Non­fic­tion

The Jew­ish Base­ball Card Book

Bob Wech­sler, Peter McDon­ald, & Mar­tin Abramowitz
  • Review
By – April 18, 2018

Base­ball fans will savor this mag­nif­i­cent col­lec­tion about Jews in the world of base­ball, illus­trat­ed with fac­sim­i­les of orig­i­nal base­ball cards — many pro­duced in the hey­day of the card col­lect­ing mania.

An intro­duc­tion, a short his­to­ry of base­ball cards, and a pub­lish­er’s note high­light the con­sid­er­able Jew­ish pres­ence in Major League Base­ball — start­ing in the 1870s with Lip­man Pike and con­tin­u­ing enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly into the 21st cen­tu­ry. While base­ball play­ers are the main focus, the book also fea­tures Jew­ish sports­writ­ers, base­ball team own­ers, and oth­er Jew­ish par­tic­i­pants in the base­ball world.

The book’s rich col­ors and well-designed lay­out are an eye-catch­ing feast, and infor­ma­tion­al blurbs with fas­ci­nat­ing mate­r­i­al abound.

If your moth­er threw away your cards (or they mys­te­ri­ous­ly dis­ap­peared”), or you’re a base­ball fanat­ic who wants to learn about Jew­ish involve­ment in the sport, this is the book you want to own.

Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 8 to adult, and espe­cial­ly rec­om­mend­ed for inter­gen­er­a­tional sharing.

Michal Hoschan­der Malen is the edi­tor of Jew­ish Book Coun­cil’s young adult and children’s book reviews. A for­mer librar­i­an, she has lec­tured on top­ics relat­ing to lit­er­a­cy, run book clubs, and loves to read aloud to her grandchildren.

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