Salon.com > Jonah Keri

Midrange gifts for the sports lover

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:00:00 +0000

Are you a Cleveland Cavaliers fan living in Miami? A Los Angeles Lakers fan shipped to the Lakers' old home in Minneapolis? A Boston Celtics fan on assignment in Omaha, Neb.? With NBA League Pass Broadband ($100), you can watch LeBron, Kobe, K.G. and the stars from all 30 teams (over 900 games) on your laptop, wherever you happen to be stationed.

Luxury gifts for the sports lover

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:13:00 +0000

Kids love big things. And that goes for you kids in your 30s and 40s who haven't outgrown the thrill of seeing Redskins running back Clinton Portis emblazoned on your bedroom wall. Well, better make that your garage wall: Consider Fathead ($149). What is it? Let's go to the P.R. copy: "Fathead is a life-size, hi-def, precision-cut wall graphic made of hyper-durable vinyl." In other words, a really big poster of sports stars. Jeff Gordon, anyone?

The sport of kings is now the sport of mooks like you and me. Yes, we can own a thoroughbred racehorse ($499 down and an average monthly stipend of $29). Karakorum Racing Team offers ownership stakes as small as one-half of a percent in a stable of more than 30 horses in New York and mid-Atlantic tracks. You and your 100-or-so co-owners pay for the hay and the shots and the horseshoes, and when your horse wins, you get to stand in the winner's circle (in 2008, about 12.4 percent of the time).

Bargain gifts for the sports lover

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Give the baseball junkie in your life a subscription to Bill James' Web site ($3 a month). Written with nonpareil authority, the site contains a treasure trove of stats and nuggets about your favorite players, past and present. Perfect for punching up while you're watching a game or when you're counting down the months until pitchers and catchers report.

Is your sports fan also a political junkie? If so, may we suggest this "Throwback" Barack Obama high school basketball T-shirt ($20)? Launch three-pointers like "the O'Bomber" did when he led his team to the 1979 Hawaiian state finals. Toss it in the wash, throw it back on, then try to solve the global energy crisis, navigate a recession and extricate the country from two wars.

The 18 best Jewish ballplayers of all time

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 11:21:00 +0000

"Would you like something to read?"
"Do you have anything light?"
"How about this leaflet, 'Famous Jewish Sports Legends.'"
-- "Airplane"

Mark Spitz, the seven-time gold medalist swimmer at the 1972 Olympics, is Jewish. So's Dolph Schayes, honored as one of the 50 greatest NBA players of all time. Then there's the great Sandy Koufax. His refusal to play on Yom Kippur in 1965 sparked a firestorm of criticism and philosophical debate, since the holiday fell during Game 1 of the World Series. But Koufax came back to start three times, including a complete-game shutout in Game 5 and a three-hit shutout on just two days rest in Game 7, which clinched the Series for the Dodgers.

Koufax's decision to put his religious beliefs ahead of his pitching career enhanced his Jewish folk hero status and his legacy remains a big reason why so many otherwise non-observant Jews take the day off every Yom Kippur. Yet Spitz, Schayes and Sandy represent an exceptionally rare group of Jewish athletes who have reached the top of their profession.