Jay Jaffe

Born: 12/25/1969, Seattle, WA
Height: 5'9"   Weight: 165 lbs
Bats: Right     Throws: Right
Home: New York City
College: Brown University, B.A. Biology, 1992
Day Job: graphic designer, late of Bill SMITH STUDIO
Second Job: author, Baseball Prospectus

Career Highlight (player): Game-tying RBI single in Little League Championship game, 1982

Career Highlights (fan): Fernandomania (1981), watching Nolan Ryan's record-breaking no-hitter (1981), watching Orel Hershiser save Game 4 of 1988 NLCS, attending a ballgame at Tiger Stadium during its final week of operation (1999), attending Game 4 of 1999 World Series (Yankees won to clinch the Series), meeting Jim Bouton and chatting about Ball Four for 45 minutes (2000), attending Cal Ripken Jr.'s final game (2001), attending All-Star Game and related festivities in Milwaukee (2002).

Favorite Team: (1978-present) Los Angeles Dodgers; (1997-present) New York Yankees

Dodgers and Yankees, what the hell is that all about? The long answer to that question might take a whole book to unravel, someday, and it's been fertile ground for my writing. The short answer is this:

Growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah, I was a third generation Dodger fan. My grandfather, Bernard Jaffe, became a fan of those Daffy Dodgers, so the story goes, after watching star outfielder Babe Herman get hit on the head with a fly ball he was attempting to catch. He saw the Dodgers often during his residency at Brooklyn Lutheran Hospital hospital. A Jew who attended medical school first in Germany and then Austria, he wrangled a ticket to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he saw Jesse Owens win gold medals to spite Hitler.

Rooting for the Dodgers came naturally to Bernie, especially as they blazed the trail by signing Jacke Robinson to break the color barrier. This love of the team was passed down to my father and eventually to me. I came to baseball during the 1977-'78 seasons when the Yanks reigned over the Dodgers. As much as I loved the Dodgers — Tommy Lasorda, the Longest Running Infield, Reggie Smith, and later Fernando Valenzuela — and would follow them closely for the better part of the next 20 years, the Yanks of my youth fascinated me as well, particularly Reggie Jackson.

I moved to New York City in '95, still hating the Yanks (I fell hard for the Mariners in that great series). But as the Dodgers fell prey to the Fox evils and the Yankees built an admirable, winning team on my doorstep, I was lured in. I still consider myself a Dodger fan first, and I still root for them. If the two teams ever meet again in the Series, that's where my loyalties would lie. But they're three time zones away, and it's much easier to follow a team in your own backyard, so the Yanks have my attention for now. They're perpetually one Steinbrenner bloodbath away from me throwing my hands up and saying to hell with it, but that's the perils of life in the big city, I guess.

Ballparks Visited (approximately chronological; * defunct):
• Derks Field*, Salt Lake City, UT, home of the Salt Lake Gulls (AAA) and Salt Lake Trappers (A)
• Borleske Stadium*, Walla Walla, WA, home of the Walla Walla Padres (A)
• Cheney Stadium, Tacoma, WA, home of the Tacoma A's (AAA)
• Arizona spring training facilities of the Oakland A's, San Francisco Giants, and Seattle Mariners, c. 1986
• Holman Stadium, Vero Beach, FL, spring training home of the Los Angeles Dodgers
• Fenway Park, Boston, MA
• McCoy Stadium, Pawtucket, RI, home of the Pawtucket Red Sox (AAA)
• Yankee Stadium, New York, NY
• Shea Stadium, New York, NY
• Jacobs Field, Cleveland, OH
• Tiger Stadium*, Detroit, MI
• Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL
• Keyspan Park, Brooklyn, NY, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones (A)
• Miller Park, Milwaukee, WI
• Oriole Park at Camden Yarks, Baltimore, MD
• Legends Field, Tampa, FL, spring training home of the New York Yankees
• Thomas J. White Stadium, Port St. Lucie, FL, spring training home of the New York Mets
• Joker Marchant Stadium, Lakeland, FL, spring training home of the Detroit Tigers
• Richmond County Bank Ballpark at St. George, Staten Island, NY (home of the Staten Island Yankees (A)
• RFK Stadium, Washington, DC

Favorite Players:
Historical (i.e., before my time): Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Jim Bouton
Retired: Fernando Valenzuela, Pedro Guerrero, Davey Lopes, Orel Hershiser, Nolan Ryan, Tim Raines, David Cone
Active: Melvin Mora, Eric Gagne, Gary Sheffield, Paul Lo Duca, Chone Figgins

Favorite Manager: Tommy Lasorda
Favorite Executive: Bill Veeck
Favorite Announcer: Vin Scully

Favorite Baseball Books:
• Ball Four, by Jim Bouton
• Anything by Roger Angell (especially The Summer Game)
• Anything by Bill James (especially the Historical Baseball Abstract)
• The Boys of Summer, by Roger Kahn
• The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading, and Bubble Gum Book, Brendan C. Boyd and Fred C. Harris
• The Glory of Their Times, by Lawrence S. Ritter
• Veeck as in Wreck, by Bill Veeck with Ed Linn
• Nine Innings, Daniel Okrent
• Seasons in Hell, by Mike Shropshire
• Slouching Towards Fargo, by Neal Karlen
• "I Managed Good, But Boy Did They Play Bad," written and edited by Jim Bouton with Neil Offen
• The Bronx Zoo, by Sparky Lyle & Peter Golenbock
• The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball, David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Michael L. Neft
• Baseball Prospectus annual
• Past Time, by Jules Tygiel