Mose Hirsch Solomon, nicknamed the Rabbi of Swat (December 8, 1900 – June 25, 1966) was an American left-handed baseball player. In 1923, he hit 49 home runs in the minors, a new minor league record. He briefly played for the New York Giants in Major League Baseball in 1923.
| Mose Solomon | |
|---|---|
 Mose Solomon in a photograph from the Indianapolis Times (19 Sept. 1923). | |
| Outfielder | |
| Born: December 8, 1900 New York, New York | |
| Died: June 25, 1966 (aged 65) Miami, Florida | |
Batted: Left Threw: Left | |
| Professional debut | |
| MiLB: 1921, for the Vancouver Beavers | |
| MLB: September 30, 1923, for the New York Giants | |
| Last appearance | |
| MiLB: 1929, for the Canton Terriers | |
| MLB: October 7, 1923, for the New York Giants | |
| MiLB statistics | |
| Games | 606 |
| Batting average | .320 |
| Home runs | 71 |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .375 |
| Home runs | 0 |
| Runs batted in | 1 |
| Teams | |
| |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Early and personal life
editSolomon, who was Jewish, was born on Hester Street on the Lower East Side in New York City.[1][2] His parents were Benjamin (born in Russia; a peddler and junk dealer) and Anna (Hertz) Solomon (born in Austria), and were observant Jews.[3][4][2][5] While Solomon was young, the family moved to Columbus, Ohio.[2] His childhood nickname was "Hickory". He attended Columbus Commerce High School, where he was All-City in baseball and football.[6] His brother became an Ohio champion boxer, fighting under the name Henry Sully.[2][7]
He became a professional football player, playing as a ringer with Jim Thorpe on the Carlisle Indian School team.[2]
Solomon married the former Gertrude Nachmanovitz.[7] They moved to Miami, Florida, where Solomon became a building contractor.[7] Solomon died there on June 25, 1966, of heart failure.[4][7]
Minor leagues
editPrior to major league career
editSolomon began his professional career with the Vancouver Beavers of the Pacific Coast International League in 1921.[2] He hit .313 with 13 home runs in 115 games, batting left-handed and playing first base and outfield.[1][7] In 1922, he playing again with Vancouver, and then with the Tacoma Tigers.[2]
In 1923 Solomon hit 49 home runs (a new minor league record, breaking the old minor league record of 45 set in 1895) in 108 games for the Class C Southwestern League Hutchinson Wheat Shockers in Kansas.[5][7][8] He also had a .421 batting average, leading the league, while he played primarily first base and right field.[5][7] In 527 at bats, he also led the league in runs, hits (222), doubles (40), total bases (439), and slugging percentage (.833), and had 15 triples.[1][8][2][9]
After major league career
editFrom 1924 to 1928, Solomon again played in the minor leagues, never advancing past class AA. He batted over .300 with a number of teams,[7] "but a broken collarbone suffered in a football game in 1924 made it difficult for him to pull the ball, and he never again hit more than seven home runs in a season."[10] In 1924 he played for the Toledo Mud Hens, Bridgeport Bears, Waterbury Brasscos, and Pittsfield Hillies, in 1925 he played for Toledo again, the Hartford Senators, and the Albany Senators.[11] He then played for Albany in 1926-28, and for the Canton Terriers in his last year in 1929, at 28 years of age.[11]
Major leagues
editIn September 1923 the New York Giants bought out his contract, and signed the muscular 22-year-old Solomon to a major league contract.[1][12] The Sporting News ran the headline that Giants scout "Dick Kinsella Finds That $100,000 Jew".[13] Due to antisemitic remarks about Solomon being Jewish, he had been in a number of fights in the minor leagues.[7][12] Dick Kinsella observed that: "In every case Solomon has won the fight."[7]
The New York Giants had been looking for a star Jewish player to attract fans the way Babe Ruth did for the New York Yankees.[14] With a great deal of publicity, team manager John McGraw introduced Solomon to the press as the "Rabbi of Swat".[5] The press accordingly nicknamed the native New Yorker that, as well as "the Jewish Babe Ruth".[1][8] Manager McGraw told the press "We appreciate that many of the fans in New York are Jews, and we have been trying to land a prospect of Jewish blood."[12] He became the most talked-about player on the team, and attendance shot up.[7][12]
Solomon made his major league debut in right field at the Polo Grounds on September 30, 1923.[12] He drove in the game-winning run in the 10th inning to give the Giants a walk-off victory.[7][12] However, Solomon's batting skills could not compensate for his poor fielding average of only .833 (one error out of six plays), and McGraw kept him languishing on the team's bench.[5] At the plate, Solomon had a .375 batting average (three-for-eight, with one double and one RBI) in his two major league games.[4][7] He was sold by the Giants after the 1923 season, to Toledo of the minor league American Association.[7][12]
Years later, an article in Sports Illustrated noted: "He was a designated hitter, born 73 years too soon.[10]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d e Rubenstein, Steven J. (March 2005). "Moe Solomon: A Jewish Ballplayer to Rival the Sultan of Swats". Jewish Journal. Archived from the original on November 8, 2007. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Horvitz, Peter S.; Horvitz, Joachim (2001). The Big Book of Jewish Baseball. SP Books. p. 178. ISBN 9781561719730 – via Google Books.
- ^ Downs, Winfield Scott (1934). Encyclopedia of American Biography: New Series. Vol. 38. American Historical Society – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c "Solomon, Moe "The Rabbi of Swat"". Jews In Sports. Archived from the original on March 28, 2018. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e Dawidoff, Nicholas (2011). "Notes". The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 371. ISBN 9780307807090 – via Google Books.
- ^ Raphael, Marc Lee (1979). Jews and Judaism in a Midwestern Community: Columbus, Ohio, 1840-1975. Ohio Historical Society. ISBN 9780877580133 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Boxerman, Burton A.; Boxerman, Benita W. (2014). Jews and Baseball. Vol. 1, Entering the American Mainstream, 1871–1948. McFarland. ISBN 9781476605142.
- ^ a b c Kurlansky, Mark (2011). "A Beautiful Swing". Hank Greenberg: The Hero who Didn't Want to be One. Yale University Press. p. 45. ISBN 9780300136609 – via Google Books.
- ^ "1923 Southwestern League Batting Leaders". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved July 31, 2024.
- ^ a b "Berler, Ron (October 21, 1991). "Let's Hear It for the Rabbi of Swat: to Boost Attendance, the 1923 New York Giants Signed Minor League Slugger Mose Solomon". Sports Illustrated.
- ^ a b "Mose Solomon Minor Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved July 31, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g Weintraub, Robert (2012). "The Hunt for the Hebrew Ruth". In Foer, Franklin; Tracy, Marc (eds.). Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 9781455516117.
- ^ Mark, Jonathan (April 8, 2009). "The Jews Of Summer". New York Jewish Week. New York. Archived from the original on July 13, 2015. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
- ^ Kaplan, Ron (2017). Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War. Sports Publishing. ISBN 9781613219928 – via Google Books.
External links
edit- Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs