The original article is published in Relix Jan/Feb, 2023. Page 17
“Steely Dead started as a big ‘what if’ question,” explains founder and lead guitarist Dave Abear. “We’ve all been playing Dead songs forever,” adds drummer Chris Sheldon. “At the same time,” Abear jumps back in, “we were always big Steely Dan fans.” Sheldon, Dave, Dave’s brother Matt Abear (bass) and Dylan Teifer (keys) first came together five years ago. After drawing a few hundred fans to their initial shows in Colorado, the musicians had a break-through moment when they sold out Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads shortly before COVID hit.
Though Steely Dan’s tightly scripted songs and the Grateful Dead’s long-winding improvisational jams may seem like an unnatural match, those bands actually shared an intertwined history long before Abear started his project. The Steely Dan hit “Kid Charlemagne” even references Owsley “Bear” Stanley, the Dead’s legendary sound engineer and LSD chemist. “We like to say we Dead down the Dan and Dan up the Dead,” Dave says. “We stretch out the Dan stuff and tighten up the Dead.” The band pairs songs based on their feel. Classic combos like “Dealin’ in the Years,” a swirl of “Deal” and “Reelin’ in the Years,” “just work so well together,” says Dave, noting their perfect match of “grooves and keys.” The tune-which often serves as a set closer-starts and ends with “Deal,” sandwiching the Steely Dan melody in the middle. Other prearranged combos include “Fezeree” (“Fez” and “Sugaree”) and “Truck Friday” (“Truckin’ and “Black Friday”).
Similar to many jambands, their sets are determined on the fly, with band members using hand signals or audibles to indicate the next song. Some mashups are determined live onstage, so “you might not hear the same combo every time,” says Chris. And the fans are kept guessing about the second half of each number. Chris, though, is used to the challenge, as the longtime drummer in mashup band DeadPhish Orchestra. Does the band ever get stuck trying to find a perfect match for a given song? Absolutely, admits Dave, who says there’s only one solution. “We just ask ourselves, ‘What would Jerry do?””
Despite a tough quarterfinal exit, Kaylan Bigun’s tennis journey is marked by family support, connections to Israel, and excitement for his upcoming college career at UCLA.
CALIFORNIA NATIVE Kaylan Bigun was a strong contender to win the US Open Junior Tournament, coming in as the second seed, but he fell in the quarterfinals.(photo credit: HOWARD BLAS)
For 18-year-old tennis player Kaylan Bigun, the US Open was one to remember. Even before the French Open juniors champion and former world No. 1 junior kicked off a quarterfinal run in the US Open junior boys’ tournament – where he was the second seed – he had already spent nearly three weeks on the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Bigun had seen action in both the US Open men’s qualifying tournament and the mixed doubles tournament. The Los Angeles native was one of nine men to receive a wild card in the men’s qualifying tournament, where he lost in the first round to Valentin Vacherot of Monaco 7-6, 6-4. He also received a wild card into the mixed doubles main draw with fellow teen standout, 16-year-old Iva Jovic. They won their first-round match against Dayana Yastremska and Max Purcell, 6-4, 6-4, but lost in the second round 6-2, 6-3 to fourth seeds Barbora Krejcikova and Matthew Ebden.
Bigun began his bid to win the boys’ juniors championship with a 6-4, 6-2 win in just over an hour against Andreas Timini of Cyprus. He advanced with a similarly straightforward second-round hour-and-seven-minute straight-sets win against Karim Bennani of Morocco, 6-2, 6-2. In the round of 16, Kaylan beat fellow American Matthew Forbes 6-2, 6-4. However, the quarterfinals presented a super-tough opponent in Spain’s Rafael Jodar – a far cry from another Spanish Rafael, but still a stiff challenge.
Jodar took the first set 6-4, but Bigun rallied for a 7-6 second-set win to equalize. However, the Spaniard prevailed 7-5 in the decider to spell the end for Bigun’s title hopes after a valiant effort.
