NEW YORK (AP) – Jacob Steinmetz’s blazing fastball helped make him a baseball draft trailblazer.
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The New York native is believed to be the first known practicing Orthodox Jewish player to be selected by a major league team, going in the third round — 77th overall — to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday.
The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Steinmetz, from the Long Island hamlet of Woodmere, is a 17-year-old right-hander whose repertoire features a fastball that sits in the mid- to upper-90s and a knee-buckling curveball. His draft stock rose considerably while playing for the Elev8 Baseball Academy in Delray Beach, Florida, this year after previously competing for his high school team, The Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway.
Steinmetz recently told the New York Post he keeps the Sabbath and eats only Kosher food, but plays during the Sabbath and on Jewish holidays — although he walks to games on those days rather than taking transportation. No practicing Orthodox Jewish player has made it to the big leagues.
The selections during the nine rounds Monday were made by teams on a conference call after the first night was a primetime event at Denver’s Bellco Theater with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announcing the picks. Major League Baseball moved the draft from June to July, including it in the All-Star festivities.
Pittsburgh took Louisville slugging catcher Henry Davis with the No. 1 overall pick Sunday night and got him a potential future batterymate to lead off Day 2 by selecting New Jersey high school lefty Anthony Solometo at No. 37.
The Pirates picked athletic Pennsylvania high school outfielder Lonnie White Jr., who signed a letter of intent to play both baseball and football at Penn State, in the competitive balance round between the second and third rounds. Pittsburgh went back to pitching in the third round, taking Georgia high school pitcher and shortstop Bubba Chandler — who has a scholarship offer from Clemson to play quarterback.
Arkansas closer Kevin Kopps, the Southeastern Conference pitcher of the year and a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award, was taken by San Diego in the third round. The 24-year-old right-hander was a sixth-year senior after redshirting as a freshman and missing a year after having Tommy John surgery, but was dominant this season with a Division I-leading 0.90 ERA while winning 12 games and saving 11.
Houston took Nevada high school outfielder Tyler Whitaker with its first pick of the draft, which didn’t come until the third round for the second straight year as punishment for the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.
The draft will be completed Tuesday with rounds 11 through 20 conducted via a conference call with teams.
Good luck to him – but being a frum person in that world is very dicey.
Leave the kid alone – everybody needs worry about their OWN actions. Hashem will judge YOU on your Avodas Hashem not anybody else’s.
This can cause a problem for another Orthodox baseball prospect: Elie Kligman.
Kligman is on record that he will not play on Shabbos or Yom Tov. If both progress into the minor leagues, baseball people are going to wonder why Steinmetz will play on Shabbos but Kligman won’t.
Best wishes!
in my opinion, doing something is better than doing nothing. All the critical and condescending comments here will do nothing to mekareiv anybody. There is an old saying, “Money has no odor” which means that if Mr Steinmetz is successful and someday gets a huge multi-million contract, I cannot imagine any Jewish institution Chareidi or otherwise, would refuse a donation. I wish Mr. Steinmetz good luck and success.
For all the Tzadikim who posted disparaging comments about this extraordinary young man, I always thought that Lashon HaRah is an extremely serious Aveira and comparable to killing the person who speaks it, hears it and about whom it is spoken. Very ironic that these posters are blatantly guilty of an aveira in their effort to be “holier than thou”. Why not blatantly perform a mitzvah and be ” Dan L’Chaf Zechus” ? There will most likely be a CHABAD in any city that has a Major or Minor League baseball team. And as a pitcher, who will not be playing every day, it is also possible to not be playing in Shabbos games.
This is an example of what happens when that movement decides to reduce Judaism to a set of technical laws rather than the beautiful religion that it is – and mistakenly calls itself “Orthodox” on top of that.
Shabbos is not only about technical rules. Playing ball in a stadium on Shabbos, even if there were no halachic issues with doing so, and there certainly are, is a gross violation of what Shabbos is about.
It’s too bad that this young man did not receive a true Torah education.
People, his family’s friends and neighbors probably read VIN. This is ugly talk and certainly won’t encourage anyone to strengthen their Avoda.
so I am curious about this.
Let’s say there were an eruv. What actually halachos would be violated? and by this I don’t mean questions of hashkafa or social mores, but actual halacha? I’m sure there might be some, but I’m curious as to what readers think the actual chillul shabbos involved would be.
Professional sports causes a lot of bitul torah he at least is making money but frum Jews should be learning Torah instead. I asked a frum co-worker why he follows baseball and he said he loves it so much that he can’t help himself. To me that sounds like avodah zara
He’s Orthodox like I’m the pope, and guess what, I’m not the pope either!
Why is such garbage on your site? Why are you involved in watering down orthodoxy? Orthodoxy means shomer Shabbos, something which he definitely would not be by playing on Shabbos!
You don’t have to lower yourself to his Conservative Jewish (Not to be confused with a Jewish conservative) or Krumodox ways!
The bottom line is if he plays on Shabbos or Yom Tov, it’s a MAJOR CHILLUL HASH-M, no more and no less.