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Documentary follows Greenberg, Koufax, other Jewish baseball icons
Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story, directed by Peter Miller, narrated by Dustin Hoffman, produced by Clear Lake Historical Productions.
By Donald H. Harrison
Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – A new documentary, sure to hit the circuit of Jewish film festivals is Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story. Although actor Dustin Hoffman is the off-camera narrator, the real star power comes from Jewish major leaguers, alive and dead, whose skillfully edited interviews provide first-person perspective on a story that began in the late 1800s and continues to this day.
The longest segments of the 91-minute documentary cover the careers of Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax, but plenty of other Jewish players appear in this work of love including Buddy Myer, Harry Danning, Norm Sherry, Ron Blomberg, Shawn Green, and Kevin Youkilis.
The essential thesis behind the documentary is that Jews love America, nothing is more American than baseball, and that success in baseball represents success in America.
There are some great tidbits along the way, and one not so bad pun. Did you know that the Bible contains the first account of baseball? Yup, it’s right there in Genesis, which starts “In the Big Inning.”
The first known Jewish baseball player was Lipman Pike, who played for various teams in the 30 years following the U.S. Civil War. The first Jew to appear on a baseball card was pitcher Barney Pelty of the St. Louis Browns, who pitched during the first two decades of the 1900s. The New York Giants recruited Jewish players in the 1920s, to win Jewish fans. Moses Solomon, a big home run hitter, was dubbed “the rabbi of swat,” which was a rhetorical challenge to Babe Ruth of the cross-town Yankees, who was known as the “sultan of swat.” Another giant Giant was Andy Cohen, who was so popular at the Polo Grounds they sold “Ice Cream Cohens.”
Here’s some impressive trivia: The second-most sung song in the world behind “Happy Birthday” is “Take Me Out To the Ballgame,” which was composed by the Jewish musician Albert Von Tilzer.
These kind of factoids were warm ups for the story about Hank Greenberg, which his son, Steve, assisted in telling. Described as the first Jewish baseball superstar, Greenberg was a 6’4 first baseman who spent most of his major league career with the Detroit Tigers. In 1934, he set a precedent for Sandy Koufax, when he decided not to play on Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah, ten days earlier, was another matter. A rabbi found some biblical precedent to permit him to play, and Greenberg hit two homeruns that day to beat the Boston Red Sox.
Abstaining on Yom Kippur prompted some doggerel about Greenberg:
We shall miss him in the infield
We’ll miss him at bat.
But he’s true to his religion
And we honor him for that.
Not everyone honored Greenberg or other Jewish players, however. Catcalls like “Heeb!” “Kike!” “Throw him a pork chop!” plagued Greenberg, who occasionally did not turn the other cheek. In 1938, the year historians say was the beginning of the Holocaust with the Kristallnacht in Germany, Greenberg was chasing Babe Ruth’s single season record of 60 home runs. The documentary debunks the rumor that opposing teams were so anti-Semitic they refused to pitch to him. Pitch to them pitchers did, including Bob Feller, who was interviewed on camera about one of the last games of the season in which he faced—and tamed—Greenberg.
With anti-Semitism rampant in Nazi Germany and with some Bundists hoping to import similar hatred to the United States, Greenberg considered every good game he played – every home run – a way to show the world how wrong Nazi racial myths about Jews being inferior really were.
At the height of his career, Greenberg went into the Army to fight in World War II. “I’m in the Army now, and now I’m playing on Uncle Sam’s team,” he said in one news clip.
Greenberg played his last season when Jackie Robinson, the first African-American major leaguer, played his first. The documentary described a collision at first base when Robinson was running for a single. “Fans,” who were yelling cat calls at Robinson from the stands, wondered whether there would be a fight between the two men. Instead, Greenberg helped Robinson up, and told him not to worry about the invective some people screamed. They used to yell similar things at him, Greenberg told Robinson.
Greenberg mentored Al Rosen, and later disappointed him when he decided to trade Rosen from the Cleveland Indians, which Greenberg served as a general manager in his career off-the-field. Rather than be traded, Rosen decided to quit baseball, a sad chapter.
