Mazatlán in the quarterfinals of the Leagues Cup Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Baribo scored two goals in the Round of 16 as Philadelphia beat F.C. Cincinnati 4-2. Cincy player DeAndre Yedlin also scored in the match. The English Premier League returns this weekend, and goaltender Matt Turner begins the year with Nottingham Forest, despite rumors swirling that he could be on the move. They host Bournemouth Saturday at 10 a.m.
🏈 IN FOOTBALL…
Jake Curhan and the Chicago Bears host the Cincinnati Bengals Saturday at 1 p.m. Michael Dunn and the Cleveland Browns host the Minnesota Vikings Saturday at 4:25 p.m. Anthony Firkser and the New York Jets face the Carolina Panthers Saturday at 7 p.m. A.J. Dillon, Greg Joseph and the Green Bay Packers face the Denver Broncos Sunday at 8 p.m.
⛳️ IN GOLF…
Max Homa and Max Greyserman are competing in the FedEx St. Jude Championship this weekend in Memphis. Greyserman is coming off a second-place finish last weekend at the Wyndham Championship.
A different kind of Olympics
The Israeli delegation entering the JCC Maccabi Games’ opening ceremonies in Houston. (Hagit Bibi; courtesy of Evelyn Rubenstein JCC of Houston.)
While the Olympics were underway in Paris, another international sports tournament — the 42nd annual JCC Maccabi Games — brought over 2,600 Jewish teenagers to Detroit and Houston.
Teens from 80 delegations vied in Olympics-style competitions that also function as a “Jewish identity-building experience designed to strengthen Jewish teens’ connections to global Jewish peoplehood, while building community in a joyful celebration of Jewish pride,” according to a press release. The event ended Aug. 9.
This photo shows the Israeli delegation, which included athletes from Sderot, the embattled Israeli city on the Gaza border that was devastated on Oct 7.
