When Ryan Sherriff took to the mound for the Tampa Bay Rays in the top of the 7th inning of Game 3 to face the Los Angeles Dodgers and pitched a scoreless inning, little did he know what type of exclusive group he was about to join. Sherriff added his name to a club that Sandy Koufax belongs to, a Jewish pitcher featuring in the World Series.
Sherriff whose grandparents survived the Holocaust joined the Rays roster just in time for the Fall Classic and in fact was a surprise addition to the team. The Culver City native appeared in only 10 games throughout the shortened 2020 season pitching a total of 9.2 innings, while giving up 6 hits, walking and striking out two batters and allowing no runs for a perfect 0.00 ERA.
In Game 5, Sherriff once again came on in relief and pitched a perfect 8th inning by sending Max Muncy, Will Smith and Cody Bellinger down in order. Despite the Rays losing 4-2 and giving the Dodgers a 3-2 series lead, Sherriff did his job with a 3 up and 3 down inning.
Interestingly enough another member of the tribe in Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson was on deck in Game 3 and was just two batters away from facing Sheriff in Game 5 in what would have been a rare Jewish baseball moment. Perhaps we will still see the encounter in Tuesday night’s Game 6 or in Game 7 should the Rays extend the World Series to one final winner take all contest.
Sherriff made his Major League debut in August of 2017 with the St. Louis Cardinals and pitched sparingly in the big leagues having undergone Tommy John surgery in 2018. So being called up in time for a chance to play on the grand stage was definitely not something the 30-year old ever imagined would occur.
Originally selected by the Cardinals in the 28th round of the 2011 entry draft toiled in the minor leagues before finally getting his shot in “The Show”. However, Sherriff almost never made it to the point where he is now.
His father Larry, one of Sheriff’s biggest supporters as he made his way through Glendale Community College died in January 2012 due to blood cancer at the age of 57 and the lefty wanted to throw in the towel and call it a career right there and then. But his mother Renee was able to convince Sherriff that playing baseball was what his father had wanted him to do and he headed to training camp in Palm Beach.
As a starting pitcher in Class-A, Sherriff learnt the art of the trade from pitching coach Dennis Martinez one of the best in the business who twirled a no-hitter for the Montreal Expos against his current World Series opponent the Dodgers while also chalking up over 200 Major League victories for five clubs. There was none better to influence Sherriff’s young career as he pushed him to use his strengths.
However, Sherriff’s biggest influence perhaps came from his maternal grandparents Helen and Seymour Wildfeuer who were both Holocaust survivors. As a little boy, he noticed numbers tattooed on his grandmother’s left arm and learned that she had been held by the Nazis at Auschwitz concentration camp while his grandfather had been in Bergen-Belsen.
Following the war Helen who was a nurse had cared for Seymour and married while still in Europe. From there the couple headed to the United States and eventually moved to Denver, Colorado where he opened a meat packing company.
When the Israel National Baseball Team came calling for the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualifiers, Sherriff knew that everything he had strived for came full circle knowing how proud and satisfied his late grandparents would have been knowing he had pulled on the blue-and-white jersey.
At the time Sherriff described the WBC qualifiers as being the best experience of his life, but perhaps winning the World Series will be able to top that.
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