Brian Horwitz
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Brian Jeffery Horwitz, nicknamed "The
Rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
", (born November 7, 1982) is an American former
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...
who played for the
San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...
in 2008, and won two minor league batting titles.


Baseball career


High school

A native of
Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...
, Horwitz attended
Crespi Carmelite High School Crespi Carmelite High School, shortly known as Crespi, is a private Catholic all-male four-year college preparatory high school located in Encino District, Los Angeles, California. It is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The ...
in
Encino, California Encino (Spanish for "oak") is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. History In 1769, the Spanish Portolá expedition, first Europeans to see inland areas of California, traveled north through Sepulveda ...
, where he was Mission League MVP, All-Valley, and first team All-
CIF Cif is a French brand of household cleaning products owned by the Anglo-Dutch company Unilever, known as Jif in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Middle East and the Nordic countries. Cif was launched in France in 1965 and was marketed in competit ...
Division I as a senior,
batting Batting may refer to: * Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs * Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ...
.415. He helped lead his team to three straight league titles.


Summer leagues

In the summer of 2001, he played for the Peninsula Oilers in the Alaska Baseball League, and in the summer of 2002 he played for the
Hyannis Harbor Hawks The Hyannis Harbor Hawks, formerly the Hyannis Mets, are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Hyannis, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's West Division. The Harbor Hawks play ...
, then known as the Hyannis Mets, in the Cape Cod League.


College (2001–04)

As a freshman
right fielder A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the ...
for the
University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...
Bears, where he majored in American history, in he batted .310, and had a team-best 11 stolen bases. He had a school record 23-game hitting streak. He had 6 outfield assists on the season. He was an honorable mention Freshman All-American in Collegiate Baseball. As a sophomore in , he hit .266. In as a junior, he hit .347 with a team-leading 47
RBIs A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...
(including a school record 8 on February 14, 2003) and a .405 OBP and a .535 slugging percentage. He batted .400 with runners in scoring position, and was Pac-10 honorable mention and honorable mention Pac-10 All-Academic. He was drafted in the 26th round by the Oakland Athletics in the June draft, but did not sign. As a senior, he dropped down to .288 and though he kept his OBP at .400, he was not drafted. "The two days of the draft were probably the worst two days of my life," he said. "I've kind of been doubted my whole career, and that's fine with me. It fuels the fire." He had all the forms ready for chiropractic school, but he wanted the experience of playing pro ball for a half-summer, so he took the San Francisco Giants' offer of a uniform and $1,000 and signed as a non-drafted
free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...
in June of .


Minor leagues (2004–10)

Horwitz won two titles in two years in the minor leagues. In 2004, Horwitz won the
Northwest League The Northwest League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Northwestern United States and Western Canada. A Class A Short Season league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Basebal ...
batting title with a .347 average, the second-best in team history, playing for the
Salem-Keizer Volcanoes The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes are a baseball team located in Keizer, Oregon, who are charter members of the Mavericks Independent Baseball League, a four-team league entirely based in the Salem Metropolitan Statistical Area and playing all their hom ...
in the Northwest League, and had a .407 OBP. He also earned a spot on the league All-Star team, led the league in hits (93), and set a franchise mark with 24 doubles. In , he hit .349 (the 2nd-highest batting average of all minor leaguers with 400 or more at bats) for the
Augusta GreenJackets The Augusta GreenJackets are a Minor League Baseball team of the Carolina League and the Single-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. They play their home games at SRP Park in North Augusta, South Carolina, which opened in April 2018. They previo ...
in the
South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its ...
, and won his second consecutive batting title, while sporting a .415 OBP. He had 50 walks, while
striking out ''Striking Out'' is an Irish television legal drama series, broadcast on RTÉ, that first aired on 1 January 2017. Produced by Bl!nder F!lms for RTÉ Television, ''Striking Out'' stars Amy Huberman as Dublin-based solicitor Tara Rafferty, who is ...
only 39 times in 470 at-bats, and also led the league with 38 doubles. In addition, he had 8 outfield assists. He was also
MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...
of the 2005 California League Championship Series. '' Baseball America'' dubbed him the player with the best strike-zone discipline in the Giants' organization. In , he spent nearly half the season at San Jose of the California League, where he hit .324 with a .414 OBP. He spent most of the rest of the season with the Double-A
Connecticut Defenders The Connecticut Defenders were a Minor League Baseball team based in Norwich, Connecticut. The team, which played in the Eastern League, was the Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants major-league club from 2003 until following the 2009 ...
, where he hit .286 with a .365 OBP, and ended the season with a handful of at-bats with the Triple-A
Fresno Grizzlies The Fresno Grizzlies are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. They are located in Fresno, California, and play their home games at Chukchansi Park, which was opened in 2002 in d ...
. In , he was a non-roster invitee to the Giants' spring training, but the Giants ultimately assigned him to the Connecticut Defenders. In 35 games for the team, he hit .309 with a .371 on-base percentage. In late May, he was promoted to the Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies. He hit .326 for the Grizzlies with a .383 on-base percentage in 84 games. The ''2008 Baseball Prospect Handbook'' said:
"all he does is spray hits wherever he plays. He won batting titles in his first two seasons, and didn't slow down once he hit Triple-A Fresno last year, hitting .326 after a mid-season promotion. Every manager for whom he has played has become his biggest fan. Horwitz has a great two-strike approach, loves the opposite field, and doesn't strike out, despite a swing that can get a bit long and choppy. He ... is better suited defensively for left field... it's hard to find a more dedicated worker..."
Horwitz started with Fresno, and was hitting .294 with a .351 OBP in 44 games when he was called up to the major leagues. In 2009 with Fresno he batted .290 with 10 doubles, 4 home runs, and 26 RBIs in 76 games before his season was cut short with a left rib cage muscle strain. In his minor league career through 2009, Horwitz had a .316 batting average, .387 OBP, and in 2,104 at-bats had 130 doubles, 279 RBIs, 223 walks, and 243 strikeouts. In the December 2009 Triple-A phase of the Rule 5 draft, the Giants lost Horwitz, who was claimed by the Cleveland Indians with the fourth pick of the draft. "This is good for him. I'm happy for him," Giants vice president of player personnel
Dick Tidrow Richard William Tidrow (May 14, 1947 – July 10, 2021) was an American professional baseball pitcher and the senior vice president of player personnel and senior advisor to the general manager for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Basebal ...
said. "He's a good kid. He's a good hitter and needs a change of scenery. He did good things for us and himself. Now he's reborn. He can go over there, show his stuff and maybe get back to the big leagues." "He's a right-handed-hitting
corner outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...
, something we have a need for, obviously," John Mirabelli, the Indians' assistant general manager in charge of scouting said. "He can handle the bat. He did pretty well in a small sample in the big leagues. He'll go to Columbus and give us some depth where we need it." In 2010, Horwitz played in spring training with the Indians, and then in six games for Cleveland's AAA team before he was released on April 20.


