Today is 33 days, which is five days and four weeks of the omer: hod she’b’hod. Today is known as Lag Ba’Omer, an acronym of the Hebrew letters that add up to 33, lamed and gimmel (לַ״ג). The day has a couple of associations relevant to this project. The first is that it is understood as the yahrzeit of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the purported (though not) author … Continue reading day 33: steady eddie
Today is 32 days, which is four days and four weeks of the omer: netzach she’b’hod. Daniel pointed out that if I didn’t do Koufax today, I’d have to write a whole other post about why not (and I’m behind on my posts!), so today’s pick is . . . Dodgers southpaw Sanford Koufax: seven-time All Star, four-time WS champion (and two-time WS MVP), three-time Cy Young … Continue reading day 32: the left hand of gd
Today is 31 days, which is three days and four weeks of the omer: tiferet she’b’hod. For some reason catcher Mike Piazza was one of the first players whom I knew I wanted to talk about. I’m so grateful I got to see him play at Shea Stadium during his last year as a Met. He didn’t play his whole career with that franchise, but when … Continue reading day 31: mike
Today is 30 days, which is two days and four weeks of the omer: gevruah she’b’hod. Thumbing through potentials today was brutal. I had thought to choose Hall of Famer Tim Raines, but there was that whole Pittsburgh drug trials thing. And then I considered Orlando Cepeda, but he was arrested for smuggling marijuana. (Look, pot should be legal, but agreeing to carry five pounds of … Continue reading day 30: regular jew
Today is 29 days, which is one day and four weeks of the omer: hesed she’b’hod. Intra-state rivalries are real in Texas: UT vs. A&M, Rockets vs. Spurs, Texans vs. Cowboys (actually not sure about that last). But even now that the Astros are in the AL, I just don’t care about the Rangers. Never have. Even though the Express decamped to Texas from Houston. Maybe … Continue reading day 29: el koja
Today is 28 days, which is four weeks of the omer: malchut she’b’netzach. It’s not an accident that, after only one in the first 20 days, four of the seven players in this week of netzach are pitchers. The position is a bit of a contradiction. On the one hand, pitchers are in the game relatively infrequently. In the modern era, starters usually only pitch once every … Continue reading day 28: wilbah
Today is 27 days, which is three weeks and six days of the omer: yesod she’b’netzach. Besides loyalty to team and small ball (y’all are really getting to know my baseball preferences), there’s nothing I love more than a good nickname. Even better if that nickname comes from literally nowhere. And that’s what you get when you enter the major leagues at age 19 and get … Continue reading day 27: catfish
Today is 26 days, which is three weeks and five days of the omer: hod she’b’netzach. After those years of second baseman Chase Utley torturing the NL Astros as part of the Phillies club, I was not sorry to see him go 0-6 in the World-Series-that-Shall-Not-Be-Named as part of the Dodgers against the AL Astros. But that performance was not at all indicative of Utley’s career, in which … Continue reading day 26: the man
Today is 25 days, which is three weeks and four days of the omer: netzach she’b’netzach. Though perhaps not technically an essential part of of this project, I am trying to make sure there is variety in my picks — in team, league, position, race, era, etc. There are certain players (i.e., Astros and their traditional big rivals, formally the Cards and Braves, now the As … Continue reading day 25: the pride of peoria
Today is 24 days, which is three weeks and three days of the omer: tiferet she’b’netzach. You better believe that a Jewish baseball player in New York City is always a BFD, almost no matter how he plays. And when that player was a member of the 1969 “Miracle Mets,” madness must ensue. Indeed, outfielder Art Shamsky says, “There isn’t a day that goes by that someone … Continue reading day 24: sham
Omertime 