The list of Jewish Baltimore natives who’ve played Major League Baseball is, well, not a terribly long one.
But now you can add to that rarefied group Timonium native Spencer Elliott Horwitz, who yesterday, June 18, made his MLB debut with the Toronto Blue Jays.
A 2016 alumnus of the St. Paul’s School for Boys in Brooklandville, the 25-year-old first baseman, in his first-ever MLB at-bat, collected a hit off of Texas Ranger pitcher Jon Gray in the second inning at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
Horwitz later scored the Blue Jays’ third run of the game. (The Rangers won 11-7.)
In the 24th round of the 2019 MLB June Amateur Draft, Horwitz was drafted by the Blue Jays from Radford University in southwest Virginia. Last week, he was called up from the club’s AAA affiliate Buffalo Bisons as a backup player.
In 57 games with Buffalo this season, he hit .300/.421/.405 with 16 doubles and 34 RBIs.
Last spring, Horowitz played for Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic. (Among his teammates was Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer.)
“A big-time MAZAL TOV to Spencer Horwitz today!” Team Israel tweeted. “First big league start, first big league hit in first big league at-bat.”
Also bursting at the seams with pride and posting on social media was St. Paul’s: “A huge Crusie shoutout to St. Paul’s alum and baseball star Spencer Horwitz ’16 for being called up from AAA to the Toronto Blue Jays!”
Horwitz is the son of Lutherville-Timonium residents David K. Horwitz and Laura H. Horwitz. He has a brother, Ben, and is the grandson of longtime New York Mets media relations director Jay Horwitz.
“Congrats to my grandson Spencer Horwitz on his promotion to the Blue Jays,” Jay Horwitz tweeted recently. “A proud grandpa Jay.”
While on St. Paul’s baseball team, Spencer Horwitz played primarily as a catcher. He was a 2016 Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association First Team selection, and twice MIAA All-Conference. In hockey, he played as a defenseman for St. Paul’s and led the high school to a pair of state championships.
When interviewed earlier this year by the Canadian Jewish News, Horwitz said of his religious background, “My father was raised in a Jewish household. He was bar mitzvah and all my cousins were bar mitzvahed. So I’ve been around the Jewish culture my whole life and I’ve grown to love it and just appreciate it and respect it. …
“Sports were always a big prevalent point in my life, and especially with my dad. He’s a big sports guy, always has been. Baseball, football, golf, everything. He obviously introduced me and my brother to sports our whole life, and we always around it and then just being around the Jewish culture, I wasn’t actually too familiar with Jewish athletes. But yeah, I mean, it’s an honor to be able to represent them.”
Horwitz said he’s frequently asked about his ethnic and religious background by baseball fans.
“Yeah, having the last name Horwitz, a lot of people they do ask, but yeah, that’s normally all the conversation is just like, ‘Are you Jewish?’ And I’m like, yeah,” he said. “And then a lot of people will be like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ That’s pretty much it. It’s nothing. Normally it doesn’t go any further than that, but yeah, a lot of people do ask.”
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