|
OUT OF LEFT FIELD |
 |
|
|
 SAUL ROGOVIN ...Grand Slam hitting pitcher |
Trillin and Google Shine
A Light on Saul Rogovin
of TheColumnists.com
I am not sure whether
I am more amazed by the statistic or by the wizardry of the search
engine, Google. This stems from a humor piece the jester Calvin
Trillin wrote in the January 16 issue of The New Yorker
magazine.
In the section entitled “Shouts and Murmurs” Trillin takes off on a news item in The New York Times about Mitt Romney frequently asking people, “Are You a French Canadian?” Romney asks this of various world leaders. I am a big fan of Trillin--particularly his Ogden Nash-like poems in The Nation-- but this effort doesn’t quite come off.
The essay is memorable for me, though, because Trillin pictures Romney as the President of the United States when he is grilling the leaders. Then, out of nowhere toward the end of the piece, when Trillin is told by Yoshihiko Noda, the Prime Minister of Japan, that he, too, is not of French-Canadian origin, Romney tells him, “Congratulations,” and adds, “Saul Rogovin of the Detroit Tigers hit a grand-slam home run in 1950, and it wasn’t until 2008 that another Jewish pitcher hit a grand-slam home run.”
Talk about coming in out of left field. Could there be a more obscure statistic than Jewish pitchers who hit grand-slam home runs? And who in the world would know which Jewish pitcher came along in 2008 to hit the last kosher grand slam? I thought immediately of Sandy Koufax. Not likely; he couldn’t hit a lick, nor was he pitching in 2008. Nor was Kenny Holtzman, who hit two home runs in 607 at bats in a 15-year career.
I was about to cast around to many of my baseball friends for the answer when my techie daughter, Ellen, said, “Why don’t you go to Google?” Before I could figure out a way to pose the question, Ellen called up Google on her thingamajig of a phone and typed “Jewish pitcher, grand slam, 2008.”
Soon enough Google came through with the information. Jason Marquis of the Chicago Cubs hit the grand slam (or in this case “grand salami’ might be more apt) in the fourth inning on Sept. 22, 2008 off the Mets’ Jon Niese.
Marquis drove in another run and pitched effectively into the seventh inning to win his 11th game. He has pitched 12 seasons with six teams, has a record of 104 victories and 98 losses. He is regarded as one of the best hitting pitchers in baseball with a .197 career batting average and five career homers.
If ever Google showed its genius, it wasn’t only that it answered Trillin’s question, but that it also was right on with Trillin and The New Yorker.
Under the heading “How Many Jewish Pitchers Have Hit Grand-Slam Home Runs” Google writer, Al Yellon wrote, “In this week’s edition of The New Yorker, Calvin Trillin invents offbeat scenarios that might occur if Mitt Romney were elected President. It’s all made up except for [the Saul Rogovin mention].”
The item notes, “Rogovin and Marquis are the only Jewish pitchers to hit grand-slam home runs in major league history--” and adds this bit of a tweak “In case you were looking for a good bar-bet trivia question.”
Rogovin deserves an extra slice of this column. Born Oct. 10, 1923 in Brooklyn, Rogovin pitched eight years from 1949 through 1957 with three teams. He had a lifetime record of 48 victories and 48 defeats. And let it be noted that he hit two other home runs besides his 1950 grand slam off the Yankees’ Eddie Lopat.
There is more to Rogovin as it turned out. He eventually turned up as a teacher at Eastern District, my old high school. Ball players’ salaries being in the stratosphere now, I doubt that any player would wind up teaching in a high school, or commit himself to any low-playing endeavor that had social value.
I was happy to find out Rogovin had the association with Eastern District because it always irked me that there was almost no sense of history about my neighborhood, Williamsburgh, or the school. As far as I knew, the only famous graduate of Eastern District was the celebrated Red Auerbach, who went on to a Hall of Fame career as basketball coach of the Boston Celtics. I was told that some eminent local judges had gone there as well. Big deal.
I didn’t learn until later that Mel Brooks, nee Kaminsky, had spent his senior year at Eastern. Even more significant to me was finding out that the notorious novelist, Henry Miller, went to Eastern and was in its first graduating class in the early 1900s.
One recollection I had of Rogovin as a big leaguer was the cruel jokes about him because he occasionally fell asleep on the bench during games. We didn’t realize he was a narcoleptic. At Eastern, Rogovin taught English and coached the baseball team. He was popular with the players, mostly blacks and Latins. Tough kids. They let the word go out through the school that if Mr. Rogovin fell asleep in class--which he sometimes did--the students had better not take advantage of him or they would have to answer to the guys on the baseball team. Their threats were effective. Rogovin’s occasional sleep episodes passed relatively unnoticed.
He died, Jan. 23, 1995 at 71. I am pleased that Calvin Trillin shined a little bit of light anew on Saul Rogovin.
©2012 by Stan Isaacs. The Stan Isaacs caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. The photo is courtesy of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. This column first posted Jan. 23, 2012.
TO ACCESS STAN ISAACS' ARCHIVE OF COLUMNS
ON THIS SITE, CLICK HERE: ISAACS
ARCHIVE
...:
You can comment
on this column online via our TALKBACK page. Please address your e-mail message to either
"The Editors" or Stan Isaacs at Syndpack @ aol.com.
|
|
|
Archives |
|
|