How Safe are Jews in America?

How Safe are Jews in America?

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

June 4, 2025

Sunday night June first ushered in the Festival of Shavuot (Means Weeks and Oath) for Jewish communities around the world. Yet hours before the celebration by the Jewish people commemorating receiving the Torah from G-d at Mount Sinai, terror struck the Jewish community of Boulder, Colorado, and in turn, terror in the hearts of all Jewish people in America.

It is painfully ironic that on the eve of celebrating the gift of the Torah (literally means instructions), in essence, the laws under which Jewish people have lived 3,337 years, laws of the United States and the state of Colorado were shattered in an act of antisemitic terror leaving 15 people (and a dog) severely injured and hospitalized, as well as a community shaken.

“Tonight, as many prepare to mark the Shavuot holiday, our Jewish community has been subjected to yet another brutal and horrific act of antisemitism. The scourge of antisemitism has metastasized across our country, and we must do more — now — to stop this hatred and violence,” posted US Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) on Facebook.

“We stand with the Jewish community — today and always — and will be united in supporting the victims and their families in the weeks ahead, and to redoubling our efforts to stop antisemitism,” continued Neguse, whose district includes Boulder and Fort Collins.

While shouting “Free Palestine,” a depraved Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, ignited an incendiary device, described as a homemade flamethrower, that set ablaze, and sent to the hospital, 15 people having gathered at the Pearl Street Mall. There is a bit of schadenfreude to report, in that Soliman also set himself ablaze. This group of people, called “Run for Their Lives,” held a weekly walk since the October 7, 2023 terror attacks in Israel by the terrorist organization Hamas who slaughtered more than 1,200 children, women, and men, as well as taking several hundred hostage. And that is the purpose of the weekly walk - to call for the immediate release of the Israelis still held hostage in Gaza by Hamas - to bring attention via a peaceful protest gathering.

Soliman, a father of five, entered the United States in August 2022 on a B-2 visa that expired more than two years ago, according to the Department of Homeland Security, making Soliman illegally in the United States. Soliman is a product of the Joe Biden open borders policy, but having overstayed his visa, is automatically deportable. Authorities picked up Soliman’s wife and five children on Tuesday, June 3. The Solimans are not United States citizens. Born in Egypt, Soliman lived for 17 years in Kuwait prior to moving to Colorado three years ago. While he apparently has no prior criminal record in the United States, Soliman faces both federal and state charges, including 16 counts of attempted murder in the first degree. Other charges Soliman faces are the federal charge of a hate crime which could get him life in prison for that alone, in addition to six counts of first degree assault, two counts of use of an incendiary device, 16 counts of attempted use of an incendiary device - the 16 additional, unused Molotov Cocktails, and one count of crimes against at-risk adults - the elderly. All told, Soliman is looking at a maximum of 264 years in prison. He deserves each and every one of those 264 years. Soliman plotted for a year, waiting until his daughter graduated from school. He admitted to authorities he has no regrets, and would do this all over again as his goal is see all Zionists dead.

The “federal hate crimes charges [were] already filed, and [he] will be accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt during her Tuesday June 3 presser. “And to Jewish Americans at home, across the country, this president has your back,” said Leavitt.

Part of the celebration of Shavuot includes the reading of the 10 Commandments from the Torah, which of course includes thou shalt not murder. The 16 victims of attempted murder by Soliman range in ages from 52 to 88 - the 88 year old, a Holocaust survivor. Leo Terrell, in charge of the antisemitism task force with the Justice Department, referred to the unnamed 88 year old Holocaust survivor as one who “endured the worst evil in human history,” and “came to America seeking safety. Now decades later, she’s victimized again.”

“The attack on this survivor reminds me of the horror of October 7, when Holocaust survivors were murdered and dragged away by Hamas terrorists in Israel. But this time, it happened here. In our country. This is all caused by the same type of hatred - antisemitism. Holocaust survivors should not spend the final chapter of their lives experiencing or witnessing this hatred again. We must fight this terror together,” said Terrell.

These antisemitic attacks, domestic terrorism, have become normalized in the United States in ways never experienced before in this country. A major reason for this normalization is the absolutely shocking degree of antisemitism that has plagued American college campuses, especially since the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas in Israel. The  level of indoctrination on myriad campuses by even more professors, who have lost their objectivity, if they ever had any to begin with, is stunning. Students being taught lies about Israel, lies about Jews, lies about history, which can, and have been refuted. Yet this oppressor-oppressed mindset, a black and white distinction that because Israel has achieved a level of success, they must automatically be the oppressor, and the Hamas-led Gazans must be the oppressed because their fortunes have not been as bright.

Israel, which has been the ancestral, Biblical, historical, and religious homeland of the Jewish people long before its current naming in 1948. False accusations of Israel as a colonizing state, as an apartheid state, as a genocide state are patently false and proveably so. But people haven’t learned history and want to punish Israel for its success. Israel doesn’t start wars - it serves no purpose for them to do so. For Israel to lose a war is to witness the eradication of Israel, the lone Jewish nation on the planet. Israel is in a constant struggle simply to survive as it gets attacked and invaded from every direction, and from any number of enemies. There are 57 Arab and/or Muslim nations, and while they are not all at war with Israel, none of them have been willing to absorb the so-called refugees - a status so-called Palestinians have claimed since the political founding of Israel in 1948.

Israel did not run its Arab/Muslim neighbors into exile in 1948, yet hundreds of thousands chose to flee Israel, start perpetual wars against Israel and claim that very land - the land that is the lone Jewish nation - barely the size of New Jersey to be their own. History proves otherwise. The Jewish people, the Israelites, the ancient Hebrews, have existed 5,785 years, Christians just under 2,000 years, and Muslims about 1,415 years. Since 1948 the Jewish populations from the collective Arab/Muslim lands faded dramatically from around 900,000 to under 30,000 due to pogroms, exiles, and those who moved to Israel (made aliyah). Arabs/Muslims in Israel have grown in numbers precipitously, live freely and equally with more rights and freedoms than they would enjoy in their “own” 57 states. 

Those who have continued to claim so-called refugee status have suffered due to their own unwillingness, their own stubbornness, to accept any number of peace overtures from Israel - the so-called Two State Solution. These so-called refugees live under the tyrannical fists of terrorist organizations Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis - all funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terror. The terrorist organizations have written into their charters calling for the evisceration of Israel and the slaughter of the Jewish people. The Islamic Republic of Iran, since their 1978-79 revolution, has made it their dual goal to destroy the United States, who it calls the Great Satan, and Israel, the Little Satan. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the closest it has ever been to possessing the weaponry to attempt just that.

Yet, it is the bastardization of the truth, the actual history, the demonization of Israel and the United States from within the United States on the myriad college campuses where indoctrination, false narratives, misinformation, and outright lies perpetrated by professors and leaders of campus organizations are peddled. And not cheaply, when considering the cost of a college education these days and the value one gets for that cost of tuition. Students leave such institutions ill-prepared for the real world with their gender studies, philosophy, and even journalism degrees because of the erroneous lessons they have learned. It is on these campuses where the students are indoctrinated into learning what to think, not how to think. What to write, not how to write. 

It is this disservice that has promulgated the continuing rise in antisemitism and the criminal behavior accompanying it. In addition to the antisemitic terrorist attacks in Boulder, less than two weeks prior, in the nation’s capital - Washington, DC, on May 21, a radicalized Elias Rodriguez, 30, from Chicago, assassinated Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, outside the Capital Jewish Museum. The two, soon to be engaged, staffers at the Israeli Embassy attended a Young Diplomats Reception hosted by the American Jewish Committee. Rodriguez also shouted “Free, free, Palestine,” then pulled out a keffiyeh and admitted to witnesses in the museum, “I did it. I did it for Gaza,” thus became the clarion call for global intifada.

“For these neo-nazis, ‘Free Palestine,’ is just today’s version of ‘Heil Hitler.’ They don’t want a Palestinian state, they want to destroy the Jewish state. They want to annihilate the Jewish people who have been in the land of Israel for 3,500 years,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This recent spate of antisemitism includes a Dearborn, Michigan man who pled guilty to federal gun charges on May 28, after allegedly threatening pre-school children and their parents outside a Bloomfield Hills synagogue. Hassan Chokr, 35, plotted to slaughter pre-school children at Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Hills, drove through the parking lot shouting antisemitic slogans and threats as parents dropped children off at the synagogue back in December 2022, according to the New York Post. Chokr’s Instagram posts included convoluted thoughts such as: “your Jew tactics will only backfire on you, you have no place on this earth, Jew (expletive), Jew mother (expletive). A storm is coming to wipe you all out of our lives,” prosecutors testified. To protest his arrest, Chokr dropped his pants, exposing his bottom to the judge at a court appearance. He faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

It’s Chokr’s last sentence that is the most alarming. “A storm is coming to wipe you all out of our lives,” screams global intifada. And certainly the startling massive increase in antisemitism speaks to that. An audit conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) indicated 9,534 antisemitic incidents took place in 2024 - the highest total in 46 years, and five percent greater than the 2023 figure. Over the past five years antisemitic incidents have risen by 344 percent, and by 893 percent over the last 10 years. These numbers are both daunting and disturbing. What’s more disturbing is that these are not just numbers. They represent people who have been assaulted or murdered because they were Jewish. They represent synagogues, day schools, as well as businesses and private homes owned by Jewish people.

