One hundred years ago, World War One (originally known as The Great War) was in its second year.
The battles caused havoc in Poland, especially to areas inhabited by Jews. The czarist regime accused the Jews of spying and sabotage to cover its incompetence in battle as it suffered military defeats on a regular basis.
Jews left their villages and sought refuge in large cities such as Lodz and Warsaw. The plight of the starving, homeless refugees soon became known to the American Jewish community, and rescue committees were quickly organized.
Jews in America were also agonizing over the plight of Leo Frank, a superintendent of an Atlanta pencil factory who was accused of strangling to death a 13-year-old female employee.
The crime took place in 1913 and resulted in Frank’s conviction amid a climate of anti-Semitism. After several unsuccessful appeals, Frank’s death sentence was finally commuted by Georgia’s governor, but Frank was kidnapped from prison by a hate-filled mob and driven 170 miles to Marietta, Georgia, where he was beaten and lynched on August 31, 1915.
A janitor at the factory who testified against Frank – and changed his story at different times during the trial – was believed to be the real killer. Frank, only 31 at the time of his death, was posthumously pardoned in 1986 by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Jewish baseball fans in 1915 were following the exploits of Erskine Mayer, just as they had a year earlier.
The Atlanta native dropped out of Georgia Tech in 1910 when he was offered a minor league baseball contract. The Philadelphia Phillies were impressed with his pitching prowess and promoted him to the major leagues in 1912.
In his first full season Mayer won nine and lost nine for a bad team, but impressed savvy baseball men who saw beyond the mediocre won-lost record.
In 1914 Mayer became the first Jewish pitcher to win 20 games in the major leagues in a single season, posting a 21-9 record with a superb earned run average of 2.58.
His background was an interesting one.
Erskine’s father’s side came from Germany. Musical talent ran in the family. Erskine’s father was a pianist and music teacher with a fondness for baseball who often played ball with his sons.
Erskine’s maternal grandmother, who traced her ancestry back to the Mayflower, had converted to Judaism and her daughter was born into the religion.
In 1915 Erskine Mayer had another 21-game winning season with a fine ERA of 2.36, helping the Phillies to reach the World Series. Mayer started the second game of the Series against the Boston Red Sox and finished on the wrong end of a 2-1 score.
However, the game was historic as it marked the first time a United States president (Woodrow Wilson) threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a World Series.
The game was also historic because it featured the only World Series appearance that year of a young Red Sox pitcher named George Herman Ruth.
Ruth’s teammates called him “Babe” and he won 18 games for Boston in 1915. However, the 20-year-old pitcher was being closely watched by baseball people for what he could do as a batter.
Ruth batted .315 in 92 at-bats with four home runs. No one on the Boston team had more than two home runs in 1915. The American League leader had seven home runs but had almost 300 more at-bats than Ruth.
The young Babe was inserted as a pinch-hitter for the pitcher in the ninth inning against Erskine Mayer and the 24-year-old Jewish righthander induced the future slugger to ground out to the first baseman.