Is a yid allowed to be a fan of a non Jewish ballplayer since there is an issur of lo techanem not to praise a goy for his prowess or other attributes?
Answer:
This depends on the nature of the support. It is permitted to support a team, and even a player, but not to “idolize” him.
Please see below for more details.
Best wishes.
Sources:
The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 20) states that one should not praise a non-Jew (idol-worshiper), for fear that doing so will cause undesirable closeness.
Rashi explains that this means one should not say: “How beautiful is this non-Jew.” The Ran (6a) and the Rambam (Idolatry 10:4) write that one should likewise not praise his deeds.
However, we find many examples in the Gemara where non-Jews are praised, such as the Gemara (Avodah Zarah 23) where a non-Jew is praised for the manner in which he honored his parents. How do these Gemaros fit with the principle of not praising non-Jews.
The answer appears to be that it is only forbidden to praise a non-Jew or his deeds when this is done as a direct praise for the non-Jew, and not when this is done for a purpose, such as the case of honoring parents, where the praise for the non-Jew was part of studying the laws of honoring parents. Likewise, it is permitted to praise the beauty of a non-Jew for the purpose of reciting a berachah, as we find in the Gemara (A.Z. 20).
In the case of sport, most sport fans enjoy being part of the competition, and praise for the non-Jew is part of the game: “My team is the best,” or “my player is the best.”
Under these circumstances, there would not be any prohibition.
Sometimes, however, the support for a player can verge on “idolization,” hanging pictures of him on the wall, and so on. This can be a problem of lo techanem, and the only heter will be that the non-Jew is not an idolater (according to some authorities, including the Rashba 1:8 and many who follow him, the prohibition does not apply for non-idolaters) – this will depend on his religious affiliation – and the fact that the non-Jew is part of a civilized nation (according to the Meiri the prohibition applies only to non-civilized non-Jews).
We are not lenient on a lechatchilah level to rely on these leniencies (for example in selling land in Israel to non-Jews – much has been written on this subject), so that one should avoid being an “all-out fan” (pictures on the wall etc.) of a particular non-Jewish player.
