26 March 7 • 2019
jn

Greenberg 
Will Always 
Be No. 1
for Jewish 
Baseball Fans

T

he unthinkable will happen 
sometime this year.
Ryan Braun will replace Hank 
Greenberg at the top of the list of career 
home runs hit by Jewish major league 
baseball players.
Braun, 35, an outfielder for the 
Milwaukee Brewers, needs just 10 hom-
ers to surpass Greenberg’
s total of 331.
Greenberg remains an icon among 
Jewish baseball fans, especially in 
Detroit, long after he retired from the 
game in 1947 and died in 1986 at age 
75, because of the way he embraced his 
religion and lived his life.
He played for the Detroit Tigers for 
12 seasons. He missed nearly four sea-
sons with Detroit at the prime of his 
career in the 1940s to serve in the mili-
tary during World War II.
In 1934, while the Tigers were in 
the heat of a pennant race, he sat out a 
game against the New York Yankees to 
observe Yom Kippur.
One of the Detroit area’
s annu-
al fundraising events — the Hank 
Greenberg Golf and Tennis Invitational 
presented by the Michigan Jewish 
Sports Foundation — honors the man 
known as “The Hebrew Hammer.
”
Braun’
s statistics are impressive. 
But he’
ll also go down in baseball 
history as a player suspended for 
65 games in 2013 for using perfor-
mance-enhancing drugs.
For those who love statistics and 
Greenberg, Bob Matthews has some 
good news for you.
“I’
m not really a numbers guy, but I 
have some statistics that make me think 
Ryan Braun’
s career home run total 
should have an asterisk next to it,
” said 
Matthews, whose “Jewish Heroes and 
Other Legends” sports memorabilia 
exhibit is a permanent display at the 
Jewish Community Center in West 
Bloomfield.

In addition to Braun’
s PED suspen-
sion, Matthews said, consider these 
numbers:
Greenberg hit his 331 home runs in 
5,193 at-bats, an average of one home 
run every 15.6 at-bats. Braun has 322 
home runs in 6,034 at-bats, an average 
of one home run every 18.8 at-bats.
“Runs batted in are even more tell-
ing,
” Matthews said.
Greenberg has 221 more RBIs than 
Braun (1,274 to 1,053) in 841 fewer 
at-bats. 
“Home runs are flashy, but RBIs 
mean more to a team,
” Matthews said.
Aside from statistics, Matthews con-
siders Greenberg a better role model 
for Jewish baseball fans than Braun.
“Greenberg was a man of integrity 
and character whose qualities are the 
core qualities of the Jewish religion,
” 
he said. “Braun is a darn good baseball 
player who just happens to be Jewish.
“Braun’
s home run number may 
exceed Greenberg’
s someday, but he 
won’
t exceed Hank in character and for 
being a good human being.
”
Braun’
s father, Joe, who is Jewish, 
was born in Israel and came to the U.S. 
when he was 7. Braun’
s mother Diana 
is Catholic.
In a 2010 story in USA Today, Braun 
said he considers himself Jewish and 
is proud to be a role model for Jewish 
youth, but he didn’
t have a bar mitzvah 
and doesn’
t observe Jewish holidays.
According to a 2007 story in the 
Jewish Standard, Braun lived for a while 
with his maternal grandmother in a 
home that previously was owned by 
Greenberg, of all people.
Braun was inducted in 2010 into the 
Southern California Jewish Sports Hall 
of Fame. ■

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STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Hank Greenberg in 1937

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