This film about baseball Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg proves to be an interesting and well researched documentary full of ethnic pride. Although not the first Jewish baseball player, but the first to not change his name. The lumbering slugger from the Bronx joined the Detroit Tigers in 1930; turning out to be a stout warhorse playing first-base and waving a thunderous bat. The power hitter soon led the Tigers to a World Series in 1935. Hank came close to breaking Babe Ruth's home run record in 1938, missing by three hitting 58. Revered by all American Jews during the depression-era, when the popularity of Nazism rose; Greenberg served in WWII and came back to the Tigers and ended his career playing one year for the Pittsburg Pirates in 1947; during that swan song season, he befriended the Dodger's rookie Jackie Robinson. Greenberg entered the Hall of Fame in 1956 and died thirty years later. This documentary is woven with vintage still shots, newsreel footage, newspaper headlines and testimonials and interviews from people like Rabbi Reeve Brenner, actor Walter Matthau, Alan Dershowitz, Senator Carl Levin, Rabbi Max Tickin and even Greenberg himself and his heirs. Kudos to writer and director Aviva Kempner for this look at a baseball icon.