Major leagues (2008)

Horwitz was a non-roster invitee to 2008 Giants spring training. In March, the Giants reassigned him to their minor league camp. On May 30, , the Giants purchased his contract from Triple-A when Dan Ortmeier went on the DL with a broken finger. Horwitz hit his first major league
home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...
on June 2, 2008, off
New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...
starting pitcher
Óliver Pérez Óliver Pérez Martínez (born August 15, 1981) is a Mexican professional baseball pitcher for the Toros de Tijuana of the Mexican League. He previously played in MLB for the San Diego Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, ...
. He was mobbed in the dugout afterward. "There was a lot of love in that dugout," Horwitz said. "It adds to the experience. That's a great group of guys here and I just love being a part of this team." "Unbelievable," Horwitz said of his Major League experience. "It’s extraordinary, surreal. It’s an out-of-body experience. I’m really enjoying being here. How could you complain?" After hitting .304 in his first 21 at-bats, Horwitz went 1-for-15 and was sent down to Fresno for more playing time on July 6, 2008.


Awards

* 2004 – Northwest League Post-Season All-Star OF * 2005 – South Atlantic League Player of the Week (4/17) * 2005 – SAL All-Star OF * 2005 – SAL Player of the Week (8/7) * 2005 –
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SAL Player of the Month (8/31) * 2005 – SAL Post-Season All-Star OF


Jewish heritage

According to ''Baseball Almanac'', Horwitz was the 159th Jewish player to make the majors. Horwitz became the first Jewish player to play with the Giants since the – tenure of
pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...
Jose Bautista, and the eighth since they moved to San Francisco. Horwitz credited one set of grandparents for “instilling a lot of Jewish traits in our family,” said Horwitz. He played in the Maccabi Games when he was 15 and 16, leading his LA-area team to national titles in 1996 and 1997. In 2009, he was one of the ballplayers honored in the fifth edition of Jewish Major Leaguers baseball cards."Fifth issue in baseball series honours record setters, ’08 big leaguers"
, '' Jewish Tribune'', March 3, 2009, accessed December 10, 2009


See also

* List of select Jewish baseball players


References


External links


Connecticut Defenders bioUniversity of California bioBaseball America statsBaseball Prospectus
* ttp://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/28881/edition_id/547/format/html/displaystory.html "Celebrity Jews, 4/7/06br>"Minor League's Top Jewish Prospects," 5/10/06"The Minor Leagues," 6/11//06"Baseball’s New ‘Rabbi,’" 6/5/08"'Rabbi' wants to be known for his talent," 6/20/08"Giants send Horwitz to Triple-A Fresno" 7/6/08
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horwitz, Brian 1982 births Living people Augusta GreenJackets players Baseball players from Santa Monica, California California Golden Bears baseball players Columbus Clippers players Connecticut Defenders players Fresno Grizzlies players Hyannis Harbor Hawks players Jewish American baseball players Jewish Major League Baseball players Major League Baseball outfielders Salem-Keizer Volcanoes players San Francisco Giants players San Jose Giants players University of California, Berkeley alumni 21st-century American Jews