Is Ian Kinsler Jewish?

Ian Kinsler is a Jew. Ian Kinsler is a Major League Baseball player with the Texas Rangers. He was traded to the Detroit Tigers in November 2013 during the offseason in a trade that sent Prince Fielder to the Rangers.

Ian Kinsler's father is Jewish and Kinsler considers himself a Jewish baseball player.

Kinsler's mother is Catholic. According to Wikipedia, he has become a prominent figure in the Jewish community, and enjoys the attention that he attracts from it. He was featured in the 2008 Hank Greenberg 75th Anniversary edition of Jewish Major Leaguers Baseball Cards, licensed by Major League Baseball, commemorating the Jewish major leaguers from 1871 through 2008. He joined, among others, teammate Scott Feldman, Brad Ausmus, Kevin Youkilis, Ryan Braun, Gabe Kapler, Jason Marquis, Jason Hirsh, John Grabow, Craig Breslow, and Scott Schoeneweis. Kinsler was one of three Jewish players in the 2008 All Star Game, joining Youkilis and Braun. He says that "Youkilis will always say something to me on the bases [referring to the fact that they are both Jewish]. 'Happy Passover,' he'll throw something at me."

Kinsler, who would have been eligible to play for Israel in the 2013 World Baseball Classic because of his Jewish heritage, said: "Wow, I would be happy to play for Team Israel.... The truth is that if a proposal comes from Team USA to play for them, I will have a very difficult decision to make. Youk [New York's Kevin Youkilis], Braun [Milwaukee's Ryan Braun], and I could make a fantastic team. I am sure that I'll talk it over with Youk – we always laugh about things like this."

Kinsler married Tess Brady, his high school sweetheart, on November 18, 2006. Their daughter, Rian Brooklynn Kinsler, was born December 5, 2008.On June 8, 2011 Ian's wife gave birth to a son, Jack Jamisson Kinsler. He was put on paternity leave due to the birth.

In 2008 Kinsler won the Rangers' Jim Sundberg Community Achievement Award, in recognition of his having devoted a great deal of his personal time to the community.

[Source: Rabbi Jason Miller in the Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-jason-miller/the-jews-fetish-with-jewish-baseball-players_b_3210313.html]

Is Brad Ausmus Jewish?

Is Brad Ausmus a Jew? Yes, the former Major League Baseball player and current manager of the Detroit Tigers, is Jewish.

Bradley David "Brad" Ausmus is Jewish, and was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His mother is Jewish, and his father, Harry, is Protestant. His father is a retired professor of European history at Southern Connecticut State University, and the author of A Schopenhauerian Critique of Nietzsche's Thought, which Ausmus calls his "favorite book."

Although Ausmus' mother is Jewish, he was not raised with the Jewish religion; he occasionally celebrated the High Holidays with his mother and her side of the family. Nonetheless, he still takes pride in his heritage. Ausmus stated in an interview with the Jewish Journal: "I wasn’t raised with the Jewish religion, so in that sense I don’t really have much feeling toward it. But, however, in the last 10 or so years, I have had quite a few young Jewish boys who will tell me that I am their favorite player or they love watching me play or they feel like baseball is a good fit for them because it worked for me or it worked for Shawn Green or other Jewish players at the major league level. It has been a sense of pride. If you can have a positive impact on a kid, I’m all for it."

In 2001 he did not play on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, quipping that he "was trying to atone for my poor first half." Ausmus was the manager of the 2013 World Baseball Classic Israel team, which under the Classic's rules entitles non-Israeli citizens of Jewish heritage to play for the team. is a former catcher in Major League Baseball and the current manager of the Detroit Tigers. He has also been the manager of the Israel national baseball team.
A 1987 draft pick of the New York Yankees, he chose to alternate attending Dartmouth College and playing minor league baseball.

According to blogger Rabbi Jason Miller, Ausmus is one of only a handful of managers in Major League Baseball history and it looks like several of them were catchers in their playing days. There is also a high proportion of Jewish managers who at one point managed the Oakland Athletics. Rabbi Jason writes, "The only other Jewish men to ever manage a Major League Baseball team were Lipman Pike (1800s), Lou Boudreau (Indians, Red Sox, Oakland and Cubs), Bob Melvin (Seattle, Arizona and Oakland), Norm Sherry (Angels) and Jeff Newman (interim for Oakland)."