Constable: Ali in boxing, Kareem in NBA. But baseball's greatest Muslim player is ...
Hailed as the greatest boxer, greatest athlete and one of the greatest Americans of the last century, Muhammad Ali most certainly holds the title of our nation's greatest Muslim athlete. In boxing, Mike Tyson is a distant second.
Basketball's Kareem Abdul Jabbar, a six-time MVP with six championship rings and 6,095 more points than Michael Jordan, clearly tops Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal on the list of Muslims in the NBA. In the National Football League, Ahmad Rashad might be the greatest Muslim player and commentator. A handful of Muslims have played in the National Hockey League, including current Toronto Maple Leafs player Nazem Kadri. Fans of soccer, cricket, badminton, mixed martial arts, swimming or other sports might argue about who ranks as the greatest Muslim in those sports.
But there is no debate about the greatest Muslim to ever play baseball.
Sam Khalifa — a promising infielder who was the seventh pick in the 1982 MLB draft, got three hits in his first game as a 21-year-old for the Pittsburgh Pirates, played 164 games during three seasons and literally walked away from baseball in 1989 at age 25 — is the only Muslim to have ever played in the Big Leagues.
“I am surprised that we haven't seen one in the past 30 years. It's somewhat of a fluke that there's no Muslim players,” says Dr. Rany Jazayerli, a Muslim, a dermatologist with offices in St. Charles and Oak Park, one of the co-founders of Baseball Prospectus 20 years ago, and a current contributor to theringer.com, where he just wrote about the Cubs' chances of being “the best team in baseball history.”
The Chicago Cubs have never had a Muslim playing on the field, but they do have a Muslim younger than catcher David Ross working in the front office to build the current juggernaut: Assistant General Manager Shiraz Rehman. An intern for the Boston Red Sox and Theo Epstein in 2005, Rehman worked for the Arizona Diamondbacks until the Cubs hired him away in 2011.
As one of two Muslim baseball executives (the other is L.A. Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi), Rehman says baseball, once a game played exclusively by white men, continues to evolve.
“I'm sure as more and more Muslim Americans play the game as children in this country, as I did, they will pass along an appreciation of the game to their friends and family,” Rehman emails during a break while working on the upcoming MLB amateur draft. “I've seen that happen in my life. I just don't buy the theory that there is any specific reason why a member of any particular religion does or doesn't like a particular sport. We're all people, ultimately.”
Jazayerli, 40, the son of Syrian immigrants, was born in Michigan and grew up playing baseball in Kansas.
“A hundred years ago, the way to become Americanized was through baseball,” says Jazayerli. Now, children of immigrants turn to sports such as basketball or football, which generally require less of a commitment of time and money, he says.
“Baseball can make a breakthrough, but there needs to be a popular star,” says Amaar Abdul-Nasir, editor of the ummahsports.net website, Where Islam and Sports Unite. He notes that basketball's popularity grew in Asia because of Yao Ming, and football became popular in Nigeria after Christian Okoye made the NFL.
“If another Muslim baseball player were to make the Majors and do well, it could inspire a new generation of Muslim kids to take up the sport,” Abdul-Nasir says.
“It's just a matter of time,” Jazayerli says.
The MLB draft starts Thursday. Maybe a young Muslim player will get a chance to build on what Sam Khalifa started a generation ago.
“I've always thought that sports has a powerful way of crossing (ignoring?) the types of barriers and stereotypes that society places on different groups of people,” emails the Cubs' Rehman. “I don't think that will ever change.”