I still didn't know how to approach him, but he
turned and asked me the correct time.
"Then we began talking. He didn't recall
the incident in my bedroom, but we had a
delightful conversation all the way from Miami
to Cleveland. He really was very special."
Irwin Toby Holtzman also had a child-
hood encounter with Greenberg.
"When I was growing up — 6, 7, 8 years
old
Greenberg and my father, Joseph
Holtzman, would play handball in Miami
Beach, where Greenberg would come every win-
ter and work out before spring training. I
watched them and remember Hank taking me
on his shoulders.
"Every opening day, my dad would send
him a congratulatory telegram, and one after-
noon, Hank arranged two seats for us near the
dugout. During-one inning, when the Tigers
were at the plate, my father lifted me up, and
Hank put me in the dugout. I sat on the bench
during the game.
"He passed a ball around, and a lot of the
players signed their names. Then, he lifted me
up and handed me back to my dad. I don't
know anybody else that he put in the dugout,
and I don't think I thanked him enough."
Leonard Trunsky was with a lot of kids who
caught Greenberg balls in practice sessions, and
he keeps an autographed photo in a frame.
"In the 1930s, there was an announcement
that kids could come down to Navin Field and
shag fly balls for Hank Greenberg," Trunsky
recollects. "I pleaded with my mother to take
me down and joined hundreds of other kids
running after balls.
"Afterward, Greenberg bought us pop and
popcorn, and we had a great time with him. It
was a memorable event for me."
Harvey Barnett remembers that dramatic
Yom Kippur, when Greenberg went to Shaarey
Zedek instead of the stadium. Barnett, who had
recently celebrated his bar mitzvah, really want-
ed to meet his hero and expressed that to the
rabbi.
"When the service was over, the rabbi intro-
duced us, and he was very friendly and very
nice," Barnett recalls. "My dad had taken me to
his games, and I always took my sons to open-
ing day games."
Dr. Harvey Saperstein, whose love for baseball
takes him to the Tiger fantasy camp every summer,
was ,a member of the Hank Greenberg Fan Club,
wrote his hero a letter and got a response. After
Greenberg was traded to Pittsburgh, Saperstein
traveled to watch him play an d got to meet him
after the game.
"He spent 10 minutes with me, and we talked
about the letter," says Saperstein, who has enjoyed
the camp experience with his three sons, Guy,
Greg and Glenn."
Gail Anchill's dad, Charles Anchill, liked to talk
about the day he spent with the baseball legend at
Fort Custer in Battle Creek.
"The day before Greenberg was shipped over-
seas to serve in the military, my father was chosen
to examine his teeth," Gail Anchill says. "My

.

_

bile many Detroiters

11W have special memories of

Tribute

Hank Greenberg — meeting
him, corresponding with him
or hearing their parents' sto-
ries -- former teammates also
have their own cherished rec-
ollections. Harry Eisenstat,
who pitched for the Tigers in
the '30s, is one of them.
Before joining the Tigers
and long after leaving the
game, Eisenstat counted Hank
Greenberg as a good friend.
"We came from the same
area in New York, and I knew
his family," recalls Esenstat,
84, who has made his home in
Cleveland since being traded to
the Indians in 1939. The
Tigers needed a left-handed
pitcher, and I came to Detroit
on his recommendation."
HENRY BENjA MIN GREENBERG
Eisenstat remembers a
DETROIT A.L.191) TO I 9
knowing mentor, community
PITTSBURGH N:I„:19 47
ONE OF BASEBALL'S O'REATEST RIGHT.,HANbE
role model and fun chum.
ATTEAS,TIED FOR MOST HOME RUNS By
"I was just a young kid
RIcAIT-HANDEE/ BATTER. IN IW56-56. MOST
UNS - BATTEDANI935-37-40-46,AND Home
then, and he steered me in
EONS IS3840-+6,WON I9 ,45 PENNANT QN
the right direction," Eisenstat
LAST DAY OF SEASON WITli GRAND SLAM
says. He told me how to
HOME ,R.LIN N /1`11 INN I NO. PI. AY ED IN_
WORLD SERIES t 2ALL- STAR GAMES. MOST
pitch to certain hitters, and I
VALUABLE: A< , PLAYERTWICE - 1933,1940..
always was able to do what he
LIBLIAME BATTING AVERAGIy.
said He was very strong,
In 1956, Hank Greenberg became the
knowledgeable and a student
Jewish
player to be inducted into the
of the game."
Baseball
Hall of Fame.
Eisenstat remembers visiting
young patients at Henry Ford
Hospital with Greenberg, both bringing balls to
autograph. He also recalls Greenberg introducing
him to members of the Jewish community at syna-
gogues and country clubs. Together, the pals enjoyed
dinners at Joe Muer's and Carl's Chop House. When
Eisenstat married his school sweetheart 62 years ago,
Greenberg was a wedding guest who later enjoyed

Teammate

father was a techrian. If he had found anything
wrong with his teeth, he would have referred him
to a dentist.
"After the exam, my father was chosen to escort
Greenberg around the base. He was so elated that
he took pictures and got to a pay phone as soon as
possible to tell my mother (Evelyn Anchill). Later,
my dad learned that Greenberg had sent a letter to
the head of the dental lab about how nice my
father was."
Some people who were youngsters when
Greenberg was slamming homers say they heard
Hank had a lot of blind dates in Detroit before
marrying department store heiress Cara/ Gimble,
his first wife. Although no names seem to have
been known and no woman has come forward
with a date story, there are women who remember
having crushes on this ruggedly handsome athlete.
Harriet Colman even proposed.

in

things,
remembers:,
The baseh
also saw a lot o f.
other after Green
became general man
er of the Indians and
lived in Ohio.
"He was the same
person as manager, "
says Eisenstat, who
went on to become
vice president for a
hardware manufactur-
er. "I had to travel for
work and visited Hank
at his Beverly Hills
home when I went to
California.
"I saw him just
before he died of can
in 1986. He was slip-
ping badly, and it*:** 4.,
difficult for me to see
him going dowrnhill.

;

"I was a teenager when Hank was in his prime,
and I knew where he lived and what kind of car he
drove," Colman remembers. "He was such a hunk.
I'd go to the ballpark and watch for him, and I
had a collection of articles written about him.
"During a leap year, I wrote him a letter asking
him to marry me, and he wrote back saying he
wanted to stay single for a while. Later, I saw him
at Shaarey Zedek and told him I was the one who
had written the letter proposing marriage. He, said,
`I accept.' I guess that makes me a groupie."
Sylvia Serwin remembers. writing to the baseball
legend to invite him to a seder without even
checking with her parents first.
"It was the height of the Depression, and I
must have been 11 or 12 when I wrote that letter,
which also asked for an autographed picture,"

MENTSH on page 84

3/24
2000

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