Hank Greenberg
| Hank Greenberg | ||
|---|---|---|
| First baseman | ||
| Born: January 1 1911 New York, New York |
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| Died: September 4 1986 (aged 75) Beverly Hills, California | ||
| Batted: Right | Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | ||
| September 14, 1930 for the Detroit Tigers | ||
| Final game | ||
| September 18, 1947 for the Pittsburgh Pirates | ||
| Career statistics | ||
| Batting average | .313 | |
| Home runs | 331 | |
| Runs batted in | 1,276 | |
| Teams | ||
| ||
| Career highlights and awards | ||
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| Member of the National | ||
 Baseball Hall of Fame | ||
| Elected | 1956 | |
| Vote | 85% (eighth ballot) | |
Henry Benjamin "Hank" Greenberg (January 1, 1911, – September 4, 1986), nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank," was an American professional baseball player in the 1930s and 1940s.
A first baseman primarily for the Detroit Tigers, Greenberg was one of the premier power hitters of his generation. He hit 58 home runs in 1938, equaling Jimmie Foxx's 1932 mark, as the most in one season by any player between 1927—when Babe Ruth set a record of 60—and 1961—when Roger Maris surpassed it. He was a five-time All-Star, was twice named the American League's Most Valuable Player, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1956.
Despite losing four prime seasons to World War II and another to a fractured wrist, Hank Greenberg still hit 331 home runs, including 40 or more on four occasions. His 183 Runs Batted In (RBI) in 1937 still stands as the third highest one season total behind Hack Wilson (191) and Lou Gehrig (184).
Greenberg was also one of the first Jewish superstars in American professional sports.[1] He garnered national attention in 1934 when he refused to play baseball on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, even though the Tigers were in the middle of a pennant race.
Early life
Greenberg was born in New York City to Rumanian-born Jewish immigrants who owned a successful cloth-shrinking plant. His father and mother met in America and were married in New York. Hank had two brothers, Benjamin, four years older, and Joseph, five years younger, and a sister, Lillian, two years older. By the time Hank was six, his father's business had grown enough to enable them to move to the Crotona Park section of the Bronx. Since Crotona Park was a predominantly Jewish section, Greenberg knew practically nothing of anti-Semitism.[2]
Greenberg lacked coordination as a youngster, and flat feet prevented him from running fast.[3] But he worked diligently to overcome his inadequacies. His preferred sport was baseball, and his preferred position was first base. He became a basketball standout in high school, helping James Monroe High School win the city championship in 1929.[4]
After graduation from high school in 1929, he played semi-pro baseball for the Red Bank (New Jersey) Towners and later with Brooklyn's Bay Parkways. It didn't take long for major league scouts to become interested in him. He was first approached by a Yankee scout but Greenberg didn't relish the idea of being Lou Gehrig's backup first baseman. Instead, he signed with Detroit in September of 1929 for $9,000, feeling he would have a better chance of becoming their first baseman. Part of the deal was that he would attend New York University. After only one semester, he dropped out to concentrate fully on baseball.[5]
Minor League career
After playing one game with the Tigers in 1930, Greenberg spent the rest of the year playing for Hartford of the Eastern League (.214 in 17 games) and Raleigh of the Piedmont League (.314 with 19 homers).
In 1931 he played for Evansville of the Three-I League (.318, 15 homers, 85 RBIs). In 1932 he played for Beaumont of the Texas League where he began his legacy as a slugger, hitting 39 homers and winning the league MVP while leading Beaumont to the Texas League title. He also batted .290 and drove in 131 runs.
Early Major League career
When Greenberg joined the Tigers in 1933 Bucky Harris, the manager, refused to play Greenberg because he favored Harry Davis, a slick fielding but light hitting first baseman. Harris placed Greenberg at third base with disastrous results. Greenberg, unhappy with the situation, went to Frank Navin, the owner of the Tigers. Navin worked out a compromise where Greenberg would bat against left-handed pitching and Davis would bat against right-handed pitching. Greenberg played in 117 games, batted .301, hit 12 homers and drove in 87 runs.
In 1934, Harris was gone and Mickey Cochrane took over as manager. Greenberg and Cochrane hit it off immediately. Cochrane showed his confidence in Greenberg by selling Harry Davis. Greenberg repayed that confidence
During the 1934 season Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, took place in September when the Tigers were chasing the pennant. Greenberg was in a quandary whether or not to play on that religious day. He consulted a rabbi, who told him it was permissible to play. He pounded out two homers that day to win the game 2-1.
In 1935 Greenberg led the league in RBIs (170) and total bases (389), tied Foxx for the AL title in home runs (36), was 2nd in the league in doubles (46), triples (16), and slugging percentage (.628), and was 3rd in the league in runs scored (121). He also led the Tigers to their first World Series title. (However, he broke his wrist in the second game.) He was voted the American League's Most Valuable Player. He set a record (still standing) of 103 RBIs at the All-Star break - but was not selected to the AL All-Star Game roster.[1]
In 1937 Greenberg was voted to the All-Star Team. On Sept. 19, 1937, he hit the first-ever homer into the center field bleachers at Yankee Stadium. He led the AL by driving in 183 runs (3rd all-time, behind Hack Wilson in 1930 and Lou Gehrig in 1931), while batting .337 with 200 hits. He was 2nd the league in home runs (40), doubles (49), total bases (397), slugging percentage (.668), and walks (102). Still, Greenberg came in only 3rd in the vote for MVP.
A prodigious home run hitter, Greenberg narrowly missed breaking Babe Ruth's single-season home-run record in 1938, when he was again voted to the All-Star Team and hit 58 home runs, leading the league for the second time. After having been passed over for the All-Star team in 1935 and being left on the bench for the 1937 game, Greenberg refused to participate in the 1938 contest. In 1938 he homered in four consecutive at-bats over two games. He matched what was then the home run record for homers in a season by a right-handed batter; it wasn't until 61 years later that Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire broke it. The story goes that several pitchers intentionally walked Greenberg towards the end of the season rather than give a Jewish man a chance to break Babe Ruth's record. (There is some reason to dispute this as a motive. It is true that the Cleveland Indians did not give Greenberg good pitches to hit during the last week of the season; it is also true that Detroit and Cleveland were battling for third place, which in those days carried with it a share of World Series profits, so Cleveland players had a financial interest in keeping Greenberg from hitting home runs.)
He also led the league in runs scored (144) and at-bats per home run (9.6), tied for the AL lead in walks (119), was 2nd in RBI (146), slugging percentage (.683), and total bases (380), and was also 3rd in OBP (.438). Still, Greenberg came in only 3rd in the vote for MVP.
In 1939 Greenberg was voted to the All-Star Team for the third year in a row. He was 2nd in the league in home runs (33), 3rd in the AL in doubles (42) and slugging percentage (.622), while leading the league in strikeouts (95).
After moving to the outfield in 1940, Greenberg was voted to the All-Star Team for the 4th year in a row. He led the league in home runs (41; for the third time in 6 years), RBIs (150), doubles (50), total bases (384), and slugging percentage (.670; 44 points ahead of Joe DiMaggio). He was second in the league behind Ted Williams in runs scored (129) and OBP (.433), all while batting .340 (5th best in the AL). He led the Tigers to a pennant, and won his 2nd American League MVP award, becoming at the time the first player ever to win the MVP award at two different positions.
World War II service
The Detroit draft board initially classified Greenberg as 4F for "flat feet." Rumors that he had bribed the board, and concern that he would be likened to Jack Dempsey, who received negative publicity for failure to serve in World War I, led Greenberg to be reexamined, and he was found fit to serve.
Although drafted in 1940, he was honorably discharged after the United States Congress released men aged 28 years and older from service, being released on December 5, 1941, two days before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Greenberg re-enlisted and volunteered for service in the United States Army Air Forces. He graduated from Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a first lieutenant. He eventually served overseas in the China-Burma-India Theater, scouting locations for B-29 bases.
Return to baseball
Greenberg remained in uniform until the summer of 1945. In Greenberg's first game back after being discharged, he homered on July 1, 1945. That year, he set the major league record with 11 multi-homer games. Sammy Sosa tied Greenberg's mark in 1998. Without the benefit of spring training, he returned to the Tigers, was again voted to the All-Star Team, and helped lead them to a come-from-behind American League pennant, clinching it with a grand-slam home run on the final game of the season.
In 1946 he returned to peak form, leading the league in home runs (44) and RBIs (127), both for the 4th time. He was 2nd in slugging percentage (.604) and total bases (316), behind Ted Williams.
In 1947, Greenberg and the Tigers had a lengthy salary dispute. When Greenberg decided to retire rather than play for less, Detroit sold his contract to the Pittsburgh Pirates. To persuade him not to retire, Pittsburgh made Greenberg the first baseball player to earn over $80,000 in a season as pure salary (though the exact amount is a matter of some dispute). Team co-owner Bing Crosby recorded a song, "Goodbye, Mr. Ball, Goodbye" with Groucho Marx and Greenberg, to celebrate Greenberg's arrival. The Pirates also reduced the size of Forbes Field's cavernous left field, renaming the section "Greenberg's Gardens," to accommodate Greenberg's pull-hitting style. Greenberg played first base for the Pirates for 1947, and was one of the few opposing players to publicly welcome Jackie Robinson to the majors.
That year he tied for the league lead in walks, with 104. He had a .408 on base percentage, and was also 8th in the league in home runs and 10th in slugging percentage. Greenberg became the first major league player to hit 25 or more home runs in a season in each league (Johnny Mize became the second, in 1950). Nevertheless, he retired as a player to take a front-office post with the Cleveland Indians. No player had ever retired after a final season in which they hit that many home runs. Since then, only Ted Williams (1960, 29), Dave Kingman (1986; 35), and Mark McGwire (2001; 29) have hit as many or more homers in their final season.
Fielding
As a fielder, the 193-cm (6'4") Greenberg was awkward and unsure of himself early in his career, but he mastered his first-base position through countless hours of practice. Over the course of his career, he had a higher than average fielding percentage and range at first base. When asked to move to left field in 1940 to make room for Rudy York, he worked tirelessly to master that position as well, and reduced his errors in the outfield from 15 in 1940 to 0 in 1945.
Abbreviated career
It is often estimated that Greenberg, had he played in another era uninterrupted by war, would have amassed between 500 and 600 home runs and 1,800 to 2,000 RBI. As it is, his totals of 331 home runs and 1,276 RBI are amazing for a 1,394-game career. He also hit for average, batting .313.
Coaching & ownership
The following year, Greenberg retired from the field to become the Cleveland Indians' farm system director and two years later, their general manager and part-owner along with Bill Veeck. His contributions in finding and developing talent contributed to that team's successes through the 1950s, though Bill James wrote that Greenberg should also be given partial credit for the Indians' late 1950s collapse due to questionable personnel decisions.[6] When Veeck sold his interest, Greenberg remained as general manager and part-owner until 1957. He was the mastermind behind a move to Minneapolis for the Indians, that was vetoed by the rest of ownership at the last minute. Greenberg was furious and sold his share soon afterwards.
In 1961, the American League announced plans to put a team in Los Angeles. Greenberg immediately became the favorite to become the new team's first owner, and persuaded Veeck, who had sold off his majority interest in the White Sox due to poor health, to join him as his partner. However, when Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley got word of these developments, he threatened to scuttle the whole deal by invoking his exclusive rights to operate a major league team in Southern California. In truth, O'Malley wanted no part of having to compete against an expansion team owned by a master promoter such as Veeck. Greenberg wouldn't budge, and pulled out of the running for what became the Los Angeles Angels (now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim). He later became a successful investment banker.
Family
He married Coral Gimbel (of the New York department store family) on February 18, 1946, three days after signing a $60,000 contract with the Tigers. Their son Glenn runs a $4 billion dollar hedge fund called Chieftain Capital. [7] [8] Their son, Stephen, played 5 years in the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers organization. In 1995, Steve Greenberg co-founded Classic Sports Network with Brian Bedol, which was purchased by ESPN and became ESPN Classic. He was also the Chairman of CSTV, the first cable network devoted exclusively to college sports, which was purchased by CBS in 2006.
Honors
- American League Most Valuable Player, 1935 and 1940.
- American League All-Star team, 1937-1940.
- First Jewish player elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, in 1956. He garnered 85% of the votes. Joe Cronin was also elected that year.
- In 1983, the Tigers celebrated "Greenberg-Gehringer Day" at Tiger Stadium, honoring Greenberg with the retirement of his uniform number 5 and former teammate Charlie Gehringer with the retirement of his number 2. Both players were on hand for the ceremony.
- In 1999, despite injuries and wartime service that essentially limited him to half a career, he ranked Number 37 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
- Member of the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (1996).
- Member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (1979).
- Member of the Jewish American Hall of Fame (1991).[9]
Antisemitism
It was in the minor leagues at Raleigh where he first confronted anti-Semitism. During the season, one of his teammates, Jo-Jo White, walked slowly around Greenberg, staring at him. Greenberg asked him what he was staring at. White said he had never seen a Jew before. "The way he said it," noted Greenberg, "he might as well have said, 'I've never seen a giraffe before.'" I let him keep looking for a while, and then I said, 'See anything interesting?'" White said, "You're just like everyone else."[10]
While at Beaumont in the minor leagues Greenberg was not as much of an oddity as he was in other southern towns because Beaumont had a strong Jewish presence and it is reported that Greenberg attended the local [[Synagogue].[2]
The antisemitism Greenberg faced ranged from players staring at him because they had never before seen a Jew, to coarse racial epithets hurled at him. Particularly abusive were the St. Louis Cardinals during the 1934 World Series.[3] Examples of this were: "Hey Mo," referring to Moses, and "Throw a pork chop, he can't hit that,"[4] referring to laws of Kashrut. Template:Quote box2Greenberg sometimes retaliated against the ethnic attacks, once going into the Chicago White Sox clubhouse to challenge manager Jimmy Dykes, and at another time calling out the entire Yankee team.[5]
Jewish fans in Detroit—and around the American League for that matter—took to Greenberg almost at once, offering him everything from free meals to free cars, all of which he refused.[6] Template:Quote box2In 23 World Series games, he hit .318, with five homers and 22 RBI.
Greenberg was one of the few baseball people to testify on behalf of Curt Flood in 1970 when the outfielder challenged the reserve clause.[7]
Greenberg died of cancer in Beverly Hills, California and his remains were entombed at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.
In an article in 1976 in Esquire magazine, sportswriter Harry Stein published an "All Time All-Star Argument Starter," consisting of five ethnic baseball teams. Greenberg was the first baseman on Stein's Jewish team.
Legacy
In 2006, Greenberg was featured on a United States postage stamp. [11] The stamp is one of a block of four honoring Baseball Sluggers, the others being Mickey Mantle, Mel Ott, and Roy Campanella.
Aviva Kempner's The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg is a loving tribute is chock full of wonderful archival footage from the '30s and '40s and interviews with a self-effacing Greenberg and many of his Tiger teammates.[8]
In 2008 A tribute to Hank Greenberg, marking the 75th anniversary of his rookie season in the Major Leagues, will take place this weekend at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The event is a presentation of Jewish Major Leaguers, Inc., the Newton, Mass., organization that created the two-day "Celebration of American Jews in Baseball" special at the Hall in the summer of 2004.[9]
See also
- 1935 Detroit Tigers season
- List of Major League Baseball Home Run Records
- List of Major League Baseball doubles records
- 50 home run club
- Top 500 home run hitters of all time
- List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
- List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI
- List of Major League Baseball RBI champions
- List of Major League Baseball home run champions
- List of Major League Baseball runs scored champions
- List of Major League Baseball doubles champions
- Major League Baseball titles leaders
Notes
- ↑ Hank Greenberg
- ↑ Ralph Berger. Hank Greenberg Bioproj.sabr.org. Retrieved July 1, 2008.
- ↑ Nick Acocella. 2003. Greenberg was Tiger at the plate Espn.go.com. Retrieved July 1, 2008.
- ↑ Ralph Berger. Hank Greenberg Bioproj.sabr.org. Retrieved July 1, 2008.
- ↑ Ralph Berger. Hank Greenberg Bioproj.sabr.org. Retrieved July 1, 2008.
- ↑ James, Bill The New Bill Janes Historical Baseball Abstract New York: Free Press (2001) p. 435 ISBN 0-684-80697-5
- ↑ Hedge Fund Toddlers
- ↑ WEDDINGS; Linda Vester, Glenn Greenberg - New York Times
- ↑ Jewish-American Hall of Fame - Nominate Somebody
- ↑ Ralph Berger. Hank Greenberg Bioproj.sabr.org. Retrieved July 1, 2008.
- ↑ USPS - 2006 Commemorative Stamps
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Greenberg, Hank, and Ira Berkow. 1989. Hank Greenberg, The Story of My Life. New York: Times Books. ISBN 0812917413
- Klein, Clayton. 2007. A Well-Kept Secret: From the Glory Years of the Detroit Tigers. Manchester, MI: Wilderness Adventure Books. ISBN 0923568816
- Riess, Steven A. 1998. Sports and the American Jew. Sports and entertainment. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0815627610
- Simons, William M. 2002. The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2001. Jefferson NC: McFarland. ISBN 0786413573
External links
- Baseball-Reference.com - Major league career statistics
- Template:Bbhof
- Hall to Honor Greenberg
- The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg - documentary homepage
- Jewish Virtual Library bio
- Simons, William M. 2001. Searching for Hank Greenberg
- Sandomir, Richard. 2000. He Batted for the Tigers, Himself and American Jews
- Moynahan, Brian. 2003. Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax in the Mainstream Media
- The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg
- Jewish Major League career leaders
- Baseball Almanac
- Baseball Cube stats
- Fangraphs stats
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Greenberg, Hank |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hammerin' Hank |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Baseball outfielder |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 1, 1911 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York, New York |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 4, 1986 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Beverly Hills, California |
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