In this recent New York Times article, Howard Megdal revives the longstanding claim that anti-Semites on opposing teams tried to prevent Jewish Detroit Tigers slugger Hank Greenberg from breaking Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1938 because of anti-Semitism:
Evidence has finally been published that seems to resolve a 72-year-old mystery. When Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers made a run at Babe Ruth’s season home run record, falling two short with 58 in 1938, was he pitched around because he was Jewish? …
Some members of Greenberg’s family and legions of his fans believed that anti-Semitic pitchers had walked Greenberg often to keep him from a fair shot at Ruth, who set the record in 1927….
Greenberg received many more walks as he chased Ruth in 1938 than he did in the rest of his career. Almost no other hitter going after the home run record had anything like Greenberg’s late-season spike in bases on balls. He had 119 walks to lead the A.L., the only time he did so, and they accounted for 17.5 percent of his 681 plate appearances.
But the way pitchers handled Greenberg early in the season was clearly different than the way they approached him as Ruth’s record came into view….
Over all, Greenberg walked in 15.9 percent of his plate appearances through the end of August 1938. In September, that rate jumped to 20.4 percent. His walk rate was 14.5 percent in 1937 and 15 percent in 1939.
Megdal points out that other hitters who threatened Ruth’s 1927 record of 60 HRs did not have a higher walk rate in September than earlier in the season. He concludes that opposing teams wanted to prevent Greenberg from breaking the record in 1938 because he was Jewish.
The idea that Greenberg was a victim of anti-Semitism in this instance is not implausible. Anti-Semitism was not uncommon in 1930s America, and Greenberg was a victim of anti-Semitic slurs on many occasions. Moreover, by September 1938, the American League pennant race was over (unfortunately, the New York Yankees had run away with their third straight pennant) and opposing teams risked very little by walking Greenberg a few extra times.
Nonetheless, Megdal’s case seems weak. The difference between Greenberg walking in 20.4% of his plate appearances in September and walking in 15.9% is just a handful of walks. It could easily have happened just by random chance. The difference between 119 walks in 1938 and Greenberg’s career record in this respect is also modest. Greenberg had both power and excellent plate discipline -a combination that routinely causes high walk rates. Overall, he had three seasons with over 100 walks and four others with 80 or more. He even led the National League in walks in 1947, the last season of his career when he was well past his prime.
Jack Marshall points out several other shortcomings in Megdal’s statistical analysis here. The bottom line is that Greenberg’s walk rate in 1938 could easily have been accounted for by a combination of random chance and his inherent attributes as a hitter.
It’s also worth noting Greenberg’s own comments on this issue in Lawrence Ritter’s classic book The Glory of their Times (pg. 317):
Some people still have it fixed in their minds that the reason I didn’t break Ruth’s record was [that], because I was Jewish, the ballplayers did everything they could to stop me. That’s pure baloney. The fact of the matter is quite the opposite: so far as I could tell, the players were mostly rooting for me, aside from the pitchers. I remember one game Bill Dickey was catching for the Yankees, he was even telling me what was coming up. The reason I didn’t hit 60 or 61 homers is because I ran out of gas; it had nothing to do with being Jewish.
The American League was a relatively small world in 1938 (there were only eight teams). If opposing players were systematically trying to prevent Greenberg from breaking the record out of anti-Semitic motives, it seems likely that he would have heard about it.
Megdal dismisses Greenberg’s statements on the grounds that it would have been “out of character” for him to blame his failure to break the record on others. But Greenberg did not hesitate to point out the extensive anti-Semitism that he faced on other occasions, and also didn’t hesitate to blame it for bad outcomes when he thought it was warranted. In the very same interview with Ritter, he blamed anti-Semitism on the part of the owners for his decision not to try to become the owner of the Chicago White Sox in the 1960s.
In sum, it’s certainly possible that some opponents walked Greenberg because they didn’t want a Jewish player to break Ruth’s record. But Megdal fails to prove that it actually happened.
UPDATE: Commenter “Michigan & Trumbull” points out that Greenberg’s higher walk rate in September might well have been due to the fact that he had less protection in the lineup than he did earlier in the season. This further undercuts Megdal’s thesis.
Stephen Lathrop says:
For what its worth, in 1927 when Ruth set the record he walked 137 times
March 22, 2010, 5:59 amMaryG says:
Yawn.
YOu trying to distract attention off the main topic of the day, Ilya?
No, it wasn’t anti-Semitism, as the man himself says. Rest easy.
March 22, 2010, 6:21 amjcm says:
Was Maris Jewish?
