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“Last year was a cool moment,” he said.

Stubbs, like many Jews, is aware of the tribe’s long
history of success in the national pastime.

Bregman is an All-Star and Silver Slugger Award
winner as the best hitter at his position. Fried is
one of the better pitchers in the league, with a 43-20
career record and a 3.32 career earned run average.

Former Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun, who
played from 2007-2020, was a six-time All-Star and the
National League’s Most Valuable Player in 2011. Two
other Jewish players from Braun’s era, Ian Kinsler and
Kevin Youkilis, were multiple-time All-Stars.

And one day, Braun might join Los Angeles
Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax and Detroit Tigers
slugger Hank Greenberg in the National Baseball
Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New
York. “We’ve had some very strong representation
throughout the years,” said Jed Margolis, the chair-
man of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

“The list is really continued.”
Margolis called the history a source of pride for
Jews. He follows the Jewish players closely and
believes they help buck the stereotype that Jews are
not athletes.

“It helps overcome that antisemitism,” he said.

Stubbs feels that same sense of pride from Jewish
fans in Philadelphia.

The catcher came to Philadelphia in the offseason
through a trade for a minor leaguer; the Phillies
needed a backup for All-Star starter J.T. Realmuto.

Over more than a month of play and 35 games, the
28-year-old has only played in eight.

And on a team with big names like Bryce Harper,
Rhys Hoskins and Kyle Schwarber, among others,
Stubbs is not one of the more noticeable players at
the ballpark or on television. Yet in a city with one of
the biggest Jewish populations in the country, Jewish
fans never seem to fail to notice him, he says.

When he’s on the field, people will yell out his name
from the stands. This happens to players a lot, Stubbs
explains, but a lot of times when Jewish fans do it, they
will tell him they’re Jewish, and he’ll turn around.

“Every once in a while they’ll say, ‘Garrett, Garrett,
Garrett! I’m part of the Jewish community, too!’” he
said. “It’s cool. It’s great.”
So far, with his Jewish fans at his back, the catcher
is having a pretty nice season. In 22 plate appear-
ances, he is hitting a solid .350 with a .409 on-base
percentage. He also has no errors behind the plate.

Right now, Stubbs is just happy to be here. He said
he enjoys learning his position from Realmuto, who
he calls “the best catcher in the big leagues.”
The 28-year-old is catching bullpens each day and
taking cuts in the cage, trying to stay ready for when
the team needs him. He also believes that the Phillies,
who are hovering around the .500 mark, are talented
enough to turn their season around.

“We just haven’t really clicked as a team,” he said.

“We have a lot of really good players.” JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com cmannphoto / gettyimages
he said. “There is just a sense of community.”
At the moment, though, Stubbs does not practice
much. A peripatetic baseball journey has a way of
forcing you to focus on almost nothing else.

Stubbs was a standout high school player in
Southern California and then a college player at
the University of Southern California, winning the
Johnny Bench Award as the nation’s best catcher after
his senior season. He got drafted in the eighth round
by the Astros and began the obscure minor league
journey that kills many a big league dream.

But the catcher stuck it out through stints in Lancaster,
California; Corpus Christi, Texas; and other minor
league towns. Finally, in 2019, he reached the majors —
only to spend the next three seasons bouncing back and
forth between the Astros and the farm system.

In 2021, though, with Houston short a catcher due
to COVID, he came back up for game four of the
World Series against the Atlanta Braves and got to
play. Stubbs’ appearance helped make the ’21 series
the most Jewish in history, with Astros’ third base-
man Alex Bregman, Atlanta pitcher Max Fried and
Braves’ outfielder Joc Pederson all representing the
tribe. Atlanta beat Houston four games to two as Fried
pitched six scoreless innings in game six to earn the
win. Bregman and Pederson both struggled in the
series, hitting under .100, while Stubbs did not get a
chance to bat.

The catcher was well aware of the Jewish history he
was a part of during the series.

Young Garrett Stubbs catches in Little League.  Courtesy of Marti Jo Stubbs
Garrett Stubbs’ bar mitzvah photo
 Courtesy of Marti Jo Stubbs
Garrett Stubbs is the Phillies’ backup catcher to
J.T. Realmuto.  Courtesy of The Phillies/Miles Kennedy
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