Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on July 18, 2013

by jon roisman, j. staff

The third annual Oakland As Jewish Heritage Night will be extra special for the Jewish community this year: The As have a Jewish player on their roster.

Say hello to 6-foot-8 first baseman Nate Freiman (pronounced FRY-men), who belted four home runs in just 12 at-bats for Team Israel in a preliminary round of the World Baseball Classic last September.

Stocked mainly with Jewish minor leaguers, the Israeli squad beat South Africa and Spain to make it to the final of the four-team qualifier. But with a trip to the main WBC tournament on the line, Israel fell 9-7 to Spain in the title game.

Nate Freiman photo/michael zagaris-courtesy of oakland a's

The 28-man team had only three Israelis on the roster, but manager Brad Ausmus and another former major leaguer, Shawn Green, helped fill out the the roster by contacting a number of U.S. Jewish players.

It became obvious that we could put together a very good team, Ausmus said in a September New York Times interview, and when we started to contact the players, the vast majority embraced the idea of playing for Israel with open arms.

Freiman said he soaked up as much knowledge as he could from Ausmus and Green, whose 328 career home runs are second only to Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg (331) among Jewish major leaguers. Green, who retired in 2007, was Team Israels designated hitter.

I tried to learn as much as I could from Shawn Green, the right-handed hitting Freiman said. He had amazing success in the game.

Freimans career quickly became a roller-coaster ride after the World Baseball Classic qualification round in September.

Read the rest here:
Freiman makes it a special Jewish heritage game for A’s

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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