March 22, 2010, 6:23 amShag from Brookline says:
Ah for the days when baseball was just a game to be enjoyed. Hank Greenberg was a helluva baseball player. So was Jimmy Foxx. There were so many great ballplayers I enjoyed reading about beginning in 1939. And then I saw some of them as a member of the KnotHole Gang at Braves Field in Boston, being able to afford the ten cents a game it cost in the early 1940s for us kids. And occasionally there was a bleacher seat at Fenway Park with the great Red Sox teams that cost sixty cents; and it was worth it especially when the Yankees were in town. There were no night games back then. We enjoyed so many ballplayers live, in the sunshine.
Some of us remember when Ted Williams played right field for the Red Sox early in his career. In a game with the Detroit Tigers, the Sox were getting trounced and by late in the game had exhausted its bullpen, when Manager/Shortstop Joe Cronin came out to the mound to relieve the umpteenth pitcher who couldn’t get outs and motioned to right field where the bullpens are located. Nobody was warming up in the Boston bullpen. So who came trotting into the mound but Ted Williams and started warming up. The Tigers’ Rudy York was the next scheduled batter and as he watched Williams’ warming up, he started laughing. Then Rudy got into the batter’s box, still laughing, and guess what, he struck out! (That’s how I remember it. I can’t be sure I was at the game. But with all the newspaper editions in Boston at the time, I read about this episode over and over. Over the years here in the Boston area many have claimed to have been at this game, well exceeding Fenway Park’s capacity.)
So, I wonder if Williams might have broken Ruth’s home run records (either 60 or 714) but for the fact that this son of a Mexican mother had not been walked so many times.
Baseball was just a game back then. It was fun. It sounds from Hank Greenberg’s comments that he was having fun back then, too.
March 22, 2010, 7:47 amrbj says:
See also, David Pinto’s posting at baseballmusings:
http://baseballmusings.com/?p=48288
March 22, 2010, 8:17 amAxl says:
Why even post this?
Some people still have it fixed in their minds that the reason I didn’t break Ruth’s record was [that], because I was Jewish, the ballplayers did everything they could to stop me. That’s pure baloney. The fact of the matter is quite the opposite: so far as I could tell, the players were mostly rooting for me, aside from the pitchers. I remember one game Bill Dickey was catching for the Yankees, he was even telling me what was coming up. The reason I didn’t hit 60 or 61 homers is because I ran out of gas; it had nothing to do with being Jewish.
March 22, 2010, 8:53 amJoe T. Guest says:
Here I was thinking teams pitched around one of the great hitters of all time because he was likely to get game winning hits. Little did I know…
Guess I’m going to have to examine all those pitchers who pitched around Sosa, McGwire and Bonds.
March 22, 2010, 9:28 amMark Field says:
For a similarly skeptical view, see here.
March 22, 2010, 11:27 amEx parte McCardle says:
Shag from Brookline: Thanks for posting your 7:47. I watched my first game ca. 1974 and I really enjoy hearing about the game in the old days (although 1974 is certainly seeming like the old days to me now).
March 22, 2010, 11:43 amChris Travers says:
I dunno. If I was a pitcher I would be more likely to walk someone getting close to Babe Ruth’s record just because, well, the person has proven himself to be a really, really good batter. The guy’s batting record alone suggests that it was a good idea for opposing teams to increase the rate of walking him.
March 22, 2010, 11:49 amMark says:
Oy.
Is there anyway to “unpost” a post?
Jews obsessing over anti-Semitism is almost as entertaining as blacks prattling on about their very legitimate PAST grievances.
Woody Allen could carry it off in passing, but most others…not so much.
March 22, 2010, 11:59 amvonneumann says:
I think you will find that when Barry Bonds actually did break Maris’s record (I know it was Big Mac’s by then, but I’m making a point), he was walked at an even higher rate than Greenberg.
BTW, if the pitchers were really anti-semitic, they would have hit him with pitches rather than walk him.
March 22, 2010, 1:01 pmdoodahman says:
Looks to me that the Greenberg’s willingness to take walks rather than swing for the fences shows he was a hell of a team player.
March 22, 2010, 1:24 pmbyomtov says:
Shag from Brookline,
According to Baseball-reference.com Williams did in fact pitch two innings in 1940. He gave up an earned run, giving him a lifetime ERA of 4.50.
But he did get a strikeout.
March 22, 2010, 2:09 pmbyomtov says:
Shag,
August 24, 1940.
March 22, 2010, 2:17 pmCrunchy Frog says:
Not necessarily. It depends where he was in the batting order, and who he had hitting behind him.