The story of Sandy Koufax’s career was the next large segment of the documentary. After his retirement, Koufax shrank from the limelight, so this interview is one of the longest—and most comprehensive—about the superstar Dodger pitcher, who threw a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs one season, and decided not to pitch on Yom Kippur in the 1965 World Series against the Minnesota Twins.
Don Drysdale pitched that World Series game instead, and got drubbed in the first two innings, giving up seven home runs. When manager Walter Alston came to the mound to take Drysdale out, the pitcher quipped that he’d “bet you wish I was Jewish too.”
In the 1950s and 1960s, baseball had a $100,000 salary cap—but Drysdale and Koufax decided to hold out together for a better salary, shutting out baseball owners who tried to resist their twin juggernaut. Eventually, their actions helped to empower the baseball players organization – led by Marvin Miller, another Jew.
There were quite a few Jewish owners in baseball, among them Charles Bronfman of Montreal, and Bud Selig of Baltimore, who eventually would go on to become Commissioner of Baseball.
Other Jewish baseballers included in the documentary were Art Shamsky of the 1969 Miracle Mets, Kenny Holtzman of the Chicago Cubs and Oakland Athletics, and Ron Blomberg, a first-round draft pick of the New York Yankees, who later in his career would become Major League Baseball’s first designated hitter.
One player who many folks believed had converted to Judaism was Rod Carew of the Minnesota Twins and California Angels. In fact, he had not, although Carew’s wife was Jewish and his two children were raised Jewish. Another African American who did convert to Judaism was Elliott Maddox, an infielder and outfielder who played on six major league teams, and quipped about his conversion: “I always considered myself a good two-strike hitter.”
In the 1990s, Shawn Green of the Los Angeles Dodgers was considered the standout Jewish baseball player, and in the 2000s, Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox has been a dominant player.
Not all the stories in the documentary were happy ones. Adam Greenberg was called up from the minors, and as a Chicago Cub pinch hitter, he was beaned on the very first pitch. The concussion he suffered knocked him out of baseball, although he has not given up on the idea of making a comeback.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World
Now a Jewish Major Leaguer baseball site
By Bruce F. Lowitt
Bruce Lowitt
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — Think Jewish baseball players.
OK, now that you’ve come up with Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg, think about, say, a dozen Jewish major leaguers playing right now.
There’s Kevin Youkilis of the Red Sox and Gabe Kapler of the Rays, and … um … Ryan Braun of the Brewers and … and … is John Grabow of the Cubs Jewish? (Yes.)
And Shawn Green of the Mets? Sorry. He hasn’t played since 2007.) Oh, and David Eckstein of the Padres. (Sounds like he might be Jewish, but he’s not.)
And how’s Braun doing this year? (Very well, thank you, as is Youkilis.) And why is it necessary to scour the box scores in the newspaper or online sites to find out how Grabow is doing this year?
It isn’t.
Former St. Petersburg Times reporter Scott Barancik created the Jewish Baseball News, online at www.jewishbaseballnews.com in May for just that purpose.
The Rays’ Gabe Kapler is one of the players followed on the new website: http://www.jewishbaseballnews.com It isn’t his first online venture.
He is also the founder, in 2008, of www.baylawsuits.com, a news service that researches court cases – about 2,000 so far — for his clients. That venture was an outgrowth of the former American Banker writer and then eight-year Times business reporter being caught up in the first wave of layoffs as the economy slumped.
Looking back on it, he acknowledges, “I think daily journalism was not for me. I always had trouble making deadlines. I was much more into wordsmithing than the job and time allowed.”
He came up with the idea for http://www.jewishbaseballnews.com while researching his family history.
“At some point, probably in my 20s (he turned 46 on May 21), well after I’d become interested in baseball in general, Barancik said, “I started looking into genealogy, trying to find ancestors, immigrants who’d changed their names when they got here or were in some other way concealed by the records of history.”
