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DAVID ZEMAN STAFF WRITER
ipman Pike was the
first Jew to play
professional base-
ball when he
bounced around the big
leagues in the 1870s.
But it was not until a
young second baseman
from Alabama named
Andy Cohen caught on
briefly with the New
York Giants in the late
1920s that a player's
Jewish ancestry was ful-
ly exploited as a market-
ing tool by a professional
baseball club.
During Mr. Cohen's
short major-league ca-
reer, the so-called "Jew-
ish Hope" became an
inspiration to a genera-
tion of Jewish families
who looked to baseball to
help them assimilate into
American culture, said
Dr. Tilden Edelstein in a
Wayne State University
lecture last week titled,
"Baseball and the Jew-
ish American Dream." Hank Greenberg:
Dr. Edelstein, 64, a Had predecessors.
WSU professor and au-
Cohen would draw second-gen-
thority on Jewish athletes in pro- eration immigrant Jews to the
fessional sports, spoke to an Polo Grounds, which had been
apprediative audience of like- slowly losing customers as the
minded baseball fans, many of club's own fortunes waned and
whom shared the Brooklyn ac- as the Yankees began to pile up
cent of the lecturer. Peanuts and championships in the rival Amer-
Cracker Jack were served to au- ican League.
dience members.
Mr. Cohen added to his minor-
Dr. Edelstein spoke longing- league legend on opening day. He
ly of his affection for the game was involved in four of the five
and for his beloved Giants. He re- runs the Giants scored and
called his own adulation for Jew- helped to make the last out to
ish Hall of Famers Hank preserve a 5-2 victory.
Greenberg and Sandy Koufax.
Dr. Edelstein quoted a New
But he seemed to have a special York Times account of Mr. Co-
affection for Mr. Cohen.
hen's performance. Thousands of
Yes, there had been Jewish fans rushed the field and lifted
players before Andy Cohen. He Mr. Cohen onto their shoulders.
noted that in 1923 the Gi-
ants had called up one
Moses Solomon, hoping he
could match the home run
output of Babe Ruth, the
Sulton of Swat, of the
crosstown Yankees.
Alas, the "Rabbi of
Swat," as Solomon was
tagged, lasted precisely
two games.
Mr. Cohen, though, was
different, Dr. Edelstein
said. He had torn up mi-
nor-league pitching in
1925 and had so endeared
himself to fans in Buffalo
that they held a day in his
honor, where he was fet-
ed by the Young Men's
Hebrew Association.
The Giants hoped Mr.
: 4
^4 I i
"You might say with
truth that Andy Cohen
was sitting on top of the
world," the Times wrote.
"It was the greatest
ovation I have ever seen
given any player in all
my life," Giants manag-
er John McGraw said af-
terward.
Newspapers had a
field day and even poems
were written, most not-
ing his Jewish heritage
and Semitic features.
Some were more taste-
ful than others. One was
titled "Cohen at the Bat,"
and included the stanza:
"And from the stands
and bleachers the cry of
`0y, Oy' rose,
And up came Andy
Cohen half a foot behind
his nose ...
It was make or break
for Andy, while the fans
cried, `0y, Oy, Oy'
And it wasn't any soft
spot for a little Jewish
boy."
Small wonder, Dr.
Edelstein said, that the
handful of Cohens who preceded
Andy Cohen in the major leagues
had changed their surnames to
something less Jewish.
Only one New York scribe
balked at the sudden adulation
heaped upon young Mr. Cohen.
"Andy is forced to parade his
religion and commercialize it
whether he wants to or not,"
wrote sportswriter Paul Galli-
co. "It seems to me a difficult po-
sition for a youngster breaking
into the big leagues, or anything
else."
Unfortunately for Mr. Cohen
and his fans, his explosive debut
did not translate into a long ma-
jor-league career. Dr. Edel-
stein noted that the
Jewish second baseman
lasted only two full sea-
sons before returning to
the minors, from which he
never escaped.
Even manager Mc-
Graw, who took great
stock in Mr. Cohen's tal-
ent, grew weary when he
didn't produce. Dr. Edel-
stein said that one day, af-
ter a particularly ugly
performance by Mr. Co-
hen, Mr. McGraw escaped
to the racetrack where he
bet on a horse ridden by a
Jewish jockey. The horse
lost.
`They can't ride, either,"
1YI.r.McGralAr groused. 0