What is not represented in those figures, and occurred just five weeks prior to the Washington, DC assassination, on Sunday April 13, is the arson fire at the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion and official residence. Cody Balmer, 38, of Penbrook, Pennsylvania, broke windows and threw homemade Molotov Cocktails into the banquet hall of the mansion a couple hours after the first night of Passover. No one suffered injuries, as Governor Josh Shapiro (D) and his family slept safely ensconced in various bedrooms of the mansion. Yet, just hours prior, Shapiro hosted a Passover Seder attended by about two dozen people. Balmer himself called 9-1-1 and turned himself in. “I’m not hiding, and I will confess to everything that I had done,” said Balmer. Once in police custody Balmer also admitted he would have attacked the governor with a hammer, if he happened upon Shapiro. Balmer faces eight charges, including attempted murder, terrorism, and aggravated arson, according to ABC News. Attacking the residence of the Jewish governor on the first night of Passover is certainly an act of antisemitism, confirmed when Balmer said he committed his acts in support of Palestine. How that helps Palestine remains a mystery.

These crimes of terrorism and antisemitism in the name of Palestine accomplish nothing productive or positive. They do, however, create a culture of fear, and thinking of the oft-heard threats of global intifada should be taken seriously. When someone tells you they want to kill you, take them at their word.

Certainly US Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) is taking these crimes and threats seriously. “I’m not just a congressman, I’m a Jewish congressman, and I’ve got two Jewish sons. We have to live in this world and people are scared - Jews are scared. Eighty years ago Jews were being burned in Nazi Germany - today they are being burned in the United States, so we have got to be willing to do what is necessary to deal with this, and frankly it starts by recognizing that the call for “Free Palestine,” is a call for violence. And we in this country after 18 months of this have to say enough,” said Fine.

Apparently enough includes the “Run for Their Lives” group announcing it will resume its events and activities next week. They will not let antisemitism win. That is absolutely the right thing to do, and the right message to send. It’s not hyperbolic to suggest Jews around the United States feel as though they are living in 1935 Germany. The difference is, while the Nazis forced Jews to wear an identifying yellow Star of David, Jews in America should proudly don their Stars of David.

Jewish Americans cannot give up on the United States as either a safe haven for religious freedom or as a place to thrive as has been the case for as long as America has been America. We must be more openly Jewish, be more observant as religious Jews, be more supportive of Jewish groups and organizations that support Israel, be more supportive of political candidates who support Israel and Jewish values as American values, and be more vigilant in fighting antisemitism. The antisemites will not chase us from the United States of America. Their antisemitism can’t be hidden, nor will we as proud Jews and proud Americans.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Israel Embassy Diplomats Executed

Israel Embassy Diplomats Executed
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
May 22, 2025

In about a week’s time Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, had planned to board a plane, no doubt from Reagan National Airport, and fly to Tel Aviv and land, no doubt at Ben Gurion Airport. Once in Israel the couple would visit his parents, and Lischinsky, already armed with a ring, would propose marriage to Milgrim.

Sadly, those plans were altered drastically, as an antisemitic domestic terrorist executed the duo outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC before 9 PM, on Wednesday May 21. The soon to be engaged couple, both staffers with the Israeli embassy, attended a Young Diplomats Reception hosted by the American Jewish Committee. When the shooter, Elias Rodriguez, 30, shouted “Free, free, Palestine,” he pulled out a keffiyeh and admitted to witnesses in the museum, “I did it. I did it for Gaza,” thus became the clarion call for global intifada.

The radicalized Rodriguez, from Chicago, had links to the Party for Socialism and Liberation, an extreme leftist organization based upon Marxist-Leninist principles. The PSL fights against capitalism, endorses communist dictators, and participates in anti-police marches. Two weeks after the October 7, 2023 Hamas slaughter of more than 1,200 innocent Israeli children, women, and men, Rodriguez posted to X (formerly Twitter) “a video calling to ‘bomb Tel Aviv,’ and the words ‘Happy New Year, Death To Israel,’” according to The Jerusalem Post. More recently he posted “Death to America,” and praised Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin of Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthCare CEO. In 2020 Rodriguez donated $500 to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, also according to The Jerusalem Post.

President Donald J. Trump posted, “these horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the United States of America. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! G-d Bless You ALL!”

“This is the direct result of toxic antisemitic incitement against Israel and Jews around the world that has been going on since the October 7 massacre,” said Gideon Saar, Israeli Foreign Minister.

Quite frankly, Saar’s comment is more than a little shortsighted. An audit conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) indicated 9,534 antisemitic incidents took place in 2024 - the highest total in 46 years, and five percent greater than the 2023 figure. Over the past five years antisemitic incidents have risen by 344 percent, and by 893 percent over the last 10 years. These numbers are both daunting and disturbing. What’s more disturbing is that these are not just numbers. They represent people who have been assaulted or murdered because they were Jewish. They represent synagogues, day schools, as well as businesses and private homes owned by Jewish people.

And in next year’s ADL report those numbers will represent Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Lischinsky had been a research assistant at the Israeli Embassy since September 2022. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Asian Affairs at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He also earned a Master’s degree in Government, Diplomacy, and Strategy at Reichman University in Herzliya in the Tel Aviv district. Lischinsky also served for three years in the Israel Defense Forces. 

Milgrim joined the Israeli Embassy in November 2023 working in the Department of Public Diplomacy. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies at the University of Kansas. Milgrim also earned two Master’s degrees. One from American University in International Affairs, and the other in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development from the United Nations for Peace University in Costa Rica.

“They were in love - one for the other,” said Daniel Lischinsky, Yaron’s father. “The embassy told us they were like a star couple at the embassy. I never expected something like this. He had his whole life before him,” Daniel Lischinsky said of his son.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked both President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi for “their clear stance against antisemitism. We are witnessing the horrific price of antisemitism and the rampant incitement against the state of Israel…. My heart aches for the families of the beloved young man and woman whose lives were abruptly cut short by a vile antisemitic murderer,” said Netanyahu. Bondi announced she will seek the death penalty for Rodriguez. Good.

Author and radio and television commentator Mark Levin appeared on Fox & Friends less than 12 hours after the antisemitic murders. “Jews are not safe in every capital in Europe, and now they’re not safe in our capital…. This is what happens when you have open borders and unfettered and unvetted immigration, particularly from the Middle East…. And they’re the enemy. They are not an adversary…. They’re marching through the streets like no Nazis ever have, like no Klansman ever have in our country, calling for the destruction of the United States of America, the overthrow of the West, burning the American flag, chasing Jewish students on college campuses, threatening elderly Jews who hold signs on the streets peacefully, attacking our synagogues…. Is this what we want? Is this who we are,” Levin asked.

“For these neo-nazis, ‘Free Palestine,’ is just today’s version of ‘Heil Hitler.’ They don’t want a Palestinian state, they want to destroy the Jewish state. They want to annihilate the Jewish people who have been in the land of Israel for 3,500 years,” said Netanyahu. And throughout those three and a half millennia, the land of Israel has been, is, and always will be the ancestral, Biblical, cultural, historical, and religious homeland of the Jewish people, regardless of the slogan of the day.

Similarly, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is also a slogan to call for the evisceration of Israel, and the elimination of the Jewish people. From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and all points in between should only be a Palestinian homeland and not the Jewish homeland it has been for 3,500 years. That a two-state solution is really no solution at all. While Israel has made compromise after compromise, surrendered a piece of land here and a piece of land there in order to simply survive, none of that has led to a lasting peace - nor will it. And that is because terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis have written into their charters the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state and the slaughter of the Jewish people, thus making it a one-state solution, which, when there are already more than 40 Arab/Muslim nations, and no other Jewish states, is no valid solution at all.

Couple that with the horrifying rise in antisemitism here in the United States, the unconscionable indoctrination on college campuses coast to coast, the paucity of real history being taught and learned there, and more and more American Jews are feeling less and less safe at home. Some want to leave the United States for Israel - make aliyah. Others feel the need to keep a low profile and not make waves.

