Armed with the knowledge that I was dealing with a guy playing under two different names, one of which being his given Jewish name, I went back to my library. Fortunately, there has been much written about the history of Jews and baseball. I went for my three go-to volumes: The Big Book of […]
This was one of those moments where either a hero or goat is created. Hollywood is fueled on this type of drama, where one becomes either Roy Hobbs or The Mighty Casey. But neither Hobbs nor Casey were entrusted with Harvard’s athletic reputation that afternoon in 1927; Izzy Zarakov was. […]
Of all the one-and-done players in the Baseball Encyclopedia, no one, not even Moonlight Graham, has as good a story as Jesse Baker. Underworld prizefight connections, Hollywood stunt doubles and Ty Cobb – Baker’s tale has it all! […]