{{short description|American baseball player (1900-1966)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox baseball biography |name=Mose Solomon |image=Mose Solomon 1923.jpg | caption = Solomon in 1923 |position=Outfielder |birth_date={{Birth date|mf=yes|1900|12|8}} |birth_place=New York, New York |death_date={{death date and age|mf=yes|1966|6|25|1900|12|8}} |death_place=Miami, Florida |bats=Left |throws=Left | debutleague = MiLB | debutdate = | debutyear = 1921 | debutteam = Vancouver Beavers |finalleague = MiLB |finaldate= |finalyear=1929 |finalteam=Canton Terriers |statleague = MiLB |stat1label=Games |stat1value=606 |stat2value=.320 |stat2label=Batting average |stat3label=Home runs |stat3value=71 |debut2league = MLB |debut2date=September 30 |debut2year=1923 |debut2team=New York Giants |final2league = MLB |final2date=October 7 |final2year=1923 |final2team=New York Giants |stat2league = MLB |stat21label=Batting average |stat21value=.375 |stat22label=Home runs |stat22value=0 |stat23label=Runs batted in |stat23value=1 |teams= *New York Giants (1923) | highlights = * Set minor league home run record, with 49 (1923) }}
'''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.
==Early and personal life==
Solomon, who was Jewish, was born on Hester Street on the Lower East Side in New York City.<ref name="Rubenstein 2005">{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishjournal.org/archives/archiveMarch11_05.htm|title=Moe Solomon: A Jewish Ballplayer to Rival the Sultan of Swats|last=Rubenstein|first=Steven J.|date=March 2005|publisher=Jewish Journal|accessdate=5 July 2015|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071108021605/http://www.jewishjournal.org/archives/archiveMarch11_05.htm|archivedate=November 8, 2007}}</ref><ref name="google1">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9ZzxydPInwgC&dq=mose+solomon&pg=PA178 |title=The Big Book of Jewish Baseball |first1=Peter S. |last1=Horvitz |first2=Joachim |last2=Horvitz|via=Google Books|page=178|publisher=SP Books|date=2001|isbn=9781561719730}}</ref> His parents were Benjamin (born in Russia; a peddler and junk dealer) and Anna (Hertz) Solomon (born in Austria), and were observant Jews.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WpcMAQAAMAAJ&q=mose+solomon |title=Encyclopedia of American Biography: New Series |volume=38|first=Winfield Scott |last=Downs|publisher=American Historical Society|date=1934|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="Jews in Sports">{{cite web|url=http://jewsinsports.org/profile.asp?sport=baseball&ID=60|title=Solomon, Moe "The Rabbi of Swat"|publisher=Jews In Sports|accessdate=5 July 2015| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180328231310/http://jewsinsports.org/profile.asp?sport=baseball&ID=60|archive-date=Mar 28, 2018}}</ref><ref name="google1"/><ref name="google2">{{cite book|chapter=Notes|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kAHo0DTDC_UC&dq=Hutchinson+Wheat+Shockers&pg=PA371 |title=The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg|first=Nicholas |last=Dawidoff|author-link= Nicholas Dawidoff|page=371|via=Google Books|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|date=2011|isbn=9780307807090}}</ref> While Solomon was young, the family moved to Columbus, Ohio.<ref name="google1"/> His childhood nickname was "Hickory". He attended Columbus Commerce High School, where he was All-City in baseball and football.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h_F5AAAAMAAJ&q=mose+solomon |title=Jews and Judaism in a Midwestern Community: Columbus, Ohio, 1840-1975 |first=Marc Lee |last=Raphael |publisher=Ohio Historical Society |date= 1979|isbn= 9780877580133|via=Google Books }}</ref> His brother became an Ohio champion boxer, fighting under the name Henry Sully.<ref name="google1"/><ref name="google3">{{cite book|title=Jews and Baseball |volume=1, Entering the American Mainstream, 1871–1948 |first1=Burton A. |last1=Boxerman |first2=Benita W. |last2=Boxerman|publisher=McFarland|date= 2014|isbn=9781476605142}}</ref>
He became a professional football player, playing as a ringer with Jim Thorpe on the Carlisle Indian School team.<ref name="google1"/>
Solomon married the former Gertrude Nachmanovitz.<ref name="google3"/> They moved to Miami, Florida, where Solomon became a building contractor.<ref name="google3"/> Solomon died there on June 25, 1966, of heart failure.<ref name="Jews in Sports"/><ref name="google3"/>
==Minor leagues== ===Prior to major league career=== Solomon began his professional career with the Vancouver Beavers of the Pacific Coast International League in 1921.<ref name="google1"/> He hit .313 with 13 home runs in 115 games, batting left-handed and playing first base and outfield.<ref name="Rubenstein 2005" /><ref name="google3"/> In 1922, he playing again with Vancouver, and then with the Tacoma Tigers.<ref name="google1"/>
