4 | JULY 15 • 2021 

PURELY COMMENTARY

P

ermit me to introduce 
myself and this column.
I chose the name of 
the column as sometimes you’ll 
find me wise, and at times you 
may find me otherwise.
Since there’s 
been and are a 
couple of more 
accomplished 
and taller Irwin 
Cohens in the 
area, I’ll tell you 
about this one.
I’m Irwin J. and 
the only one that has a Detroit 
Tiger World Series ring. My 
driver’s license tells me that I’m 
80, though, I still don’t believe 
it. But it’s an advantage as I 
lived through and experienced 
more historical chapters in my 
life than most of you.
I was born in the 12th Street 
area and lived in the Dexter 
and Northwest neighbor-
hoods before moving to Oak 
Park over a half-century ago. 
I started nursery school in 
1945 when the Yeshiva Beth 
Yehudah opened as a Day 
School at Dexter and Cortland. 
I quickly became an outstand-
ing student — every time class 
started, I was out standing 
somewhere.
I was only 7 in May 1948 but 
vividly remember the Yeshiva 
busing us to the Central High 
School grounds on Linwood 
and being part of the more 
than 20,000 celebrating the 
State of Israel’s rebirth. The 
older boys were dancing and 
singing amidst the blowing of 
shofars while skywriters care-
fully crafted the white Star of 
David against the beautiful blue 

background of the sky.
The following year was a big 
event in the Orthodox commu-
nity as the Young Israel build-
ing on Dexter and Fullerton 
opened under the spiritual 
leadership of Rabbi Samuel 
Prero. But it was more than a 
shul. It was also a youth center 
for all stripes of Jews. There 
was a room for a junior congre-
gation, a billiard room with a 
pingpong table and a television. 
I was there with friends on 
Sunday afternoons to watch 
Hopalong Cassidy while my 
parents and their friends would 
go Tuesday night to watch the 
Milton Berle Show. A couple 
of years later, the Y.I. started a 
Boy Scout troop led by Marvin 
Engel that kept us busy on 
many a Sunday marching from 
Dexter to Linwood.
One summer Saturday night, 
we joined numerous other 
Scout troops in a place most 
of us had never been before. 
It was called Southfield. The 
grounds were vast and empty, 
no buildings anywhere, just 
our tents. There was a big 
sign nearby proclaiming that 
a big shopping center called 
Northland would be built on 
the site. Who would want to 
come here in the middle of 
nowhere to shop? we thought.

BECOMING A GROWNUP
After sharing high school 
between the Yeshiva and 
Central High School, and a 
bit of junior college, busi-
ness school and IBM school, 
I landed a job with Wayne 
County on the second floor of 
the City-County Building on 

Jefferson and Woodward. My 
desk had a great panoramic 
view of the Detroit River and 
Windsor. Around the time of 
the Kennedy assassination, 
I decided to join the Army 
Reserves before being drafted 
for two years.
I did my basic training 
in Fort Knox, Ky., where I 
became, to my surprise, a 
marksman, and the best one 
in the unit. Then it was on to 
three months in Fort Dix, N.J., 
where I was pulled out of train-
ing to be a radio relay operator 
and then a chaplain’s assistant. I 
summer-camped in exotic plac-
es like Fort Benjamin Harrison 
in Indiana and Fort Sheridan, 
Illinois.
When I finished my six-
year military service in 1969, I 
missed being ordered around 
so I got married. She was from 
Rochester, N.Y., but living on 
Manhattan’s Lower East Side 
when we met. I soon learned 
you could take the person out 
of New York, but you can’t take 
the New York out of the per-
son. It’s 52 years later, and she’s 
still my sergeant.

MY BASEBALL CAREER
In 1973, with heavenly assis-
tance, I entered the baseball 
field through a chance phone 
call to a radio host who invited 
me to be on his next program. 
That led me to other radio and 
television appearances, and 
Joe Falls to turn over some of 
his sports columns to me at 
times. After writing a bit for 
a publication Denny McLain 
was fronting for, I founded a 
national monthly baseball pub-

lication and met many of yes-
terday’s heroes and stars of the 
time. The Tigers offered me a 
front office position at the end 
of 1983, which I accepted on 
the condition that I didn’t work 
on Shabbat or Jewish holidays.
I experienced the highest 
of highs when I was awarded 
a 1984 World Series ring with 
my name on it along with a 
check for a World Series share 
(a far lesser amount than the 
players received, but more than 
I expected).
I experienced the lowest of 
lows eight years ago when our 
daughter passed away from 
cancer at the age of 41. She was 
our only child and left seven 
children, the youngest was 
only 3 at the time. You never 
get over it and have to deal 
with the reality of the situation. 
Maybe I can deal with it easier 
as I believe she was reborn into 
eternal life. 
Why do bad things happen 
to good people? For those who 
are not believers, there are no 
answers. For those who believe, 
there are no questions.
As some of you know, I 
wrote several history books on 
Detroit, its Jewish communi-
ties and the Tigers and their 
ballparks. While wintering in 
Florida, I speak to groups on 
other subjects, including the 
Roosevelts, U.S. presidents and 
the Jews, and “Jewish Stories 
You Never Heard Before.
”
Many of the aforementioned 
stories will find their way into 
this column over the course of 
time.
May your eyes always read 
Wise & Otherwise. 

Irwin J. 
Cohen

for openers

Wise & Otherwise: Getting to Know Me 
SA

