The Year Hank Greenberg Hit 58 Home Runs

The year Hank Greenberg hit 58 homers to lead the major leagues, he batted .315, scored 143 runs, drove in 147, and had an OPS of 1.122 -  if that means anything to you. If it doesn't, just know that it's very very good. 

He meant something close to everything to Jewish Americans. Like Joe DiMaggio with Italian Americans, but more so. Hank Greenberg was the Hebrew Hammer. 

Despite suffering all sorts of anti-Semitic prejudice and abuse, he never ran away from his identity. Even when people freaked out when his Detroit Tigers lost a game when he sat out for Yom Kippur. Every Jewish kid poured over the box score in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, while pouring milk over their cereal. All the old-timers shouted about baseball in Yiddish over the squealing brakes of the elevated trains on Canal Street. They knew the only reason Hank lead the league in walks that same year was because no one would give him anything to hit. 

Because no one wanted a Jew to break Babe Ruth's home run record.

The year Hank Greenberg hit 58 homers, there was another Jewish hero known for his own astounding feats. Though his name didn't extend much beyond New York. But if you grew up in a cold water flat in Flatbush or remember waking up to the sounds of guys selling pickles and shmata outside your tenement window on Rivington, you knew The Mighty Atom. 

The beginning of his story wasn't all that different from your own. 

He was born Joseph Greenstein in Poland. He had come to America fleeing a pogrom, found work where he could, which in his case turned out to be Galveston, Texas, in the oil fields. That's where his story starts to differentiate a touch from the standard tale of Jewish European migration in the early 20th century. 

His boss became obsessed with his wife, Leah. He wanted to get Greenstein out of the picture. So he shot him at ten paces, right between the eyebrows. But it didn't kill him. Not only did it not kill him - the bullet smushed. The doctors went in to retrieve it and found the bullet right under his skin, flattened against his skull. 

Joseph Greenstein, a little guy, barely 5' 4", gifted with an apparently preternaturally hard head, found a calling. He hit the Vaudeville circuit. 

He told his story in tents and fields and small towns. He let kids touch his scar and built out his act by building up his body. He became The Mighty Atom, a strong man. A compact package with remarkable power who drove nails through wood with his fists and bent straight metal rods into heart shapes. He broke chains with his bare hands. Who among us would deny his fans the metaphorical pleasure of watching a fellow Jew break chains with his bare hands?

In 1938, the year Hank Greenberg hit 58 home runs, walked 119 times, the Mighty Atom was packing them in in theaters all over New York. The year when pitchers started walking Hank Greenberg over and over, as he got closer and closer to beating Babe Ruth's record - he fell 3 short. 

The Nazi's annexed Austria. 

Then German Jews were forced to register their assets. 

Then their businesses. 

Then they were forbidden to practice medicine. 

Then law. 

Then they were forced to get ID cards and present them on request. 

Then have their passports stamped with a red "J". 

Then the Nazi's burned the synagogue at Nuremberg - Hank Greenberg went 2 for 5 that day.

Then Jews of Polish descent were exiled from Germany right as baseball season ended. 

Then 1,000 synagogues were set on fire on Kristalnacht. 

Then 76 were destroyed. 

Then more than 700 Jewish-owned business and Jewish homes. 

More than a hundred were killed. 

30,000 were arrested and sent off to Concentration Camps. 

Those who remained were expelled from school and stripped of their business and their property as winter came. 

The year that Hank Greenberg had one of baseball's greatest seasons as people shouted "dirty Jew" and "Kike" from him at the stands, membership in the German American Bund was on the rise. 25,000 German Americans, dedicated to extending Hitler's vision of anti-Semitism and the mater race to the United States - 8,000 of them uniformed storm troopers. 

There was Father Coughlan, a radio preacher with an audience in the many millions. He spent most of the 1930s keeping his anti-Semitic coded, keeping it to dog-whistles and whispers about "Roosevelt" and "The Banks." In the same year Hank Greenberg came in 3rd in MVP voting, he stopped holding back. 

Writing about "the Jewish Conspiracy" controlling the world. 

Praising Hitler and German atrocities on the radio. 

As that year turned to the next, the nights were long and winter didn't seem to end. Hank Greenberg turned to a dream half remembered.

The Nazi's passed a law that forced Jews to turn over everything made of gold and silver. Arcs, menorahs, wedding rings, lover's lockets. 

The German American Bund held a rally in Madison Square Garden. 

Swastikas and American Flags. 

The Nazi Eagle and George Washington. 

The red white and blue and the red and black. 

Banners hung from the rafters like retired jerseys with 22,000 people in the audience. Americans, right there in midtown Manhattan, with their right arms extended in the Nazi salute. 

There was another American just outside. 

The Mighty Atom was in midtown too. He'd performed nearby earlier that day. Pounded some nails with his fist. Broke some chains. The story goes that he saw a sign hanging high on the wall in the arena. 

A slogan too familiar and on that night, too much: "No dogs or Jews allowed."

So, he went across the street to a hardware store, slapped some cash on the counter, and left with a ladder and a bat. He hefted the 3-story ladder across 43rd street. Propped it up against the wall and climbed. He started ripping down the sign. The security guard, swastika on his armband, shouted for help. By the time the Mighty Atom got back to the street, the torn sign flapping above him, 20 Nazi's surrounded him looking for a fight. 

So the Mighty Adam gave them one.

When it was over, there were 18 American Nazis on the way to the hospital. There was Jewish American walking home with only a black eye, holding a baseball bat - a Hank Greenberg model Louisville Slugger signature model. 

http://thememorypalace.us/2017/05/the-year-hank-greenberg-hit-58-home-runs/