Max Mannis ‘20 (2nd from left) with Ethan Glezer ‘20 (left), Michael Kay, and Netanal Shapira ‘20 (right).
For Max Mannis ’20, a lifelong love of baseball, and of the Yankees in particular, has grown into a career covering the game he has followed for as long as he can remember. “I’ve been dead-set on working in baseball for as long as I can remember,” Max shared. But he also knew he wanted a path that wouldn’t require him to set aside who he was as a fan. Working for a team or as a journalist had its appeal, but neither felt quite right. “I always felt that my Yankees fandom was an integral part of who I am and something I needed to preserve. I’m very fortunate to work an amazing job that allows me to do so.”
Today, Max is a Senior Social Media Coordinator at Jomboy Media, where he helps run social media accounts including Jomboy Media, Talkin’ Yanks, and Talkin’ Baseball. During the MLB season, he sits in on the company’s weekly interview with Yankees manager Aaron Boone, helping develop questions and then editing and posting clips afterward.
He also hosts his own show, The Max Mannis Pod, now in its second year, where he talks with people across the baseball industry about their journeys to the game and why they love it. His guests have included ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Yankees broadcasters Michael Kay and Suzyn Waldman, Yankees players Ryan Weathers and JC Escarra, and future Hall of Fame manager Dusty Baker.
Some of the podcast’s biggest moments have come from the trust Max has built within the industry. Jeff Passan, widely regarded as baseball’s top insider, chose Max’s podcast as the first place to discuss a major financial story involving Dodgers and Lakers owner Mark Walter. Clips of it he posted drew more than a million views across all platforms.
“It was a real point of pride for me that the ‘top dog’ in baseball media would trust me and my platform with such an enormous story,” he said. Just as meaningful was the response from longtime followers, who cheered him on after years of what he calls “grinding.”
That support showed up again this fall. When the Yankees eliminated the Red Sox from the playoffs, ESPN Radio invited Max on after the game to recap it and share what it was like to be in the ballpark. Once again, his followers rallied, posting and urging others to tune in.
Still, the accomplishment Max is proudest of brings together two parts of his life. When Harrison Bader and Dean Kremer, the best players on Team Israel, decided to play in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, they announced it on his show.
“It was a really special collision of two worlds that matter to me so much,” Max said. He went on to attend all four Team Israel games in Miami, where he met up with Bader and other players and staff he knows.
That intersection is central to how Max approaches his work. He is open and vocal about being an Orthodox Jew and a proud Zionist, a commitment that predates October 7th. “It was always obvious to me that being authentic and proud matters a lot, even if antisemites or internet trolls take issue with it.”
Over the years, many people have reached out to him, some to thank him for using his platform for good, others to say they’ve learned about Judaism because of him. His posts have also helped him build relationships with people at MLB, the Yankees, and other organizations, connections that have helped advance his career.
That openness has not always been easy. Max regularly faces antisemitism and hate online, and the first few times were jarring. Over time, though, he gained perspective: the trolls have no real bearing on his career, while the influential people in the industry who have been quietly following along do.
“The pros of being able to call those people colleagues and mentors vastly outweigh the cons of dealing with the hate comments,” he said. “Being a proud Jew has unequivocally been a massive net positive for me in my career.”
Looking back, Max credits Heschel with encouraging him to follow a less conventional path. After graduating, he spent two years at Yeshivat Torah V’Avodah in Israel, where he met graduates of other Jewish day schools who felt limited to a handful of career options.
“I didn’t realize it in the moment, but Heschel pushing their students to dedicate their lives to their passions and to bring meaningful change to the world is really not the norm, and is certainly something I took for granted.”
One assignment in particular stayed with him. Finishing his senior year from home during COVID, Max completed a multigenre project for Elana Anderson’s English class, compiling about ten different genres around a single topic that mattered to him. Naturally, he chose baseball, including articles he had written along with reflections on how the game had strengthened his relationships with friends and family, his gameday routine at Yankee Stadium, and the analytics-versus-scouting debate.
The project helped him step back and appreciate how much baseball shapes his life. “I always knew I was going to work in baseball no matter what,” he said. A few months later, while still in yeshiva, he was hired at Jomboy Media, and he emailed Elana to share the good news.
“Her project helped further cement in my head that this was a passion and career I had to pursue.”
