THE JEWISH NEWS-19
Friday, April 6, 1951

Our Diamond Aces

Jewish Ball Players Have History
Dating to 1900—and Johnny Kling

By HAROLD U. RIBALOW

Copyright 1951. American Jewish Press.
All Rights Reserved

Basketball, which has fallen
upon unfortunate times, used to
be called "the Jewish game,"
mainly because a decade or two
ago most of the finest teams had
at least two Jewish hoop stars.
One reason for the large num-
bers of great Jewish basketball
stars has been that basketball
has been a big-city game, and
Jews generally live in the big
cities.
Baseball, on the other hand,
the "national game" is an out-
door sport, best learned on farms,
in small towns and not on city
streets. Jews, therefore, have
boasted far fewer than 100 Jew-
ish major leaguers in more than
100 years of the sport. For each
Jewish baseball star there have
been literally dozens of hoop
headliners. ••
Talk in the press the past few
seasons has highlighted not the
Jew but the Negro in baseball,
and Jackie Robinson has been
played up as the pioneer who
has eased the basepaths for his
fellow colored compatriots. But
it is generally overlooked that
at the turn of the century, the
Jew represented the "peculiar
minority."
The first of the real Jewish
pioneers was Johnny Kling, and
he was, according to Grantland
Rice and the venerable Connie
Mack, one of the three to five
greatest catchers in the history
of the game.
Kling, whose real name was
Kline (and for a while he played
under that name) played in a
tough era, the period of Tinkers-
to-Evers-to-Chance, when the
game was not yet out of its era
of snarling, when women were
not seen at games, when Babe
Ruth had not yet made baseball
into a great national sport.
Kling was a great catcher
with the Cubs and he played in
the major leagues from 1901
through 1913, mostly with the
Cubs. He was mocked and pun-
ished because he was a Jew, but
he fought back the only way
anyone fought back in those
days: with a snarling tongue
and ringing basehits, which en-
veloped his brilliant receiving.
Not yet a Hall of Famer, Kling
belongs there and may still get
in.
That Benny Kauff, who led the
Federal League in batting two
years running and was a favor-
ite player of the great John
McGraw, and that Erskine
Mayer, Phillie pitcher, who led
the club to its only flag until
last year, were outstanding Jew-
ish players in an era now long
gone by, is far less important
than the career of Andy Cohen
who deserves a chapter to him-
self in the history of the Jew in
baseball.
Cohen, a wonderful athlete, a
•

-

four-letter man from the Uni-
versity of Alabama, came up to
the major leagues with more
noise, than Jackie Robinson. He
had hit well in Buffalo and was
brought up by John McGraw to
replace the great Rogers Horn-
by. McGraw always looked for
a Jewish star, thinking that such
a player would bring great
crowds of Jewish fans to the
Polo gibunds.
Cohen was, he thought for a
while, the best of the Jewish
players. Cohen had, it seemed
unnecessary to stress—a Jewish
name. He had the long, promi-
nent nose associated with Jews
and he was featured and dis-
cussed in the Literary Digest in
1928.
He came up, without any fur-
ther ado, as a Jewish player. The
average American refused to
believe that a Cohen could play
the game at which Protestant
Anglo-Saxon Southerners were
so skilled. In his first year Co-
hen hit about .280 and for a
while was a sensation. His sec-
ond year he batted even better
but he proved to be slow on his
feet and was shipped to the
minors.
The American baseball scene,
was made conscious of the Jew-
ish player when Cohen starred
in the game. His success, even
if temporary, encouraged others.
A flock of Jewish athletes tried
to make the grade and had small
success. Some of them were
Johnny Reese, Izzy Goldstein, Al
Cohen, Fred Sington (also an
All-American football player),
Milt Galazter, who skyrocketed
and opened the road for future
Hank Greenbergs and Sid Gor-
dons, while Johnny Kling who
made the grade at the turn of
the century, is recalled as the
finest Jewish player of the
buggy era, and one who ranks
with the best of the television
age as well.

Grateful Friends Honor
Swede on 75th Birthday
For Saving Refugees

STOCKHOLM, (JTA) — More
than 1;000 messages of congrat-
ulations, including one from
Winston Churchill, were re-
ceived by Julius Huettner, a
Swedish clockLaker in Goeter-
borg, who is credited with
having saved 36,000 Jews and
others from Nazi hands, helping
many of them to escape from
German concentration camps to
Sweden. The congratulatory
messages, which came from per-
sons in 20 countries, were sent
to Huettner on the occasion of
his 70th birthday.
Many of the Jews whom he
rescued are now in the United
States and Israel. When they
reached Sweden from Germany
he sheltered some of them in
his home and helped provide
Them with food and clothing.
He also succeeded in interesting
Swedish businessmen in aiding
the refugees. Many of the people
whom he helped and who subse-
quently remained in Sweden,
came to Goeterborg to congratu-
late him. The city celebrated
his birthday with -special cere-
monies.

