Hank Greenberg is one of the most underrated first baseman of the past due possibly of playing in the same era as Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx. If he had not missed three years due in the prime of his career to serving his country, he would have racked up even more incredible stats. No doubt, he was one of the biggest sluggers of his time.
And as we can tell from this card, he could hit it into the gap. In 1934, he led the league with 63 doubles for the AL champion Detroit Tigers. Not only that, he hit .339 with 139 rbis and 118 runs scored.
At 23, it was Greenberg’s second season in the bigs so he was just getting a sense of what he could do. He did hit 26 homeruns and managed to collect 201 hits for the Bengals.
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1934 Totals | 153 | 153 | 667 | 593 | 118 | 201 | 63 | 7 | 26 | 139 | 9 | 63 | 94 | .339 | .404 | .600 |
With 63 doubles, you shouldn’t be surprised to see some first column sixes here. Not only does he have three, he has a 4 to go along with them to recreate his league-leading total.
Along with his 55-7, Greenberg has a 15-10 to help replicate his .339 batting average. Hank stole nine bases and the 10 seems appropriate for that.
Throughout his career, Greenberg had been a 1B-4 according to APBA (see 1935 Hank Greenberg) and this is no exception. As a firstbaseman, he gets the advantage (?) of having the two unusual play numbers of 41 and 37. If you count the 41, he has eleven chances to get on base against an A pitcher. Most of those are hits by the way. Greenberg doesn’t doesn’t take free passes, he prefers to hit his way on.
That said, he does have three 14s. That’s against four 13s. Only one 31 would should not be too surprising.
Note that this is a card from the Great Teams of the Past set. The 12 was placed at 16 and the 28 was displaced to the 23. I’m one of the rare few who miss when APBA played musical chairs with the 12.
Thanks to Pastor Rich Zawadzki for suggesting this card!!
Hi Tom,
Another fine article. Hank is one of my favorite players to use in my replays. I live about 45 minutes north of Detroit, although I am too young to have seen him play.
Although he had a 16 year career, he really only had 9 full seasons. In those 9 seasons he won MVP twice, finished 3rd two other times and had seasons with 63 doubles (as you pointed out), another season with over 100 extra base hits (1937), a year with 58 Homeruns (1938 – second only to Ruth at the time), and he led the league in Homers 4 years and RBI 4 years. His eye must have gotten better as he aged (or the pitchers got smarter) as he also lead the league in walks twice.
One typo in the article though: “Greenberg doesn’t doesn’t take free passes, he prefers to hit his way on.” I think you have an extra “doesn’t” in there.
Keep up the great work.
Dan