Howard Megdal first published the The Baseball Talmud: The Definitive Position-by-Position Ranking of Baseball’s Chosen Players in 2009. But a lot of Jewish ball players have come and gone since then. So when the Menschwarmers heard Megdal—whose journalism has appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, FiveThirtyEight and elsewhere—was releasing an updated edition in May 2022, we knew we had to sit down for a chat about all things Jewish baseball, including Megdal’s hot take on the endless debate over who’s better: Sandy Koufax or Hank Greenberg.

Plus, in this episode, Gabe recalls his adventures in sportfishing; we discuss Gabe Kapler’s brief protest against America’s inaction on gun control; we dig into Joc Pederson’s slapping squabble with Tommy Pham; and we catch up on everything else new and noteworthy about the world of Jews and sports.

Credits

Menschwarmers is hosted by James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver, and produced and edited by Michael Fraiman. Our intro music is by Coby Lipovitch, and our outro music is “Organ Grinder Swing” by chēēZ π. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. Follow the Menschwarmers on Twitter @menschwarmers or TikTok @menschwarmers. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.