Syd Cohen zeenut

[DixieBaseball]

Gents,

I was at the Vandy Basketball game last night, came home to that pleasant little surprise.(WOW!) 2 Whales went at it and a 3rd bidder entered the fray to help add to the bidding war. (Our family will eat steak this weekend) Interesting article in Old Cardboard re/ Solly Mishkin & key mention of Syd Cohen :

The Saga of Solly Mishkin (contributed by Old Cardboard subscriber Adam Warshaw)
You have to love the internet for what it brings to this hobby. Every so often I stumble onto a card of a player who catches my interest and I see what I can find out about him. Years ago, it was an all but impossible task. Today, however, with the vast array of information on the internet, a researcher can chase down leads and learn all about a player’s life in a few hours. I found one such player recently, Solomon "Solly" Mishkin.



I saw a 1928 Zeenut on Ebay of "Mishkin," whom the seller had further identified as Sol Mishkin--a distinctly Jewish name. "Sol Mishkin," I thought. No reference I’d seen for Jewish ballplayers listed him, and I soon determined that there were no records of his being in the majors as a player. Obviously, he was a career minor leaguer. The only information I had at that point was that he had certainly played in the PCL with the Seals, since he is on the Zeenut card. The normally blank card back did give me a little more information, stating in vintage handwritten ink that for 1930, Sol Mishkin played first base and hit .287 with 28 doubles, 15 triples and 2 homers.

By digging for more information about Mishkin, I learned that he was a Los Angeles resident and is featured as a professional baseball player in the Hollywood High School list of famous alumni. Hollywood and the neighboring Fairfax area produced a number of Jewish professional athletes, most notably for Los Angeles fans Larry and Norm Sherry, the brother battery of the 1959 Dodgers. Apparently Solomon Mishkin was an earlier product of the Los Angeles public high schools in the Hollywood area, which led me to think it very likely that he was a heretofore unacknowledged Jewish ballplayer with a Zeenut card. Hollywood High’s web site states that Mishkin played for the New York Giants, but I’ve not located any references to substantiate that claim.

From Hollywood High, Sol moved east to Occidental College, in Eagle Rock, an area of Los Angeles northeast of Hollywood. He was a star on campus from 1925-1927. According to Oxy’s online baseball hall of fame: "Outstanding left handed hitter and perfect fielding first baseman for the Tigers. He led his teams in hitting, extra base hits, and total hits all three years that he played varsity. During his career at Oxy he hit .500 and went on to play professionally for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. In his first professional at bat he hit a Home Run." The college honored Mishkin in 1987 with its Auld Lang Syne Award, which goes to alumni for "loyalty to Occidental College and the principle for which it stands."

I wasn’t able to confirm the first-at-bat-home-run story, but as noted, Mishkin was picked up by the Seals for the 1928 season. According to a January 16, 1928 newspaper account in the San Francisco Examiner: "George Putman, the robust fork man of the Seals, whose sensitive fingers are ever feeling the pulse of his public, has long hankered for a Jewish baseball star and now he has two of them. Solomon Mishkin of Los Angeles, whose inexhaustible supply of paprika challenged the attention of fans, and Syd Cohen of Texas, the fastest thing in the Border territory with the exception of the rum-runners, will take the field this season for the city’s baseball team." Cohen’s 1928 Zeenut is well-known and well-chased among collectors of Jewish baseball player cards. Apparently, Mishkin’s should be as well.

As a player, Mishkin fit the Mark Grace model of first baseman: no power. In 1928 Mishkin played 82 games at first base for the Seals, batting .274 with 13 doubles, 1 triple, 2 homers and 28 RBI. Apparently, Mishkin played for the Seals for at least three years, since the card I got has 1930 stats on it. Despite decent batting averages in the so-called fourth major league, the light-hitting Mishkin did not make the show.

I do not know when Solly Mishkin finally hung up his spikes. I was able to learn that after his playing career was over, Mishkin went into a lifelong career coaching and managing. The year 1946 saw Mishkin managing the Amsterdam (NY) Rugmakers [really!] of the Class C Canadian-American League to a record of 61-58, good for fourth place. In 1947, under Mishkin’s guidance the Rugmakers finished only 1-½ games out of the playoffs, in third place with a record of 73-67. The best pitcher on Mishkin’s team, despite his 9-10 record, was Lew Burdette. Mishkin went on to manage college ball and must have been pretty good at the college game; in 1977 he was inducted as a coach into the City College of New York Athletic Hall of Fame.

From what I was able to glean, Solly Mishkin died in 1996. As for his cards, the 1928 Zeenut is the only one I’ve been able to find although there might be some obscure low minors team issue kicking around out there.