# Alta Cohen

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**Albert Cohen** (December 25, 1908 – March 11, 2003), nicknamed "**Alta**", was an American professional [baseball](/source/Baseball) player. He attended [South Side High School](/source/South_Side_High_School_(Rockville_Centre,_New_York)) in New York.[1] He was Jewish.[2]

In the minor leagues, he was an [All Star](/source/All_Star) with the Triple A [Toledo Mud Hens](/source/Toledo_Mud_Hens).[3]

In 1931 he batted .316–5–47 for the [Hartford Senators](/source/Hartford_Senators), and led the league in walks (87). Cohen made hid major league debut in the second game of the 1931 season, taking over for [pinch hitter](/source/Pinch_hitter) [Ike Boone](/source/Ike_Boone).[4]

The next day, Cohen was farmed out to Hartford. Cohen was leading the [Eastern League](/source/Eastern_League_(1916)) in hitting in 1932 with a .409 average in 59 games when the league folded in mid-season.[4] He became a pitcher and had two good years with Toledo (American Association) in 1936–37 with a 29–19 record.[4] He played [outfield](/source/Outfield) in the majors from 1931 to 1933 with the [Brooklyn Robins/Dodgers](/source/Brooklyn_Dodgers) and [Cincinnati Reds](/source/Cincinnati_Reds).

Cohen's father gave him the name Alta ([Yiddish](/source/Yiddish) for "old") as the traditional Jewish trick to fool the angel of death during the [1918 flu epidemic](/source/1918_flu_epidemic). In the majors, Alta's teammates called him "Schoolboy."[5]

Cohen founded the Altco Products Co. in 1940, with offices throughout the state, and served as president for 44 years before retiring in 1984. He was a member of the board of directors of the [Newark Beth Israel Medical Center](/source/Newark_Beth_Israel_Medical_Center) and the Daughters of Israel Geriatric Center in [West Orange](/source/West_Orange,_New_Jersey), and a member of the Green Brook Country Club in [North Caldwell](/source/North_Caldwell). Also a philanthropist, he was honored in the 1980s by [Hebrew University](/source/Hebrew_University), in New York City.

He lived in [Verona](/source/Verona) and [South Orange](/source/South_Orange)[6] before moving to [Maplewood, New Jersey](/source/Maplewood,_New_Jersey), where he died in his home.[7]

## References

1. ["Alta Cohen Stats"](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cohenal01.shtml). Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2020-02-04.

1. "Big League Jews". *[Jewish Sports Review](/source/Jewish_Sports_Review)*. **12** (137): 18. January–February 2020.

1. ["TheDeadballEra.com: Alta Cohen's Obit"](http://www.thedeadballera.com/Obits/Cohen.Alta.Obit.html). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20080907081948/http://www.thedeadballera.com/Obits/Cohen.Alta.Obit.html) 2008-09-07 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-02-02.

1. ["Minor League Baseball Top 100 Team #26: 1931 Hartford Senators"](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519142054/http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/history/top100.jsp?idx=26). Archived from [the original](http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/history/top100.jsp?idx=26) on 2011-05-19. Retrieved 2009-04-09.

1. [Jewish Week article](http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a15421/News/New_York.html)[dead link]

1. ["Cohen's obituary at The Dead Ball Era"](https://web.archive.org/web/20080907081948/http://www.thedeadballera.com/Obits/Cohen.Alta.Obit.html). Archived from [the original](http://www.thedeadballera.com/Obits/Cohen.Alta.Obit.html) on 2008-09-07. Retrieved 2009-04-09.

1. ["Oldest Brooklyn Dodgers' alumnus dies"](http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/baseball/20030312-1310-bbo-obit-cohen.html), *[The San Diego Union-Tribune](/source/The_San_Diego_Union-Tribune)*, March 12, 2003. Accessed March 27, 2008.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alta Cohen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alta_Cohen) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alta_Cohen?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.