The Baseball Talmud by Howard Megdal

Triumph Books.

Howard Megdal’s book, The Baseball Talmud: The Definitive Position-by-Position Ranking of Baseball’s Chosen Players, received a new edition in May 2022 from Triumph Books.

The updated edition of The Baseball Talmud is a must-own and must-read for any baseball fan. Howard Megdal’s book has the answers that you just can’t find on sites specializing in baseball statistics.

My sincere apologies for running this review two months after finishing the book. I have no excuse! But despite the delay, it’s a very fascinating read. At the end of the book, Megdal delivers on the All-Jewish MLB Team. It’s a solid lineup to say the least. How would that team fare against your favorite MLB team? Read the book and find out.

I started reading the book while in Israel this past March and finished reading during Pesach. I did so much hiking in Israel (just walking around in general) that I didn’t really get much reading accomplished outside of Shabbos. During the weeks in between, I was mainly reading the book on Shabbos only.

As the title reads, this book is pretty self-explanatory. Megdal interviews as many retired or active players as he can. The first edition was published in 2009 so of course, there are changes in both the rankings and finding out that a player might not actually identify as Jewish. A few exciting things happened between the first and second editions. A few Orthodox Jews were drafted by MLB teams. Furthermore, Israel has done well on the world’s stage in either the World Baseball Classic or the Olympics. After being revived during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, baseball won’t be returning this summer in Paris. Hopefully, baseball returns in 2028 as the Olympics come to Los Angeles.

Hank Greenberg, Sandy Koufax, and Shawn Green are some of the obvious picks. Ian Kinsler really climbed since the first edition as he has made a name for himself. There are lesser players that you probably never heard of unless you’re really into baseball and studied players that played for very few seasons. I’d say that a large majority of players profiled barely even played in the big leagues. This doesn’t stop Megdal from diving into the stats, facts, stories, and whatever glory they may have received for their career. Personally speaking, I never realized that that many Jewish ballplayers played for the St. Louis Cardinals in club history.

The 2021 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros were historic and not just because of a combined four Jewish ballplayers between the two clubs. A key moment happened during the second inning of Game 6 but it mostly went unnoticed unless you’re a diehard baseball fan and into statistics. Not even the Fox broadcast team brought it up but Jayson Stark notes in the forward that it was the first time that three Jewish players took the field at the same time during the World Series. Jonathan Mayo pointed it out prior to the game. If this wasn’t enough, fate dictated that all three would be involved in the same play: Max Fried pitched to Alex Bregman, who flew out to Joc Pederson. The game also happened to be played on the third anniversary of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. It’s a powerful moment in MLB history and it gives me chills just thinking about it!

The updated edition of The Baseball Talmud is a must-own and must-read for any baseball fan. Howard Megdal’s book has the answers that you just can’t find on sites specializing in baseball statistics.