Tuesday September 11, 2001

Ê

Maxx Wolfson

I have some bad news for you - I'm not coming into work on Sept. 26.

I don't care what happens on that day, but I'm taking it off to observe the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur - the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

Boss, I don't know if you knew this, but I'm Jewish. Not like it's a bad thing, but in the sports world (or the world of sports writing), religion is something that's just not brought up often, unless someone is thanking Jesus for letting him score the winning touchdown.

So I have decided that I'm going to take the day off to rediscover my faith.

Seriously, boss, I'm not trying to make up any excuses here.

I took a little advice from Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Shawn Green and decided that going to work on Yom Kippur would be a bad idea.

Green, who is a fellow Jew, publicly announced that he would not play on Sept. 26, the final game of a three-game series with National League West rival the San Francisco Giants.

"There aren't too many Jewish players," Green told the Los Angeles Times last week. "To go out there and play would be disrespectful. It's just a matter of respect."

Despite being in the thick of a pennant and wild-card race with the Giants and the Arizona Diamondbacks, Green has decided that taking baseball off for one day won't hurt his teams chances.

I know some Dodger fans might not understand his decision, thinking that the $84 million he'll be making for the next six seasons should be enough to compel him to play every day, but there's plenty that Dodger fans don't understand. Like how to get to a game before the third inning.

People quickly forget that Green currently holds the active record with 406 straight games played.

While he may be light years away from breaking Cal Ripken's record, he's still going to put his streak on the back burner to try to understand more about his faith and his roots.

It's not like Green is just some slouch either.

Both Greenie - as longtime Dodger broadcaster Vin Scully calls him - and I have had some of the same comparisons made about each other.

We both carry our respective teams. For Green it's the Dodgers, and for me, of course, it's this very paper.

Green set the Dodger home run record this season with 46, and I set the Wildcat intramural basketball record with most points scored in a game last season.

But lets put the comparisons aside - I'm still not going into work.

I wasn't brought up in the most orthodox of ways. My parents raised me to make my own decisions and they wanted me to believe in whatever I thought was right.

And what I think is right is to not go into work on Yom Kippur.

Green's parents raised him the same way.

"We're not an especially religious family, but we tried to give our kids information about their heritage and let them make their own decisions," his mother Judy told the Times. "Shawn has a lot of respect for his heritage, and I think what he's doing sends a positive message to other Jewish people."

Green, who was raised in Tustin, Calif., planned on becoming more involved in Jewish life and community when acquired by the Dodgers, and he's been successful - I had the opportunity to meet him two-years ago when my brother competed in the Maccabbi Games.

Green has put his beliefs before baseball, and I'm going to put mine before this paper.

Call me Sandy Koufax, or Tamir "the Jewish Jordan" Goodman, but you won't see me at work on Sept. 26. Mazel tov!