Yankee Stadium, Sept. 14, 1935, the Detroit Tigers came to town for a double header. Hank Greenberg, a native New Yorker, and the first formidable Jewish baseball player did not gather a hit in either game and struck out five times.
In the 1998 film, The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, his son Stephen detailed the indescribable sadness his father felt upon returning from the host stadium of his childhood heroes and favorite team.
The New York American chronicled the day, "The hooting and jeering which some of the fans turned loose against Hank wasn't much of a tribute to the sportsmanship of his home town."
Even as tens of thousands European Jews escaped to Ellis Island from what was becoming a mass genocide, Yankee fans bombarded Greenberg with earfuls of anti-Semitic insults.
The Tigers won the American League, finishing three games ahead of the Yankees. And in six games beat the Chicago Cubs to win the 1935 World Series.
Did the 1935 Yankee fans feel a sense of entitlement regarding the AL Pennant?
Probably.
When a team gets so accustomed to winning year-in and year-out, it is only natural...
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