In the days between the men’s qualifiers and the start of the juniors’ tournament, Bigun practiced with his Princeton-bound tennis-playing twin brother, Meecah, and his father, Dmitry. Bigun would undoubtedly have some great stories to share with his college classmates when he began his studies and college tennis career at UCLA in January. Kaylan and Meecah spoke with The Jerusalem Post in the junior player’s dining room after a practice session; their father spoke with the Post separately outside of Stadium Court 17 at the US Open. The brothers spoke openly about their incredible tennis journeys, which included a healthy dose of Jewish and Israeli experiences.
Daniil Medvedev of Russia celebrates after his match against Novak Djokovic of Serbia (not pictured) in the men’s singles final on day fourteen of the 2021 US Open tennis tournament at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, in Flushing, New York, on September 12, 2021. (credit: DANIELLE PARHIZKARAN-USA TODAY SPORTS)
Bigun enjoyed his first experience playing at the US Open in the men’s qualifying tournament.
“Playing your first pro US Open, I guess I was a little nervous, and those emotions can be stressful before matches, but I tried to stay focused on what I could control and how I wanted to play.”
Waiting for many hours for his match to start was also a challenge; it was the fifth match of five.
“Obviously it wasn’t easy waiting all day for the match, but when I came out there it was cool. Some of my cousins and other family members came, so it was really nice to play in front of them and see how proud they were. Also, the crowd was pretty good, so that was fun.”
Given Bigun’s success in the juniors over the past year, where he rose to the No. 1 ranking after winning at Roland Garros – in addition to appearing at each of the junior Grand Slam events and making it to the semifinals of the prestigious Orange Bowl International Championship – he had grown accustomed to winning. However, playing against professional players was a new and different experience.
“Obviously, losing was not the fun part. I felt I could have played better in some parts, but overall it definitely was a good experience. I was where I wanted to be and was kind of taking every point and trying to keep going forward and really just enjoying the moment, smiling out there.”
After exiting the qualifying tournament, Kaylan and Meecah spent a lot of time practicing on court together. Both brothers have aspirations of becoming professional tennis players. Meecah felt it may take him a bit longer, given the academic rigor he anticipated at Princeton. Meecah didn’t participate in the US Open tournament, though he stayed with his brother “trying to help out in any way possible” until he left for college orientation the day after the interview.
The brothers, who bantered and finished each other’s sentences during the interview, appeared to enjoy each other’s company a great deal. The twins grew up together, both at home and on the road, at tournaments and tennis academies, while fishing together, homeschooling with their teacher mother, and with the Seton Home Study School.
While their university classes would essentially be their first formal group-learning experience since third grade, they were quick to point out that their social skills did not suffer as a result of homeschooling and online learning, noting that playing tennis in an academy and competing in tournaments meant constantly being around other children.
Kaylan felt their years on the road balancing sports and academics would serve them well in college and in life.
“Players are used to the hustle and bustle of traveling.”
On court, the brothers helped each other improve.
“We compete against each other, but we also help each other out on the court,” noted Meecah.
Kaylan appreciated Meecah’s contributions.
“He is obviously a very vital part of my tennis… mentally and just in general. I love having him around. It’s like your best friend with you wherever you are.”
Their father, Dmitry, a pharmacist by training who immigrated to Los Angeles from Ukraine 35 years ago, brought them to the courts—in a stroller—from the age of one. He also introduced them to a range of sports, including swimming, basketball, and soccer. They also spent a lot of time on the playground.
A tennis player himself, Dmitry enlisted friends to hit balls with his boys, and Dmitry hit balls with their children in return.
“Our dad played tennis, and he introduced us at a really young age,” Kaylan recounted. “I have been playing and holding a racket for as long as I can remember; it has been a part of my life for as long as I have lived.
“At first, it started off with just the three of us having fun on the court, then we played a few tournaments. Next thing you know, we got a little more serious. And a little more serious. I think what’s important is that when the three of us are on the court, we still have the same fun that started it all.”
