Starting this week, Daily Star Sports will feature Q&As with local sports people in order to Get to Know some of them beyond the headlines. To suggest someone for Get to Know, please email Sports Editor Greg Klein at gklein@thedailystar.com.
Batting leadoff is Josh Rawitch, who has been the president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum since 2021. He and his family, including wife Erin, and their children Emily and Braden, have become part of the Cooperstown community since then, frequently supporting Cooperstown’s sports, arts and educational organizations.
Emily Rawitch graduated from Cooperstown in June and is enrolled at the University of Wisconsin. Braden Rawitch had a stellar sophomore season as a pitcher and infielder for the Hawkeyes in the spring and records other sports for social media at @b.raw.media.
Questions and answers have been lightly edited for style and clarity. However, the answers are from Josh Rawitch, in his own words, presented in their entirety.
1) In a paragraph or two, tell us what brought you to your current position?
After 27 years of working in baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks and MLB.com, I was approached by my predecessor, Jeff Idelson, about my interest in possibly moving my family (including our two kids who were then 13 and 11) to Cooperstown and joining this incredible institution. I knew Jeff from many years of working with the Hall from a distance and I then had the opportunity to interview with Hall of Fame Chairman Jane Forbes Clark, who headed up the search committee along with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and longtime sports executive Harvey Schiller. We arrived in 2021 recently passed five years of working alongside the Hall of Fame team and living in this amazing community, so I am extremely fortunate to have landed in an absolute dream job.
2) How/why did baseball become your sport?
My Uncle Marvin was a big collector of baseball cards and sent me my first pack back in 1983. That was right around the time I started to play tee ball, and I just became totally hooked on everything about the game. I would listen to and watch games on the radio and TV, go to a handful of Dodger games each year and collected cards myself throughout my teenage years. As a very average player on one of the better high school teams in California, I learned to love the intricacies of the game and somehow managed to land an internship at the Dodgers after my freshman year of college.
3) Will you briefly recount the learning Spanish leading to translating at the WBC story for our readers?
During my Dodgers internship in 1995, an executive suggested I learn Spanish if I really wanted to work in baseball. I went back to college, took it seriously and studied abroad in Spain before traveling extensively in South America to become proficient. Many years later, the Dodgers played two exhibition games in Taiwan and our star player at the time, Manny Ramirez, didn’t want to do a news conference in English. So, I ended up translating for him where the questions were asked in Mandarin, translated to English, I would translate them to Spanish and Manny would respond in Spanish. I would then translate it to English and then it would be delivered to the media again in Mandarin. We all had a big laugh.
4) Do you have a philosophy about coaching or about your sport you are willing to share? Do you have a favorite achievement or moment?
Baseball is a game of failure, so you have to be able to process the things that don’t go well quickly and move on in order to succeed. You also can’t be afraid to fail or to try something new, which is undoubtedly something that anyone with a plaque in our gallery has learned throughout their careers. You can’t control the past, but you can control your effort, your attitude and be a good teammate. I have been so lucky to be a part of so many surreal moments that don’t think I have a single favorite, but watching from the stage as this staff and this village come together each July to put on a show that people enjoy around the world is really special.
5) What is it like for you to watch your son play baseball?
I get tremendous joy from watching my kids do what they love and for my son, who is a junior at Cooperstown High, that means playing baseball. He was fortunate that when we lived in Arizona, baseball was a year-round sport, so he got hooked on it and is a talented player with a passion for the game. This will be his fourth year on varsity, and the team has a chance to go further than it has for quite some time, so I’m excited to watch them all in the spring at Doubleday Field.
6) Are you a reader? If so: what are reading now? What book would you recommend to everyone?
I tend to read more articles than books but I’m always taking in information. I gravitate to non-fiction, so the stack of books that I’ve started and/or are on my nightstand include Nolan Ryan’s biography and “Baseball’s Hall of Fame” by Ken Smith, who served as our director back in the 1960s and 70s. One book I would highly recommend is “Where Men Win Glory” by Jon Krakauer about Pat Tillman and the ultimate sacrifice he made.
7) What kind of music do you listen to, and if you go to concerts, what was the last concert you attended?
I’m a huge fan of live music with a very eclectic taste that ranges from rock n’ roll and modern country music to hip hop and rap (plus Spanish music, too). I’ve seen Dave Matthews Band almost 80 times, including 13 times at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. We were just at SPAC this weekend for O.A.R., who I’ve seen almost 20 times!
8) Do you have a motto and if so, what is it?
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” This came from Jackie Robinson and has long been my favorite quote and ultimately, a motto I strongly believe.
9) If you were not in sports, what would you be doing?
I might have been a baseball coach (I guess that’s still in sports) or a travel writer, as I love to get out and see the world. I’ve been to more than 50 countries/territories and 45 states and I’m hoping to get to 75/50 before I’m done.
10) What is your dream vacation?
My wife, Erin, and I have been planning a year-long around the world trip that would cover a lot of the places we haven’t been to that we really want to see. Who knows when we’re going to actually take it, but we’ve been building the itinerary for years and every time we think of a new place, we add it to the list.
11) Other than games you have played, what one sports win meant the most to you?
Easiest question of the group – last year’s College Football National Championship game. I met my wife at Indiana University, and we are huge Hoosiers fans and have been following the team for decades, even though it was literally the losingest program in college football history. To watch what the team has done the last two years, culminating in the title in January, basically means that I can’t expect another big win from any of my teams ever again!