3/25/99
Softball: Are We not All the Children of Sandy Koufax?
Dear People,
It is Friday Morning and we are still shamefully short of players for tomorrow's game. Although I was initially puzzled by this unexpected turn of events, it is now becoming clear to me that the imminent Passover/Palm Sunday holidays are adversely impacting recruitment. Obviously, I would not dare to suggest that people should commit to a mere game of softball at the expense of neglecting their religious and cultural obligations. I have never done that, and I certainly will not start now.
However, in researching my own ancestral roots, I have come across fascinating archival materials in the Haas Business School Library which may be relevant to many of you in determining how to spend this upcoming weekend. A number of ancient management journals seem to suggest that the original Passover was actually about much more than the Jewish people escaping slavery in Egypt, and in fact, one scroll that I came across depicts heated conversations between Moses and Aaron in which the latter excoriates the former for "ignoring the demands of the people for freedom, bread, oxen and a diamond shaped field near Jericho where those on the mounded soils can throw little balls against the one with the wooden rod while wearing anointed leather glovings to protect the hands." Yes, I know that few of us today think of the Israelites in such crassly modernized terms as "baseball", and yet I think these historically mesmerizing words speak for themselves.
Ultimately, of course, softball is a logical compliment to any celebration of one's own heritage (Jew or Goy), and perhaps in looking at tomorrow's game as nothing more than that, some of you will find it within your own hearts to reconsider your plans, and make that commit for the simple reason that it is the only righteous thing to do...Raymond
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