The Bookshelf Conversation #173: Ryan Lavarnway

Apologies, chaverim. If I had my act together, this would have been done before Channuka. Oh, well. You know what they say about the road to hell.

Similarly, if I was still working in the Jewish media, this would have been a pretty major story.

Ryan Lavarnway, a prototypical backup catcher, enjoyed a ten-year career in the Majors in which never appeared in more than 46 games in a season. But he gained even more fame as a member of Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic for which he was named captain in 2017 and 2023. He was also a member of the Israeli squad that went to the Olympics in 2021. Never a major power in the sport on the world stage, they almost pulled off a Cinderella story when they advanced far into the 2017 series despite their low international ranking.

The team was comprised of many players who qualified because of Israel’s “Law of return,” which states, in short, that anyone qualifies for citizenship if they have at least one Jewish parent of grandparent. Lots of players took advantage of this to participate for the Holy Land, including many — like Lavarnway — who had no real previous connection with the religion. And, again, like many, their trip to Israel proved to be transformative.

In these recent difficult times, Lavarnway knows how important it is to stay strong and together.

He began to really get in touch with his roots and spoke about his experiences with Jewish groups and at synagogues. It was at one of these events that it was suggested he write a book. The result was Baseball and Belonging, designed for a younger audience. Regular readers of this blog know my position about excluding that demographic herein but in the spirit of the holidays, I decided this was an appropriate topic and author to break that rule.