None of those options are a valid solution. Jewish Americans cannot give up on the United States as either a safe haven for religious freedom or as a place to thrive as has been the case for as long as America has been America. We must be more openly Jewish, be more observant as religious Jews, be more supportive of Jewish groups and organizations that support Israel, be more supportive of political candidates who support Israel and Jewish values as American values, and be more vigilant in fighting antisemitism. The antisemites will not chase us from the United States of America. Their antisemitism can’t be hidden, nor will we as proud Jews and proud Americans. As for Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, may their memories be for a Blessing.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Rose, Shoeless Joe Become Hall Eligible

Rose, Shoeless Joe, Become Hall Eligible
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
May 13, 2025

In a major league announcement made Tuesday, May 13, Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr., has declared the late Pete Rose, the late “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, and 15 other deceased players removed from the permanently ineligible list. 

The National Baseball Hall of Fame Historical Overview Committee will be tasked with determining who, if any, of the 17 deceased players are to be deemed worthy of appearing on a Hall of Fame ballot. Those ballotted players would be required to receive votes from at least 12 of the 16 members of the Classic Baseball Era Committee in order to earn enshrinement in Cooperstown. (The Village of Cooperstown in Otsego County, NY, is the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.) Rose and Jackson would have been automatics if not for their transgressions. Now, their families and fans will have to settle, perhaps, for posthumous inductions.

Major League Baseball and the National Baseball Hall of Fame are separate entities and as such have their own policies and procedures. When Rose’s banishment by Major League Baseball became official in 1989, the Hall of Fame lacked any rule barring those on the ineligible list from appearing on Hall of Fame ballots. Rose would have been a lock for the Class of 1992 - joining Rollie Fingers, Hal Newhouser, and my favorite player - Tom Seaver. The Hall of Fame knew any discussion of Rose entering Cooperstown would create a tumult. In 1991 the Hall of Fame installed a rule barring those on the Major League Baseball ineligible list from Hall eligibility. Interestingly, as that rule had not heretofore existed, Jackson appeared on Hall ballots in 1936 and 1946 earning less than one percent of the vote in both years.

Yet, in a statement following Manfred’s announcement, Hall of Fame board chairman Jane Forbes Clark said “the National Baseball Hall of Fame has always maintained that anyone removed from Baseball’s permanently ineligible list will become eligible for Hall of Fame consideration.”

I would like to think that the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) would have brains enough to continue to balk at Jackson’s entry, but he is a sentimental favorite having been a major character in Phil Alden Robinson’s 1989 film Field of Dreams. However, it was in John Sayles’ 1988 film Eight Men Out that dramatized the crux of the 1919 Black Sox scandal where the heavily favored Chicago White Sox threw the World Series to the underdog Cincinnati Reds. Cavorting with gamblers, accepting payment to intentionally lose any game, let alone the World Series - actions have consequences.

The most immediate and long lasting consequence of the 1919 Black Sox scandal saw federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis installed as the first commissioner of Major League Baseball. He served from 1920 until his death in 1944. (Manfred, serving since 2015, is the tenth commissioner of Major League Baseball.) Landis had a goal to clean up baseball - get rid of the gamblers. 

Although the eight Chicago White Sox players won an acquittal in a court of law in 1921, having been sued by a fan who bet on the White Sox and, of course, lost. Landis banned them for life the very next day. “Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ballgame, no player that entertains proposals or promises to throw a game, no player that sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing games are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball. Baseball is entirely competent to protect itself against crooks, both inside and outside the game,” Landis wrote.

Of the 17 deceased players who have now been freed from the permanently ineligible list, only three will be impacted by a potential enshrinement in Cooperstown. According to the BBWAA rules for election to the Hall of Fame, “3 - Eligible Candidates… B. Player must have played in each of ten (10) major league championship seasons… E. Any player on Baseball’s ineligible list shall not be an eligible candidate.”

The following players played fewer than the requisite 10 seasons: William Cox, Cozy Dolan, Phil Douglas, Lee Magee, Jimmy O’ Connell, and Gene Paulette - all banned by Landis for gambling related offenses. In the case of Cox, at the time of his ousting he held the position of president of the Philadelphia Phillies and part owner of the team. His punishment included being forced to sell his portion of the team.

Benny Kauff also played fewer than 10 years in the majors. His banning came due to an indictment for auto theft, and even after being acquitted, the Landis ban stuck. In fact, Kauff sued Landis for reinstatement, but the suit was dismissed.

Joe Gedeon got himself caught up in the Black Sox scandal with gambling, but not as a White Sox player. During Gedeon’s seven year career he played for the Washington Senators, New York Yankees, and St. Louis Browns. Landis banned Gedeon in 1921, as he did with the eight White Sox players, six of whom also did not play 10 seasons in the majors. Although first baseman Arnold “Chick” Gandil retired from baseball following the 1919 season, he too faced permanent expulsion from Major League Baseball. The other five were centerfielder Oscar “Happy” Felsch, seldom used third baseman Fred McMullin, infielder Charles “Swede” Risberg, third baseman George “Buck” Weaver, and southpaw pitcher Claude “Lefty” Williams.

Weaver, who played a superb, and clean, World Series, maintained his innocence until his death in 1956, having applied for, and been rejected for, reinstatement on several occasions. Quite frankly, had his career trajectory continued for another nine seasons beyond the nine he played 1912-20, Weaver might have had an outside chance at the Hall of Fame. Lefty Williams, whose career spanned 1913-20, had a solid record of 82 wins and only 48 losses. In his last two seasons Williams went a combined 45-25, averaging 298 innings pitched per season. Continuing along that path could have led Williams to Cooperstown.

Right hand pitcher Eddie Cicotte, well established with a 14 year career - 1905-20, a 209 and 148 win-loss record and a rather impressive 2.38 Earned Run Average could also have made a run at Cooperstown. In his final two seasons Cicotte went 50 and 17, hurling more than 300 innings each season. Another half dozen seasons at that pace and Cicotte would have been a lock for the Hall of Fame. (Plenty of pitchers with worse records have plaques in Cooperstown.)

None of the above 14 deceased players banned by Landis that played fewer than 10 seasons of Major League Baseball can or will be admitted to the Hall of Fame. Nor should 14 year veteran Cicotte. Not even Jackson. “Shoeless” Joe Jackson had tremendous skills - fleet-afoot - could run down a fly ball in the outfield that no one else would reach. Jackson possessed great talent at the plate - in his 13 major league seasons spanning 1908-20 - Jackson hit an incredible .356 - good for fourth all time behind Ty Cobb’s .366, Oscar Charleston’s .365, and Rogers Hornsby’s .359. Four times Jackson collected more than 200 hits in a season. He showed no signs of slowing down as he led the American League with 20 triples in 1920. In his last two seasons Jackson batted .351 and .382. But throwing a World Series is akin to a capital crime and should never be rewarded. (No one from the 2017 Houston Astros should be admitted to Cooperstown for their “trashy” cheating, but that’s a story for another column.)

The difference between Cicotte, Jackson, and Rose is that Rose, who also gambled on baseball, did not bet against his own team. His competitive nature would not have allowed him to do so. A sterling example came in the 1970 All Star game - an exhibition game with no bearing on the regular season standings or statistics. With the game tied at four in the bottom of the 12th inning Rose hit a single. Two batters later, with Rose on second base, another base hit and Rose turned third heading toward the plate. Both Rose and the ball from outfield reach home plate simultaneously. Rose bulldozed through Ray Fosse, flipping him over backwards, as Rose scored the game winning run, while leaving the American League catcher flat on his back dazed and stunned for more than a few seconds. Several of his teammates and manager Earl Weaver poured out of the dugout to check on the injured Fosse, who would eventually go to a hospital. While Rose missed three games with a thigh bruise, Fosse would play the remainder of the season with a fractured and separated left shoulder which healed in the wrong place.  Fosse’s career was never the same.

Make no mistake, I am no fan of Pete Rose - I even told him as much in person having met him a number of years ago. I told him why - politely. My animus toward Rose had to do with an on-field fight he started during the 1973 National League playoffs between his Cincinnati Reds and my New York Mets. So while I told Rose I did not like him, I also told him I thought he belonged in the Hall of Fame. In fact, for years, since his banishment in 1989, I said Pete Rose will be inducted into the Hall of Fame a year or two after his death. This would be baseball’s final revenge on a less than contrite Rose, who for years denied he gambled on baseball. Not until his 2004 autobiography did Rose finally admit to betting on baseball - still not against his own team.

