Nobody expected somebody with a name like “Hank Greenberg” to become a baseball star. Not the neighbors, who made disapproving sounds when young Hank spent most of his spare time playing ball in the street. “Mrs. Greenberg has such wonderful children,” they said. “To bad one of them has to be a bum.” Not JoJo White, a teammate early on, who had never seen a Jewish person before and was surprised because Hank Greenberg didn’t have horns. Not the cop who asked Hank about his profession while he was giving him a traffic ticket: “Who the hell ever heard of a Greenberg being a baseball player?” he yelled. But If it’s true that our soul is coded with our life’s purpose, then it’s obvious that Hank Greenberg’s was marked indelibly with “baseball,” something which may have helped him to run counter to type and brave storms of anti-Semitism to fulfill his life’s calling.

So why all the fuss? Unless you are a fan, Hank Greenberg’s name may not ring any bells, but during his 14 year career in baseball, most of it with the Detroit Tigers, he came close to breaking Babe Ruth’s season homerun record and nearly broke Lou Gehrig’s season record for RBI’s (runs batted in). He earned Most Valuable Player twice in his league and led his team to the World Series three times. But even beyond the glowing statistics, “The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg” portrays an “aw-shucks” all-American hero – the kind normally played by Jimmy Stewart or Hank Fonda -- who marches into the arena again and again and seems almost seems unaware of the slings and arrows around him as he fights for the right cause.

Some of the most compelling film is of interviews with Mr. Greenberg, both as a young player in his twenties and as a dapper man in his 70’s. At both ages, he minimizes the effect of the taunts and jibes he endured in the stadium and keeps his eye on the prize – baseball. Combined with his enormous talent, this “never-say-die” attitude made him a hopeful symbol for an anxious Jewish community in the ‘30’s. As Hitler raised the Nazi flag in Germany and America held some of its own Bund rallies, “Hammering Hank” rose above the slurs yelled from the stands and the rival team benches and kept playing – playing his way through prejudice and into playoffs and pennants. Jewish mothers would ask: “How did Hank do today?” Rabbis (sp?) would take a break to find out the scores. And even the establishment eventually gave in: When Hank helped to win a crucial game against the White Sox by playing on the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, the Detroit Free Press thanked him the next day by wishing him a Happy New Year on the front page of the paper… in Hebrew. By the same token, when he chose not to play on Yom Kippur and attended synagogue instead, the congregation burst into applause at this entrance…while the Rabbis prayed.

“He was what ‘they’ said, we could never be,” says Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, one of several celebrity Greenberg fans to be interviewed for the documentary. “He defied Hitler’s stereotype. And for that he may have been the most important Jew in to live the 1930’s.” Stephen Greenberg, Hank’s son, adds: “Every time he would hit a home run he would be doubly proud because he felt he was hitting a home run against Hitler.”

All of this makes “The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg” more than a baseball film. And you don’t need to be a baseball fan to enjoy the story. It is a quintessential version of the story of the classic mythic hero, one who begins as underdog without a chance, and faces insurmountable challenges and hurdles to become a champion, doing it all with grace, grit and style. Director Aviva Kempner went on her own mythic journey to make the film. Begun after Hank Greenberg’s death in 1986, It took her over 12 determined years to produce the documentary, mostly to convince off and on backers that Hank Greenberg was worthy. It’s understandable then if the film’s only failing is that it lingers too long on some of its subject matter. Ms. Kempner’s reward is that “Life and Times” has created its own “buzz” with its unabashed presentation of anti-Semitism in Detroit of the ‘30’s -- both off and on the playing field. Screenings have been preceded and followed by articles about the problems of prejudice -- past and present -- in the sports arena.

The same year that Hank Greenberg retired from baseball, Jackie Robinson entered the stadium to begin the struggle for another battle of equality. Hank Greenberg had a chance to talk to Robinson. When asked what they had talked about, Jackie Robinson gave the retiring slugger a fitting tribute: “He gave me encouragement. Mr. Greenberg is a high class gentleman -- it stands out all over him.”