There have been a handful of books about Jews and baseball over the years. Mostly anecdotal in nature, they have served to fuel the conception that the Jewish involvement in professional sports is practically negligible.
Burton and Benita Boxerman aim to disprove that notion in their scholarly treatment, Jews and Baseball Volume 1: Entering the American Mainstream, 1871-1948.
“What we’ve tried to do is not only give profiles of prominent and not-so-prominent athletes in the game, but how the Jewish community and baseball developed together, particularly in these years, and how baseball helped the Jewish community become part of the American culture” said Benita in a phone interview.
The original idea was to produce a single volume, ending with Hank Greenberg’s retirement, but the publisher asked for additional material since 1948. Rather than delay the release to make one larger book, the husband and wife team decided on writing the additional volume.
Jews and Baseball is their second book, following Ebbets to Veeck to Busch: Eight Owners Who Shaped Baseball,
It would seem the two work well together.
“No problems,” said Burton, whom Benita called the “baseball guru” in the family.
“We dicker over who left the filing cabinet open, but we don’t seem to have many major disagreements over the book,” Benita said.
Burton, 73, who holds a PhD in history and political science, does the research, while Benita, 67, handles the writing and editing. “We used a lot more Internet research than with our first book,” she said. Her husband agreed. “It’s much easier to go on-line than to read microfilm.”
The Boxermans — both members of the Society for American Baseball Research — credit the Jewish Major Leaguers baseball card set, created by Martin Abramowitz, for identifying the players.
Following their copious research, Benita said that previously she had not appreciated Hank Greenberg’s “ stature as a player and role model to the Jewish community…. He was pivotal to the way the Jewish player was treated since then.”
Burton said he was surprised to learn that Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith and New York Giants manager John McGraw were more welcoming toward Jewish players than had been generally reported.
The Boxermans are hard at work on the next volume, which should take another two years to complete and which will bring their readers up to date on the century-plus association of Jews and baseball.
(A version of this story appeared in the New Jersey Jewish News, April 12, 2007.)
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