Showing the Shinshinim American Baseball

By Phil Lorang

SAN DIEGO — Since August 2024, there have been nine young Israelis volunteering at various San Diego Jewish organizations. These shinshinim are here for a year between graduating high school and beginning their service in the Israeli Defense Forces. I have been hosting one of the young men in the group, Neta Laytter, for several months.

When I received an email from the Jewish Federation of San Diego about its plan to reserve and sell seats in the Western Metal Rooftop area for Jewish Community Day at Petco Park on May 14, with food included, I immediately thought that the nine shinshinim should go to the game together. I suggested to Neta that he suggest to his program supervisor that she ask the Federation for complementary tickets for the group. She did ask, and Federation gave them tickets.

I don’t follow baseball (except for having to listen to the frequent baseball conversation at breakfast following morning minyan at Tifereth Israel Synagogue), but I bought my own ticket so I could be part of a large Jewish crowd having fun during a pretty bad period of history and watch how the Israelis reacted to the baseball experience during which the San Diego Padres defeated the Los Angeles Angels 5-1.

The recently renovated Western Metal Rooftop area is a fine place for an event such as this. Of the 323 Jewish Federation guests, about half stayed in the gathering area near the buffet lines, which had a mixture of seating options, stand-up tables, a fire pit, big screens, and a cornball area and running room for children. These folk were clearly there to socialize, not really to watch the game. The more serious fans settled into regular ballpark seats in an adjacent, connected section. Kudos to Federation for arranging the gathering.

I arrived well before the game started. I had printed “Reserved for the Shinshinim” labels at home, and I placed them on nine well-located seats. The labels looked official, and the arriving crowd respected the labels. The young folk arrived at different times but were able to sit together in the socializing area.

While waiting for the others to arrive, I had a conversation with a Padres usher. He was unaware that ours was Jewish group. When I explained that aspect, he said something friendly about Jews, and asked me to teach him to say “good evening” in Hebrew.

Except for a few Federation posters on some of the eating tables and the Jewish-themed belly bag swag, you would not have known that our crowd was Jewish. We seemed like a diverse cross section of San Diegans in Padres hats and shirts. One suggestion for Federation for next year is to add a more distinctly Jewish element, perhaps a local singing of Hatikvah immediately after the American national anthem.

As for the shinshinim, they seemingly had a great time. I asked, and understandably none of them really understood what was happening on the field. (For the middle innings, nothing much was happening on the field anyway.) They didn’t want an explanation, which was fine.

For the record: In the first inning, Xander Bogaerts homered with Luis Arraez on third base and Manny Machado on first, accounting for the Padres’ 3-0 lead at the game’s outset.  In the second inning, Taylor Ward of the Angels solo homered to make the score 3-1.  There the tally remained until the bottom of the 8th, when Brandon Lockridge’s single drove in Machado and Bogaerts, accounting for San Diego’s 5-1 victory over the Angels.  A crowd of 43,766 including our 323 was on hand to watch the 14th straight game in which Machado hit safely and which propelled the Padres to a 27-15 record.

After Wednesday’s Major League Baseball action, the Padres stood only a half game behind the National League West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.

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Phil Lorang is a freelance writer based in San Diego.