Ron Berler is a 1967 Staples High School graduate, and a longtime magazine and newspaper writer.
He played Westport Little League baseball, then was cut during tryouts at Long Lots Junior High and Staples.
He writes frequently about the sport. Some years ago, he wrote a piece for Sports Illustrated on Mose Solomon, the “Rabbi of Swat.” The other day, he posted it here, on Medium.com.
With the approach of both the baseball season and Passover, Ron has written this for “06880”:
Last July — a month after graduating — Staples High School’s Hiro Wyatt was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the 3rd round of the Major League Baseball amateur draft.
The pitcher — who finished his Wrecker season 8-0, with an 0.51 ERA, 107 strikeouts and just 11 walks in 54 2/3 innings — was named Connecticut High School Coaches Association Player of the Year.
If he reaches the major leagues, he’ll be the second Westport native to do so. The first was Hezekiah Allen, in ’84.
1884, that is.
You might say Allen was a prodigy. He reached the big leagues at 21, the same age the Yankees’ Derek Jeter did. A sinewy 5-11, 160-pound catcher, Allen played just 1 game for the 1884 Philadelphia Quakers (now the Phillies), batting 3 times and smacking 2 singles, for a career average of .667.
The Philadelphia Quakers in 1884. Hezekiah Allen is probably not in this photo.
One might wonder: Given that his team would finish the season 39-73, with 1 tie, why wouldn’t manager Harry Wright offer him a second opportunity?
There’s good reason to believe Wright was just plain scared. Allen committed 3 passed balls in his 5 innings on the field, the equivalent of a rabbi dropping 3 matzoh balls in his lap before finishing his soup.
And yet honor him we must. To this day, Allen remains (as far as can be determined) our town’s sole, home-grown major leaguer. You can visit his grave in Willowbrook Cemetery.
And with the coming of the baseball season, it is time to pay tribute to a couple of the sport’s other very minor contributors. I’m thinking, for example, of Larry Yount, the older brother of Hall of Fame Milwaukee Brewers shortstop/ outfielder Robin Yount. Larry was a pitcher for the Houston Astros.
Well, not exactly. Near the end of the 1971 season, he was promoted to the big club. On September 15, with the team trailing the Atlanta Braves 4-1 in the 9th inning, Astros manager Harry “The Hat” Walker signaled for Larry to take the mound. It was the moment Larry had prepared for all his life.
He took the ball from Walker and threw several warmup pitches. Then suddenly, he stopped. His elbow, which had caused him minor pain while throwing in the bullpen, had suddenly grown worse. He called for the trainer and was removed from the game without having thrown a pitch.
And that was it for him. Though his arm soon healed, he never got another chance in the majors. Larry is quite possibly the only player to take the field in his one big league game and never actually play.
Mose Solomon
Which brings us, this Passover season, to Mose Solomon, who in September 1923 jumped from the low, low minors to the New York Giants.
Though the Giants were in first place at the time and would go on to win the National League pennant (they lost to the Yankees in the World Series, 4 games to 2 – the Yankees’ first championship), few fans were trekking to the Polo Grounds to see them play.
John McGraw, the Giants’ manager, blamed Babe Ruth, who would lead the majors that year with 41 home runs and further burnish his nickname, the Sultan of Swat.
Yet that season, Ruth was not the home run leader of all professional baseball. That title belonged to Solomon, a first baseman/right fielder for the Hutchinson (Kansas) Wheat Shockers of the financially unstable Southwestern League, who walloped 49 homers in 1923 against teams like the Salina Millers and the Coffeyville Refiners.
McGraw brought the slugger, who was Jewish, to New York and introduced him to the press, and to the city, as the Rabbi of Swat.
Great nickname. A name that promises the stuff of legend. And for the last month of the season, New York, which was 20 percent Jewish, went wild. As the newsboys from the Roaring ’20s would hawk, read all about it!
So as the 2024 baseball season nears, let’s not forget 20th-century players like Mose Solomon.
Or 19th-century ones like Hezekiah Allen.
Play ball!
(“06880” is the only place you’ll read about Hezekiah Allen. Looking back is part of our mission. So is looking forward. If you enjoy this hyper-local blog, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