Dmitry recalled the boys starting to get serious about tennis at age 10. “We met a coach from JTCC (Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland). The coach said, ‘I like your kids’ and invited them to train there.” Dmitry reported that he became a “full-time tennis parent,” and the family relocated to College Park, Maryland, from Los Angeles, California, where the boys trained for four years until the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We really hit it off with Asaf Yamin [the Israeli former director of high performance and current director of international operations at JTCC]. He has a good knowledge of tennis, he is a good person to go to with questions, the guys loved him, and he is a good family guy.”
Kaylan added: “My brother, my parents, and I would go to Asaf’s house for some Jewish holidays and Shabbat. It would always be fun. And we would stay at his house when he ran the tournament at College Park – so it was always a lot of fun. It felt nice that we were connected to the Jewish and Israeli community outside of LA in DC, so that was a good feeling. It was awesome.”
Yamin was pleased with the growth and progress he had seen with the Bigun boys and knew how excited they both were about the possibility of eventually playing on the pro tour.
Yamin described Kaylan as “very aggressive but also creative” and as someone who liked to be “a big stage player” who “shined at big events. He is very easy, fun, curious, serious, and a really good boy with a good heart.”
While the boys had played doubles together before, they both aspired to “make it” as professional singles players. They playfully dismissed the suggestion that they might one day follow in the footsteps of the very accomplished tennis-playing Bryan Brothers twins.
“We like playing doubles. I feel like both of us are pretty good, but we haven’t really gotten into playing doubles with each other too much yet, but maybe that’s something in the future we will do.”
The twins had several opportunities to travel to Israel in the past and proudly recounted what they described as a “full-circle moment” on one of their family trips to Israel.
At the Israel Tennis Education Centers in Ramat Hasharon, they had the chance to meet and train with Dmitri Romanovitch, the coach who taught their dad the game decades earlier in Kiev.
“It was fun,” exclaimed Kaylan. “We got to play with some of the kids our age and some of the older guys. The guy who coached my dad would run these fun sessions. He was so energetic. We would have a bunch of games and drills back to back. It was intense, but we had a lot of fun at the same time.”
They also traveled throughout the country.
“We really got to see a good amount of the country, which was awesome,” said Meecah. “We went to the Dead Sea and Jerusalem, and we have family in Haifa and in Tel Aviv as well.”
“The food is obviously unbelievable,” added Kaylan. “The people are hospitable. Honestly, it is like one big family over there. Everywhere we went, we felt welcomed. It was definitely a good family feeling. My favorite was pomegranate juice you get on the street. Obviously, the hummus there is next level. The beaches are nice. There is so much to do there. I loved every part of it.”
While the boys hoped to get back to Israel, they had to turn their full attention to their tennis and university studies.
“I am super stoked about heading to UCLA,” said Kaylan. “It is pretty close to where we live. And I have a lot of friends who go there. I am really excited. The coaches are great and the people, so I can’t wait.”
The world’s top wheelchair athletes, including four Israelis—Adam Berdichevsky, Guy Sasson, Sergei Lysov, and Maayan Zikri—are competing fiercely at Stade Roland Garros.
CLOCKWISE FROM top left: Guy Sasson (Wheelchair Tennis), Adam Berdichevsky (Wheelchair Tennis and Flag Bearer), Maayan Zikri (Wheelchair Tennis), Sergei Lysov (Wheelchair Tennis) and Nadav Levi (Boccia).(photo credit: Meirav Cohen/Courtesy)
There will be no men’s and women’s wheelchair or quads tennis at this year’s US Open Tennis Championships—for a very good reason. The world’s best wheelchair tennis players are currently in Paris, France, competing for their countries at the Paralympics.
Every four years, the Paralympics wheelchair tournament conflicts with the US Open. (The juniors wheelchair tournament, however, will take place at the US Open at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Queens, New York, as planned.
Four Israelis – Adam Berdichevsky, Guy Sasson, Sergei Lysov, and Maayan Zikri – are representing Israel in the wheelchair tennis event, which got under way on Friday, and runs through September 7 on the same courts at Stade Roland Garros, home of the French Open, where Sasson recently won the French Open quads title. The Israelis are off to a great start.
