Dreier: Al Rosen banged homers and battled anti-Semitism
From Peter Dreier at Tikkun Daily on March 16, 2015:
Al Rosen, a slugging Jewish third baseman for the Cleveland Indians and winner of the American League’s Most Valuable Player award in 1953, died Saturday at age 91. He was an outstanding player whose career was cut short by injuries and who battled anti-Semitism among players and fans.
Since Lipman Pike donned a uniform for the Troy Haymakers in 1871, there have been more than 160 Jews among the roughly 17,000 players who have played Major League baseball. Although there have been more than enough outstanding Jewish big leaguers to fill an All-Star team, Rosen is the third greatest Jewish baseball player of all time, after Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax.
Rosen spent four years in the Navy during World War II, hampering his development as a young player. And at the peak of his career, he was beset by injuries, which led him to retire in 1956 at age 32. His career was too short (only seven full seasons in the majors) to rival Greenberg as a player or a Jewish idol, or even to gain entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Read the full article here: http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2015/03/16/al-rosen-banged-homers-and-battled-anti-semitism/
Originally published: March 19, 2015. Last Updated: March 19, 2015.