Hank Greenberg: The Story of My Life FROM THE PUBLISHER
Hank Greenberg's career is one of the most dynamic, dramatic, and inspiring stories in the history of baseball. The son of Eastern European parents, he rose from the streets of New York to rank among the greatest home—run hitters of the game, and became the first Jewish player to be elected to the Hall of Fame.
Along the way he challenged Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a season (hitting 58 in 1938), led the Detroit Tigers to four pennants, fiercely stood up to anti—Semitic slurs, insults, and assaults, and was one of the first major leaguers to enlist in the military at the outbreak of World War II.
Hank Greenberg's extraordinary life in baseball—playing with and against Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Charlie Gehringer, Joe DiMaggio, Dizzy Dean, and Bob Feller—combined the uncommon courage, dignity, strength and, to be sure, humor, in the face of formidable odds.
Acclaim for the award—winning documentary The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg:
"HITS A HOME RUN—Precisely what a documentary ought to be: engaging and revelatory, turning forgotten footnotes and discarded minutiae into the stuff of riveting drama and poignant laughs—" —Dallas Observer
"Witty, insightful, and thoroughly gripping storytelling—the greatest unadulterated movie pleasure of the season." —Los Angeles Daily News
"A grand slam" — The Wall Street Journal
Ira Berkow, who provided linking textual background for Hank Greenberg's autobiography, is an award—winning sports columnist for The New York Times. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, and is the author of over a dozen books, including the bestseller Red, a biography of Red Smith.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
For many, baseball's charm thrives on the oral tradition of grandfathers, with grandsons on their laps, passing down, in proper reverential tones, the legacy of players and memories. The late Greenberg captures that spirit here, blending the right combination of humility and fact to recount a career in which this first Jewish baseball star was considered not only the greatest and most powerful right-handed hitter in the major leagues but a successful baseball general manager and investment broker as well. He seems comfortable with the life he led, not disturbed by the reactions his being a Jew brought out in his contemporaries on the field and in the stands and explaining how he turned anti-Semitic incidents into positive motivational responses on his part rather than striking back in other ways. Because he died before the book was finished, Berkow, sportswriter for the New York Times , has filled gaps with interviews with Greenberg's family and contemporaries. Their memories lack the balance the baseball star's own text possesses and the prose becomes syrupy and muddling. Luckily these added reminiscences occupy little space. (May)
Library Journal
Baseball Hall of Famer Greenberg died before he could finish this autobiography. Luckily, journalist Berkow agreed to complete it, skillfully filling in gaps in the story through the use of interviews and contemporary newspaper accounts. Born and raised in the shadows of Yankee Stadium, Greenberg was a star slugger for the Detroit Tigers from 1933 to 1947 and was the first player to challenge Babe Ruth's single-season record of 60 home runs, hitting 58 in 1938. The fact that he was one of the first Jewish major leaguers affected his entire career as he answered anti-Semitic critics with the crack of his bat. A fine tribute to a fine human being as well as a star ballplayer.-- Jo DeLapo, Queens Lib., N.Y.
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