As a ball player, Rose, known as “Charlie Hustle,” holds the major league record for hits in a career with 4,256, games played at 3,562, won the Rookie of the Year award in 1963, MVP in 1973, three World Series titles, and was a 17 time All Star selection. For his performance on the field, Rose, who died September 30, 2024, should earn the necessary 12 votes from the Classic Baseball Era Committee in December 2027, and be enshrined in July 2028.

Although language from an electronic communication between Manfred and Jeffrey M. Lenkov, Rose’s attorney handling his several reinstatement applications, seems contradictory within itself. Manfred noted the only difference between the 2015 request for reinstatement and that made after the new year is the September 30 passing of Rose. Manfred explained, in his letter dated May 13, that a discussion had never ensued pertaining to the status of a deceased player on the permanently ineligible list. But Manfred referenced the term “lifetime ban,” a term oft-used instead of permanently ineligible. He noted the two expressions are not interchangeable. But Manfred seemed to endorse the definition of the latter, rather than the former based upon his announcement - meaning, Rose’s lifetime is over, and that should make him eligible again. For Manfred to remain consistent with Major League Baseball’s actual language, he would never have made the announcement.

This may be a matter of semantics, but the two terms have very different meanings. It all surrounds compliance with the language of Major League Baseball’s Rule 21, discussing conduct unbecoming, which includes gambling, specifically stating “permanently ineligible.” Manfred attempted to explain that with Rose deceased he could no longer violate Rule 21. 

“In my view, once an individual has passed away, the purposes of Rule 21 have been served. Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game,” wrote Manfred to Lenkov.

Manfred further contradicted himself, writing, “While it is my preference not to disturb decisions made by prior Commissioners…,” yet never mentioned Landis and the fact that 16 of the 17 players Manfred removed from the permanently ineligible list had been placed there by Landis. Manfred merely mentioned Rose in regard to former Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti and the decision made by his office.

My support of Rose for the Hall of Fame may ruffle more than a few feathers amongst sitting hall of famers. During the May 13 Mets game, just hours after Manfred’s announcement, Mets broadcaster Howie Rose reminded fans of something the late Ralph Kiner said years ago. Kiner is a hall of famer who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and became one of the Mets original announcers in 1962. Paraphrasing, Rose said Kiner said if Pete Rose got into the Hall of Fame, there would be many already enshrined Hall of Famers who would not return to Cooperstown. My question is, how many of those unnamed Hall of Famers are still alive today?

With all the gambling websites, with all the gambling advertisements during baseball games (and most other sports as well,) with all the discussion of odds on this team or that team, it seems rather hypocritical to keep a Pete Rose out of the Hall of Fame. He did not cheat like the 2017 Astros. He did not wager against his own team, like the 1919 White Sox. It seems baseball has come full circle - from gamblers with their mitts on the underside of baseball to a century later where the gambling is out in the open. Some would say that’s progress. I’m not so sure.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He has been a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum since 2007.

The Final Four and the Four Questions

The Final Four and the Four Questions

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

April 2, 2025

Exactly one week from this Saturday night, on April 12, after sundown, Jewish communities around the globe will gather to usher in Pesach (Passover). During the Seder (literally means “Order,” dictating the order of the Pesach meal) we direct our attention to the Four Questions, the Four Sons, and the Four Cups of wine (among many other rituals). In asking those Four Questions, the youngest child will ask early in the Seder: "Why is this night different from all other nights?”

A similar question ought to be uttered this Saturday night (a little bit before sundown), in San Antonio, TX: Why is this NCAA Final Four different from all other Final Fours?

In a virtual statistical improbability, the Final Four, the crown jewel of the college basketball season, will feature three teams with Jewish head coaches - Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, Duke’s Jon Scheyer, and Florida’s Todd Golden. It’s an anomaly that for the first time since 2008 all four number one seeds reached the Final Four, also played in San Antonio’s Alamodome. Kansas, Memphis, North Carolina, and UCLA participated in the 2008 Final Four, with Kansas defeating Memphis for the title. This year’s title remains to be decided, until Monday, April 7.

Since the advent of the Final Four in 1939 (Oregon defeated THE Ohio State University), and no tournament held in 2020 due to Covid-19, prior to this year, in 85 Final Fours, four Jewish head coaches suited up for a Final Four. That’s four coaches coaching 10 Final Fours, out of 340 Final Four coaching opportunities, or 2.94 percent, a far cry from the 75 percent in this year’s Final Four. Pearl, currently 65, took his Auburn team to the Final Four in 2019 as the most recent Jewish head coach, to reach the “promised land.”

The other three Jewish head coaches to reach the Final Four are Larry Brown and Nat Holman, who each took home the top prize, as well as Harry Litwack whose season fell just shy of the title. 

In 2019, and it still applies in 2025, Pearl said becoming the third Jewish head coach to win a national championship is notable. “It tells you what a great country we live in. I’m grateful for the religious freedom I have, to be a practicing Jew in the Christian community - in Auburn, AL. I can tell you down South it is so comfortable there because we share the same G-d. That doesn’t exist everywhere. We need to make sure that we do the best job we can as a Jewish man to represent and break down stereotypes while we maintain our identity,” continued Pearl. (USA Today 4/7/19)

In 2022, the same year Pearl took his team to Israel, The Algemeiner named Pearl one of 100 people positively influencing Jewish life. The trip included a visit to Yad Vashem World Holocaust Museum. Pearl noted, as almost all of his players are Christian, that some may wish to get Baptized in the Jordan, and they would also have the opportunity to pray at the Western Wall - a truly emotionally uplifting experience. Pearl comes by his link to Israel honestly. His grandparents escaped Ukraine and Russia, managing to make their way to what is, since 1948, called Israel in fleeing the Holocaust.

On campus Pearl involves himself with events at the Hillel during holidays, and even hosts a Chanukah party at his home - there’s only about 100 Jewish students attending Auburn out of an undergraduate population surpassing 24,000. Pearl is also the first president of the Jewish Coaches Association, which he co-founded in 2005.

Pearl’s Hebrew name is Mordechai, after Queen Esther’s uncle from the holiday of Purim. Like Mordechai, Pearl is proud of his Judaism and is outspoken regarding his support of Israel. Pearl bridges the list of Jewish head coaches as both past and present.

Not only did Nat Holman (1896-1995), a head coach from Final Fours past lead his City College of New York (CCNY) team to an NCAA championship in 1950, they also won the NIT (National Invitational Tournament) in the same year - the only time that has occurred. At present, and for many years now, the NIT and NCAA tournaments are played simultaneously. Holman’s CCNY teams only earned placement in the NCAA tournament twice, the other year being 1947 when that team also reached the Final Four, but did not win the title.

Although Holman played professionally until 1930, his tenure as head coach of CCNY began in 1919, and ran through 1951. He coached them again from 1954 through 1956, and again 1958 and 1959. Holman served as president of the US Committee of Sports for Israel for eight years. He earned induction into both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1964 and 1979 respectively.

Larry Brown (1940- ) also took teams to two Final Fours - Kansas, in 1986 and 1988, winning it all in the latter of the two years. The 1988 team had a record of 27-11, with the 11 losses the most by a national champion. Brown also won an NBA title in 2004 as head coach of the Detroit Pistons - the only head coach to win both an NCAA and NBA title. (Brown’s 1980 Final Four appearance with UCLA in a championship game loss to Louisville had to be vacated due to ineligible players on the UCLA team.)

Brown earned induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002, the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006, and the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 1994. In addition to Kansas and UCLA, Brown coached at SMU on the collegiate level as well as 10 NBA teams.

Yet another head coach, Harry Litwack (1907-99) also took a team to two Final Fours. Litwack, who coached Temple University, his alma mater, from 1952-73, took the Owls to the Final Four in 1956 and 1958, but came up short. Litwack did, however, lead Temple to victory in the 1969 NIT. Litwack coached Team USA in the Maccabi Games in Israel, winning gold in 1957 and silver in 1973. Litwack earned induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1976.

This year, Duke, like Temple under Litwack, is also coached by an alumnus - Jon Scheyer. Scheyer is the hand-picked successor of the legendary Coach K - Mike Krzyzewski, having served seven years as his assistant. Scheyer won national championships with Duke as a player in 2010 and as an assistant coach in 2015. As a player in 2010 Scheyer was a consensus All American. Scheyer, to date, is the only player in Duke history to record at least 2,000 points, 500 rebounds, 400 assists, 250 three-pointers, and 200 steals.

Now, at 37, Scheyer has taken Duke to their 18th Final Four in only his third season as head coach. To follow a Hall of Famer like Coach K does not always end well, yet thus far the transition appears to be seamless. Scheyer, a native of Northbrook, IL, earned induction into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2006. His pro career, 2011-13 included the 2011-12 season with Maccabi Tel Aviv as a dual United States and Israeli citizen.

Florida’s head coach Todd Golden, 39, also played ball in Israel as part of the Maccabi Haifa team from 2008 through 2010 as a dual citizen of the United States and Israel. The Phoenix native played his college ball at Saint Mary’s College. Golden’s first head coaching post ran from 2019 through 2022 at the University of San Francisco and is completing his third year at the helm of the Gators. Prior to his head coaching stints, one of Golden’s assistant coaching jobs found him at Auburn from 2014 through 2016 under Pearl.

 “I’m very proud of my Jewish identity, and not afraid to put that pride on full display even though there are many times where – because of antisemitism – it wouldn’t benefit me personally or professionally. I’m active politically, speaking out publicly on antisemitism, racism and other issues of intolerance. I take the words ‘never again’ very seriously,” said Pearl in an August 4, 2022 interview with The Jerusalem Post.

Whether Pearl’s Auburn Tigers, Scheyer’s Duke Blue Devils, or Golden’s Florida Gators win the 2025 NCAA basketball championship (or not, if Kelvin Sampson’s Houston Cougars wins) this year’s Final Four is a source of ethnic and religious pride, even to one whose alma mater, Maryland, lost to Florida in the Sweet 16. Enjoy the Final Four, and have a happy, healthy, meaningful Pesach.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Deport Mahmoud Khalil - Yesterday

Deport Mahmoud Khalil - Yesterday
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
March 13, 2025

My mother, of Blessed memory, taught me as a child, when invited to someone’s home do not arrive empty handed. To my mother, unless bringing wine, that meant homemade baked goods, not boxed. In the case of Syrian-born Mahmoud Khalil, protester and agitator extraordinaire, he brought to the United States, his host country while a student, hatred, threats of violence and bodily harm, intimidation, harassment, demands of his host, and provocation to incite violence.

Although in the United States legally, on a student visa and in possession of a green card, as a legal permanent resident, Khalil is rabidly anti-American, antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-western values, pro-Hamas, pro-jihad, and pro-Palestinian state - to supplant Israel, a distributor of pro-Hamas propaganda, and clearly falls into the category of “deportable aliens,” as per 8 U.S. Code § 1227.

Khalil, 31, is no longer a student at Columbia University, nor is there any discernible proof he attended its sister school Barnard College. His appearances on both campuses are acts of willful trespassing. Yet, at the very least, since early 2024, he has been visibly active on both campuses inciting to riot and violence against the Jewish community at both Columbia and Barnard - student and faculty alike, organizing protests, making demands against both schools such as divesting any legal, financial interests they have in Israel. Another demand calls for the immediate reinstatement of expelled students, removed for their antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-American, pro-Hamas, pro-jihadi behavior. 

Such behavior puts people’s lives in danger, and the incitement is actually a threat to the national security of the United States. No one has the right to jeopardize the safety and security of anyone in the United States. As a foreigner, a guest in this country, Khalil does not have the right to remain here. Yet, this raises two important issues - free speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution, and familial ties - Khalil is married to an American woman who is eight months pregnant.

Before anyone commences clamoring about the separation of parents and children, as is the far-left’s mantra in an effort to protect illegal aliens in their sanctuary cities and states, a foreigner, even one here legally as Khalil is, is not entitled to more rights than an American citizen. Tens of thousands of American citizens are incarcerated for crimes they have committed and clearly are separated from their spouses, partners, and children. Based on the belief system of the far-left loons, none of those people should be behind bars either. That is patently insane. 

As for Khalil’s First Amendment rights, the First Amendment does not protect incendiary speech that jeopardizes the safety and lives of others - be they Jewish students attempting to make their way to their classes on a daily basis or anyone else navigating their way around campus, as is their right to do so without fear of harm or verbal invective. Yet, Senate Democrats serving on the Judiciary Committee have supported Khalil, for what reason, other than to oppose President Donald Trump, is unknown.

They include Cory Booker (NJ), RIchard Blumenthal (CT), Chris Coons (DE), Dick Durbin (IL), Mazie Hirono (HI), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Alex Padilla (CA), Adam Schiff (CA), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), and Peter Welch (VT) - most of whom are some of the most liberal members of the Senate.

Khalil is being detained in an immigration detention center in Louisiana. His deportation is being sought on the grounds he violated the Immigration and Nationality Act. Section 237 (a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as codified in 8 U.S. Code § 1227, says “An alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable.”

In April 2024 Khalil appeared on a Hamas-supported network. Khalil said his support of Hamas and his antisemitic demonstrations and protests were “a gift for the campus.” On April 29, 2024 in response to a question from a CNN reporter whether or not he would leave or end the encampments at Columbia, Khalil said, “of course not. The university is the one who should be listening to us, they should listen to their student body who are demanding that the university end their investment in the war in Palestine. Our demands are the divestment from the Israeli occupation that they are profiting and contributing to the genocide of our people. Once again the university is so stubborn,” said Khalil, calling for liberation by any means necessary. 

This is not a Constitutionally protected activity - supporting terrorist organizations, giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States, thus the arrest by ICE of Khalil on March 9 of this year, as a direct order of the State Department. “This is not just about free speech. This is about people who don’t have the right to be in the United States to begin with,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card, by the way,” said Rubio, adding that the visas of Hamas supporters will be revoked. Rubio is exercising his authority appropriately.

“This is the first arrest of many more to come,” wrote Trump on X, in what could become precedent-setting. Guests in the United States are here thanks to the largesse of this country and are expected to follow the laws, as are citizens of the United States. “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration won’t tolerate it. President Donald J. Trump,” via X, @WhiteHouse. 

“These Jewish students don’t feel safe. Many of these Jewish students have been harrassed repeatedly just trying to get to class,” said former Army Intelligence Captain Jeremy Hunt this week on the Fox News program “Outnumbered.” A green card is a “privilege, not a green light to start breaking our laws, harassing students, stopping the academic work that’s supposed to be going on. And also, for what? To support Hamas? I think it’s ridiculous. And not only is President Trump right to withdraw the funding, detain this individual, but also, look at the funding of these non-profit groups funding these protests. A lot of them have ties with Hamas. We’ve got to look at all the funding that’s been going on. These protests didn’t happen randomly. This was funded specifically by people who hate our country,” said Hunt.

The withdrawal of funding noted by Hunt is the $400 million in grants cancelled by the  Trump administration due to Columbia University’s inability to control and end the rampant antisemitism pervasive on that campus and Barnard. Columbia president pro-tem Katherine Armstrong took to the media, played victim and cried poverty over the loss of the $400 million noting an immediate hiring freeze and fewer PhD candidates admitted. 

“There is no question that the cancellation of these funds will immediately impact research, and other critical functions of the university impacting students, faculty, staff, research and patient care,” said Armstrong. 

What Armstrong did not mention is the $14.8 billion endowment, as of the end of FY-24 (https://endowment.giving.columbia.edu/endowment-performance-and-management/)  (tax free) Columbia is sitting on, with a healthy return on its investment. Make no mistake, I do not begrudge the university, any school, for its ability to raise money on its own. This is not money coming from the government, which means not from unwilling taxpayers. The endowment money comes from willing taxpayers, as it should. How much of a rainy day is Columbia waiting for before it dips into its precious endowment. In fact, why aren’t these endowments taxed? The university, any school, for that matter, is not just a fundraising machine. Its first responsibility is to provide for the safety and protection of its student body - against religious discrimination and harassment, sexual predators on campus, and any other criminal activity that makes a campus an unsafe place for its residents - its paying customers.

House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke of his first hand experience visiting Columbia. “I went to face down the angry mob at Columbia at the height of that stuff - when the pro-Palestinians, pro-Hamas protesters there - I’m telling you, this is my own observation, not something I read in the newspaper - it was dangerous. The administration there refused to take control of that campus. …This madness has to stop. We have to get control of it. This guy [Khalil] apparently was a mastermind of those very things; people screaming at me, wanting to rip me limb from limb because I was there talking about moral clarity and how there’s a right and a wrong. They disrupted the campus. They threatened physical violence of their fellow students. If you’re on a student visa, and you’re in America, and you’re an aspiring young terrorist who wants to prey upon your Jewish classmates, we’re gonna arrest your… tail, and we’re gonna send you home where you belong,” said Johnson.

