Sid Gordon An American Baseball Story: A Jewish Boys Journey from the Brooklyn Sandlots to Major League Baseball

by STEVEN D. CAHN

Sid Gordon was a Brooklyn kid who learned his craft on the local sandlots. He grew up in the shadows of Ebbets Field, however, began his career with the Giants in 1941. Baseball during the Great Depression, the Second World War, and the critical post war years is a story of the contributions of immigrants, selfless patriots, and the heroes of the game of baseball. Mark Twain once called baseball "the very symbol of America." The game has produced many of Americas greatest heroes. There are, however, stories of great men not in the Hall of Fame, who also made tremendous contributions to baseball, and American society. Sid Gordon is an important and untold part of this story. You may think you know baseball, and the history of the game, but I assure you there are stories you have never heard, until you read the history of this great player. Gordon played alongside the greatest players of the game and was a two-time all-star. He once hit two home runs in one inning and four grand slams in a season. From 1948 to 1953 he was one of the best players in the league. He has a higher career on-base-percentage than Pete Rose, and even Albert Pujols. Remarkably, he has a better lifetime fielding percentage in the outfield than both Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays. Leo Durocher said of Gordon, he was "the type of guy he wanted at the plate with an important run waiting at third." While this is a book about baseball, Gordon's real contributions were outside of the ball parks. As a Jewish ball player in the 1940'sand 50's he was the target of harassment and discrimination, and as a result, often teaming up with Jackie Robinson, he was a leader in the movement to create a brotherhood through sports. Al Abrams, the Sports Editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote in 1954, "Despite his quite mannerisms, Gordon is a commanding figure respected by his teammates and rival players." The Story of Sid Gordon is much more than a baseball story, it part of the great American story and a must read for any fan.

412 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 9, 2022

Reviews

[RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN · Rating 3 out of 5]

RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: LEO SAID “NICE-GUYS-FINISH-LAST… OUR “LANDSMAN” SID WAS FIRST IN THE GAME OF LIFE!

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To augment my review so potential readers can more fully understand why this story about Sid Gordon was so important to me… I must share a small bit of my background. I was the third generation of Brooklyn/Queens natives born in my family. The 1940’s and 1950’s were the center of the greatest… most exciting… society changing period in baseball history! If you lived in New York you loved for life… either THE BROOKLYN DODGERS… NEW YORK GIANTS… OR THE NEW YORK YANKEES! The two you didn’t love… you hated with a death-wish till the day you died…. AND IF YOU WERE A REAL FAN… YOU KEPT HATING THEM EVEN MORE AFTER YOU DIED! (i.e. ETERNITY!)

How much did we truly love our Bums… our family moved from New York to Los Angeles at the exact same time… December 1957!

For the first ten years of my parents’ marriage… before they had any children… almost every weekend during baseball season you could find them at Ebbets Field rooting for our beloved “BROOKLYN BUMS!” Jackie Robinson was treated like a G-d in our house. That was passed down to me… and I have passed it down to my following two generations. My Granddaughters wear number 42 on all their athletic uniforms. We absolutely despised every Giant player on the roster. Sports fans today may talk about heated rivalries… but unfortunately they don’t even know what a real blood rivalry looks… or smells like. The Brooklyn Bums… and the despised Giants… was a literal BLOOD-RIVALRY! Bean balls… fists… uncontrollable fights… blood filled spike created gashes from head to toe! Fights in the tunnel to the clubhouse… fights under the stands and behind the stadium… and this was during the days of real men playing ball. Not this watered down sissy ball… where if a pitch is too inside (NOTE: not touching one of today’s “MOMMY’S LITTLE BUTTERCUPS… JUST INSIDE!) players and managers are literally suspended.

NOTE: Earlier in my introduction I mentioned we vehemently hated every single Giant player and staff… that is not totally true! There were one-and-a-half exceptions… and that’s where this well-intended… well researched book comes in. This time period included the breaking of the modern day color line… and there was not only disgusting racism… but there was vile anti-Semitism. The Jewish community of which my family is a proud member… embraced Jackie like our own. The African-American community and the Jewish community were fighting for the same things… so it was a natural fit. And that’s where the title subject Sid Gordon comes in… and as a Brooklyn born member of “THE TRIBE”… Sid was loved by our family… and we hoped he hit four home-runs in every game the Giants lost! Now what about the other half of the one-and-a-half… of a Giant not on our hit-list?!?

