{"id":62233,"date":"2021-07-14T04:28:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T10:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=62233"},"modified":"2021-07-14T04:28:44","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T10:28:44","slug":"elie-kligman-becomes-second-orthodox-baseball-player-drafted-into-the-mlb-in-2-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/elie-kligman-becomes-second-orthodox-baseball-player-drafted-into-the-mlb-in-2-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Elie Kligman becomes second Orthodox baseball player drafted into the MLB in 2 days"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By GABE FRIEDMAN<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 It has now become a doubly historic Major League Baseball draft.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_62234\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/KLIGMAN.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-62234\" class=\"wp-image-62234 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/KLIGMAN-300x167.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/KLIGMAN-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/KLIGMAN-1024x569.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/KLIGMAN-768x427.png 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/KLIGMAN.png 1080w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/167;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-62234\" class=\"wp-image-62234 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/KLIGMAN-300x167.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/KLIGMAN-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/KLIGMAN-1024x569.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/KLIGMAN-768x427.png 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/KLIGMAN.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-62234\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Elie Kligman\/Instagram)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Washington Nationals selected Elie Kligman with their final and 20th round pick on Tuesday, making him the second observant Orthodox Jewish player ever drafted into the league \u2014 and the second in two days. The Arizona Diamondbacks picked 17-year-old Long Island, New York native Jacob Steinmetz 77th overall on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>According to MLB.com, Kligman, 18, has moved towards becoming a catcher but has also played shortstop and thrown the ball 90 miles an hour as a pitcher. (The pitcher Steinmetz has reportedly touched as high as 97 miles per hour.) Kligman switch-hits as well, meaning he can bat righty or lefty, a skill that boosts his future value.<\/p>\n<p>The Las Vegas native is also more observant than Steinmetz. While Steinmetz plays on the Jewish Sabbath \u2014 albeit in walking distance of his hotels on the road, so he does not have to use transportation \u2014 Kligman does not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat day of Shabbas is for God. I\u2019m not going to change that,\u201d he told The New York Times in March.<br \/>\nHis father Marc is a lawyer and licensed baseball agent, and he represents his son.&nbsp;On Tuesday, Marc Kligman was traveling with Israel\u2019s baseball team, currently on a pre-Olympics road trip full of exhibition games across the Northeast, when he heard the news. He shared it with the players on one of their buses.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">On the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ILBaseball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ILBaseball<\/a> \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf1 team bus heading to Hartford when he got the news. Nice to share it with the guys. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xVA5Z3G4CZ\">pic.twitter.com\/xVA5Z3G4CZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Marc J. Kligman (@MLBAgent) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLBAgent\/status\/1415022636099330050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 13, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Times reported that Kligman\u2019s recent switch to playing catcher could be in service of his professional goals. Even the best at the sport\u2019s most physically demanding position are often given at least one day a week off \u2014 opening up the possibility that Kligman could line up his days off to be during Shabbat, from Friday night through Saturday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the excitement of being drafted, Kligman will likely look to first play at a Division I college program before a professional career, his father told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere\u2019s a kid who won\u2019t put God second,\u201d Marc Kligman told the Times. \u201cBut he believes that the two can coexist. He\u2019s got six days of the week to do everything he can to be a baseball player, and if colleges and Major League Baseball aren\u2019t inclined to make any changes, then we\u2019ll take what we can get.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Elie%20Kligman%20becomes%20second%20Orthodox%20baseball%20player%20drafted%20into%20the%20MLB%20in%202%20days\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":62234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1491],"tags":[11504,8790,8795,777,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62233"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62235,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62233\/revisions\/62235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}