Adding insult to injury, a raucous protest rally held at and IN Trump Tower in New York City sponsored by the self-hating Jews of Jewish Voice for Peace resulted in 150 people storming in and around the building. Their ugly behavior netted 98 arrests. These so-called Jews demonstrated their solidarity for and with Khalil, demanding the release of this virulent anti-American, anti-Israel, antisemitic, pro-Hamas, pro-jihadi inciter. Most of the attendees wore pre-printed t-shirts and signs demonstrating the inorganic nature of this paid-for protest.

Mahmoud Khalil has every right to hate whomever he wishes. That right ends when it becomes a call for violence, threats on people’s safety, preventing students from attending classes, or just general harassment. The same is true of criticism of Israel. Criticizing policy is perfectly acceptable, and encouraged in places where a modicum of free speech exists. Calling for the destruction of the only Jewish nation on earth, or other legitimate nations for that matter, is also not a protected right. 

Honest discourse should be the bellwether by which America leads the world and encourages other nations to employ. When that appropriate behavior descends into the madness that is Khalil and his minions, sending him and his fellow travelers home is not only the smart thing, but it is the right thing, and the legal thing. It is a privilege for a non-American citizen to enter, and be a guest in the United States. Those who violate the rules and laws of the United States will, and must pay the price. Don’t take for granted the privilege you are being granted, whether as a student, a business traveler, or a vacationing family. Play by the rules, you are more than welcome. Violate them and you will be dispatched forthwith. It’s time to not just Make America Great Again, but it’s time to Make America American Again.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

C.C., Ichiro Should Get Hall Call Leading Class of '25

C.C.,  Ichiro Should Get Hall Call Leading Class of ‘25
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
January 6, 2025

While a snowstorm is blanketing the overwhelming majority of these United States, the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) is staying warm determining who will be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. This year, the announcement from Cooperstown to determine the Class of 2025 will be made on Tuesday, January 21. And the Hot Stove season has been in full bloom as the ballparks enjoy the winter slumber and solitude.

Still at issue, those ballplayers tainted by substance allegations. The only way steroid/HGH-addled balloteers should be admitted to the Hall of Fame is with a paid ticket for admission to the museum.

“We hope the day never comes when known steroid users are voted into the Hall of Fame. They cheated. Steroid users don’t belong here,” wrote late Hall of Famer Joe Morgan in a November 2017 letter to the BBWAA, hoping to influence their Hall votes in 2018. Hopefully Morgan’s letter continues to resonate in 2025 as cheaters such as Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez (A-Roid) may inch closer to the magic number of 75 percent - the required minimum to grant one admission to the Hall.

The cloud of controversy has been dark and heavy, while initially eliminating some from Hall of Fame contention. In the cases of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa, the BBWAA voters rejected those candidacies, and after 10 years, their eligibility expired. Votes for Ramirez, in his eighth year on the ballot dropped slightly to 32.5 percent in 2024 from 33.2 percent in 2023, while Rodriguez checked in with 34.8 percent of the vote in his third year on the ballot, down from 35.7 percent of the vote in 2023. Perhaps the shrinking vote totals for Ramirez and Rodriguez is a good sign the BBWAA voters understand how wrong it is to reward a player for cheating, and the use of such substances is cheating. 

(That said, the Classic Baseball Era Committee, on December 8, 2023, announced the election to the Hall of Dick Allen and Dave Parker. Parker, caught up in the cocaine scandal of the 1980s, should not gain induction into the Hall of Fame.)

I remain a consistent and virulent opponent of the steroid players and will continue to do so for the next seven years as Alex Rodriguez is on the ballot for the fourth year. The last thing to be said about A-Roid speaks volumes as to why he should never earn a plaque in Cooperstown. Admitting his use of steroids/banned substances, Rodriguez found himself suspended for 211 games from August 2013 through the entire 2014 season - a suspension well merited.

Ramirez, while expressing some sense of contrition during a 2019 interview with Boston 25 News, still should not be admitted to the Hall. On getting caught using steroids Ramirez said, “it was a good thing for me because it made me grow up. Maybe a lot of people didn’t get caught and they were doing maybe some crazy stuff and they’re not learning from it. So I think everything happens for a reason and everything is working for the good. I’m in a better place than I’ve ever been, even when I was playing, so I don’t regret it because it made me grow up.”

Players like Bonds, Clemens, Ramirez, Rodriguez, and Sosa, almost certainly would have been enshrined in Cooperstown sans steroids.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame has a so-called character clause. “Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contribution to the team(s) on which the player played.” So-called because it has existed since 1945 and more than a fair share of miscreants have found their way to Cooperstown. (https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/bbwaa-rules-for-election)

With voting in mind, were I a privileged member of the BBWAA charged with the task of electing the Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2025, three former major leaguers would earn my votes - two rookie balloteers and one holdover. Fourteen retirees are on the ballot for the first time with another 14 holdovers. Candidates who do not attain 75 percent of the vote must receive at least five percent of the vote or will be eliminated from future consideration.

Carsten Charles “CC” Sabathia pitched 19 seasons - 11 with the Yankees, eight with the Indians, and part of one with the Brewers. Sabathia posted a 251-161 win-loss record, a 3.74 ERA, 38 complete games, and 12 shutouts - stats for the current generation that are considered solid. The six time All Star averaged 6.4 innings pitched per start. Sabathia won 21 games once, and 19 games three times, including 2007 when he earned the Cy Young award. In addition to winning one Cy Young, Sabathia was named on five Cy Young ballots, five MVP ballots, and finished second for Rookie of the Year in 2001.

Sabathia is one of six pitchers with at least 250 victories, a .600 winning percentage, and at least 3,000 strikeouts. The other five are Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Tom Seaver, and Justin Verlander. His 251 victories rank Sabathia 47th all time, tied with Hall of Famers Bob Gibson and Al Spalding. Sabathia’s 3,093 strikeouts rank him 18th all time, nine ahead of Hall of Famer John Smoltz, and 24 behind Gibson. Sabathia is one of three southpaws with more than 3,000 strikeouts, trailing Hall of Famers Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton who amassed 4,875 and 4,136 respectively. Sabathia’s 560 games started rank him 28th all time, two behind Hall of Famer Kid Nichols, and six ahead of Hall of Famer Eppa Rixey. Sabathia would have my vote, and if he is not elected on his first ballot, he won’t have long to wait thereafter.

One sure-fire Hall of Famer to be who won’t have to wait beyond January 21 for his call from Cooperstown will be Ichiro Suzuki, known simply as Ichiro. Ichiro debuted in 2001 as the first Japanese-born position player, manning rightfield masterfully enough to win 10 Gold Gloves in a row, out of the gates starting as a rookie. Ichiro, in 2001, became only the second Major Leaguer to win both the Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season. Fred Lynn accomplished the feat in 1975 with the Boston Red Sox. in that amazing rookie year, Ichiro batted .350 with 242 hits, and 56 stolen bases. That batting average lead the American League, while the hits total and stolen bases lead all of Major League Baseball. And in the era of massive strike outs, Ichiro struck out an average of a paltry 66 times in a 162 game season.

In his first 10 seasons, all played with the Seattle Mariners, Ichiro earned 10 All Star game appointments, batted over .300 each season, collected more than 200 hits each season, as well as stole more than 30 bases each season. Ichiro led all of Major League Baseball in hits seven times in that 10 year span, including a Major League record 262 hits in 2004. Ichiro surpassed the 257 hits collected by Hall of Famer George Sisler in 1920.

For his 19 year career which included 14 seasons with the Mariners, as well as time divided between the Yankees and the Marlins, Ichiro batted .311 with 3,089 hits, and 509 stolen bases. Including his years in Japan, Ichiro played 28 seasons amassing 4,367 hits, surpassing the all time hit king, Pete Rose, by 111. For his American hits total, Ichiro ranks 25th all time, 21 hits behind Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, and 29 hits ahead of Hall of Famer Craig Biggio. Ichiro’s 509 stolen bases tie him with Hall of Famer Fred Clarke for 35th place all time, and put him three ahead of Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio. Without reservation, Ichiro would have my vote to enter the Hall of Fame Class of 2025.

Omar Vizquel, the quintessential shortstop of a generation, won 11 Gold Glove awards during his 24 year career, second most at that position all time. Vizquel, also the oldest shortstop to win a Gold Glove, did so at age 39 in 2006. After five years with the Seattle Mariners, Vizquel took his talents to Cleveland continuing to be the defensive gem that will vault him into Cooperstown.

Vizquel was three times an All Star, overshadowed by Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees, elected to Cooperstown in a near-unanimous vote in 2020. On the field, Vizquel led the league in Fielding Percentage six times as a shortstop and is the all time leader in Fielding Percentage at .985. Vizquel shares the season record with Cal Ripken, Jr. for committing the fewest errors by a shortstop playing in at least 150 games with a paltry three. Additionally, Vizquel is first all time in double plays turned by a shortstop, third all time in assists at shortstop, and 11th all time in putouts made by a shortstop.

