The day after Elie Wiesel won the Nobel prize, an aide to Peter
Ueberroth, the baseball commissioner, asked Wiesel to be at the phone at a
specific time the next day. At the
appointed time, the aide, called and Ueberroth got on the line.
“My son had appeared at my press conference (in New York) in
a New York Yankees jacket, so I though maybe he was calling to protest or
something,” Wiesel said. “Instead, he
told me, I want to bestow a very great important honor on you. Would you throw out the first ball in the
World Series on Saturday?”
Wiesel said he told Ueberroth that he could not because it
was the Jewish Sabbath. Ueberroth came
back with a counteroffer: Sunday. Again,
Wiesel demurred, because it was Sukkoth, the Jewish holiday.
Finally, Wiesel said, Ueberroth called and said he had
consulted with rabbis and was told it would be all right to throw out the ball
after sundown and that the game could be delayed so he wouldn’t have to travel before
sundown.
“So he got me there,” Wiesel said to laughter.
This is not so much a story of being proud of someone who stood
up for their beliefs as much as it is a challenge to the rest of us: What are
your priorities?
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