SPORTS

Recallin
An An

Harry Eisenstat pitched
some of his best baseball
with the prelforld War II
Detroit Tigers.

CHUCK HERSHBERGER

Special to The Jewish News

Eisenstat has lived
and worked in the
Cleveland area since
the Tigers traded
him.

eft-handed pitcher Har-
ry Eisenstat never com-
piled overwhelming
statistics in his eight years in
the big leagues, including
Detroit, but he participated in
some memorable moments.
Born in Brooklyn in 1915,
he caught the eye of scout Al
Lopez when he pitched a no-
hitter for James Madison
High School.
Eisenstat signed with the
Brooklyn Dodgers in 1934 and
was brought up briefly in 1935
under manager Casey
Stengel.
"He was a great manager
and a sound baseball man,"
Eisenstat recalls. "Casey was
very knowledgeable and had
quite a sense of humor. I was
a young kid on the Dodgers
and we had lost nine straight
games. A lot of the fellows on
the club were playing the
stock market and would run
into the clubhouse to see
where the market closed.
"Casey called a team
meeting and said, 'I have a
good tip for all you ball
players. I would advise you all
to buy Pennsylvania Railroad

Chuck Hershberger, of
Pleasant Ridge, claims to
represent the "Sports Hall of
Oblivion" as writer, publicist,
broadcaster, sports historian
and Captain Extinct.

Harry Eisenstat as a
Tiger in 1939.

because you're all riding
trains out of here tomorrow.' "
Burleigh Grimes succeeded
Stengel as Dodgers manager
in 1937. Eisenstat felt Grimes
was impatient with young
players and was not a teacher.
He remembers Van Ling
Mungo as a great pitcher, who
had a heck of a kick and could
throw the ball hard.
Eisenstat described his own
pitching style: "I was a control
pitcher with a good curve and
screw ball. I could throw the
ball where I wanted to?'
Eisenstat was 1-2 with the
Dodgers in 1936, appearing in
only 14 innings. As a spot
starter and reliever in 1937,
he pitched in 47 innings and
compiled a 3-3 record and 3.97
earned run average.
In 1938, Eisenstat was
declared a free agent by Corn-
missioner Landis. Hank
Greenberg recommended he
sign with the Tigers as they
needed left-handed pitching.
Eisenstat remembers his
first game in the American
League: "Mickey Cochrane
was the manager and in my
mind he was the greatest. We
were playing the Yankees at
-Yankee Stadium. I was
brought in to relieve Tommy
Bridges. The score was 1-0 in
the ninth inning.
"The next three batters
were Joe DiMaggio, Bill
Dickey and Lou Gehrig, all
future Hall of Famers. If I
could have run away some

place to hide, I would have.
Luckily, DiMaggio hit a long
fly ball for one out. got out
of the inning allowing no runs
and won the game."
Eisenstat considers the
Tigers' Charlie Gehringer to
be one of the greatest players
he ever saw. He said, "It was
great for a pitcher having him
back of you. He was like a vac-
cuum cleaner at second base.
He had that anticipation. He
just knew a fraction of a se-
cond before the ball was hit?'
Hank Greenberg was a good
friend of Eisenstat. He recall-
ed him as "a great individual.
He was a very humble man
who helped a lot of people that
no one ever knew about. He
helped many old-time ball
players. Hank was the type of
person who would do a lot of
little things for others. He
would be delighted about his
son, Stephen, who is the pre-
sent Deputy Commissioner of
Major League Baseball."
In 1939, Eisenstat won two
games of a double header for
the Tigers against the
Philadelphia Athletics. He
relieved in both games, five in-
nings in the first game and
four in the second. And
Greenberg hit three home
runs in the doubleheader.
On Oct. 2, 1938, Eisenstat
and the Tigers played
Cleveland. Bob Feller struck
out 18 batters, but Eisenstat
and the Tigers won 4-1.
On June 14, 1939, Eisenstat

was traded to the Cleveland
Indians for future Hall of
Famer Earl Averill.
"I was hurt at the time,"
Eisenstat recalls. There were
internal problems. Manager
Ossie Vitt belittled the ball
players in front of the media.
We felt we could win it if they
made some changes.
"We had a good team but we
blew the pennant that year.
People were shocked. when
Detroit beat us. In 1941 we
were basically the same team
but we weren't aggressive
enough." -
Eisenstat pitched some of
his best baseball with Detroit.
In 1938, he was 9-6, with a
3.73 ERA in 125 innings. In
1939, his combined record for
Detroit and Cleveland was 8-9,
with a 4.12 ERA and 133 inn-
ings pitched.
For his major league career,
he finished with 25 wins, 27
losses, a 3.84 ERA and 478 in-
nings pitched in 165 games.
Eisenstat's last season was
1942. He went into the Army
Air Corps as an officer, serv-
ing in the Pacific. After the
war, he went into the hard-
ware business in Cleveland,
running a successful store for
20 years.
He then joined Curtis In-
dustries in Cleveland as a vice
president of national accounts.
Although cutting back his
work load, Eisenstat at 75 is
still associated with Curtis In-
dustries. ❑

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

49