After a while, he said, “I thought, ‘I’m spending all this time on dead people. … There are all these living (relatives) I don’t know about. Maybe I should concentrate on looking at the family tree going forward.”
He realized he had the same attitude about Jewish ballplayers, about having a sense of pride in the performance of Jewish athletes.
But do an Internet search for Jewish major leaguers and you’ll find that most of the sites take a historical approach, looking back at Koufax, Greenberg, Cal Abrams, Rod Carew, Al Rosen, Moe Berg, Ron Blomberg, and dozens of names rarely mentioned outside of a line or two in the Baseball Encyclopedia’s list of all-time players.
If there are discussions, debates, it often comes down to just what makes a player Jewish. Did Carew convert or did he not? If a player has a Jewish father but a non-Jewish mother, is he Jewish? Does it matter how observant he is?
“I found that a turnoff,” Barancik said, “and, kind of like with my family history, it made me look to the present. Who’s Jewish today? … I started looking into it and I was blown away that there were more than a dozen last year.
“I started asking my Jewish friends, ‘How many Jews do you think are playing (in the major leagues) today? Invariably they said, ‘One?’ ‘Two?’ Usually Youkilis, maybe Braun.”
He found it interesting that when people say Jewish ballplayer, Koufax and Greenberg – and rarely anyone else – come to mind.
“There’s all of this stuff going on now and why aren’t we celebrating that?” Barancik said. “And I thought, ‘How can I keep track of these guys, keep track of how they’re doing? How can I, y’know, live out the Jewish male fantasy of seeing how these Members of the Tribe are performing on a daily basis.’ ”
Unlike other websites, jewishbaseballnews.com provides daily and season-total up-to-date statistics of the 12 current “Members of the Tribe” major-league players, plus blogs, news updates, and features, Barancik said.
There are other websites devoted to Jewish athletes in general and baseball players in particular, notably jewishsportsreview.com, run by Shel Wallman and Ephraim Moxson.
It’s a one-man operation at the moment — with a lot of assistance from Wallman and Moxson.
“At this point I’m relying on them,” Barancik said. “They don’t call me every time they find someone and say, ‘Hey, there’s a new Jew.’ When they find somebody new they break it in their own publications. But they’ve been very generous in sharing their information with me, the historical stuff they’ve gathered.
“They’re the go-to people for knowing who is Jewish. They call players or their families and try to both confirm that they’re Jewish and comfortable with being identifi ed as Jewish in a publication,” Barancik said.
He is developing a blog for features and opinion pieces. He says he wants to add more bloggers and to establish a give-and-take with his readers and hopes that, over time, he can introduce other writers “who have a voice and are interested in waxing eloquent on the subject of Jewish baseball players.”
He has also learned that feeling pride in the success of one member of a group, whether it’s religious (Greenberg), racial (Joe Louis) or anything else, is commonplace.
“I’ve met folks from the Dominican Republic who can name every one of the roughly 40 Dominican players in the majors,” Barancik said, “and fans who can tell you every Cuban-born player. There’s that sense of pride, and I think that we as Jews feel the same way.”
He wonders if, in fact, there’s anyone else out there with the same passion, the sense of group pride. He thinks there is, although he doesn’t have an answer yet because the site is barely a month old.
But that’s why I created it,” Barancik said, “to indulge my own interest with the hope that others might be interested as well.”
Which begs the question: Why should that many people care about Youkilis as a Jew rather than what he’s doing to help carry the Red Sox? Why should people who aren’t Rays fans care about Gabe Kapler?
“I think it’s fair to say that if you’re not a baseball fan, if you’re not a Rays fan, you’re not going to care about Gabe Kapler,” Barancik said. “Granted, if there’s, say, an incredibly talented Jewish soccer player in the English Premier League, I wouldn’t care about him that much because I don’t really care about soccer.”
Barancik, a Chicago native and Cubs fan, said he was a Youkilis fan before discovering after the 2008 season that the Red Sox first baseman was Jewish.
