SS: When did you know you could be a Division One athlete?<\/strong> SS: So you think it was mostly a physicality thing, once you had grown you had more confidence?<\/strong> Photo Credit: Jacob Steinmetz<\/p><\/div> SS: How long was there between Fordham\u2019s initial interest and your scholarship offer?<\/strong> SS: Why Fordham?<\/strong> SS: Were you choosing between any other offers?<\/strong> SS: So are you playing right now? Do you have a season this year?<\/strong> Photo Credit: Jacob Steinmetz<\/p><\/div> SS: So you want to play professional baseball, that\u2019s the goal?<\/strong> SS: And so you\u2019re Orthodox, you don\u2019t do anything on Shabbat?<\/strong> SS: So you\u2019re starting for the Yankees, they have an ALDS game on a Saturday?<\/strong> Of all the sports, baseball is one that has always attracted many Jewish ballplayers. There are currently a number playing in the Major Leagues including Alex Bregman and Max Fried and Dean Kremer. Jacob Steinmetz, a teenager from Woodmere would like to add his name to that list and is committed to pitch for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":27886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4074,110],"tags":[261,3925,288],"class_list":["post-27775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jews-in-sports","category-other-sports","tag-baseball","tag-jacob-steinmetz","tag-jewish","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nJS: Beginning of tenth grade, because before that I still was pretty tall but I wasn\u2019t as tall as I am now. I had a pretty good growth spurt in between ninth and tenth, then throughout tenth also, so then once the beginning of tenth grade hit then as tenth grade progressed I was pretty confident in myself.<\/p>\n
\nJS: I think that definitely helped, just growing and getting stronger naturally definitely gave a good boost, and then once I had that it pushed myself to start working harder.
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/6fecc91a-7caf-498f-857a-98dd3e360d16.jpeg\")
\nSS: So what is the process to get colleges\u2019 attention? get in front of coaches? get in front of scouts?<\/strong>
\nJS: Usually you\u2019ll have a coach that\u2019s either friendly with a coach, even you\u2019ll reach out to the coaches or schools yourself by sending an email. You\u2019ll put your name, send some video highlights, or your coach will give the college coach your name and send some highlights of you. The colleges have baseball camps where they bring down a bunch of their recruits to see them all together, once you go to that if you catch their eye then you become in contact with the coach. I happened to get the coach’s number there (Fordham) and then I was texting him throughout, sent him my schedules for when I played over the summer and travel. He came to see me a bunch of times, and then he gave me an offer for a scholarship after I went to another one of the camps and then I accepted it.<\/p>\n
\nJS: I think I went to my first camp there in tenth grade, and that was more just because my coach was friendly with the coach there so I went down there. At that point I wasn\u2019t as tall, it was before I hit my growth spurt, or while I was in the middle, so I wasn\u2019t throwing as hard. They were like yeah we\u2019ll keep an eye out for sure. Then as you go through you want to send out video as well so you keep catching these colleges’ attention, and then once they got the video and they saw me grow and get stronger and throwing harder they\u2019re like alright we\u2019ll go see this kid. So I got the coaches number from my travel coach and he put me in touch, I sent the coach from Fordham my schedule and where I was pitching, and when. I\u2019d say he maybe came to three or four games, but definitely saw a lot more video, and probably saw me pitch three or four times more in other camps and showcases. Then eleventh grade they offered me and I accepted a couple weeks later.<\/p>\n
\nJS: I wanted to stay close to home, it\u2019s an hour away from my house, that was definitely helpful. It seemed like it\u2019s a great academic school, good athletic program, good baseball program that just won a conference here before. I love the coaches, the facilities. You\u2019re able to get a campus feel there, even though it\u2019s still in the city. <\/p>\n
\nJS: I had another offer from a small school, Wagner, in Staten Island. I was considering that pretty heavily I\u2019d say, but Fordham was always my top option. There were a couple other schools if I waited, maybe I could have gotten an offer from them, but Fordham was probably my top option; it definitely made the most sense at that point.<\/p>\n
\nJS: High School baseball we\u2019re not sure, for travel baseball I\u2019ll probably have one in the season.
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/0d61d985-259e-42c6-934c-8875415aa7e6.jpeg\")
\nSS: Do you feel a personal responsibility, now that you know you\u2019re going to be playing at Fordham, that most of the time when you take the field you are the only Jew?<\/strong>
\nJS: I don\u2019t know if It\u2019s personal responsibility as much as it is a cool experience. I know for myself now that I\u2019m one of, if not the only Orthodox Jew to be at that stage in baseball, or in that stage in a baseball career where they\u2019re having D1 offers and talking to MLB scouts. So it\u2019s just cool for me that I\u2019m able to realize I\u2019m one of if not the only one and hopefully leading a path for other people.<\/p>\n
\nJS: Yeah,that\u2019s my goal<\/p>\n
\nJS: That\u2019s something that I talk to my parents about a lot, for Fordham that was one of the other things that went into it. They were able to, they weren\u2019t obviously able to guarantee it, but they told me they would do everything that they could for me to be able to work it out. I\u2019d maybe have to stay in a hotel on Friday and then walk to the fields if it\u2019s not too far then bike to the fields. With Kosher food, they said they\u2019d figure out getting it for me which was great, so that definitely helped out with that choice.<\/p>\n
\nJS: I\u2019d either have to travel and do as little as I could to break Shabbos, try to keep it as much as I possibly could, or hopefully by then they\u2019ll figure it out we\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"