Shawn Green caught between faith and team

Thursday, Sept. 23, 2004 | 10:35 a.m.

Shawn Green is anguishing over the same conflict that confronted Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg.

The game or the synagogue? A pennant race or prayers?

In Green's case, he's torn about missing two critical games for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the San Francisco Giants on the holiest of the Jewish High Holy Days, Yom Kippur, from sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday.

Should he play one game and abstain from the other, seeking a compromise in his commitments to his team and his faith?

Should he play both games or attend services, fast and refrain from work in solemn observance of The Day of Atonement?

Will he be criticized one way or another? No doubt, but he has to answer only to himself.

"It's a really tough deal," Green said Wednesday night before the Dodgers lost to San Diego 4-0 and saw their NL West lead over San Francisco shrink to a half-game.

"I've bounced back and forth and am just trying to do the right thing. It's hard to know what that is. I've really been toying with two different options: Play one of them or not play at all. I will miss at least one game."

To play or not to play on Yom Kippur is a personal decision for a Jewish ballplayer that can have a larger impact.

"It strikes a chord with each one of us who has to wonder, 'What do I do in this situation? Do I go to work? Am I going to observe my faith in a very visible way? Or do I just go with the flow?'" said Rabbi David Fine, Pacific Northwest regional director for the Union for Reform Judaism.

Koufax and Greenberg won the everlasting affection of American Jews, and the respect of many non-Jews, by observing Yom Kippur rather than playing in big games - Koufax in the 1965 World Series as pitching ace of the Dodgers, Greenberg in the 1934 pennant race as the home run slugger for the Detroit Tigers.

"It's not quite a profile in courage, but it's still a courageous stand," said Fine, who grew up in Detroit hearing about Greenberg long after the last of his 331 home runs and his 58 in 1938. "It's when baseball players really become heroes in the eyes of those of us who watch them. It's when they go beyond good players to being real examples and role models."

Koufax attended synagogue in Minnesota instead of pitching in Game 1 of the '65 Series against the Twins. Don Drysdale pitched that day and gave up seven runs in 2 2-3 innings. When manager Walter Alston came out to pull him from the game, Drysdale cracked, "I bet right now you wish I was Jewish, too."

Greenberg wrestled with whether to play on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. He spoke to his rabbi about it, got a dispensation to play, and hit two homers that day. The Detroit Free Press ran a banner headline, in Hebrew, that read: "Happy New Year, Hank."

On Yom Kippur, the pennant not quite clinched, Greenberg sat.

"Greenberg's decision electrified the American Jewish community, and generations of people remember that with incredible pride," said Martin Abramowitz, who recently helped the Hall of Fame organize "A celebration of Jews in baseball."

The world has changed in 70 years - Green doesn't have to face the same anti-Semitism that Greenberg did. But the issues are the same and it's still a matter of a man examining his principles and conscience.

"Greenberg's choice (was) how to balance loyalty to parents, religion, and tradition with commitment to his American profession and his desire to fully participate in American life," historian Peter Levine wrote.

Sitting out on Yom Kippur made Greenberg a model for second-generation Jews struggling with similar issues at work.

Green, who sat out on Yom Kipper three years ago and ended a streak of 415 consecutive games played, is making an impact even as he considers doing it again in a more crucial situation for his team.

"In some ways it's a contribution not only to the American Jewish community but to America to have the spotlight on someone who is publicly responding to a question of his religious obligation," Abramowitz said. "That in itself is a gift for us all."

Green has 27 homers this season and is the most accomplished of 10 active Jewish players. He was among the 143 ballplayers honored at the Hall of Fame celebration. Another, former Oakland pitcher Ken Holtzman, told of his refusal to dress for a game on Yom Kippur in the 1973 playoffs against Baltimore.

He was surprised when a limousine arrived at his Baltimore hotel on Yom Kippur morning to whisk him to a synagogue, where he was escorted to the front row and welcomed by Orioles owner Jerry Hoffberger.

Holtzman must have found some blessings because he won the next game 2-1 with a three-hitter over 11 innings.

Ron Blomberg, who won trivia fame by becoming the first designated hitter, was also among the Jewish players celebrated by the Hall. In 1971 at Yankee Stadium against Cleveland, he, too, chose to sit out on Yom Kippur and became known as "the Sundown Kid."

"It was ... nearing sundown at home, tie game, two outs in the bottom of the ninth with a man on third base," Blomberg told the Long Island Press. "I'm up. If I don't do it, we go past sundown, and if we go past sundown, I'm going to have to leave. I hit a single to center field and we won the game. From that day on I was idolized by every Jew in the city."

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Steve Wilstein is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at swilstein(at)ap.org