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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