On Friday, Berdichevsky, 40, who took up wheelchair tennis after losing a leg in a 2007 boating accident, defeated Luca Arca of Italy 6-2, 7-5. This was Berdichevsky’s first singles victory at the Paralympics after debuting at Tokyo 2020.
“I cannot say how much fun it was to represent my country like this. The win, it was the first time I played in front of a crowd like this, and it felt like I played at home – it was very special. I was very happy I could give some good times to people amid all the bad days.”
Iyad Shalabi of Israel reacts after winning gold. (credit: REUTERS/MOLLY DARLINGTON)
Earlier in the week, Berdichevsky served as the Israeli delegation’s flag bearer. He was pleased with his victory and reported: “The flag bearing was amazing, to walk with the whole Israel team was amazing – and everyone saw me on TV.”
He will now face Chile’s Alexander Cataldo in round two.
Sergei Lysov
Also on Friday, Sergei Lysov, 20, who was diagnosed with Perthes’ disease at age 9 and immigrated to Israel from Russia in 2019, defeated Brayan Tapia of Chile 7-5, 6-1 in his Paralympic debut.
Lysov reached a career-high ranking of No. 17 earlier this month and advanced to the second round on Sunday against the tournament’s No. 1 seed, Alfie Hewett of Great Britain. Hewett, a 9-time Grand Slam singles and 3-time Roland Garros singles champion, is appearing in his third Paralympics and handily beat Lysov 6-0, 6-1.
On Saturday, Roland Garros quad singles champion and the tournament’s No. 3 seed, Guy Sasson, won his first-round match against Francisco Cayulef of Chile 6-2, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals and then on Monday beat Gregory Slade from Great Britain 6-1, 6-2 to roll into the semifinals.
“Playing for the first time in a great stadium like that, with so many fans who came to watch us… it was a great atmosphere and a unique feeling,” said Sasson. “I had a lot of fun playing this match. Two months ago when I was here, and I was able to win Roland Garros, that gave me a lot of confidence. I love the clay here and the atmosphere. I knew that it would be a good step towards the Paralympics and here we are.”
Maayan Zikri, the only female on the Israeli team, defeated Najwa Awane of Morocco 6-3, 6-2 in her first-round match.
This is the ninth year that wheelchair tennis will be featured at the Summer Paralympic Games. The sport made its debut as a full-medal event at Barcelona 1992. The sport had previously been a demonstration event at Seoul 1988, when a men’s singles and women’s singles tournament was held. The men’s and women’s singles events have been played at every Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis Event since 1992, while the quad singles and doubles events have been contested since Athens 2004.
The tournament features 95 players from 28 nations. Singles matches are played as best-of-three tie-break sets, while doubles matches are played as best-of-three tie-break sets with a match tie-break as the final set. The Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis Event is taking place on outdoor clay courts for the second time, after being played on clay at Barcelona 1992. Court Philippe Chatrier and Court Suzanne Lenglen at Stade Roland Garros both have a retractable roof, which can be closed in case of inclement weather.
Boaz Kramer, Executive Director of Israel ParaSport Center, who won the silver medal in mixed doubles quads at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, is proud of the four tennis players as well as Nadav Levi, a boccia player, who are part of their center in Ramat Gan.
“To have four wheelchair tennis players from the Israel ParaSport Center in the Paralympic Games is a dream come true. To make this dream a reality, the Israel ParaSport Center has worked for almost a decade, investing in the development of a very special and unique tennis program that honors the long legacy of wheelchair tennis excellence at our center in Ramat Gan. To see Adam, who survived October 7 with his family, as flag bearer in the) opening ceremony was an emotional moment for all of us.”
Three of the four Paralympic tennis players spoke with The Jerusalem Post from Paris as they prepared for the start of the Paralympics.
Lysov, from Russia, continues to improve his Hebrew and English speaking abilities and was unavailable for comment.
Zikri, 21, of Holon, openly and comfortably shared the story of how she lost her right foot in a water ride at an amusement park in Holland at age 10 while on a family trip celebrating her sister’s bat mitzvah. After several surgeries and rehabilitation, she took up para sports.
