Adam Greenberg Makes Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
(JTA) — Adam Greenberg saw one pitch in his first major league at-bat, a 92 mph fastball that struck him in the head and effectively ended his MLB career. The ball hit with a sickening thud, popping Greenberg’s helmet off and sending the young ballplayer to the ground, where he clutched his head in agony.
Greenberg suffered a concussion from the 2005 incident, and bounced around the minor leagues for the next seven seasons in his bid to return to the majors. Finally, in 2012 — following a viral campaign from his fans called One at Bat — Greenberg signed a one-day contract with the Miami Marlins.
His second at-bat was a strikeout, swinging, against New York Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey.
On Sunday, Greenberg, 33, was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. He was among seven distinguished Jewish athletes inducted before a crowd of 400 gathered at the the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center in Commack, N.Y.
Scott Zlochower, the program director at the Suffolk Y JCC, said Greenberg “was extremely grateful and excited.”
“He emphasized that people are thrown curve balls in life. Unfortunately, he was thrown a 92 mile-an-hour fastball that him on the head,” Zlochower said. “[He was inducted] based on what he has gone through, his ability to overcome, and the connection he has with children as a positive role model.”
Greenberg, a Connecticut native, officially announced his retirement from baseball in February. In 2010, he helped start the natural supplement company Lu Rong Living.
Other inductees included tennis players Angela Buxton and Jay Berger, NFL agent Joel Segal, bowler Mark Roth and basketball players Barry Kramer and Don Goldstein.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO