High and Tight

In the 1930s Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers became the most feared slugger in baseball, the only player to challenge Babe Ruth’s record of sixty home runs in a single season before Roger Maris broke the record in 1961.  And Greenberg was Jewish, certainly the greatest Jewish ballplayer to that time, which made him a special hero to American Jews.  Throughout his career Greenberg displayed, in addition to his hitting prowess, an unusual degree of gentlemanliness that won him the admiration and respect of his fellow ballplayers, executives of the game, sportswriters, and fans.  Hank Greenberg was seventy-five when he died in 1986.  On the hundredth anniversary of his birth (he was born January 1, 1912), Ray Robinson remembers the man, the player, and the prejudice he overcame.