Film: JEWS AND BASEBALL -- AN AMERICAN LOVE STORY January 16, 2011

2010, Peter Miller, Canada/USA, 91 min.
Narrated by Dustin Hoffman

My son, the shortstop? Jews are supposed to be doctors and lawyers, not ballplayers, but this entertaining documentary blasts that stereotype out of the park. From 1866, when Lipman Pike led the league in homers, to the recent heroics of Shawn Green and Kevin Youkilis, the relationship between Jews and the national pastime has been a rich and mutually illuminating one, taking in the composer of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," the classy superstars Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax, Cubs hurler Ken Holtzman, Commish Bud Selig, union-leader Marvin Miller, and many more. The film's coup is a lengthy and candid interview with the famously reclusive Koufax, but there's plenty more diamond dish to be gotten from an all-star lineup of interviewees including Maury Allen, Yogi Berra, Bob Feller, Ron Howard, Roger Kahn, and Al Rosen.

Official Website: http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org