“I never would have guessed it. Usually you tend to ‘hate’ the best guys on the other team, but I had such an admiration for Youkilis,” Barancik said. “He’s butt-ugly, he has the weirdest (batting) stance, he’ll foul off 10 pitches before he gets the one he likes. And he always seems to have fun. It was like, ‘I wish we had that guy.’ ”
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This article previously appeared in the Jewish Press of Pinellas County.
San Diego’s historic places: Admiral Baker Field, Part 2
Admiral Wilder Baker
By Donald H. Harrison
Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Who was the Admiral Baker for whom Admiral Baker Field with its two golf courses is named?
His son, also named Wilder Baker, replied in a telephone interview from Darien, Connecticut, that in the U.S. Navy, Admiral Baker perhaps was best known as the chief of staff to Admiral John S. McCain, whose grandson, John McCain, became a senator from Arizona and the 2008 presidential candidate.
Admiral Baker (1890-1975) was among the senior officers in the theatre at the time of Japan’s surrender in 1945, having led a task force that attacked the Japanese home islands. Before the U.S. entered World War II, he helped develop tactics for anti-submarine warfare while escorting American convoys to England and dodging German U-boats.
For all the wartime action he saw, it was Admiral Baker’s peacetime role as the commandant of the 11th Naval District that resulted in his name being immortalized at the recreational facility located on what had been a portion of Camp Elliott.
When the postwar decision was made to designate a portion of Camp Elliott as Miramar Marine Corps Air Station and to decommission other portions of the camp, Baker urged that a portion of the facility be set aside for the recreational needs of active duty military personnel and retired members of the Armed Services. Over the ensuing decades, Miramar was turned over to the Navy, and then back to the Marine Corps, while decommissioned portions of the huge base eventually were developed into the community of Tierrasanta and left in its natural state as Mission Trails Regional Park.
Baker retired with the rank of vice admiral in 1952 and joined the senior management of Solar Aircraft for several years thereafter. He became active in civic affairs, particularly as president of the San Diego Symphony, and as a board member of the Community Chest (United Way), Scripps Clinic and YMCA, said his son, an East Coast advertising executive who today owns an advertising consultant agency.
The admiral loved to play golf “but you didn’t want to emulate it,” his son chuckled. “He was a hacker. … One of the stories was how he once shot a hole in one—it was up at Mare Island (in the San Francisco Bay area) off a water tower.”
Whether the story of the fortuitous ricochet shot is true or apocryphal, it is an accurate description of the admiral’s game, said his son.
The admiral and his son played together several times on the golf course bearing his name. “It started as a nine-hole course, mostly dirt,” the son remembered. It grew to 18 holes and then a second course was put in.
Another of the family’s favorite stories about the admiral concerned a time they went up to a favorite vacation spot on Squam Lake in New Hampshire. “He was still on active duty, and people knew he was an admiral,” his son said. So you can imagine the townspeople’s amusement the day that “he went down to get in the canoe, but let the boat slip away from the dock (with his foot still on it) and fell into the lake.”
The townspeople used to tease the admiral about the incident, but he took it in good grace. In the military, subordinates used to say that he was “direct” in his approach to people and fair, his son said.
When the admiral lived at North Island Naval Air Station, he liked to shoot skeet and often tried to get his son to come along. But the younger Wilder Baker wasn’t fond of that sport, “so he would get hold of a friend of mine who lived in Coronado, Nick Reynolds,” who became famous as a member of the Kingston Trio.
Wilder Baker said he was pleased to learn that Admiral Baker Field now is cooperating with the Audubon Society for the protection of wildlife species and the ecology.
Coincidentally, he said, his own wife, Vanda, is on the committee of the Weebern Country Club in Darien working to have that facility likewise certified in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. This article appeared previously on examiner.com
San Diego’s Historic Places: Admiral Baker Field, Part 1
Admiral Baker Field, San Diego
Donald H. Harrison
Admiral Baker Field is operated by the Navy Region Southwest, Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) for the benefit of active duty and retired military personnel. Civilians are welcome as their guests.