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.<ref name="google2"/><ref name="google3"/><ref name="google4">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=65bvTT-YTEIC&dq=Hutchinson+Wheat+Shockers&pg=PA45 |title=Hank Greenberg: The Hero who Didn't Want to be One |chapter= A Beautiful Swing|page=45|first=Mark |last=Kurlansky|publisher=Yale University Press |date=2011|isbn= 9780300136609|via=Google Books}}</ref> He also had a .421 batting average, leading the league, while he played primarily first base and right field.<ref name="google2"/><ref name="google3"/> 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.<ref name="Rubenstein 2005" /><ref name="google4"/><ref name="google1" /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/leader.cgi?type=bat&id=4919f11a |title=1923 Southwestern League Batting Leaders | work=Baseball-Reference.com|access-date=July 31, 2024}}</ref>
===After major league career=== From 1924 to 1928, Solomon again played in the minor leagues, never advancing past class AA. He batted over .300 with a number of teams,<ref name="google3"/> "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."<ref name=SI /> 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.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=solomo001mor |title=Mose Solomon Minor Leagues Statistics & History | work=Baseball-Reference.com|access-date=July 31, 2024}}</ref> He then played for Albany in 1926-28, and for the Canton Terriers in his last year in 1929, at 28 years of age.<ref name=autogenerated1 />
==Major leagues== In September 1923 the New York Giants bought out his contract, and signed the muscular 22-year-old Solomon to a major league contract.<ref name="Rubenstein 2005" /><ref name="google5">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4OP_5zzOBNMC&q=Mose+Solomon |title=Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame|first=Robert|last=Weintraub|chapter=The Hunt for the Hebrew Ruth|pages=|editor-first1=Franklin |editor-last1=Foer |editor-first2=Marc |editor-last2=Tracy | publisher= Grand Central Publishing |date=2012|isbn=9781455516117}}</ref> ''The Sporting News'' ran the headline that Giants scout "Dick Kinsella Finds That $100,000 Jew".<ref name="thejewishweek1">{{cite web|url=http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/jews_summer|last=Mark|first=Jonathan|title=The Jews Of Summer|date=April 8, 2009|accessdate=July 5, 2015|work=New York Jewish Week|location=New York|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713212800/http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/jews_summer|archive-date=July 13, 2015}}</ref> Due to antisemitic remarks about Solomon being Jewish, he had been in a number of fights in the minor leagues.<ref name="google3"/><ref name="google5"/> Dick Kinsella observed that: "In every case Solomon has won the fight."<ref name="google3"/>
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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YqmvDQAAQBAJ&dq=Hutchinson+Wheat+Shockers&pg=PT63 |title=Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War |first=Ron |last=Kaplan|date=2017|publisher=Sports Publishing|isbn=9781613219928|via=Google Books}}</ref> With a great deal of publicity, team manager John McGraw introduced Solomon to the press as the "Rabbi of Swat".<ref name="google2"/> The press accordingly nicknamed the native New Yorker that, as well as "the Jewish Babe Ruth".<ref name="Rubenstein 2005" /><ref name="google4"/> 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."<ref name="google5"/> He became the most talked-about player on the team, and attendance shot up.<ref name="google3"/><ref name="google5"/>
Solomon made his major league debut in right field at the Polo Grounds on September 30, 1923.<ref name="google5"/> He drove in the game-winning run in the 10th inning to give the Giants a walk-off victory.<ref name="google3"/><ref name="google5"/> 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.<ref name="google2"/> At the plate, Solomon had a .375 batting average (three-for-eight, with one double and one RBI) in his two major league games.<ref name="Jews in Sports"/><ref name="google3"/> He was sold by the Giants after the 1923 season, to Toledo of the minor league American Association.<ref name="google3"/><ref name="google5"/>
Years later, an article in ''Sports Illustrated'' noted: "He was a designated hitter, born 73 years too soon".<ref name=SI>"{{cite magazine|title=Let's Hear It for the Rabbi of Swat: to Boost Attendance, the 1923 New York Giants Signed Minor League Slugger Mose Solomon|first=Ron |last=Berler|date=Oct 21, 1991|magazine=Sports Illustrated|url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1991/10/21/lets-hear-it-for-the-rabbi-of-swat-to-boost-attendance-the-1923-new-york-giants-signed-minor-league-slugger-mose-solomon}}</ref>
==See also== * ''Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story'', 2010 documentary * List of Jewish Major League Baseball players
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Baseballstats |mlb= |espn= |br=s/solommo01 |fangraphs=1012269 |brm=}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solomon, Mose}} Category:1900 births Category:1966 deaths Category:Jewish American baseball players Category:Major League Baseball right fielders Category:New York Giants (baseball) players Category:Baseball players from New York City Category:Hutchinson Wheat Shockers players Category:20th-century American Jews Category:20th-century American sportsmen