“Two wheelchair basketball coaches told me about basketball, spoke with my mom, and asked if I wanted to try it.”
Maayan was hesitant but trusted her mom.
“I tried it and liked it!” she exclaimed.
Zikri played competitive basketball on a boys’ basketball team for five years.
“I love the international environment,” she recounts, and was disappointed when she was no longer allowed to play on a boys’ team—and there were not enough girls to field a girls’ team. “The wheelchair basketball coach in Israel was a tennis player when he was younger and knew that I liked to travel and to compete and asked me if I wanted to try.”
Zikri traveled to Beit HaLochem in Beersheba to try tennis and was hooked. For a while, she played both sports but soon dropped basketball to focus on tennis and avoid injuries.
“Tennis is my love for now. I miss basketball but I don’t regret it.”
Zikri has quickly moved up the ranks in the tennis world since picking up a racket for the first time at age 15. She reached a No. 3 ranking in the world for juniors in 2021.
In 2022, she won her first title at the Hungarian Open Wheelchair Tennis Championship. Since then, Zikri has claimed titles in Switzerland, England, and Romania. Her most recent victory was a first-place finish at the X Open Bai De Setúbal in July 2023.
Zikri is proud to represent Israel at the Paralympics.
“It means pride, joy, happiness, and excitement. I am so proud to represent the country that I love, our nation.”
Berdichevsky accommodated an interview just before taking part in the flag-bearing ceremony.
“For me, to represent Israel, to carry the flag, and to be a representative of my country and people is really amazing. It makes me happy and proud.” He is pleased to qualify for the Paralympics again in what he describes as a “really packed year, and despite what is happening.”
Berdichevsky shared the harrowing October 7 story of survival, where his family, including his wife and three children ages six, eight, and 10, survived the Hamas invasion at Kibbutz Nir Yitzchak in a safe room for 14 hours. The family then relocated to Eilat for two months.
Fellow tennis team member Sasson, who has been living in Houston, Texas, with his family as part of his wife’s medical training, suggested that the Jewish community consider bringing the Berdichevsky family as well. Berdichevsky noted with great appreciation that his family spent six months in Houston before returning to Eilat. They are currently considering their next move, which may include returning to Houston.
“We are so thankful to the Houston Jewish community who provided us with a home, a car, and school for the children. We were very welcomed!”
While Berdichevsky felt proud to represent Israel in the 2020 Tokyo Games, he feels it is “much more important than ever to represent the country because of what happened and to be a model for all the soldiers who got injured.”
He playfully said that his strategy for this year’s Paralympics is “to win the first point and go on to the next point!”
Sasson, who spoke with the Post at last year’s US Open, again spoke from Paris prior to the start of the Paralympics. He reflected that returning to the clay courts of Roland Garros was “familiar” as he recently competed there.
Competing in the Paralympics is also familiar, though he said, “last time I competed in the other division (known as ‘wheelchairs’). Now I am in the quads” (for players with more substantial loss of function). Sasson feels there has been “a lot of expectation and it motivates me to do well here.
“I feel good and well-prepared. Hopefully, I will perform the way I want to perform.”
Like his teammates, Sasson feels there is something unique about playing for Israel now
“The whole team is very excited to represent Israel, especially in these times. It is much more than tennis. You represent Israel, and there is a lot of meaning behind it. You can feel this is very important to all of the athletes who want to do well and make people happy.”
According to Roni Bolotin, former Paralympic swimmer and head of the Israeli delegation, 27 athletes are competing in 10 events, including the team sport of goalball. Bolotin reports that he became disabled and an amputee who also suffered serious eye damage almost 50 years ago in 1968 in a minefield explosion in the Sinai while serving in the IDF. While this is his 12th Paralympics, he exclaimed that “it is still the same excitement!”
Bolotin explained why this year has important significance.
“This year, these are really special circumstances, and everybody understands the unique role and responsibility of the athletes in these special times for Israel. We understand that we really need to do our best and that our athletes serve as role models for the newly disabled who did their service in Gaza and in the north.”
