books
Batter Up
The Jewish Baseball Card Book
has hit shelves, just in time for
the start of baseball season.
ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
RIGHT: Moe
Savransky, now 88,
is the oldest liv-
ing Jewish former
Major Leaguer —
he played for the
Cincinnati Redlegs
in 1954.
BELOW: Former
Detroit Tiger
Ian Kinsler.
I
f you think Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg are
among just a handful of baseball players who are
Jewish, you might want to think again. According to
The Jewish Baseball Card Book (Jewish Major Leaguers,
Inc., Newton, Mass.) by Bob Wechsler with Peter
McDonald and Martin Abramowitz, there are some 169
Jews who have played in at least one major league game
from 1871-2016. In this new, lavishly illustrated and
researched coffee-table book, the authors
tell the history of the Jewish Major League
through the history of baseball cards, with
images of each player seen on various cards.
Putting the book together was the idea of
Abramowitz, an avid collector of baseball
cards. “Baseball cards have been around
since the mid-1880s and Jewish players
appear in almost every set of baseball
cards ever made,” says Abramowitz, who
is a retired Jewish community executive
in Boston and head of the Jewish Major
Leaguers, a nonprofit organization. “I had
done two programs about Jewish baseball
players at the Hall of Fame, and I met Bob
Wechsler, a sports writer/editor who had
an extensive collection of original baseball
cards — plus he wrote the book Day by
Day in Jewish Sports History (2007). When
I thought about putting a book together, I
called him and he loved the idea. We both
felt that baseball cards are a wonderful icon
of American culture.”
There was a lot of research in the late 1990s about
which baseball players were Jewish, but not all the
Jewish players had cards.
“Forty of the Jewish players didn’t have a card. During
World War II, there was a stoppage of printing baseball
cards, and the same for World War I,” Abramowitz
explains. “And if you go back to the 1920s and ’30s, not
everyone had a card — and many players had brief
careers. So, finding photos of these 40 players was a
major achievement.”
In the book, the criteria for determining which play-
ers are Jewish is they have at least one Jewish parent,
do not practice another faith and identify as being
Jewish. “Interestingly, in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, virtu-
ally every Jewish player had two Jewish parents. But by
the 1990s and 2000s, most had only one Jewish parent,”
Abramowitz notes.
About 98 percent of the cards shown in the book are
owned by Wechsler, in his personal collection. “There’s a
fairly large community of Jewish collectors, and we’re in
touch with each other on message boards, so if I needed
a certain image, someone was able to send it to me,” says
Wechsler, who started collecting cards when he was a
sports writer. He had been sent a sample pack of Pacific
Trading Cards and discovered that two of the players
were Jewish, and thought it would be fun to start collect-
ing cards of every known Jewish player.
The most difficult card to acquire, says Wechsler, was
Morrie Arnovich’s 1939 Father & Son card. “It’s a regional
issue from a Philadelphia area shoe store featuring
Phillies and Athletics players,” he says.
What are the rarest cards of Jewish players? “Cal
Abrams 1955 Esskay Franks regional issue from
Baltimore, and Herb Karpel’s 1949 Hage’s Dairy card from
the old Pacific Coast League,” Wechsler says. “A Hank
Greenberg 1934 Al Demaree Die-Cut card was found in a
Chicago warehouse recently, and it may be the only copy.
In addition, I only know of one copy of Barney Pelty’s 1912
Pirate Cigarettes card, which looks identical to his 1911
tobacco card except for his team name and a different
advertisement on the back.”
The Jewish Baseball Card Book is filled with a wealth
of information on Jewish baseball history, such as the
first Jewish baseball player to appear on a card (pitcher
Barney Petty in 1909), and Al Rosen, unanimously named
the American League MVP in 1953.
For sure, there is an ethnic pride that Jews have about
Jewish baseball players. “I think every minority group
feels pride in its athletic accomplishments,” Wechsler
says. “We are in the golden age of Jewish baseball players,
with more than a dozen players in the majors in each of
the last three years. Two Jewish players — Alex Bregman
of the Astros and Joc Pederson of the Dodgers — had out-
standing World Series performances this year.”
Wechsler hopes that people will learn that there are
more Jewish players than just Hank Greenberg and
Sandy Koufax. “With the book’s chronological format
rather than alphabetical, readers can find out what
eras had the most active Jewish players. In the mean-
time, the images of their baseball cards bring the game
and players to life.” •
JEWISH TIGERS
T
These
are some Jewish Detroit Tiger baseball players and managers:
Brad Ausmus, who was just relieved of his managerial duties in Detroit,
B
a also was a player for the Tigers in 1996 and again in 1999-2000. Jose
Bautista (1990s pitcher, not the current player); Lou Brower (1931);
B
Dick Conger, Harry Eisenstat (1938-’39); Al Federoff, Murray Franklin,
Joe Ginsberg (catcher 1948, 1950-’53, died in West Bloomfield in
2012); Izzy Goldstein (1932); Hank Greenberg (1930, 1934-’41,
1945-’46); Harry Kane, new Phillies manager Gabe Kapler (1998-’99);
Ian Kinsler (2014-’16); Alan Koch, Al Levine (2004); Elliot Maddox,
Dave Roberts, Saul Rogovin (1949-’51); Dick Sharon (outfield 1973-’74);
Larry Sherry and Steve Wapnick.
jn
April 12 • 2018
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