Buddy Myer

Who is the all time Jewish hit leader?

The younger of you might suggest Ryan Braun or Ian Kinsler, but neither has been around long enough. Someone of a more nostalgic bent might cross their fingers for a Shamsky type, but it'd be for naught. Of course, the smart money would be on such Hebrew highlights as Hank Greenberg and Lou Boudreau.

But it would still be money lost. For the all-time Jewish hit king is none other than Charles Solomon "Buddy" Myer with 2,131 hits, most of them while playing for the hapless Washington Senators ("First in war, first in peace, last in the American League").

Except, even that might be wrong. For you see, baseball historian, statistician and JONJ man-crush Bill James (Not a Jew) reported that Myer told a local newspaperman in 1974 that he was German and that the whole Jewish thing was just an erroneous assumption.

Myer is dead, so there is no more information forthcoming. It is telling however that beyond James' assertion (and much as we love Bill James, we don't love anyone enough to take what is essentially second-degree hearsay as definitive fact), no further evidence exists to deny Myer's pedigree. Beyond the hits thing he is most famous for getting in a particularly brutal fight over antisemitic comments made by notorious bigot Ben Chapman and Myer has been included on some sports writers' All-Time Jewish teams since the supposed German revelation, so not everyone is buying in here.

So for now, yeah: there's your Jewish hits leader. Unless you want to start arguing for Rod Carew...

(Editor's update: It turns out that Myer's family had Jewish ancestry, but converted to Christianity. Is he still the Jewish hits leader? Depends how you interpret this verdict...)

Verdict: **Barely a Jew**.

_May 30, 2011_