Hank Greenberg

Bomber from the Bronx

 

It was the last game of the 1945 pennant race and the whole baseball world was waiting tensely to see what would happen. The Detroit Tigers had to win this game from the pestiferous St. Louis Browns, the 1944 American League champions. The Tigers were not far enough ahead of the Washington Senators, and here it was, the last game of the season and Nels Potter, the ace of the Brown staff, was twirling.

The score was deadlocked and it was the last of the ninth inning. Somehow the Tigers had filled the bases on infield hits and a bit of wildness on the part of Potter, a smart old campaigner.

And the batter was Hank Greenberg, the mightiest righthanded slugger in baseball. But Hank was rusty after a long hitch in the Army. Fans turned to one another, some in hope, some wishing that Greenberg had suddenly grown blind in the Army.

And then, with a count of one ball, Potter grooved a medium-fast pitch. Greenberg swung hard. The ball began to climb towards left field. Because it was two out every Tiger on the base paths ran with the crack of the bat. But they didn't have to. The ball grew smaller and smaller as it rose and when it disappeared among the patrons in left field 351 feet away, the Tigers had won another American