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Pregame Pepper
Did you know ...
The late Tommy Lasorda threw lefthanded but signed autographs righthanded . . .
Two-time MVP Dale Murphy batted and threw righthanded but signed lefthanded . . .
Although Lasorda’s No. 2 has been retired by the Dodgers, he wore No. 52 when Walter Alston named him the team’s third-base coach in 1993 . . .
Lasorda spent 71 years in the Dodger organization, beginning in Brooklyn.
Leading Off
Hoyt Wilhelm Loved The Game For More Than 50 Years
By Brett Honeycutt
For The Love of the Game isn’t just the name of a feel-good baseball movie, it’s how Hoyt Wilhelm felt about the game.
When Lou Gehrig’s 1939 Yankee Stadium speech is recalled each year and the line, “I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth,” is read, it not only conjured up good feelings about Gehrig but also describes how Wilhelm felt.
Over a course of 57 years, from his time at Cornelius High School and Davidson American Legion Post 86 until his retirement in 1995, after serving as pitching coach for the Gulf Coast League Sarasota Yankees, Wilhelm epitomized a love and appreciation for the game that was ever-present despite cultural differences and generation gaps.
The Great Depression, WWII, Cold War, Space Race and major cultural shifts during his playing days didn’t seem to discourage or blind Wilhelm to the fact that he was just playing a game that kids enjoy, and he was thankful for the simplicity.
“My husband always thought it was the greatest thing in the world that he could make a living at doing what he loved best – playing baseball,” Hoyt’s wife Peggy told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune a day after her husband died on Aug. 23, 2002.
The accomplishments were plenty for Wilhelm to have an ego (early and later in his career): pitching a no-hitter at Cornelius High (1941); being named an all-star on a military team and winning a league title (1944); earning all-star status in the minors (with Mooresville in 1946 and Havana in 1950-51); hitting a home run in his first major league at-bat (1952); winning a World Series to defeat the vaunted, 111-game winning Cleveland Indians (1954); pitching a no-hitter against the Yankees (1958); becoming the first modern player to win ERA titles in both leagues (1952, 1959); being named a major-league all-star five times over a span of 17 years (1953-1970); breaking Cy Young’s record for games pitched (1968); becoming the first player to pitch in 1,000 games (1970); winning six league titles (in the minors and majors); and being elected to at least nine Halls of Fame (beginning in 1968 to 2016, including the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, Baseball Hall of Fame and various team and minor-league Halls of Fame).
His love was seen when he helped a competitor in White Sox teammate Wilbur Wood, whose career he resurrected in 1967, and when Wilhelm tutored a young knuckleballer named Charlie Hough with the Class-AAA Spokane Indians (1971) while Wilhelm himself was trying to find his way back to the majors (which he did).
It was also seen when he was managing players at the lowest levels of the minors, in places like the Class-A Greenwood Braves (1973), his first managerial job, or rookie- league Kingsport Braves (1974) when he coached Dale Murphy, or even the rookie- league Sarasota Yankees, where he was Mariano Rivera first professional pitching coach.
“I’m really enjoying managing,” Wilhelm told the UPI writer David Moffit in 1973 during his stint with Greenwood. “It sort of takes the sting out of not playing anymore. I’ve got to admit I miss not playing, after all, I pitched for such a long time.
“But, at least here I’m still in baseball and that means a lot. I’ve got a lot of fine pitching prospects here at Greenwood and I’m getting a lot of satisfaction out of seeing them develop. I want to stay in baseball as long as I can.”
He accomplished that, but only because no stage seemed too small for Wilhelm.
That was instilled by his father, a tenant farmer who worked on several cotton and corn farms.
“Hoyt never had trouble getting out of the chores if there was a game to be played,” Hoyt’s younger brother, Cooper, told Steve O’Neill with the New York Daily News in 1959. “Dad always believed that if Hoyt wanted to play ball he should have the chance.”
He had that chance for more than half-a-century when his home-away-from-home ranged from dusty high school fields and thrown-together military fields to old, wooden minor-league stadiums as well as beautiful minor-league stadiums like Nicollet Park in Minneapolis and the Gran Estadio de La Habana in Havana.
Whether he was based at magnificent major-league cathedrals or the chain-linked fences of rookie ball, he always loved the game.
He played for nine different teams during a pitching career that began in 1952. Hoyt Wilhelm was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985.
Brett Honeycutt has spent 25 years in journalism. He began as a freelance writer for seven years, then joined a daily newspaper staff for 10 years before managing a national magazine for nearly nine years. Freelancing again, his various projects include directing a high school hall of fame and coaching high school track and cross-country. He also runs a Hoyt Wilhelm Fan Page on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/wilhelm_hoy. Brett’s e.mail address is brettrhoneycutt@hotmail.com.
Cleaning Up
Tiny Minority Of Jewish Stars Made Memorable Contributions To Baseball
By Dan Schlossberg
The movie 42, about Jackie Robinson’s rise to prominence as a racial pioneer, missed a major point of fact that occurred during his rookie season in 1947.
When Robinson reached first base during an early-season game between his Brooklyn Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates, he encountered Hank Greenberg, then playing his final big-league season.
“I went through the same thing,” said Greenberg, the target of loud-mouthed bigots well aware that the big first baseman was Jewish. “Don’t let them get to you. I can help you.”
Unlike the legend of double-play partner Pee Wee Reese placing his arm around Robinson’s shoulders, the Greenberg story is not apocryphal. Yet it was unwittingly – or perhaps conveniently – left out of a powerful film about racist attitudes.
