If you’ve been outside recently, you’ll notice that there’s a little something in the air. The birds are chirping, bats are thwacking horsehide in parks around the country, and bread is remaining unleavened. Yes, the Jewish holiday of Passover is upon us once again, and in honor of the eight days of remembrance, BaseballLibrary.com would like to present its All-Jewish team. We all know about Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg, but we’re pretty sure we can fill out a respectable diamond.

C: Moe Berg – This catcher, as Nicholas Dawidoff’s biography title succinctly puts it, was a spy. He may not have boasted the best statistics, but Berg was educated, dashing, and a fine athlete. As it was revealed years after he retired, Berg was not only a secret agent in Germany and Japan in the 1930s, but also worked in the OSS during World War II. Let’s see Jason Kendall say “the condor flies at midnight” in Japanese.

1B: Hank Greenberg – The original Hammerin’ Hank played only nine-and-a-half seasons due to injuries and service in the war, but he still slugged his way into the Hall of Fame. Born to Romanian immigrants, Greenberg worked hard through high school, got an athletic scholarship to NYU, and joined the Tigers, later to become a four-time All-Star and two-time MVP.

As he wrote in his autobiography The Story of My Life, Greenberg carried a strong belief that "being Jewish did carry with it a special responsibility. After all, I was representing a couple of million Jews among a hundred million gentiles, and I was always in the spotlight." » Check out: Happy New Year, Hank!

2B: Rod Carew – Contrary to popular belief, this 18-time All-Star and seven-time batting champion never converted to Judiasm. After marrying a Jewish woman, however, he did raise his kids in the faith, and that itself deserves attention. Besides, Cy Block and Andy Cohen are poor replacements.

SS: Buddy Myer – A versatile infielder (though he was more often a second baseman) and two-time All-Star, Myer won the batting title in 1935, and was a franchise player for the Washington Senators through the 1930s. He retired with a .303 batting average, totaling over 2,000 hits.

3B: Al Rosen – “Flip” was the Indians’ hot corner man from 1950 to 1956 before injuries forced him into retirement. In those years, he was a four-time All-Star, led the league in dingers twice, had five straight 100-plus RBI campaigns, and won the MVP award in 1953.

OF: Sid Gordon – A Brooklyn-raised outfielder playing for the New York Giants in the ‘40s and ‘50s, Gordon was a two-time All-Star who cranked 25-plus homers in five straight seasons and three years of 100-plus ribbies.

OF: Shawn Green – Considered the new Rabbi of Swat (Mose Solomonoriginally had the nickname) Green was one of the most eligible bachelors in Toronto before the Jays traded him to the Dodgers. He’s quite the mensch, this 30-30 player, speaking at Hebrew schools and once appearing on the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s annual campaign videotape. In Los Angeles, he has joined many Jewish-oriented charities, and has talked about getting an adult bar mitzvah.

OF: Benny Kauff – They called him the “Ty Cobb of the Federal League,” hopefully in the best possible sense. Kauff led the Federal League in batting in 1914 and 1915 (his only two years with the organization), and came back to the New York Giants when the league folded. He ended his eight-year professional career with a .311 batting average and 234 stolen bases.

P: Sandy Koufax – Considered by many to be the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time, Koufax became the youngest player ever elected to the Hall of Fame five years after arthritis ended his career prematurely. On October 6, 1965, the dominating southpaw skipped his start in the first game of the World Series against the Minnesota Twins to go to shul for Yom Kippur.

P: Steve Stone – The pitcher who changed his uniform number to Koufax’s 32 had his career cut short by an arm injury after a dominating 1980 Cy Young Award-winning season in which he went 25-7.

P: Ken Holtzman – He was dubbed “The New Koufax” when he came up to the bigs at the age of 20, but who could possibly live up to those expectations? The two-time All-Star did toss two no-hitters for the Cubs, and won three World Series rings with the early-1970s Athletics squad. In the 1974 World Series, Holtzman crushed a key home run, despite not batting at all during the regular season.

Bench: Gabe Kapler – Emerging as a solid outfielder for the Texas Rangers, Kapler needs just one full season to get him starting consideration on this team. And his mother works at a Jewish pre-school, to boot.

Bench: Harry Danning – This Giants catcher from the 1930’s was a four-time All-Star and had a lifetime batting average of .285.

Honorable mention, of course, goes to Al Schacht, the Clown Prince of Baseball, whose antics on the field delighted generations of fans.

Sons of mixed marriages (though not raised Jewish) include Lou Boudreau, Brad Ausmus, and Mike Lieberthal.

» Adam W. Green is an editor and actor living in New York. He introduced the phrase "yeah, whatever" to American culture in 1991.