Infielder struck out after attacking Boston’s observantly Jewish general manager.
By Pesach Benson, United With Israel
The Boston Redsox released minor league prospect Brett Netzer over an antisemitic twitter rant.
In a series of tweets on Friday, Netzer, an infielder who primarily plays third base, attacked blacks, transgender people and Redsox general manager Chaim Bloom, who is an observant Jew.
In the first of several tweets against Bloom, Netzer wrote, “chaim bloom is a bad actor.”
“dude went to hebrew school and studied the torah growing up but sold his soul to the sodom and race groups. good thing he is good at whatever he does in baseball.”
Netzer went on to call Bloom a “hypocrite and an embarrassment to any torah-following Jew.”
Following his release, Netzer denied being antisemitic, though he readily acknowledged being a racist.
“ill go along with racist and homophobic, but anti-semitic? thats too far. bloom is a hypocrite and an embarrassment to any torah-following jew,” Netzer tweeted in response to one baseball journalist.
Bloom was raised in Philadelphia, where he attended the Solomon Schechter Day School of Philadelphia and Akiba Hebrew Academy before moving on to Yale University.
Following an internship with the San Diego Padres, Bloom joined the Tampa Bay Rays, where he rose through the ranks by overseeing the team’s minor league operations. During his 15 years in the Tampa Bay organization, Bloom developed a reputation for developing talent despite the team’s comparatively low payroll.
He also lived within walking distance of Tampa’s Tropicana Field so he could be at the stadium during the Sabbath.
The Redsox acquired Netzer in the third round of the 2017 baseball draft and most recently played for Boston’s AA affiliate. But he hasn’t played a single game since the COVID pandemic broke out.
Local Boston coverage questioned whether Netzer will find another team to play for.