A few weeks ago a Peninsula patron asked me for a biography of Hank Greenberg. Intrigued, I asked him if he was doing research about the original Hammering Hank; he said it was purely personal interest. I remarked that Greenberg, among many other things, had mentored Ralph Kiner early on in his career. How could that be, the man wondered, as Kiner played in Pittsburgh and Greenberg in Detroit. I said that Greenberg had wound up in Pittsburgh.
That was one of the many details of his life that the film covered. His birth in New York, his Jewish heritage and religion, his prowess on the ballfield of James Monroe High school, in Bronx, NY; the Detroit scout's promise to get young Hank a scholarship to Princeton; the virulent anti-Semitism he had to handle in the majors; his success on the field; his enlistment in the Army (depriving his baseball career of three prime years). All those and many more were covered in great detail.
A wonderful documentary of a genuine American baseball hero (well, great; even he didn't see himself as a hero).
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