Lying down the San Diego River from the Mission Trails Regional Park, Admiral Baker Field has won commendation from the Audubon Society as a wildlife sanctuary and as an eco-friendly golfing environment. In particular, the two par-72 courses are considered excellent nesting places for the California Gnatcatcher and the Least Bell’s Vireo, two endangered species.
Among more than 700 golf courses around the country cooperating with the Audubon Society, Admiral Baker Field has installed at various tees plaques and story boards explaining the conservation program and also alerting golfers to some unusual “hazards.”
For example, if just as they start to tee-off, they suddenly hear “mewing” from the bushes, it’s not a lost kitten that broke their concentration, but a California Gnatcatcher, whose call is amazingly kitten-like.
Education is one component of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, according to the society’s program manager Joellen Lampman of Albany, New York.
To win certification, golf courses must show that they have an environmental planning program, including documentation about wildlife inventories and water quality sampling, said Lampman in a telephone interview.
There should be programs for wildlife habitat management in the out-of-play areas; reduction of chemical use and safe practices; a maintenance facility with proper storage of chemicals; a water conservation program, and water quality management.
Lampman said there are approximately 16,000 golf courses in the country, with 935 in California. At the end of 2009, Lampman said, Admiral Baker Field was one of 52 facilities in the cooperative Audubon program.
One of the regular golfers at Admiral Baker Field is a retired enlisted man who prefers to be identified as “K.C.” A pair of Ferruginous Hawks that make their homes between the tenth and eleventh holes of the North Course have kept K.C. entertained as he is trudging toward his ball.
According to K.C., three years ago the hawks were nestlings who would be left on their own by their parents. In the second year, these same hawks would chase and play with each other, occasionally trying to mate. In this, the third year, the hawks clearly have romance on their minds.
Tom Miller, golf operations manager, said that the North Course is the longer of the two parallel courses, running 6,900 yards along fairly broad fairways. The South Course is 700 yards shorter, but it becomes a little more difficult because the fairways are narrower. Golf shots are therefore more likely to land in the rough.
Although it’s possible that Sam Snead may have played Admiral Baker Field “when he worked at the Sail-Ho” Course – another MWR operated golf course in the San Diego area – not too many golf professionals have been spotted at Admiral Baker’s. Owing to the proximity of Qualcomm Stadium farther downriver, one was more likely to encounter professional athletes in other sports – for example Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres, or Vincent Jackson, a receiver for the San Diego Chargers. However, now that the Padres have moved from Qualcomm Stadium to Petco Park in downtown San Diego, fewer baseball players seem to happen by, according to Miller.
As star-struck as one might become in the presence of nationally admired athletes, there’s a fellow by name of Dave Riddell, who usually plays at MWR’s China Lake facility, who can draw a crowd of admirers. He holds Admiral Baker’s course record—a seven-under-par 65—shot on the North Course.
Miller, who is more likely to shoot an even-par 72 on the course, says the Number 3 hole with its water hazard by the lake and its nice green is one of his favorite holes. On the other hand, he considers the par-4 North #8 with its long uphill climb and a dog-left to the left the toughest.
On an average day, he said, between 350 and 400 golfers will play at Admiral Baker Field, but there have been days when as many as 600 golfers – 150 foursomes—have teed off an average of seven minutes apart.
The lakes were created by diverting water from the San Diego River. Pumping the water from the lakes to the fairways saves MWR lots of money in irrigation costs and utilizes a water supply that would otherwise flow into the Pacific Ocean. But this system is not without its problems. The San Diego River water has a high saline content, resulting in tons of salt being deposited on the course that must be leached with fresh water from other sources.
To manage the situation, the golf course is installing a city water line to bring the fresh water directly to the greens. Planned renovations of the greens is expected to close the North Course for a period of eight months in 2011, with the South Course remaining open for business.
Admiral Baker Field was named for a Vice Admiral who served in World War II in the Pacific Fleet and who was in theatre in time for Japan’s unconditional surrender. In the early 1950s, Admiral Baker was assigned as commandant of the 11th Naval District which includes San Diego.