“Sport can be the best tool for rehabilitation and for a full and rewarding life. Our staff is already in the rehab centers to show that sports is a way to have the best life in this situation!”
Bolotin is proud of the tennis team playing for Israel in Paris.
“They are a combination of two veteran experienced players and two new young ones. The future is before them! They are a great combination!”
Some wheelchair tennis players participating in the Paralympics will receive compensation from the US Open, despite not actually attending. According to the USTA (United States Tennis Association), it gave “players that would have been entered into the US Open via direct acceptance with a player grant to ensure that these players are receiving the equivalent of prize money as compensation.” They detail that a total of $6,244,000 has been set aside for wheelchair tennis grants, player per diems, and hotel payments. Total main draw and qualifying payments for the US Open is $75,000,000.
Eve Rosenbaum’s lifelong passion for baseball propelled her from Orioles fan to assistant GM, breaking barriers and driving the team’s resurgence.
Eve Rosenbaum, assistant general manager for Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles, playfully traces her love for baseball and the Orioles to the first Orioles game she attended with her parents, twin brother, and older brother at just two months of age.
The family regularly made the 37-mile (60 km) trek from their home in the Washington, DC suburb of Bethesda, MD, first to Memorial Stadium, the Orioles’ old home, and then to Oriole Park at Camden Yards to see their beloved team play.
“We went to 60 games a year growing up,” Rosenbaum told The Jerusalem Post. “Baseball has always been in my blood!”
In 34 short years, Rosenbaum has progressed from fan to player on a boys’ Little League baseball team while in kindergarten, to catcher on her Walt Whitman High School team, and then to the Harvard University women’s softball team. Her journey continued with internships with Major League Baseball and the Boston Red Sox. Rosenbaum then veered slightly “off course” for a two-and-a-half-year stint with the National Football League before returning to jobs with her first love – baseball.
She worked for five years in the Houston Astros organization in various roles, including manager of international scouting, before returning to her childhood favorite team, the Orioles, in 2019. Rosenbaum initially served as director of baseball development and has been the assistant general manager for the past two years.
Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Scott Feldman works against the Toronto Blue Jays into the eighth inning to pick up his first win as an Oriole during their MLB American League baseball game in Baltimore, Maryland July 14, 2013. (credit: REUTERS/Doug Kapustin)
As assistant GM, Rosenbaum notes that “there is no such thing as a typical day.” Her main focus is on day-to-day operations, which requires a great deal of planning and anticipation.
“I am constantly thinking of the team and the roster and what we will need, trying to think ahead.” Rosenbaum focuses on trades and transactions, on players being brought up from AAA [farm teams] or sent down to the minors. She stays in touch with coaches, trainers, and strength staff about players on the IL [injured list], monitors their rehabilitation, maps out their return, and juggles the overall 40-man roster. Rosenbaum also oversees international scouting, i.e. lots of travel.
Rosenbaum acknowledges that “the season is long, and it takes a lot of commitment and time – especially during these long summers when you have the draft in the middle of July, trade deadlines, and the normal day-to-day and roster considerations, players on the IL, rehab, and the playoffs!”
She admits that she “could use more sleep” and that “it is really a nonstop grind during baseball season,” but she loves her work, which often comes with perks.
On the day of our Zoom interview from her office at Camden Yards, Rosenbaum’s “to-do list” included bringing tickets to that evening’s Orioles/Washington Nationals game to the will-call window for family and friends from her years growing up in the DC area. Other perks of the job include interacting with two of her favorite Orioles players from her childhood.
“Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray are still revered here. Now I get to work with them sometimes at spring training and see them around the ballpark – that is surreal!”
In addition to Ripken and Murray, Rosenbaum credits Kim Ng, the first female GM in Major League Baseball, as a role model. Rosenbaum, who is the fourth woman to serve as an assistant GM in the major leagues, interned for Ng while in college. Ng served as GM of the Miami Marlins from 2020-2023.
“For any woman working in sports, she helped pave the way and will always be someone I look up to.”
