Time flies.
It was some 30 years ago – September 4, 1986. I was sitting in my Tiger Stadium office when the call came.
“Hank Greenberg died,” the voice on the other end said. It was the first of several calls from media types wanting reaction to the news.
I never saw Greenberg play; his last season in Detroit was in 1946 and the following year he ended his playing career with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Greenberg became the regular first baseman for the Tigers early in the 1933 season, the same year Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president and Hitler took over in Germany. For the rest of the 1930s and into the next decade, Greenberg was a source of nachas to the American Jewish community while it anguished over the fate of Europe’s Jews.
Throughout the years I met many older women who didn’t know or care much about baseball but who attended Tigers games just to see and root for Greenberg. The tall, handsome, charismatic ballplayer topped several polls during his playing days as the most heroic figure among Jews in America.
I met Hank Greenberg for the first time in 1983, when he was 72. His hair was thinner and he looked pretty close to his playing weight. It was a beautiful June Sunday and the Tigers had scheduled a ceremony to retire his uniform number between games of a doubleheader.
I wasn’t working for the Tigers yet and was known in the baseball world as a writer and photographer. I was granted time to interview the legendary Greenberg and invited to be on the field between games to take photos of the proceedings. It was the most memorable day of my time in baseball.
I started working for the Tigers the following year. It was a great year for me as well as for the team and the city as the Tigers rolled through the regular season and won the World Series.
Greenberg was invited to throw out the first pitch prior to one of the Series games in Detroit but begged off. He wanted to come but was deeply concerned about spasms in his back and legs that affected his gait. The doctors couldn’t figure out the cause and the problem worsened as the calendar turned to 1985. Hank had a burning sensation in his stomach and trouble eating. He lost weight. Tests eventually revealed a tumor on one of his kidneys. Now Greenberg had a word for his health problems – cancer.
Hank had a kidney removed, began light workouts, and started to gain back some weight. His wife saw to it that he had the best care available and respected her famous husband’s wishes to keep his condition from all, including their inner social circle.
The situation worsened after Hank turned 75 on the first day of 1986. He needed crutches just to get around his house. Eventually he became completely bedridden.
The end came on September 4, when Hank didn’t wake up.
He was a great personality and a great ballplayer – certainly the greatest Jewish player of all time.
Greenberg posted a .313 career batting average with 331 home runs despite missing four and a half seasons to military service. If you add bases on balls to his hits, his average would be .410. Translation: was on base 41 times out of a hundred.
Compare those stats to Joe DiMaggio’s. DiMag had a career .325 average and hit 361 home runs, but he had 1,628 more career at-bats than Greenberg. Even with more career at-bats than Greenberg, he walked less (790 to Greenberg’s 852) and Joltin’ Joe’s on base percentage was .395, 25 points less than Hank’s.
Greenberg also bested DiMaggio in the long ball department as he homered every 15.69 at-bat while the Yankee Clipper managed a round-tripper ever 18.89 times at the plate.
Let’s remember Hank Greenberg’s yahrzeit, the 30th of Av, which falls this year on Sept. 3.