Hank Greenberg- First Jewish Player in the Hall of Fame
Henry Benjamin Greenberg was born in 1911 in New York City, the son of Orthodox Jews who had emigrated from Romania. Upon his graduation from the James Monroe High School in the Bronx, Hank Greenberg was a sought after ballplayer, having stood out in basketball and baseball. At six-foot three, Hank Greenberg worked hard to become a skilled athlete; always afraid of being ridiculed for his awkwardness, he would practice and practice until he was no longer clumsy. In 1929, the Yankees expressed interest in him, but Hank Greenberg, who wanted to play first base, saw his path in the Bronx blocked by Lou Gehrig and instead attended New York University for a year. In 1930, Hank Greenberg signed with the Detroit Tigers for $9,000 and rose quickly through their minor league system.
While with Beaumont of the Texas League, Hank Greenberg won the MVP Award with 39 homers and 131 runs batted in. One of his teammates that year was a player named JoJo White, who would later be with him in Detroit. White walked around Hank Greenberg one day, staring intently at him, and when asked why he replied, “I have never seen a Jew before. You’re just like everyone else.” But Hank Greenberg’s reception in the majors would be much more distasteful and filled with hatred.
The Tigers made him a full-time first baseman in 1933, and Hank Greenberg responded with 87 runs batted in while playing in only 117 games. The next year, Hank Greenberg became a star, batting .339 with 139 RBI and 26 homers. Detroit won the pennant by seven games over the Yankees, but lost the World Series in seven to the Cardinals, who rode Hank Greenberg mercilessly. They would hurl one insult after another at Hank Greenberg, such as yelling “Throw a pork chop at him, he can’t hit that”, referring to the Jewish laws regarding kosher. The Cards’ pitchers wished they had that option, as Hank Greenberg knocked in seven runs in the Series and batted .321. Greenberg didn’t always turn the other cheek, having once gone after White Sox manager Jimmy Dykes after being peppered with insults all day.
As great of a season as that was, Hank Greenberg surpassed it in 1935 when he knocked in 170 runs, belted 36 homers, and batted .328 to be named the American League’s MVP. The Tigers went to the World Series again, this time facing the Chicago Cubs. In Game Two, Hank Greenberg hit a two run homer, but later suffered a broken wrist trying to score from first on a single and was an onlooker as Detroit defeated Chicago in seven games. He broke the same wrist in a first base collision early in 1936, after he had gotten off to a hot start, with 16 runs batted in for just 12 contests. Hank Greenberg would not play again in 1936, but came back in 1937 with one of baseball’s greatest campaigns.
By now, Hank Greenberg was a hero in the Jewish community, being offered a plethora of free gifts, which he always refused. On May 22nd, 1937, Hank Greenberg hit a ball in Boston’s Fenway Park to centerfield that was called the longest homer ever hit there at the time. On September 19, Hank Greenberg hit the first home run ever to land in the centerfield stands at Yankee Stadium. At season’s end, Hank Greenberg had accumulated 183 runs batted in, the third highest total ever behind Hack Wilson’s 191 and Lou Gehrig’s 186. He batted .337 with 40 homers, yet he did not win his second MVP, somehow failing to garner any first place votes. His teammate, second baseman Charlie Gehringer won the honor, batting .371. Hank Greenberg had 87 more runs batted in than Gehringer that year!
After an assault on the RBI record in 1937, Hank Greenberg made one on Babe Ruth’s home run mark of 60 in 1938. By late September he had tied Jimmie Foxx’s standard for right-handed hitters with 58, but in the last five games Hank Greenberg got very few pitches to hit. The Indians in particular had their hurlers stay clear of Hank Greenberg’s bat, as Cleveland and Detroit were battling for third place in the league and the extra money that went with that. But there were also stories circulating that pitchers were intentionally walking him so a Jew would not break Ruth’s record. Hank Greenberg wound up with the 58 home runs and 146 RBI, but Jimmie Foxx won the MVP when he hit 50 with 175 RBI.
A 112 RBI year in 1939 was followed by a monster 150 runs batted in effort in 1940 for Hank Greenberg, who willingly learned how to play left field that year to make room for hard-hitting Rudy York, who was such a bad fielder that first base was the only place you could hide him defensively. The Tigers won another pennant, and Hank Greenberg became the first man to win an MVP Award at two different positions. Once more the World Series came down to a seventh game, with the Reds defeating the Tigers, although Hank Greenberg batted .357 with a homer and six RBI.
In 1941, Hank Greenberg became one of the first pro baseball players to be inducted into the service, after he initially had failed his first physical with “flat feet” but insisted on another. He was honorably discharged on December 5th, as Congress decided to release men 28 years of age or older from their military obligation. When Pearl Harbor was attacked two days later, Hank Greenberg re-enlisted and joined the Air Force, eventually going to the Pacific Theater as a first lieutenant. By time he returned to baseball in 1945, he had lost more than four years of his prime. But he was one of the first ballplayers to return, and Hank Greenberg joined the Tigers in time to help them in their pennant race.
His grand slam on the season’s final day against the Browns clinched the flag over the Senators, and Hank Greenberg went to his fourth and last World Series. This time he came out on top and played the entire seven games, hitting .304 with a pair of homers and seven runs knocked in as Detroit topped the Cubs for the title. In 23 Fall Classic tilts, Hank Greenberg batted .318 with five homers and 23 runs batted in. He had another super year in 1946, with 44 homers and 127 ribbies, and then the Tigers sold him to the Pirates, where he hit 25 home runs in 1947 before retiring. Hank Greenberg had a lifetime batting average of .313 with 313 homers and 1,276 runs batted in, despite really playing only nine full seasons. Experts project that had he had a longer career, Hank Greenberg would have had from 1,800 to 2,000 runs batted in and 500 plus homers. During that 1947 season, Hank Greenberg was one of the few players to welcome Jackie Robinson to the sport publicly, having experienced the taunting first hand as a Jew. Robinson himself said of Hank Greenberg, “Class tells. It sticks out all over Mr. Greenberg”. In 1956, Hank Greenberg was the first Jewish player to be elected to the Hall of Fame, with 85% of the vote. He passed away in 1986 at the age of 75.
In the midst of a pennant race in 1934, Hank Greenberg faced a complex problem. The Tigers were playing an important game on September 10th, which was the holy day of Rosh Hashanah, and there was debate whether he should play or honor the day. Hank Greenberg decided to play, and he hit a pair of homers against Boston to win the game 2-1. Ten days later he spent Yom Kippur observing the holy day in a synagogue, and Detroit went down to defeat. This inspired the Poet Laureate of Michigan, Edgar Guest, to pen the following-
Come Yom Kippur – holy fast day wide-world over to the Jew –
And Hank Greenberg to his teaching and the old tradition true
Spent the day among his people and he didn’t come to play
Said Murphy to Mulrooney, ‘We shall lose the game today!
We shall miss him in the infield and shall miss him at the bat,
But he’s true to his religion – and / honor him for that!
