Taken for Neil Best's Blog; "Watch Dog". This article was sent to me by my cousin (name withheld for safety precautions..yours not his) who is in his own right is a semi-famous Jewish bowling and internet bridge champion. Maybe if he plays his cards right (Pun intended) he will get his own column on my blog someday.
'Designated Hebrew' goes home for holiday
Wednesday at YES Network function at Yankee Stadium I ran into Ron Blomberg, whose claims to fame are that he was the first designated hitter ever and that he is an accomplished former pro athlete of the Jewish faith.
Also . . . It turns out he made his debut for the Yankees on Sept. 10, 1969, the very day the Mets swept the Expos to go into first place for the first time - and the first sports event I remember watching as a young media critic in the making.
Blomberg, 59, was fresh off beating Art Shamsky's team for the first championship of a new Israeli pro baseball league, and was extra thrilled to have ousted a former Met.
Blomberg said he was in town only briefly because he had to get home to Atlanta for Yom Kippur, which begins Friday night. The fact he said it with a Southern accent made it that much weirder to hear talk of Yom Kippur plans coming out of the mouth of a former Major Leaguer.
Here is a clip of Blomberg speaking to Bruce Beck on Ch. 4 about his book "Designated Hebrew,'' which deals with his life as a highly touted rookie (and Jew) in the late '60s.
It's not as bizarre as Stephon Marbury's infamous interview with Beck, but it does have some precious moments, such as Blomberg saying, "The fans took me on as a Messiah a little bit.''
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