At bat, Vizquel compares rather favorably to Hall of Fame shortstops Ozzie Smith, Luis Aparicio, and Luke Appling. Vizquel hit more home runs than Smith and Appling, trailing Aparicio by only three. Vizquel drove in more runs than Smith and Aparicio, stole more bases than Appling, hit for a higher batting average than Smith and Aparicio, while collecting more hits than all three. This is the eighth year on the ballot for Vizquel, having dropped from 19.5 percent of the vote in 2023 to 17.7 percent in 2024. Vizquel’s numbers may dip even further in 2025 due to allegations of a rather serious nature. Until they are adjudicated, I will not traffic in rumors and/or innuendo. Should Vizquel be found guilty, I will withdraw my support of his entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Two other former players on the ballot of note are Billy Wagner and Francisco Rodriguez. Wagner and Rodriguez are an interesting study because of their similar stat lines. Both closers pitched in 16 seasons and played for five teams each. Wagner’s record is 47-40 with a 2.31 ERA and Rodriguez’s record is 52-53 with a 2.86 ERA. Wagner’s 422 saves ranks him sixth all time and Rodriguez’s 437 saves ranks him fourth all time. Wagner is in his 10th, and final year on the ballot, having fallen five votes short of induction in 2024. Wagner rose from 68.3 percent in 2023, to 73.8 percent in 2024. Wagner, a seven time All Star, appeared in 853 games, pitching 903 innings, and striking out 1,196 batters. Rodriguez, a six time All Star, appeared in 948 games, pitching 976 innings, striking out 1,142 batters. Rodriguez received 10.8 percent of the vote in 2023, as a freshman on the ballot, dropping to 7.8 percent in 2024. Wagner should be receiving a call from Cooperstown on January 21.

While it is important to not sully the Baseball Hall of Fame with the likes of Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez, the focus must be on the greats who may be enshrined this July 27 and how they will continue to be the true ambassadors to the game of baseball as so many before them have been. Sadly, this is an ever shrinking community as four Hall of Famers passed away during 2024.

Orlando Cepeda (09/17/1937 - 06/28/2024) gained admission into the Hall of Fame in 1999 via the Veteran’s Committee. Known as the “Baby Bull,” the pride of Puerto RIco won Rookie of the Year honors in 1958 with the Giants in their first year in San Francisco, batting .312, and leading the National League with 38 doubles. In 1967, with the Cardinals, Cepeda won the MVP batting .325 and driving in a NL leading 111 runs. Cepeda’s most prolific season came in 1961, also with the Giants, as MVP runner up leading the NL with 46 home runs and 142 runs batted in. For his career, Cepeda batted .297, hit 379 homers, and had 1,365 RBI.

Rickey Henderson (12/25/1958 - 12/20/2024) earned his first ballot ticket to Cooperstown in 2009 by being the most prolific base stealer of all time. His 1,406 thefts far surpassed the 938 by Hall of Famer Lou Brock. At times a shameless self-promoter, on May 1, 1991, upon stealing third base against the Yankees, for career steal 939, Henderson pulled the base out of the ground and declared, “Lou Brock is the symbol of great base stealing, but today I am the greatest of all time.” Those stolen bases certainly helped Henderson set a new record for runs scored in a career with 2,295, eclipsing Hall of Famer Ty Cobb’s 2,245. Of Henderson’s 297 home runs, 81 came leading off a game, also a record, far above George Springer’s 60. Known as “the man of steal,” Henderson’s career stretched 25 seasons, from 1979 through 2003, 14 with the A’s and the rest spread over time with eight other teams. He led the league in stolen bases 12 times, runs scored five times, earned one Gold Glove, three Silver Slugger awards, made 10 All Star teams, and won the MVP in 1990.

Dorrel “Whitey” Herzog (11/09/1931 - 04/15/2024) gained admission into the Hall of Fame via the Veteran’s Committee in 2010. Herzog managed for 18 years (1973-1990), including 11 for the St. Louis Cardinals where he achieved his greatest success winning three National League pennants, the 1982 World Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, and Manager of the Year in 1985. His Cardinals teams lost the World Series in 1985 to the Royals, and in 1987 to the Twins. As manager of the Royals, his teams won the AL West three years in a row from 1976-78, only to lose the playoffs each year to the Yankees. Herzog’s managerial record tallied in at 1281-1125-3 and a .532 winning percentage.

Willie Howard Mays (05/06/1931 - 06/18/2024), the “Say Hey Kid,” possessed the five tools of a ballplayer before they were called the five tools. The oldest living Hall of Famer at the time of his death, Mays began his professional career with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League in 1948, at age 17 playing in 13 games in his only season with the team. He made his Major League debut in 1951 with the New York Giants, remaining with the team through the move to San Francisco, until traded to the Mets in 1972. Mays ended his career in New York following the Mets defeat at the hands of the A’s in the 1973 World Series, where it started 23 years ago. In 1979 Mays earned election to the Hall of Fame overwhelmingly on his first ballot.

In the interim, Mays, considered the greatest baseball player of all time by many, became Rookie of the Year in 1951, earned universal praise for “the catch” during the 1954 World Series sweep over the Indians, and won his first MVP that year. Mays hit .345, hit 41 home runs, drove in 110 runs, scored 119 runs, and cracked 195 hits. In winning his second MVP in 1965, Mays hit .317, hit 52 homers, drove in 112 runs, and scored 118 runs with 177 hits. Mays appeared on 15 MVP ballots, won 12 Gold Gloves, led the league in home runs four times, in triples three times, and in stolen bases three years consecutively.

The Mays stat line includes a .301 batting average, 6,080 total bases, fourth all time,  660 home runs, sixth all time, 2,068 runs scored, seventh all time, 3,005 games played, ninth all time, 1,909 RBI, 12th all time, and 3,293 hits, 13th all time. Mays also earned selection to a record 24 All Star games.

Although Pete Rose (04/14/1941 - 09/30/2024) is not in the Hall of Fame, the all time hit king certainly deserves his plaque in Cooperstown, even posthumously. Rose holds claim to the most hits in MLB history with 4,256, most games played with 3,562, second all time with 746 doubles, sixth in runs scored with 2,165, ninth in total bases with 5,754, a .304 batting average, and a 44 game hitting streak - the longest in NL history. A 17 time All Star, Rose earned Rookie of the Year honors in 1963, won the NL MVP in 1973, and found himself in the running for MVP 14 other seasons. 

I’m not dismissing the gambling scandal, but with all the gambling advertisements throughout the entire sporting landscape, including college sports, that the world of professional sports has embraced online gambling, legal sportsbook betting, and the like, it seems Rose’s scandal might likely not be much of one in this climate. 

May their memories be for a Blessing. May 2025 be a better, healthier year for one and all, and may the baseball season continue to excite its fans while gaining new fans to discover the greatness of America’s national pastime.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He has been a Patron-level member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame since 2007.

Closing Arguments

Closing Arguments
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
November 3, 2024

“And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I’ll say it clear
I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain…” (“My Way,” lyrics by Paul Anka)

In 24-48 hours, the polls in the thousands of voting precincts across the fruited plain will be open and ready for business. From Harrisburg to Honolulu and from Albany to Anaheim; from Detroit to Denver and from Birmingham to Boise, American voters will most certainly state their case. And who remembers entering a voting booth and actually drawing a curtain closed? I absolutely remember voting in one of those booths.

Of course by that time millions of Americans will have already cast their ballots via a number of early voting options. I prefer voting on Election Day, which should be a national holiday - but that’s an argument for another column. My wife and I vote together, and then, depending on the time of day, go out for breakfast or dinner.

Hopefully any legally registered voter will be able to arrive, vote, and depart their voting precinct unmolested by those who would commit the crime of voter interference. American elections must be easy to access by legally registered voters with photo identification, who should then cast their ballot, receive a print out receipt of their votes, and have the confidence that their vote will be appropriately counted. This is the United States of America, after all, and should be a beacon setting the standard for elections around the world, not a third world laughing stock where voters don’t know the official results for days, or even weeks into the future. The process from start to finish must be chicanery free.

Sadly, the process of selecting candidates did not lack chicanery. Noting there are myriad minor party candidates sprinkled throughout the ballots in all 50 states, the focal point is on the Republican and Democrat candidates, former President Donald Trump and sitting Vice President Kamala Harris, respectively. While Trump opted not to face his 10 GOP opponents in any of the numerous debates held, he did face the voters on primary ballots in all 50 states, even after several challenges to his candidacy failed in places like Colorado and Maine. 

