Torrid Start Has Mitchell Going Like 60

In 1927, when he hit 60, Babe Ruth had only 16 home runs by June 4.

In 1961, when he hit 61, Roger Maris had only 15 home runs by June 4.

In 1989, Kevin Mitchell of the Giants had 19 by June 4.

Neither Ruth nor Maris got his 19th until June 11.

What we can expect any day now is the homer watch on Kevin Mitchell, a daily graph in the public prints, charting his progress in the contest vs. the ghosts of Babe Ruth and Roger Maris. This used to be a staple of the sports pages years ago, back in the days when Ruth challengers seemed to emerge every other season.

There hasn’t been even a 50-homer season in the American League since Maris hit his 61--and Mickey Mantle hit 54--in ’61. There hasn’t been a 50-homer season in the National since 1977, when George Foster hit 52.

By an odd coincidence, there is a new book in the stalls this month, an autobiography of Hank Greenberg, published posthumously--Hank died in 1986--and titled, “Hank Greenberg, the Story of My Life,” with editing by Ira Berkow.

Greenberg, it so happens, is the last guy, excluding Maris, to challenge the Babe.

The year was 1938. America was in the grip of the Great Depression.

Hank was more than just a great hitter. He was also, up to that time, the greatest Jewish ballplayer who ever played the game. And, he was on the verge of breaking the sacred record of the greatest player who ever played the game.

It was a given that no sports fan really wanted Babe’s record broken. Ask Maris. Ask Henry Aaron. In fact, there was a scare only six seasons before when the Philadelphia A’s muscle man, Jimmie Foxx, came within two homers of 60. And in 1930, Hack Wilson of the Chicago Cubs hit 56, still a National League record.

A considerable body of myth has grown up as to whether antisemitism could have played a role in Hank’s falling a buck short that star-crossed year. Did the league gang up on him?

Hank thought not. He remembered the events of that long, hot summer vividly, recalling the homer chase in some detail in the book of remembrances he left behind.

In the first place, you would think the umpires might be on his case, might call the pitches too fine to protect the memory of the great Babe.

Quite the opposite. Greenberg recalled the umps as his pals. To such an extent, Greenberg noted in his book, that he became known to the pitchers as Five-Strike Greenberg.

Added Hank: “I got my share of calls at home plate.”

One of them resulted in his 57th home run.

“I was playing against the (St. Louis) Browns, and my good friend, Bill McGowan, was umpiring behind the plate,” he wrote. “I hit a long ball over the center fielder’s head, and the ball rolled to the wall. I had already hit 56 home runs, so when I came to third base and the ball was still on its way to the relay man, I knew the third base coach would have to tackle me to keep me from trying for an inside-the-park homer. I slid home in a cloud of dust, but the catcher had me out by a mile. However, McGowan called me safe, for my 57th home run.”

Greenberg also recalled the time an umpire, George Moriarty, drew a fine from the commissioner because he walked over to the Chicago White Sox dugout and threatened the team for ladling out antisemitic abuse on Greenberg.

That year, Greenberg finished August with 46 home runs. Ruth had only 43 up to that point in his record year.

But Ruth hit a record 17 in September in 1927. Could Greenberg hit 15 in 1938?

It turned out he could not. He had 58 home runs in 149 games, three ahead of Ruth, who did not get his 58th until the team’s 153rd game. But Ruth got two that day and closed out the season with a homer in his 154th--and last--game. There was no pressure on Ruth. He was only breaking his own record of 59. Sixty had not yet become a magic number in the grand old game.

Greenberg ended the season without hitting another homer. Even so, Hank wrote charitably of the game he loved. That was his style, anyway.

His last day was a doubleheader in Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium. In the first game, a 19-year-old kid was on the mound for Cleveland. He only set a record, striking out 18. Hank was two of them. But the pitcher, a youngster named Bob Feller, did pitch to Hank. Outfielder Roy Weatherly just did haul down a long drive in center that would have gone for Homer No. 59.

In the nightcap that day, played in the Stygian gloom of a front that came in off Lake Erie, umpire Moriarty ignored the furious demands that he call the game until, finally, in the seventh inning, the pitcher’s mound wasn’t even visible. Moriarty went over to Greenberg and said, “I’m sorry, Hank, this is as far as I can go.”

But a cursory study of the evidence shows that Greenberg was walked 119 times that season. That tied him for the league high but was not out of line with other years. He was walked more than 100 times twice in his career, and more than 90 times five other years. And Ruth was walked 138 times in 1927 and 170 times in 1923. Foxx was walked 116 times the year he hit 58, and, in fact, tied Greenberg for the league lead in walks in 1938.

A conspiracy, as usual, is missing. Wrote Greenberg: “Some people still have it fixed in their minds that the reason I didn’t break Ruth’s record was because I was Jewish, that the ballplayers did everything they could to stop me. That’s pure baloney. The fact is quite the opposite. So far as I could tell, the players were mostly rooting for me--aside from the pitchers.”

Can Kevin Mitchell expect the same bonhomie? Doubtless. In Greenberg’s book, a Jewish periodical of the day is quoted:

“We have had pogroms before. We have had wars before. We have had trouble with Arabs before. But never before have we had a Jewish home run king. At the present writing, Greenberg has smashed 46 home runs. A home run, for those who don’t know, is the name given to the hitting of a baseball which travels so far that the hitter can run around a big diamond before the ball is thrown back.

“A genuine baseball fan just can’t be an anti-Semite. The name of Greenberg was shouted out in Fenway Park last week in eight different languages and in 21 different dialects. Greenberg is another form of good-will emissary for the Jewish people . . . “

I’ll drink to that. A genuine baseball fan can’t be anti-anything. He’s for history. He’s for a no-hitter, he’s for the guy going for DiMaggio’s consecutive-game hitting record. And he’s for the guy going for 62 home runs. He’s for Kevin Mitchell. Even if Mitchell’s a Giant.