 |
Nov 6, 2013
|
Jewish sports stars have been enjoying a lot of success lately, as usual, in various venues of sport around the World.
Baseball--Brad Ausmus signed a contract to be the manager of the Detroit Tigers for the upcoming season. Ausmus had an 18 year Major League career and was a three-time Gold Glove and a one-time all-Star catcher. He spent most of his Big League career with the Houston Astros, but also played for Detroit for three seasons, and was an all-Star selection while with the club in 1999. Brad served as manager of Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic qualifying games, and he and his wife Liz visited Israel in May, 2012 to become familiar with the country and the level of baseball played there. This will be the Dartmouth grad's first job as a Major League skipper.
Basketball (NBA)--The Houston Rockets soared over the Dallas Mavericks, 113-105 in their first meeting of the regular season at home in Houston on Nov 1. Both Israeli players contributed quality minutes and were positive factors for their teams off the bench. Omri Casspi scored 12 points, including three 3-pointers, in 21 minutes for the Rockets and Gal Mekel was 5-for-7 from the floor, scoring 11 points and dishing out 6 assists in 23 minutes. On Nov. 4, The LA Clippers grounded the Rockets in LA, 137-118. Casspi led his team in scoring, with 19 points and 9 rebounds in 28 minutes off the bench.
Boxing--The two best current Orthodox Jewish boxers have bouts coming up in the next week. On Nov. 9, Dmitriy Salita, a Chabadnik from Brooklyn with a 35-1-1 record will go against Gabriel Bracero in a welterweight fight in NY. On Nov. 12, Yuri Foreman, who is an Israeli citizen and is studying at a Brooklyn Yeshiva to become a Rabbi, will fight against Michael "the Brazilian Rocky" Oliveira in an 8-round light middleweight bout in Hollywood, FL. Foreman, ranked 14th in the World by the WBC has a 31-2 record. Salita has knocked out 18 of his opponents and Foreman has knocked out just 8 of his. Both boxers were born in the former Soviet Union.
Women's Golf--Morgan Pressel's LPGA ranking has slipped a notch to 45th in the World.
Ice Hockey (NHL)--Michael Cammalleri has scored 7 points (4 goals and 3 assists) in 7 games for the Calgary Flames this season. Eric Nystrom has scored 5 points (4 goals and an assist) in 14 games for the Nashville Predators this season.
Evan Kaufmann has scored 14 points (6 goals and 8 assists) for the Nuermberg
(Germany) Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers in the DEL this season.
May they, and all the Jewish Jocks of the sports playing fields, continue to be successful in their games.
