We grew up at 1928 Prospect Ave (corner of Elsmere) in the shadow of Crotona Park, P.S. 44, The RKO Chester, the Loew's Fairmont and the Bronx Zoo in the East Tremont Section of the Bronx. Crotona Park, up the block from our house, is where pop and his cronies went to play handball and where we kids loved to go sledding on winter day.
Once encompassing 155 acres ( but now 127.5) it's where a Bronx born teenager 'Hammerin' Hank Greenberg, loved to hang out and shag balls in the mid 1920's.
Hank Greenberg attended Monroe High School where he excelled at basketball and baseball. He played the big leagues from 1930-1947, was twice voted the Most Valuable Player, hit 58 homers in 1938 and happened to live across the street. By the time I was born, he was already in the Big Leagues for 10 years.
My grandmother, dad's mom, would tell me she would often sit in Crotona Park along with Hank's mom and the two would qvell about their boys. My bubbe would proudly hand out business cards for my dad's new medical practice and Hank's mom loved to tell all their friends how proud she was of her son.
This blog on Greenberg will be continued on Hank's Jan. 1st birthday
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