That other one-half of a Giant allowed to breathe Brooklyn and American air… was none other than “LEO-THE-LIP-DUROCHER”! You have to understand being a true blue Brooklyn Dodger fan… that Durocher going from managing successfully our Beloved-Bums for many years… and among his many accomplishments won our first pennant in twenty-one-years in 1941! Along with his street fighting managing moxie… he represented Brooklyn well and gave us a worldwide pride in the resilience… loyalty… and Brooklyn swagger around the world… and at least one mention in just about every World War II movie ever made! So when he went to the Giants… it was akin to if President Eisenhower became President of Russia!

The author… who is a cousin of Sid Gordon… takes us back through Sid’s life and accomplishments in detail. This is a long overdue book about a wonderful human being and a very good ballplayer. His career was mostly with the wrong hometown team the Giants instead of Sid’s Brooklyn birthright Dodgers… along with stints with the Boston and Milwaukee Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates. Part of the detail that is welcomed for the outside world to see is the tremendous youth sandlot baseball opportunities that always existed in Brooklyn… and Sid’s hardworking (always hardworking) involvement in them that helped him get his chance in the Major Leagues. While fighting his own battle against anti-Semitism… Sid advanced the African American cause… by… if nothing else… always being SID GORDON… THE MAN… AND THE FAITHFUL HUMAN BEING! He befriended Jackie Robinson and they literally became lifelong friends. They made speeches together… took family vacations together… and Sid was there when the Giants integrated with Monte Irvin and Hank Thompson… and he was there when the Braves broke their color line. If you let this all sink in… Sid just may have been “The Chosen One”… from “The Chosen People”… from someone way above the Commissioner of Baseball. My Dad’s highest compliment to an individual… was to say… “HE’S A STANDUP GUY!” And Sid was truly that!

Another highly enjoyable part of the book… is when the author “despite” being a Jersey guy instead of a Brooklyn/Queens guy talks about New York’s treasured street games (proof of Brooklyn soul) STICK BALL AND STOOP BALL! I must tip my hat to the author… in all my constant reading I don’t remember such a definitive description of stoop ball. Coincidentally two months ago I tried to explain it to my grandchildren. With a wink of the eye to the author… I was a little disappointed when I believe he said a hard rubber ball was used… instead of being more definitive with the actual names a *PENNSY-PINKY*… OR *SPALDEEN*… but hey… he’s Joisey!

Along with Sid’s work ethic… and defense of all human rights… the importance of his family is stressed… and I found it surprisingly interesting the in depth description of his wife Mary’s importance not just in their family… but in the importance of creating a family connection with all the wives and family members on all the teams the Gordon’s were part of.

As much as I enjoyed this book… and so glad it came to market… I had to battle my true inner integrity and drop the overall rating from 5 stars to 3… because this book has… so… so… many typos… I mean innumerable! Everything from missing small connecting words in sentences… to unbelievable multiple misspellings of everything from Jackie Robinson’s name (?Robison?)… multiple misspellings of Ralph Houk (?Houck?)… misspelling of Ernie (?Earnie?) Banks… and on and on and on. And then in the back of the book in the INDEX… there are multiple names missing that are in the book. What makes it so hard for me to lower the rating and add these comments is because the reader (especially if you’re from the area and time) start feeling a kinship with the author… and I feel embarrassed for him as it’s obvious this project was a work of love and a lifetime dream to write and publish this. I think he needs to talk to the editor. The editing is like Mickey Owen dropping the third strike in the 1941 World Series.

[James Woods]

This was a very informative, well researched, and enjoyable baseball history. I was quite disappointed with the poor editing, missing words, misused words (routing in place of rooting for the Giants), and poor punctuation. The author constantly called baseball players base ballplayers. Sheesh! I'm probably picking nits, but that was very annoying.

Despite the distractions, I loved the book. Surprisingly, I had no knowledge of the importance of Sid Gordon tot he game of baseball. The detail was mostly enjoyable, but there seemed to be a bit too much box score information about unimportant games. Very impressively researched, however.