October Pickups

[MattyC]

Been all about the Post War lately and just realized this is Pre War. I think Greenberg is tragically underappreciated; the guy's performance was amazing and he lost prime years to the war. Was otherwise a lock for 500+ HRs. Love the error factor on this classic card, too.

[itjclarke]

Nice card. Greenberg was a total beast. Think there's a pretty solid collecting niche for him, as evidenced by multiple people ordering his signed '34 Goudey soon after it popped up on eBay as well as JV's sight. Too bad for me, two sales doesn't make two cards!

[Peter_Spaeth]

He was out almost an entire season at age 25, lost 4 seasons to the war, essentially had only 2 full seasons after age 29, and was gone at 36. With any semblance of a normal career, he would have retired close to or ahead of Foxx.

[Luke]

Does anyone know why he retired? I wouldn't if I lead the league in RBI at age 36. Also, that is a sick OPS for his career

[itjclarke]

Originally Posted by LukeLyon

Does anyone know why he retired? I wouldn't if I lead the league in RBI at age 36. Also, that is a sick OPS for his career

Don't know circumstances behind the trade to the Pirates, but wonder if that was a factor. Gonna have to check it out.

Watched a cool documentary about him a while back, will need to get/post title.

[Brian Van Horn]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Been all about the Post War lately and just realized this is Pre War. I think Greenberg is tragically underappreciated; the guy's performance was amazing and he lost prime years to the war. Was otherwise a lock for 500+ HRs. Love the error factor on this classic card, too.

There is a documentary on him out there entitled "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg" and I enjoyed picking up this piece on him recently, albeit a bit O/T:

[MattyC]

I gotta watch that. Peter puts it well up above. The guy's numbers are just cartoonishly great. That string of .400+ OBP and .600 slugging is bananas. The guy goes to war, comes back, and at age 35 leads the league in bombs again. What a pimp.

[the 'stache]

I don't care what era he played in, or who his teammates were. Those RBI numbers are ridiculous. I understand that the RBI statistic has lost some of its luster (much like average. I think both are now undervalued metrics). But if you're driving in 150 + runs, you're money. Credit goes to the guys who get on base to make that possible, but you don't luck into a 150 + RBI season. And Greenberg averaged 148 RBI per 162 games for his career.

Look at his RAA total for his best 7 seasons: 365. His average for those 7 seasons is over 52. That's simply spectacular.

[Koufax32fan]

Akiva Kemper's documentary is great, as are several of the biographies written about Hank (Ira Berkow's stands out for me). While this isn't pre-war, I did buy this today at the local card show. On the back is handwritten "Hank Greenberg Tokyo May 1958". He looks like he still could have hit 58 homeruns.

[itjclarke]

Originally Posted by Brian Van Horn

There is a documentary on him out there entitled "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg" and I enjoyed picking up this piece on him recently, albeit a bit O/T:

Yes! This is the movie I saw. I don't remember completely, but seem to think he was upset at being traded to Pittsburg, and that factored into his retiring relatively young.

Regardless, fans should cut players some slack for leaving (better teams, better cities/lifestyle, more money), because teams/owners made plenty of cold hearted trades back in the days prior to free agency.

[Brian Van Horn]

Originally Posted by itjclarke

Yes! This is the movie I saw. I don't remember completely, but seem to think he was upset at being traded to Pittsburg, and that factored into his retiring relatively young.

Regardless, fans should cut players some slack for leaving (better teams, better cities/lifestyle, more money), because teams/owners made plenty of cold hearted trades back in the days prior to free agency.

Yes, he was upset at being traded to Pittsburgh, but I will leave the reason for that vague because it is included in the documentary. The reason he didn't retire before playing a season was that the Galbreaths, who owned the Pirates, were so nice to him.

[Koufax32fan]

One reason why the Pirates ownership/management wanted Greenberg was so he could mentor a young slugger named Ralph Kiner. And, unbeknownst to them at the time, by being in the National League Hank was able to play against Jackie Robinson in his first season in the majors. The 2 shared a lot in common, besides their amazing talent; they both had to face taunting and hatred from opposing players/managers/fans (and even teammates).

[MattyC]

Greenberg also won the MVP at two different positions, unprecedented at the time, which I just read and is pretty awesome.

[clydepepper]

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