March 22, 2010, 3:18 pmJiffy says:
You would indeed. Bonds was walked 177 times that year and had 80 fewer ABs than Greenberg did in ’39. In 2004, Bonds was walked 232 times! I’m guessing it was because of his regimen, not his religion.
March 22, 2010, 3:34 pmShag from Brookline says:
byomtov:
Thanks for the link. I had turned 10 earlier in August, so I doubt that I was actually at the game. I also note from the link that Williams was playing left field, not right field. He came to the Red Sox in 1939 and played right field to start his career; that was the large field at Fenway and he eventually was shifted to left field, with its then 315 feet down the line to the Green Monster, so he wouldn’t have to run around that much. I’m not sure when he shifted fields permanently, but I thought it may have been in 1941, his last year before joining the military in WW II. He turned into a really good left fielder at Fenway Park, learning all the angles and bounces off the Green Monster, including the scoreboards niches on the Wall. I learned a few years later when I was in high school that a classmate of mine worked in the scoreboard and Williams used to talk to him from time to time when things weren’t busy. (Baseball can at times be boring for players.)
Also, I note from the link that Greenberg played left field for the Tigers in that game. Rudy York had good home run power but did not have the versatility that Greenberg had, so he was at first base. I haven’t checked, but Greenberg played a lot of first base for the Tigers over the years. Perhaps a closer look at the link might indicate whether Williams pitched to Greenberg in the game. Rudy York was known as a fun loving guy. He eventually played for the Red Sox and Williams probably reminded York about the strikeout from time to time.
Yes, baseball was fun back then – and not that expensive.
March 22, 2010, 4:57 pmMichigan & Trumbull says:
Also of note: for most of the season, Greenberg hit cleanup, with Rudy York batting fifth. York hit 33 homers, had a .417 on-base percentage, and slugged .579, for an OPS+ of 140 (i.e. 40% better than average). York missed 9 of the last 10 games, and he was replaced in the five-hole by the comparatively punchless Pete Fox and Birdie Tebbets, who combined for 8 homers on the season, and they had significantly below-average OPS+ of 80 and 78, respectively. In those 9 games, with no real “protection” behind him, Greenberg drew 10 walks, including one three-walk game and two two-walk games. In addition, Greenberg saw his walk rate spike during two stretches in the middle of the season when he (inexplicably) batted sixth for twenty games, and drew 19 walks (including one of the other three-walk games).
If we consider (1) the games without York at the end of the season, and (2) these two extended stretches where he hit sixth, he drew 29 walks in 29 games, whereas he drew 90 walks in the remaining 126 games for the rest of the season.
This pattern suggests that the increased walk rate at the end of the season may be partly attributable to the absence of any other power threat following him in the lineup.
(Lineup data courtesy of http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/DET/1938-batting-orders.shtml )
March 22, 2010, 5:26 pmMichigan & Trumbull says:
Also, it didn’t appear likely at the start of September that Greenberg would mount a challenge to Ruth’s record. As of August 31, he had 46 homers, with 32 games remaining, so he would have had to significantly increase his power output to mount a credible threat to the record.
Another potential factor: in addition to having no protection in the lineup down the stretch, Greenberg was also facing lousy, walk-prone pitching staffs. The two AL teams that surrendered the most walks in 1938 were the Browns (by far) and the Indians– the two teams against whom the Tigers played their last eleven games of the year. The Tigers also played six games in a row against these teams in early September. By comparison, they played only five games in all of September/ October against the two AL teams that surrendered the fewest walks, the Red Sox and White Sox.
What sort of pitchers were the Browns using? In the three-walk game referenced in the earlier post, the Browns started Jim Walkup, who went 1-12 with a 6.80 ERA, and a walk rate nearly 25% worse than the league average; he walked five hitters in seven innings. Teammate Lefty Mills, who started a game down the stretch where Greenberg walked twice, had a similar walk rate on the season.
Based on the game-by-game breakdown, it appears that the spike in Greenberg’s walk rate was caused at least, in part, by facing the most walk-prone pitching staffs in the league, and this effect may have been exacerbated by the loss of York at the end of the season.
(Data re: team pitching stats from http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1938.shtml)
March 22, 2010, 8:28 pmAlex Karras says:
Did Jim Walkup stay in the league long enough to get a nickname? What a great baseball name! Have you ever read an essay by Peter Whitmer called “The Unnatural” about a lawyer named Joe Mincberg who turned pro to play senior league baseball? Walkup is even a better baseball name than Mincberg.
313
March 23, 2010, 1:10 ammosho says:
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March 23, 2010, 12:21 pmhttp://www.mlbexpertanalysis.com/blog/?p=7#comments