Baseball during the Great Depression of the 1930s galvanized communities and provided a struggling country with heroes. Jewish player Hank Greenberg gave the people of Detroit--and America--a reason to be proud.
But America was facing more than economic hardship. Hitler's agenda heightened the persecution of Jews abroad while anti-Semitism intensified political and social tensions in the U.S. The six-foot-four-inch Greenberg, the nation's most prominent Jew, became not only an iconic ball player, but also an important and sometimes controversial symbol of Jewish identity and the...

A 2014 CASEY Award finalist for the best baseball book of the year. For baseball fans of a certain age, it s the ugliest thing they ve ever seen in a game Rosengren details not only the fight, but the role of race in 1965 America, how the two eventually made up, became friends and even signed photos of the fight together. New York Post must-read books Now in paperback One Sunday afternoon in August 1965, on a day when baseball s most storied rivals, the Giants and Dodgers, vied for the pennant, the national pastime reflected the tensions in society and nearly sullied two men forever. Juan...