(JNS.org) Former Major League Baseball (MLB) catcher Brad Ausmus, who is Jewish, was named the manager of the MLB’s Detroit Tigers. Ausmus, 44, will be the league’s only Jewish manager. He played for the Tigers, Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, and Los Angeles Dodgers from 1993-2010. “Jewish fans would come up to me and talk about how they were proud to have a Jewish major leaguer on their team, whether I was in San Diego, Detroit or Houston,” Ausmus told JNS.org in 2011 for a story on the Israeli national team he managed that was trying to qualify for the World Baseball Classic. “I would get letters from Jewish children. I quickly realized that American Jews identified with me because of my heritage. I’m very proud of that.”