page_title: Hank Greenberg
section_title: Management and ownership
hierarchical_section_title: Hank Greenberg / Professional baseball / Major leagues / Management and ownership
caption_attribution_description: English: Cleveland Indians general manager Hank Greenberg speaks during a press conference in Cleveland.
context_page_description: Henry Benjamin Greenberg, nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank", "Hankus Pankus", or "The Hebrew Hammer", was an American professional baseball player and team executive. He played in Major League Baseball, primarily for the Detroit Tigers as a first baseman in the 1930s and 1940s. A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and a two-time Most Valuable Player Award winner, he was one of the premier power hitters of his generation and is widely considered as one of the greatest sluggers in baseball history. He had 47 months of military service including service in World War II, all of which took place during what would have been prime years in his major league career.
  Greenberg played the first twelve of his 13 major league seasons for Detroit. He was an American League All-Star for four seasons and an AL MVP in 1935 and 1940. He had a batting average over .300 in eight seasons, and won two World Series championships with the Tigers.
context_section_description: After the 1947 season, Greenberg retired as a player, and Bill Veeck hired him as the Cleveland Indians' farm system director, and two years later, their General Manager; Greenberg did not, however, become a part-owner of the Indians until 1956, well after Veeck had sold his interest in the team. During his tenure, he sponsored more African American players than any other major league executive.  Greenberg's contributions to the Cleveland farm system led to the team's successes throughout the 1950s, although Bill James once wrote that the Indians' late 1950s collapse should also be attributed to him. In 1949, Larry Doby also recommended Greenberg scout three players Doby used to play with in the Negro leagues: Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and Willie Mays. The next offseason Doby asked what Indians' scouts said about his recommendations. Said Greenberg, "Our guys checked 'em out and their reports were not good. They said that Aaron has a hitch in his swing and will never hit good pitching. Banks is too slow and didn't have enough range [at shortstop], and Mays can't hit a curveball." When Veeck sold his interest, Greenberg remained as general manager and part-owner (for one year) until 1957. In 1953, he was partly responsible for an important change to baseball's waivers rule. In previous seasons, once a player passed through waivers in his team's league (the AL or NL), any team from the other league could acquire him, a detail the Yankees used to often outbid other AL teams for NL players. Greenberg successfully campaigned for a new rule that, after June 15, required players to pass through waivers in both leagues before teams in the other league could attempt to obtain them. Greenberg was the mastermind behind a potential move of the club to Minneapolis that was vetoed by the rest of ownership at the last minute. Greenberg was furious and sold his share soon afterwards.
  In 1959, Greenberg and Veeck teamed up for a second time when their syndicate purchased the Chicago White Sox; Veeck served as team president with Greenberg as vice president and general manager. During Veeck and Greenberg's first season, the White Sox won their first AL pennant since 1919. Veeck would sell his shares in the White Sox in 1961, and Greenberg stepped down as general manager on August 26 of that season.
  After the 1960 season, the American League announced plans to put a team in Los Angeles.  Greenberg immediately became the favorite to become the new team's first owner and persuaded Veeck to join him as his partner.  However, when Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley got wind of these developments, he threatened to scuttle the whole deal by invoking his exclusive rights to operate a major league team in southern California.  In truth, O'Malley wanted no part of competing against an expansion team owned by a master promoter such as Veeck, even if he was only a minority partner.  Greenberg wouldn't budge and pulled out of the running for what became the Los Angeles Angels (now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim).  Greenberg later became a successful investment banker, briefly returning to baseball as a minority partner with Veeck when the latter repurchased the White Sox in 1975.
  On September 20, 1961, Greenberg along with Bob Neal called a baseball game for ABC between the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles.
caption: Greenberg as general manager of the Cleveland Indians in 1957
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