Sharett Hails ZOA's
$100,000,000 Bond Drive

NEW YORK—Moshe Sharett,
Israel's Foreign Minister, in a
cable to Benjamin G. Browdy,
president of the Zionist Organ-
ization of America, hailed the
action of the ZOA in launching
its drive for the sale of $100,-
000,000 in bonds as part of the
over-all Bond drive for $500,000,-
—AJP Photo
000 which will be conducted in
A rare photo, one of the this country by the American
few remaining, of the first Financial and Development Cor-
great Jewish ball player shows poration for Israel beginning in
May.
1OHNNY KLING at bat.

SINCERELY REGRET OUR INABILITY TO
TAKE FURTHER ORDERS FOR PASSOVER
PARCELS. SUPPLY IN OUR ISRAEL
WAREHOUSES PRESENTLY EXHAUSTED.
PASSOVER SALES EXCEEDED OUR ESTIMATES.
YEAR-`ROUND KOSHER PARCELS STILL AVAILABLE.
Jules Doneson, Agent

SERVICE FOR ISRAEL
1031 PENOBSCOT BLDG.

Auto ealers Aid Campaign

Cancel Credits to
Iraq, Celler Urges

WASHINGTON, (JTA)—Chair-
man Emmanuel Celler of the
House Judiciary Committee has
asked Secretary of State Dean
Acheson to cut off financial aid
to Iraq because of the barbarism
against Jews in that country.
Rep. Celler pointed out that
the U. S. Export-Import Bank
has allocated credits to Iraq in
the amount of $12,000,000 and
suggested that, if this credit has
not been completely drawn, any
balance should be cancelled. He
said the annulment of the anti-
Jewish decree should be the pre-
requisite for the resumption of
American financial aid to Iraq.

To expedite assignments in the auto sales section of the
Allied Jewish Campaign, workers met at the home of their chair-
man, Jerry Bielfieki. Checking prospect slips in this picture are,
from the left, Bud Bielfield, Herbert Kessler, Gil Michz1 and Jack
Prince.

Anti-Zionist Council
To Meet April 13-15

$1,500,000 Israel Aid Bill
Faces Fight in Congress

NEW YORK—The seventh an-
nual conference of the American
Council for Judaism will be held
at Drake Hotel, Chicago, April
13-15. The speaker will be Dor-
othy Thompso n. Address:
"Where We Stand Today."
Lessing J. Rosenwald, presi-
dent of the Council, who will
deliver the keynote address at
the conference, said: "Confer-
ence will deal with the pro-
grams of 'Jewish' nationalism,
analyzing the claims that Jews
are 'one people'; that Israel is
the 'Jewish State'; that Jews
should carry on separatist polit-
ical activities in the United
States as Jews; that secular
Modern Hebrew should become
the second language of Ameri-
can Jews; that Jews in America
should adopt Israeli customs and
folkways; and that Judaism
should be shrunk back to the
level of tribalism."

WASHINGTON, D. C., (AJP)—
The consensus of opinion in the
nation's capitol is that the $150,-
000,000 grant-in-aid bill for Is-
N
rael faces a tough fight in the
AEL
House and Senate and may be ( - 5
stymied in the rules committees NAVIGATION
for a considerable period of
time before reaching the floors COMPANY • LTD
weekly sailings
of both sections of Congress for
from Marseilles, France and Italian ports
a final vote.
to Israel
The bill has bi-partisan sup-
ONE WAY $84 and up
port, but some Republican mem-
20 and up
bers of Congress are in a delern- ROUND TRIP $151.
travel agent Sr the
ma because Republicans have consult your
_general agents,
strongly opposed a $190 million
AMERICAN -"ISRAELI SHIPPING CO., INC.
grant-in-aid to India—a bill
27 William Street. NY 5 Dlgby 4-7600
which is still being argued in
committee.

Some of the politicians who
ran for office are still limping.

STORM
SASH

Get these
pre-Passover
household aids
to save time,
work, strength,
and money!

11111111111111111I

* * * * * * *

TRAVEL
TO
ISRAEL
IN
ISRAEL
SHIPS

PASSOVER
CLEANING

by

ROKEACH*

*R.

ALUMINUM OR WOOD
Kaufmann Dealer

WRIGHT'S
HOME EQUIPMENT
14104 FENKELL

YE. 8-9034

*ROKEACH SOAP ... for dishes, glassware, arid aluminum ware
*ROKEACH SCOURING POWDER .... for ail hotiseho!d tasks
*ROKO . .- ._for tile, porcelain, enamel
IF -IT'S" R -OK.EACHHIT - 'S KOSHER

BIG Screen Value! Easy Terms!

New 1951 Model

'25995

Pay $3 Weekly

Big 17-inch
Camera Vie
Picture

Minimum Down Payment

No need to look twice" to

find television's best buy—

here it is. Get life-size pic-

tures just as the TV camera

sees them. 2

trols

—

simple con-

just turn set on—

select your

station—that's

all. Has built-in antenna.

FREE PARKING
rear of the store while
purchasing!

F1NSTERWALD CO.

219 Michigan Ave.

OPPOSITE BOOK-CADILLAC HOTEL

1

