The set represents the dedication and efforts of Martin Abramowitz, Ph.D., who combined his own love of baseball and commitment to Jewish values to produce what will no doubt be of great interest to those interested in baseball history and to the Jewish contribution to the game.

Everyone has heard of Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg (well, almost everyone!) but did you know that the .265 collective batting average of Jewish major leaguers is 3 points higher than the combined averages of all players from 1871-2002?

Or, did you realize that Jewish pitchers are 20 games over .500 (to be precise, their winning percentage is .504) which means that they have done slightly better than the entire major league pitching corps, since, by definition, the won-lost record of all pitchers has to be .500.

Jews have thrown five of the 230 no-hitters (3 for Koufax, 2 for Ken Holtzman), about twice as many as their statistical expectancy.

In determining who was to be included in the card set, Abramowitz followed the standard of the bi-monthly publication Jewish Sports Review, which is very inclusive.

Converts to Judaism are welcomed, and, where there wasnąt a formal conversion, players who had at least one Jewish parent and did not practice a religion other than Judaism were included.

Of the 142 players, 123 were born into famlies in which both parents were Jewish, 6 converted to Judaism and 13 had only one Jewish parent, the mother in 6 instances and the father in 7 instances.

With a few exceptions, these players will not be remembered as great ballplayers and many of them would not be remembered at all other than by baseball afficionados, but because of these cards, they all have a chance to be remembered as "American Jews in America's Game."