Greenberg, the first significant star of the Jewish faith, was a huge man with bulging muscles and a mighty swing. He once went into the clubhouse at Yankee Stadium after a game, challenging opposing players who had heckled him unmercifully during a game. Nobody moved a muscle – or hurled epithets again.
Greenberg also gained respect when he famously demurred from a Detroit game that occurred during the 1934 World Series because it coincided with Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement and the holiest day on the Hebrew calendar. Nearly 30 years later, when Sandy Koufax also opted out on Yom Kippur, replacement Don Drysdale pitched poorly. Dodgers manager Walter Alston came to lift him, causing Drysdale to quip, “I bet you wish I were Jewish too.”
Greenberg, Koufax, and baseball commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig are the only Jews in the gallery of the Baseball Hall of Fame, though the Jewish Major Leaguers card set also includes Lou Boudreau, whose family background is unverified.
It’s not surprising the numbers are so low: less than 2 percent of the U.S. population is Jewish and an even smaller percentage have enjoyed careers in Major League Baseball.
What is surprising is how well the Jewish players have fared.
Greenberg won two MVP awards, Koufax won three Cy Young awards, and Shawn Green had a record 19 total bases in one game (four home runs, a double, and a single). In recent weeks, former players Craig Breslow (Cubs) and Sam Fuld (Phillies) became key front-office executives. And Steve Cohen, never a player but always a fan, bought the New York Mets from fellow Jews Fred and Jeff Wilpon, a father-and-son tandem.
Should the Atlanta Braves sign free-agent outfielders Ryan Braun and Joc Pederson, they would have three Jews on their roster. Max Fried, their best left-handed starter, once idolized Koufax and tried to copy his curveball.
Braun, who has an MVP award in his resume, has spent his entire career with the Milwaukee Brewers, while Pederson, a left-handed slugger, was most recently with the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. One of his opponents in the 2020 Fall Classic was also Jewish: Tampa Bay pitcher Ryan Sherriff.
One of the best Jewish players active today is Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, MVP of the 2018 All-Star Game in Washington, while Colorado outfielder Kevin Pillar is a rising star. So is pitcher Dean Kremer, who beat the Yankees for the Orioles in his first start last year. He’s the first native Israeli to reach the majors.
During the single season (2007) that the Israel Baseball League existed, three of the six team managers were former big-leaguers Ron Blomberg, Art Shamsky, and Ken Holtzman. The teams shared three ballparks, none in pristine condition, but American ex-pats living there loved it.
Blomberg, whose Blue Sox won the pennant, was the first designated hitter on April 6, 1973, but never lived up to his billing as “the Jewish Mickey Mantle.” He did become great friends with Shamsky, a hero of the 1969 Miracle Mets, while Holtzman won 174, more than any Jewish pitcher (Koufax had 165).
Jason Marquis, with 121, ranks third on the list, just ahead of Steve Stone, who bundled 25 of his 107 wins into a Cy Young Award season in the American League.
Marquis was one of the original players on Team Israel, a team that just missed a berth in the 2013 World Baseball Classic but a smashing success four years later. Originally compared to the Jamaican bobsled team of Cool Runnings fame, Team Israel was an all-Jewish squad loaded with former minor-leaguers and led at one time by Dartmouth grad Brad Ausmus, a former catcher who managed the Tigers and Angels. The only active Jewish pilots today are Gabe Kapler (Giants) and Bob Melvin (Athletics).
One of six national teams that qualified to compete in the next Summer Olympics, Team Israel was profiled in the enthralling 2018 documentary Heading Home: the Tale of Team Israel. Among other things, it portrayed the best mascot in baseball history: Mensch on the Bench.
Other recent celluloid depictions of Jewish baseball include Aviva Kempner’s The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg and Moe Berg: Spy Behind The Plate. A Hollywood version of Berg’s life was called The Catcher Was a Spy.
No story about Jewish contributions to baseball would be complete without mention of the Sherry brothers, or infielders Al Rosen, Mike Epstein, Ian Kinsler, and Kevin Youkilis.
Larry Sherry, a closer called to the majors in 1959, pitched the Dodgers to a world championship, winning two and saving two against the White Sox in the World Series. Rosen helped the Cleveland Indians win the 1948 World Series, then won American League MVP honors five years later by unanimous vote.
Youkilis won two rings while playing the infield corners for the Boston Red Sox, where his heritage was often mistaken, leading to his “Greek God of Walks” nickname. There was no mistaking Epstein, however; he called himself “Super Jew.”
Kinsler, a four-time All-Star, was an accomplished second baseman for several clubs who also played for Team Israel.
And let’s not forget Danny Valencia and Ty Kelly, major-leaguers who moved to Israel in 2019 to help Team Israel in its successful bid to qualify for the Olympics.
Baseball even had Jewish umpires. Al Clark, a big-league ump from 1976-2001, was the first and only Jewish umpire hired by the American League and also the first to wear glasses on a regular basis. Dolly Stark, Al Foreman and Stan Landis were Jewish umps in the National League.
HERE’S THE PITCH Weekend Editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ ate 43 little hot-dogs at his bar mitzvah in 1961. He served as ghostwriter for Blomberg’s Designated Hebrew and penned 37 other baseball books. Dan is a national baseball writer for forbes.com, a columnist for Ball Nine, a contributor to Sports Collectors Digest, and senior writer for Latino Sports. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
Get-well wishes to Tommy John, who not only had that famous elbow surgery but more recently was hospitalized with Covid-19 . . .
A Mickey Lolich autograph in a Detroit museum reads “Fat guys have idols too.” . . .
Yogi Berra wore No. 35 as a rookie . . .
Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, and Warren Spahn were teammates with the San Francisco Giants in 1965.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Brian Harl [bchrom831@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.