DUKE UNIVERSITY
SPORTS
Tigers
Like Mike Mike Rothenberg hit 24 home runs during his Duke career.
Jewish catcher from Duke selected in the 12th round of the Major League Baseball Draft STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
M
ike Rothenberg would love to add his name to a lengthy list that includes Hank Greenberg, Joe Ginsburg, Brad Ausmus, Gabe Kapler and Ian Kinsler. The list is Jewish ballplayers who played for the Detroit Tigers. Rothenberg took his first step toward joining the list July 13 when he was selected by the Tigers in the 12th round of the annual Major League Baseball Draft. The 345th pick overall, he was taken on the third and final day of the draft. Rothenberg is a 6-foot-3, 215-pound switch-hitting catcher from Boca Raton, Fla., who just finished his senior season at Duke University. “I’m proud to be a Jewish ballplayer, and I’ve always appreciated the support I’ve gotten from the Jewish community,” he said. Rothenberg headed to the Tigers’ complex in Lakeland, Fla., after he was drafted. He’ll probably be joining the Lakeland Flying Tigers, the organization’s Low-Class A affiliate. Rothenberg said he was in communication with the Tigers prior to the draft and attended the organization’s pre-draft camp
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July 9 in Lakeland, so he wasn’t surprised the Tigers selected him. There haven’t been many switch-hitting catchers in the major leagues. A recent survey listed only 82 among more than 1,650 major-league catchers in history. Rothenberg, 22, said he began switch-hitting when he was 9 or 10 years old on a recommendation from his hitting coach. “I’m a natural right-handed batter. I struggled batting left-handed when I was 10, 11 and 12, but I stuck with being a switch hitter and it’s worked for me,” he said. The 2020 college baseball season was canceled by the NCAA because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rothenberg used the unexpected time off to modify and hone his catching skills. “I switched from the traditional catching style of two feet down to the new age style of catching on one knee,” he said. “The new age style is beneficial for a tall catcher like me. It makes it easier to block low pitches.” Rothenberg has been a catcher throughout his baseball life. He likes the cerebral part of the position. “I enjoy the chess match with each
Mike Rothenberg
opposing batter, calling pitches and the sequence of pitches,” he said. The Tigers drafted Rothenberg after taking another catcher — Josh Crouch from the University of Central Florida — in the previous round. It wasn’t a coincidence. “You always need catching and we’ve had our eye on those guys (Rothenberg and Crouch) for a while,” Scott Pleis, the Tigers’ top amateur scout, told the Detroit News. “Rothenberg has good size and arm strength. He was a little up and down offensively this past season (at Duke), but we saw
