Sid and Andy Cohen, El Paso Baseball greats Summary:
From our Borderlands
article: The Cohen "brothers started playing baseball in El Paso in 1922 at the Rio Grande Park and later both played baseball in the Major Leagues. Andy Cohen was a second baseman for the New York Giants, and Sid was a pitcher for several different teams in the American League. Sid Cohen was last pitcher to strike out Babe Ruth. After playing for the Majors, the brothers returned to El Paso to work for the El Paso organization."
From JewsinSports.org: "Andy
Cohen: The New York Giant second baseman who, in 1928, inspired the poem "Cohen
At the Bat." He is best known as one of several Jewish ballplayers the New York
Giants tried to make into star attractions, in an effort to tap into the New
York Jewish community. Since Rogers Hornsby, the best hitting second baseman in
history, was traded to make room for Cohen, Andy suffered by unfair comparison.
His brother Syd Cohen
pitched briefly in the major leagues, and memorably in the Mexican League.
Library Catalogs
-
El Paso Chronicles p. 275 -- both brothers die in 1988. Syd: 4/9/88
and Andy: 10/29/1988
Password (Journal of EP Historical Society)
and its Archives- No
articles on these brothers. I also searched baseball which might
provide background information to flesh out a future article on the
brothers. The roman numeral is the volume number, the arabic number
following is the page.
- Baseball in Early El Paso, : xxix, 188, photo (c. 1881) xxxi, 100;
(1887), xxxii, 141, 191
- El Paso Browns (baseball team), : xxx, 129
- There is a photo that shows Andy Cohen 043-1997-004P5 The
thumbnail doesn't show online, but the photo is in the EPCHS archive.
- After not
finding a whole lot of info so far, Check THIS out!: Two page full
text online article on Andy Cohen:
Great Jews in Sports - Page 57 Lots of useful info here, including
mention of NY newspaper articles. Includes photo. A point to
consider and research, why was having a Jewish person on the team a
big selling point at that time in American history?
-
This is fantastic -- there's a whole chapter on Andy Cohen in the major
leagues in this book, and I think you might be able to see full text of
all the pages.
Ellis Island to Ebbets Field- Sport and the American Jewish Experience -
Page 112 He's mentioned on pages 91-92 and then the whole
chapter pp. 100-116. This book will also help explain the question
I was asking earlier about why that time in history. If you can't
read all the pages, it is available at UTEP
and you can check it out
using your TexShare card (available at the NW Library Circulation Desk).
-
The Big Book of Jewish Sports Heroes: An Illustrated Compendium
of Sports ... - Page 201
A couple of pages here and a letter written by Andy Cohen explaining
how the pressure of being the "Great Jewish Hope" shortened his career.
Also mentions that Sid is "best remembered as the pitcher who
surrendered Babe Ruth's last American League home run."
here's another blurb on that:
The Washington Senators, 1901-1971 - Page 128
-
Index to Collective Biographies for Young Readers - Page 29 He's written
about in RI and SLA. SLA is the book we already know, Great
Jews in Sports. RI is Ribalow, H. Jewish Baseball Stars,
Hippocrene, 1984. I put this book title in Google Books, but
it says "no preview available". I clicked on the link: Find
this book in a library, and there are
some libaries who have
it, but you'd have to get it through interlibrary loan.
-
Chapter on the Cohens in Jewish Baseball Stars, excerpted in the site
http://www.jewsinsports.org
Search on Andy Cohen and the go to right border for link to this
chapter. This one can be printed, the others in google books cannot be
printed or copied.
- Another little bit of info here:
Baseball: America's Diamond Mind - Page 166
-
Mel Ott: The Little Giant of Baseball
pp.
26-27, 29, 33-34
-
The Jew in Sports - Page 89 written in 1936 only shows snippets,
but shows that Sid played for the Senators.
-
The Giants Encyclopedia - Page 278 Andy in a World Series
game.
-
Baseball in Eau Claire - Page 57
; Andy manages a Wisconsin team in the 1950s. Photos.
-
Creating the National Pastime: Baseball Transforms Itself,
1903-1953 - Page 254pp. 254-55, 259, 346 not all
pages visible. At
UTEP
-
John McGraw - Page 283 couple of pages in this
book about the manager who brought Andy to the Giants.
-
A Summer Up North: Henry Aaron and the Legend of Eau
Claire Baseball - Page 31,
32, 151. Andy Cohen and baseball's integration of black players
-
Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero - Page 73
Andy coached Curt Roberts, one of the black players that that led the
way for Roberto Clemente
-
A Portion of the People: Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life
p.53
-
Those Damn Yankees: The Secret Life of America's Greatest Franchise - Page 40
-
Baseball's Western Front: The Pacific Coast League During
World War II Sid plays for the Portland Beavers
-
Society of American Baseball Research - see page 47
-
Boston Red Sox: Where Have You Gone? - Page 51 Sid coaches the
Bisbee-Douglas Copper Kings
Google SearchesAs always with internet searches, be sure to question the
authenticity of information.
There is bound to be an envelope in the vertical file at the Border Heritage Center. You can call and ask them before you go down
(915-543-5440). This is a collection of photocopied articles on a
person or topic. You can also see if there is an envelope on Baseball in
El Paso in the files.
In addition, check the newspaper card catalog, under Baseball and also under
Cohen, to see other articles available. You would then have to search for
the article in the microfilms, ask at the reference desk around the corner from
the readers for help.
-
Syd and Andy Cohen interview
45 minutes with these "Former UTEP Baseball Coaches)
Experiences playing pro baseball; Syd played under the name of Pablo Garcia
in Mexico; coaching experiences at UTEP."
- Use dates found in El Paso Chronicles to search for obituaries.
Try local and national papers (since they played for the major leagues)
- NY Times
ANDY COHEN KEEPS HIS NAME Jul 22, 1928. p. 106
page compiled by
Rachel Murphree
Last updated
02/03/2008
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