One by one the Trump challengers dropped off the radar and out of the race. Former South Carolina Governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley remained the last woman standing until March 6 when she finally bowed out. Although tensions between Trump and Haley continued down a path of contentiousness through the spring and into the summer, Haley gave an excellent speech at the Republican National Convention in July in Milwaukee helping to coalesce the party. The RNC was a patriotic love fest with America and Trump - especially just days after the first assassination attempt on Trump. He appeared on the first night triumphant with a bandage on his gunshot wounded ear like a red badge of courage.

On the flip side, the Democrats lacked courage and confidence. They lacked the courage to keep their renominated candidate on the general election ballot who actually faced the voters, sitting President Joe Biden, who received more than 14 million primary votes. The Democrats lacked the confidence to stand by their legally renominated candidate because they knew the addleminded Biden had slipped too far from being capable of running and serving for another four years. A palace coup, or in this case, a White House coup, orchestrated by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former President Barack Obama, and a cast of other undemocratic Democrats didn’t even bother to stab Biden in the back; they plunged the knife into his chest as they anointed Harris the party nominee.

This from the party calling the Republicans and Trump a threat to democracy. That has been part of the Harris mantra as to why she should get the votes of the people - she’s not Trump (or Biden), and Trump is a threat to democracy. Harris stood for exactly zero primaries and earned exactly zero primary votes. And while not being Trump is satisfactory enough for some of the lemmings, what case has Harris made for herself?

Harris has announced more flip-flops on issues than could fit into a shoe store - and in her own words filmed and used in Trump commercials. First Harris is against fracking, then she is for fracking. First Harris wants to defund ICE, then she is calling for increased border patrol and supports building the very wall she castigated as being stupid and a “vanity project” of Trump’s. First Harris wants to confiscate the guns of American citizens, then she brags about being a gun owner.

Harris supports abortion through birth and is seeking to codify it federally - at taxpayer’s expense, as well as transition surgeries for prisoners and illegals - as she bragged about changing the law in California to support these insane ideas. Harris accuses Trump of seeking an all out total ban on abortion, which he has said repeatedly is untrue. Trump does take pride in orchestrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade during his first term in the White House, appropriately returning abortion policy to the several states, where it should have remained in the first place. Trump has repeatedly said he supports the traditional exceptions regarding abortion - rape, incest, and the life of the mother, much to the chagrin of more than a few Evangelicals. So much so, there’s a fair contingent of Evangelicals who plan to stay home on Election Day. What they seem to have forgotten is Ronald Reagan’s 80-20 Rule. Just because a group of voters disagree with a candidate 20 percent of the time, does not mean they should discard that candidate when they still support that candidate the other 80 percent of the time.

Of course abortion is not the only issue at hand in the 2024 presidential election. The struggling economy and the border invasion are huge - the two biggest issues confronting the voters. Harris talks about all the changes she will make once she is inaugurated, yet has had just short of four years in the White House as VP to effect change. Why should she be believed now? And yet, when asked repeatedly what she would do differently than Biden, Harris responded, “nothing specific comes to mind,” on numerous occasions. 

Trump oversaw a solid economy, save for the Covid period, where prices of food, automobiles, gas/oil, housing, interest rates, inflation, and energy independence all experienced positive trends. Trump posed the same question Ronald Reagan asked the American people during the 1980 campaign: Are you better off today than you were four years ago? The answer then, as it is today, is a resounding NO.

The “better off” question is not just about the economy. The United States has been under invasion since Biden-Harris took office in 2021, ending Trump’s building of the border wall, shutting down the Keystone Pipeline while supporting Russia’s pipeline, and just about any other Trump policy that had been helping the American people. The invasion of upward of 12-20 million illegal aliens, depending upon which government source one wishes to believe, has created an increase in crime - gang related and non-gang related. The number of innocent young women and children raped and murdered at the hands of illegal aliens continues rising exponentially. People simply do not feel safe in the United States.

People, specifically, Jewish students do not feel safe on their college and university campuses. The marches and protests supporting Hamas and other terrorist organizations, the call to boycott Israel, the extreme rise in antisemitism on and off campuses are making Jewish students and non-students alike feel as though they are living in 1938 Germany. Biden and Harris have done practically nothing other than provide disingenuous lip service attempting to placate Jewish voters - failing miserably - while attempting to handcuff Israel at every turn. Harris has gone so far as to say she understands the emotions and feelings of the campus denizens supporting Hamas. 

Harris has repeatedly called for ceasefire after ceasefire when it is not in Israel’s best interest. She wants the war to end regardless of who wins or loses simply to tell voters she is responsible for the ending of the war. More than likely, the invasion by Hamas on October 7, 2023 slaughtering more than 1,200 innocent Israeli men, women, and children would not have occurred had Trump been in office. This was the greatest loss of Jewish life in any single day since the Holocaust. 

Nor would Putin have invaded Ukraine during a Trump administration. From the embarrassing Afghanistan exit which witnessed the murder of 13 American servicemen and women, to the wars that have begun during the Biden-Harris administration, the financial support of the Islamic Republic of Iran, America looks and is weaker at home and abroad. Military recruitment is down, there is support for social and cultural engineering within the military which Harris seeks to continue. While Harris calls for more spending on Ukraine, she has made threats of withholding aid to Israel. There is a lack of respect for America not seen probably since the Vietnam era.

Under Trump no new foreign wars exploded. His relationship with Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu was and is strong. The Abraham Accords brought new peaceful alliances to the Middle East after the successful move of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to where it belongs in Jerusalem. Trump will continue down that path.

Then there’s the culture of castigation. The Democrats like to deflect when they accuse Trump and the GOP of doing what they themselves are doing. There has been a constant barrage of insulting voters en masse by the Democrats. From Hillary Clinton putting Trump supporters in her “basket of deplorables,” in 2016, to Biden just last week calling Trump supporters “garbage,” to Harris surrogate Mark Cuban denigrating and insulting women - surprising the Democrats could even define what a woman is - saying Trump has never surrounded himself with smart, strong, accomplished women. Apparently Cuban has never heard of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Kayleigh McEnany, Kellyanne Conway, Linda McMahon, Alina Habba, Tulsi Gabbard, Elise Stefanik, Kristi Noem, among many others. 

Harris even took to insulting a Christian attending one of Harris’s rallies. At a recent rally, an audience member shouted out “Jesus is L-rd.” Harris responded, “you must be at the wrong rally,” to a huge burst of applause. And after all the Democrat insults, including calling Trump Hitler and his supporters Nazis, there’s Harris calling for national unity. Pure hypocrisy.

Clinton, Kamala, Cuban, and others have repeatedly deprecated and defamed all Trump supporters while Trump saves his barbs for specific Democrat candidates or officeholders, not an entire group of supporters. Disparaging Harris, Biden, Pelosi, Doug Emhoff, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, is standard fare in politics. Would it be better if no one insulted anyone? Yes, in politics and in life in general. But we live in the real world - political insults are as old as politics themselves. Perhaps a bit more sophisticated, but maybe not. Political opponents maligned Grover Cleveland for allegedly fathering an illegitimate child, with “Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa?” during the 1884 campaign.

The Kamala Harris campaign runs on not being Biden, not being Trump, and so much word salad, extra ranch dressing has been ordered. She picked a buffoon of a governor in “Tampon” Tim Walz of Minnesota who watched Minneapolis burn after the death of George Floyd. Makes sense, Harris supported the rioters offering bail money. He earned the nickname for signing into law the placement of feminine hygiene products in boy’s and men’s bathrooms. This ticket is so incompetent, even the liberal media, safely ensconced in the Democrat’s pockets, have taken to shedding some light on this frightening pair.

Trump is about as transparent as they get. He has outlined his plans for the new administration, starting with putting America first. Closing the border - again, returning to the days of energy independence, renewing good relations with allies - but still demanding they pay their fair share for what the United States provides them, supporting allies like Israel, working to bring down inflation and interest rates to where they were during his first term in office, restoring a strong military, ensuring biological males do not invade women’s sports, locker rooms, bathrooms, and spaces, including not allowing them to take scholarship and economic opportunities away from women.

Trump is a microcosm of America. His opponents have attempted to remove him from office - twice, indict him, imprison him, and even assassinate him - twice, and yet, like the Phoenix, Trump rises from the ashes, as will the United States when Trump is reelected on November 5, and sworn in on January 20. As he ends all his rallies, Trump will make America safe again. He will make America strong again. He will make America healthy again. He will make America wealthy again. He will make America proud again. He will make America free again. And, Donald Trump will Make America Great Again! (Cue “YMCA,” by The Village People.)

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.