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Are You Jewish?

John F McMullen

They were the first words
that super-sport maven
Bill Mazer ever said to me

We were in two separate cars
going across midtown NYC
we both stopped at a red light
and recognizing him
I signaled to roll down our windows
and asked him a baseball trivia question
“Most baseball folks know who the 3^rd baseman
on the Tinkers-to-Evers-to-Chance team was.
who was the catcher?”

The light changed and we moved ahead
at the next red light, he asked
“Are you Jewish?”
bewildered, I said “No”
then he gave me the answer
“Johnny Kling”

And we drove aways
with me still bewildered

When Bill started
“Mazer in the Morning” on WEVD
I called in and asked him about it
he told me that Kling was Jewish
one of the few first Jewish big leaguers
so he assumed that I was Jewish

And from then on
I was a regular caller-in to the show
I was “John from Jefferson Valley”
And Bill (or his son Arnie) would send
me tickets to sporting events
I also introduced him to a
stockbroker/ex political speechwriter
and whackadoo member of my car pool
the late Bill Kent
who Mazer found very amusing

Now Bill Mazer is no longer with us
and the sports world has
lost a font of sports knowledge
but I miss more the man I liked
the only person who ever asked me
if I was Jewish

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