Denis Leary - Kevin Youkillis - Mel Gibson

[soupcan]

Just heard the funniest thing on the 'FAN -

Denis Leary was in the booth on NESN sometime recently and they were discussing Youkillis. Someone said he was Jewish and Leary got all excited and went off on a whole Mel Gibson rant. Hys-ter-i-cal.

Went to YouTube to find it and it was there but when I clicked on it I got a message that said it had been removed.

Any tips on finding that clip elsewhere?

It's priceless I tell ya.

[MFS62]

I heard it the other day on the Mike and Mike show on ESPN radio. It was very funny. They sometimes save sound bytes from their show on the espn radio site. But since it was originally aired on a NESN telecast, it might be on their site (don't know if they have one).

Leary was in rare form, and when he was told that Gabe Kapler is Jewish, he went into overdrive. He said something like "You mean we have TWO Jewish ballplayers? Take THAT Mel, and your dad, too."

Later

[soupcan]

Found it!

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

OMG - that was hysterical! Thank you for finding it soup.

[Diamond Dad]

With apologies to Kevin Youkalis, he doesn't make the all-time Jewish team at first base. That one goes to Hank Greenberg. Perhaps Youkalis makes it as a third baseman?

Who else makes the squad??

1B -- Hank Greenberg
2B -- Mike Mordecai
3B -- Kevin Youkalis
SS -- ??
C - Mike Lieberthal/Moe Berg
LF -- Shawn Green
CF -- Art Shamsky
RF -- ??
DH -- Ron Blomberg

SP -- Sandy Kaufax
SP -- Ken Holtzman
SP -- Steve Stone
SP -- ??
SP -- ??

RP -- ??
RP -- ??
RP -- ??
RP -- ??

Mini Knight has a book on jewish sports heros, so I'm sure we can come up with many more

[Guest sharpie]

Shamsky is the right fielder, not the center fielder. For instance, he never once played CF as a Met.

[soupcan]

There was some guy named Rosenberg who pitched for the White Sox a few years back.

[Willets Point]

Diamond Dad wrote: Mini Knight has a book on jewish sports heros, so I'm sure we can come up with many more

Must refrain from repeating joke from Airplane.

I like the line "that's one bottle of whiskey away from being Irish Catholic."

[seawolf17]

http://jewishmajorleaguers.org/

[MFS62]

Sorry again, Kevin, but you've been bumped from third by former AL MVP Al Rosen.

Fillin' in some other blanks:

1B -- Hank Greenberg , Mike Epstein
2B -- Mike Mordecai
3B -- Al Rosen
SS -- very rare - the only one who played even a few games there was a guy named Andy(?) Cohen who did it for the NY Giants.
C - Mike Lieberthal/Moe Berg and the Mets' own Joe Guinsberg
LF -- Shawn Green
CF -- Paul Blair Elliott Maddox (see my post below) Cal Abrams (Also- someone told me that Reds centerfielder of the 40's named Ival Goodman was Jewish, but haven't seen his name on any "official" lists. He was a pretty good ballplayer.)
RF -- Art Shamsky (moved him to right)
DH -- Ron Blomberg

SP -- Sandy Kaufax
SP -- Ken Holtzman
SP -- Steve Stone
SP -- Ed Ruelbach (won over 200 games for the deadball era Cubs)
SP -- Bo Belinsky

MP -- Jose Bautista (see later post)

RP -- ??
RP -- Larry Sherry
RP -- Mo Drabowsky

Edit: Guess you could add Norm Sherry to the list of catchers, roo.

Later

[Willets Point]

No David Cone and Mike Jacobs?

SC=100

[MFS62]

Willets Point wrote: No David Cone and Mike Jacobs? SC=100

No, but I remember when Jerry Koosman first came to New York. A reporter wondered about his name and asked him if he was Jewish.
Jerry asked him why he had asked.
The reporter said that a Jewish ballplayer in New York could make a lot of money.
Koosman replied , "Then you can say that I'm Jewish".

(true story)

EDIT" some more thoughts.
As a SP/RP add Jose Bautista. His father married a Jewish woman from the Bronx, and he was raised in the Jewish faith.
Centerfielder could be Elliott Maddox, who converted to Judiasm, as did Paul Blair. (I'm going to add those above).
Rod Carew married a Jewish woman, and his children were brought up Jewish. There were stories that he had converted to Judiasm, but they were never confirmed.
Jim Palmer was adopted by a Jewish family at a young age (2?), but never converted.

AND - when I was listening to the radio for the players the Mets had drafted when the franchise was started, I thought the announcer said "Eliosha Cohen". I later found out it was Elio Chacon. He would have been the shortstop on our list.
Later

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

MFS62,

Are you David's grandmother?

[MFS62]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: MFS62, Are you David's grandmother?

No. LOL!
If you read on down that page, someone named "jmb" had similar thoughts. I guess I wasn't the only one who mis-heard it. Either that, or you hear what you want to hear.

Later

[seawolf17]

Shortstop's gotta be Lou Boudreau.

[Frayed Knot]

Personally, I though the whole Leary & friend act was juvenile and not particularly funny.

[Guest Iubitul]

Frayed Knot wrote: Personally, I though the whole Leary & friend act was juvenile and not particularly funny.

yup �

[soupcan]

Frayed Knot wrote: Personally, I though the whole Leary & friend act was juvenile and not particularly funny.

="Iubitul"]yup �

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks...

[Guest Edgy DC]

Washington All Star Buddy Meyer came up as a shortstop, but spent most of his career at second.

Moe Berg also came up at shortstop, but, in the end, played only 84 games there.

I also thought the performance was eh. I might feel differently if I was a Jew angry about Mel Gibson, though. But it's kind of silly that Leary didn't know and was fishing after ethnic information in the booth.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Edgy DC wrote: I also thought the performance was eh. I might feel differently if I was a Jew angry about Mel Gibson, though.

Perhaps that's it, because I found the routine hysterical.

[Frayed Knot]

I'm certainly now offended by anything said, just found it all to be pretty unimaginative.
The whole 'Hey cool, an athletic Jew!!' thing is on the level of the stuff kids find funny when first discovering ethnic humor at about age 13 or so; and the, 'Take that Mel Gibson' line, while not bad, was kind of sitting there on a platter and then lost it's appeal after they beat it into the ground again and again.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

In all seriousness, I like the NESN announcers. Comical accents and ramblings aside, they're a knowledgeable crew and they aren't horrendous homers.