In the movie Field of Dreams, the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson appears on a Midwest baseball field constructed specifically for him by farmer Ray Kinsella.
“Is this heaven,” asks the bemused ballplayer, who had been banned from the game for his role in the 1919 Black Sox scandal? “No,” replies his host, “It’s Iowa.”
Well, it’s not quite Field of Dreams and it’s not quite heaven (and it’s certainly not Iowa), but graphic artist Dov Abramson has come up with his own spiritual metaphor in “Baseball: Field of Life.”
“A friend showed me an article a couple of years ago about the similarity in form between the [kabala] Tree of Life and the baseball diamond,” said Abramson in an e-mail interview. “I always thought it would be cool to visualize the idea. I finally sat down and did it for Opening Day, 2008.”
Each defensive position on the baseball diamond, including a spot for the first base umpire, follows the Tree of Life design and retains the Hebrew headings. “Those were the ‘given,’” said Abramson, “I didn’t want to play around with them, so I assigned the baseball elements that made the most sense to me to each one. I guess some work better than others.“
It got great response from baseball fans. As with some of my work, which almost always deals with Jewish themes — sometimes in unexpected ways — I did expect some raised eyebrows about mixing kabala with baseball. But since I know that I did it with the utmost respect and with no intention of cheapening the kabala, I think it was received well.”
Abramson, 33, was born in Saratoga Springs, NY and made what he jokingly refers to as “involuntary aliya” with his parents when he was eight. He now lives with his wife and two daughters in Jerusalem where he works as a “visual communicator.”
“I got bit with the baseball bug before I can remember,” said Abramson, who fondly recalled watching Yankees games broadcast by the late Phil Rizzuto and Warner Wolf on the evening news. “My parents tell the story that on the airplane to Israel, all I cried about was that I was being taken away from baseball.”
It was difficult to follow his favorite sport at their new home in the Negev. “As I grew up, I totally assimilated into Israeli culture: sports, music, books, etc. All my friends were Israeli, and I never hung out with the ‘American’ crowd. But the one thing I never lost my love for baseball, which Israeli’s just don’t get.” In the ensuing years, Abramson gradually lost touch, falling into what he calls a “15-year baseball coma.” But new technologies brought the game back into reach. Abramson credits the Internet, ESPN’s availability in Israel, and MLB.TV, Major League Baseball’s Web presence, with returning his lost friend.
Needles to say, Abramson was overjoyed when baseball came to Israel in the form of the Israel Baseball League.
“Pro ball in the Holy Land? Never thought that would happen in my lifetime. So I dusted off the old gloves I brought with me in 1983, packed up the girls, and went to the ballpark at Gezer.”
“Even though I am married to an Israeli, speak Hebrew with my daughters, and rarely travel to the States, I now never miss a game or a stat.”
For more information on Abramson’s work, visit his Web site.
[This article appears in the May 8 edition of NJ Jewish News.]
is available on Amazon.com,
Comments on this entry are closed.