The Author Was A Catcher

Ryan Lavarnway's journey of self-discovery through baseball is a bedtime story

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During a professional playing career that spanned 15 years, Ryan Lavarnway suited up for eight Major League teams. He debuted with the Red Sox, the team that selected him out of Yale in the 2007 Draft. His final big league at-bat was with a team that would soon cease to be known as the Indians.

Before his time in uniform came to an end, Lavarnway had a life-altering moment in the game — while playing for a different tribe.

Like so many stories of Jewish American discovery, it begins in Brooklyn.

Lavarnway’s 2016 season was a struggle. He was released in May. He had to prove his worth in Double-A. It was the only year between his 2011 debut and 2021 campaign with Cleveland in which he didn’t appear in the big leagues. Yet he found himself playing in some of the most important games of his career.

That September, while the focus of the baseball world was largely on the Cubs, four teams gathered at MCU Park in Brooklyn. Against the backdrop of Coney Island, Team Israel joined Brazil, Great Britain, and Pakistan in a qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic.

“Playing in the WBC for the first time felt like a baseball opportunity,” says Lavarnway, who served as an on-air analyst for Rockies television broadcasts this past season. “I got to play and participate in an amazing and prestigious tournament that I otherwise wouldn’t have had the ability to play in. It wasn’t until I saw two yeshivas (traditional schools for Orthodox Jews) worth of Jewish kids in the stands with their kippot (skull caps) and their tallit (prayer shawls), and I realized that these kids have never had a full team of Jewish players to root for before. And I wanted to be a role model for them.”

On the field, Lavarnway and his teammates rose to the occasion. In the first game of the qualifiers, Craig Breslow — now the Chief Baseball Officer of the Red Sox — picked up the win. Lavarnway was behind the dish to complete the Yale battery. Israel swept through the double-elimination tournament and earned a spot in the main bracket.

Advancing to the main draw gave Lavarnway the gift of time — a chance to continue to wear ISRAEL across his chest and discover greater meaning.

“The 2017 team really helped me develop a Jewish identity. I didn’t really have one before that at all. My mom’s Jewish and my joke that I always say is like, ‘My mom is Jewish and she loves Christmas more than anybody.’ My dad was born and raised Catholic but decided that organized religion as a whole was not for him when he was very young. So our house did not have religion,” he explains. “We celebrated Christian and Jewish holidays — but not for any religious purposes — just because we liked having something to celebrate as a family and an excuse to give gifts and have a nice meal together.”

Lavarnway had begun to search for a religious identity towards the end of high school. “I no longer wanted to celebrate Christmas just to open green-and-red presents and celebrate Hanukkah just open blue-and-white presents. I wanted to understand: What are we celebrating? And why? And how is that relevant?” His quest left him feeling incomplete.

“Once we qualified, the team brought us to Israel to see what we were playing for. I really felt embraced by this Jewish community that I had never fully felt a part of. I had felt like I was half before. But once I was really embraced by the community — and seeing those kids that I wanted to play for — and then going to Israel and seeing it for myself, all these things happening all at once really helped me develop my own Jewish identity, my spiritual identity, and help me find a place in the community.”

Lavarnway still had hundreds of plate appearances and countless bullpens left in the tank after Team Israel’s improbable run in the 2017 WBC. His career continued. But baseball, the game that shaped so much of his identity and taught him about winning, losing, and relationships, had led him to find a greater sense of belonging. Once he and his wife welcomed a daughter into the world, Lavarnway found new motivation for sharing his story — and the right genre.

In “Baseball and Belonging,” Lavarnway tells the story of how a single recruiting phone call from Team Israel created an avenue for personal discovery. The book, illustrated by former minor league player Chris Brown, is geared towards children ages 3 and up. It begins on the Little League fields and contrasts the author’s confidence on the field with his uncertainty of who he was away from it.

Through adventures in the Dead Sea and visits to the Western Wall and other significant landmarks in Israel, Lavarnway relates his experiences in a familiar rhythm and meter. The book makes for an outstanding addition to any child’s library. It can be easily purchased from Amazon. C’mon, “Goodnight Moon” deserves a night off anyway.

Though he retired from professional baseball earlier this year, Lavarnway was a member of Israel’s team in the 2023 European Baseball Championship in September. In fact, he was named the captain of the Israeli national baseball team — the first player in the program’s history to receive the honor.

Back home, Lavarnway is becoming more active in the community. He tells his stories to audiences around Denver. “How I see my role in the world as it stands is… to try to be a light in the darkness, to try to find any positivity in community. And that is what my book is about,” he says. “My own journey with Judaism was the community aspect first. And I think, right now, the world needs that sense of community more than ever.”

I’ve been reminded of Lavarnway’s words throughout Hanukkah, which ends tonight. I believe the holiday is best viewed through the eyes of a child. My wife and I have been able to do so — with a growing level of engagement and understanding from our children — for about six years now. This year has been different, though.

On three of the eight nights, we were fortunate to host friends who didn’t celebrate the Festival of Lights. They hoped to learn more about it. They wanted to help light the candles. They wanted to demonstrate their support.

They’ve been that light in the darkness that Lavarnway speaks of. I am grateful for them.

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