It seems almost ordained that a golf course named for Admiral Baker would become recognized as a sanctuary for birds and other indigenous animals. The admiral’s first name was Wilder.
Admiral Baker Field is just off Santo Road, near the junction of Mission Gorge and Friars Road in the Grantville neighborhood of San Diego. Besides the two golf courses, Admiral Baker Field offers breakfast, lunch and catered events at its Mission-style clubhouse. It also maintains an RV park, picnic area, swimming pool with elaborate water slides, children’s playground and ball fields. More information may be obtained from Rosella L. Connors, clubhouse facility manager, at (619) 487-0090, or Tom Miller, golf operations manager, at (619) 556-5520.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. This article appeared previously on examiner.com
Mural and yacht reflect bassoonist Eichenlaub’s love of music
Mural at Eichenlaub Marine, Shelter Island, San Diego
SAN DIEGO (Press Release)–A colorful mural commemorating a world-famous sailing vessel now adorns the entire side of Eichenlaub Marine on Shelter Island. “Evolution of a Yacht,” by artist Linda Churchill, was officially dedicated Friday, June 4, at Eichenlaub Marine, located at 2608 Shelter Island Drive.
The mural depicts the racing yacht “Cadenza”, designed, owned and built by Carl Eichenlaub, president of Eichenlaub Marine. “Cadenza” in music refers to an ornamental solo passage, and music is one of Eichenlaub’s passions. As an avocation, he plays the bassoon with the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra.
The 45-foot aluminum “Cadenza” has sailed in dozens of high profile races, with its owner proudly at the helm. He has won prestigious races such as the Lipton Cup and the San Francisco Big Boat Series. Just last year, at age 79, Eichenlaub sailed it in the 62nd annual Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race.
Eichenlaub, one of Shelter Island’s first tenants, has been in the boat building business since he was a teenager. His facility on Shelter Island has been a fixture since the 1950s and he is known worldwide for his skill in designing, building and sailing vessels.
Last year, Eichenlaub completed a nearly $1.2 million remodel on his Shelter Island facility. The remodel entailed refurbishing a 3,625-square foot building, changing the building’s façade and reconfiguring the shop/construction space. An additional 2,600-foot building was constructed that included shop/construction space and office space. Additionally, the existing floating docks were replaced with new docks and new electrical and water lines were installed.
As part of its lease with the Port of San Diego, the Eichenlaub redevelopment project was required to include a public art element. Eichenlaub and his wife Jean, who also serves as vice president of the business, commissioned Linda Churchill to paint “Evolution of a Yacht.”
Churchill began the project last summer and completed it in November 2009. The estimated cost of the artwork was $12,000.
Specializing in the trompe l’oeil technique, which involves realistic imagery to create an optical illusion of three dimensions, she has won numerous awards.
She received an Orchid Award in 1989 for her mural painted on Advance Blueprint on Midway Drive in San Diego and a 1993 Orchid for her 40′ x 250′ foot trompe l’oeil mural on the loading dock of Ace Hardware on University Avenue in San Diego. Orchid Awards are part of the annual Orchids & Onion Program, created by the San Diego Architectural Foundation. Orchids are given to projects of excellence and onions are given to those that fail to meet design standards. Churchill also received a 2009 Historic Preservation Award for a mural at the University Heights Library in San Diego.
Her other work includes a mural for international retailer Gucci at the Caesars Forum in Las Vegas and a trompe l’oeil of London’s Paddington Station on the Idar Delapara Restaurant in Mexico City.
A life-long Californian, Churchill received a Bachelor of Arts in Painting from San Diego State University. A self-described novice sailor with a grand appreciation of boat building, she worked closely with the Eichenlaubs on every step of “Evolution of a Yacht.” In 1986, she survived a hurricane onboard a motor yacht off the coast of Nicaragua. She credits this experience with launching her passion of painting seafaring vessels.
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Preceding, minus the musical additions, provided by the Port of San Diego