Rosenbaum also credits her parents for all they have done over the years.
“It takes a lot to raise twins. I think a lot of my success can be attributed to my parents. They always believed in me and pushed me forward. Whatever I wanted to do, they were very supportive. They always told me that I knew how to throw a ball before I knew how to walk!”
While there are more men than women in senior leadership positions in Major League Baseball, Rosenbaum has observed a culture change.
“There are more and more women in baseball operations, whether it is serving as AGMs, VPs, directors, analysts, strength coaches, etc. [These days] you can enter the game not necessarily with a playing background, but with more of an analytical background, or by studying statistics or computer science, or being an athletic trainer or strength coach, or through working with a minor league team and slowly working your way through the ranks. You can do that if you are a man or a woman! There are definitely more women working in baseball.”
In addition to noticing more women in baseball, Rosenbaum reports that there are “a fair number of Jews in the front offices” of baseball teams.
“We don’t ask, but we just know it!”
She has encountered other Jews at baseball’s winter meetings, where they sometimes light Hanukkah candles together in the lobby.
“There’s quite a lot of us. We don’t necessarily explicitly acknowledge each other, but we know everyone’s last name.”
Rosenbaum also knows many of the current Jewish major leaguers, including Israeli Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer. She noted that she respects his role as a player and tries to keep a professional distance.
Rosenbaum spontaneously offers, “I don’t know what it is about the unique bond between Jews and baseball, but it doesn’t seem to exist in other major sports. I don’t know why that is. I have to study the history of it. But it is kind of just there – a proud tradition.”
Rosenbaum’s early life
Rosenbaum attended Hebrew school “like pretty much everyone else” and celebrated her bat mitzvah with her twin brother at age 13. Even the bat mitzvah party reflected her lifelong love of baseball.
“The theme for my half was baseball. We had a giant baseball cake, which every now and then I come across a photo of. It was a giant 3-D baseball! I am sure my parents still have a piece of it somewhere in their freezer.”
While Rosenbaum describes herself as not “particularly observant,” she is still in touch with many of her childhood friends.
“There is a large Jewish population in Potomac and Bethesda where I grew up. My old friends get together now and then on Jewish holidays and do things like play dreidel. We have our favorite bakery that makes the best challah here in Rockville – it is called Great Harvest.”
Rosenbaum has visited Israel twice.“We took a family trip when I was 3 or 4. I was very young, so I have no memory.”
In contrast, Rosenbaum remembers many details of her later-in-life Birthright Israel trip.
“Most of my friends went in college. Due to playing softball, I wasn’t able to go then. I went at 26 – right before you max out. I went with one of my best friends growing up. It was a lot of fun.”
Rosenbaum was taken by the history she experienced and by how much the group got to do over the course of the 10-day trip.
“It still amazes me how small the country is and how you can traverse it on a bus basically in a single day and be in all of these different environments.”
She recounted experiencing “bonfires in the desert, then hiking up a mountain where it is very hot, then going to the Dead Sea and eating ice cream while floating, and doing just a lot of fun things that you hear about… and also going to the Western Wall and Yad Vashem and meeting the soldiers and going to the museums and learning the history that I never learned about was really fascinating. It was a lot of fun. It was an incredible experience.”
Rosenbaum feels there is something very special about being Jewish.
“Something that has always stood out to me about Judaism is that it is always very accepting of people. It is not about what you can’t do – it is very accepting and welcoming of people. That is a nice aspect of it. It is a culture, a lifestyle, a way of life.”
In addition to her reputation as a young, up-and-coming mover and shaker in MLB, Rosenbaum is known for seeking out cold brew coffee both at home and on the road.
“It is very caffeinated and delicious and tastes like a milkshake.”
The cold brews should prove helpful as the Orioles enter the final stretch of the season. The Orioles were the first team in Major League Baseball to win 70 games and are in a very tight AL East pennant race with the New York Yankees with 29 games to go. Thanks to the efforts of Rosenbaum and Orioles management, the Orioles are on track to potentially win their first World Series since 1983.
