Sommer, Shelley. Hammerin' Hank Greenberg

Sommer, Shelley. Hammerin' Hank Greenberg       

Calkins Creek (Boyd's Mills)   

2011 135p  17.95 978-1-59078-452-5  

ms/hs             E-BN   

Hank Greenberg was the American League’s two-time MVP, five-time All-Star, and the first Jewish player to be named to baseball’s Hall of Fame.  This engaging narrative is filled with fascinating historical details and baseball statistics and highlighted by wonderful black-and-white archival and personal photographs.      

  Hank Greenberg was the American League’s two-time MVP, five-time All-Star, and the first Jewish player to be named to baseball’s Hall of Fame.  Son of Romanian immigrants, he grew up in New York City and spent most of his long and incredible career with the Detroit Tigers during the 1930s and ‘40s.  This fascinating account traces Greenberg’s personal life and baseball career season by season.  It offers a look into the both the successes and the difficulties he faced both on and off the field through his own words and those of his contemporaries. 

      

He grew up during the Great Depression, became a professional player at 19, and served abroad in the Army Air Force during World War II before returning to baseball.  

At first taunted for his Judaism from both fans and fellow players, he later

became known as “the Jewish Babe Ruth.”  This engaging narrative is filled with

fascinating historical details and baseball statistics and highlighted by

wonderful black-and-white archival and personal photographs.  It ends with a

copious bibliography, chapter notes, and an index.    Ogintz,Susan