Ron Blomberg was the first overall pick in the 1967 amateur draft. Although his baseball career was plagued by injuries, he was a memorable and electrifying Yankee player in the early 1970s. In 1973 he became the first designated hitter in baseball history when he faced Luis Tiant on Opening Day in Boston. Ron is a lifetime .293 hitter and a member of the Jewish Athlete Hall of Fame. Ron has now written a new book, Designated Hebrew, that details his experiences overcoming prejudice in his native South as well as his baseball career.

I recently caught up with the effervescent Mr. Blomberg and he was courteous enough to grant me an interview.

How did growing up in the South shape your childhood and early life?

When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s in the South and being a Jewish athlete, half the people I played with were in the KKK or the John Birch Society. Lester Maddox and George Wallace were running things and there was a lot of prejudice. There were bombings and marching of the KKK. That was the environment.

I was lucky to be a pretty good athlete. I was strong and I’m fortunate because no one really bothered me. But I saw a lot of problems growing up down South in Atlanta. We had a Civil War between the White supremacists against the Blacks, Catholics and Jews. So it was very difficult, and of course in Alabama George Wallace was standing in the schoolhouse door. But what has happened is in the 25 years a lot of people from the North have moved down here and things have changed.

People today don’t realize how tough it was back then. I was a major minority and when I first came up in the big leagues I met Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax and they told me how tough it was when they were in the big leagues. Greenberg really had a lot of trouble. When I was in the minor leagues there were actually people that didn’t know what a Jew was. But this made me tougher. There were a lot of anti-Semitic people as I climbed through the minor leagues.

I was open about my religion and I was proud to be Jewish. I would never change my name. The first Jewish Yankee was Jimmy Reese, but he changed his name and no one knew he was Jewish.

But I was lucky to play in New York were people looked up to me and I was an idol for many Jewish kids there. I got to know Mayor Beame, Bob Abrams and others. I saw these people all the time. I looked upon them as being very successful and they felt the same way about me.

You always wanted to be a New York Yankee when you were growing up.

I sure did. We had the Atlanta Crackers as a minor league team. And then the Braves moved down here. But all the games we saw on Saturday were the Yankees and I imitated Mickey Mantle. When I played growing up I was always Mickey.

Believe it or not, when I first came up to New York he was my first roommate. I lived a fantasy in my life.

I’ll tell you. New York fans are the best. Those are people from New York, Connecticut, Jersey. Those are my fans and I love them. I do a lot of corporate speaking and book signings. When I go there people look at me, the older ones, and ask me about being Jewish and they tell me how much they enjoyed seeing me play.

I tell these people that they are the ones who took care of me. They embraced me and I’m so grateful. It was great to be able to perform in front of the people up there.

Back then when I played, it was fan friendly. We didn’t make a lot of money before free agency. Three quarters of the players back then had 2nd jobs in the off-season. It took us a career to make what players make in one year now. Plus there were one year contacts. I hit .329 one year and the GM, Gabe Paul, gave me a $600 raise. The next year I hit .311 and he deducted $1,000 from my salary. There was nothing I could do. It’s not one of these things where there was free agency.

You were the first pick in the first round of the 1967 amateur draft. Were you expecting that?

I knew that I would be drafted really high. I had been scouted since the 9th grade and I kept improving. I had 125 basketball scholarship offers and 100 for football. Then the same day I signed with the Yankees I also signed to attend UCLA and play basketball for John Wooden. But once I visited New York I loved it and signing the contract with the Yankees voided my college eligibility so I played baseball. Those rules have since changed.

If a team other than the Yankees signed you, would you still have played baseball?

I would have gone to UCLA and played basketball. The Yankees made the difference. I signed to be able to play in the greatest city in the world and play with my idol, Mickey Mantle. They flew me up there and I met with Walter Cronkite, Phil Rizzuto, Frank Messer and Pete Sheehy, the clubhouse guy. At that time the Yankees were owned by CBS. Michael Burke was the President and he made me feel at home.

You roomed with Mantle your first year? How did that come about?

I roomed with him in Spring Training, 1968. It was in my contract that if I signed I could go to Spring Training the next year and they put me with Mickey. But we really had adjoining rooms, and all I saw was his luggage. The only time I saw Mickey was in the trainer’s room when he was getting wrapped up.

What kind of manager was Ralph Houk? How did he treat you?


Ralph was a wonderful man, the best manager I ever had. He was a tough Marine, a back up catcher to Yogi and Elston. He was a player’s manager, had respect for all his men. And everyone respected him. That’s why they called him the General. You never hear anyone say anything bad about him. Now he’s getting up there in years, has had a hip replacement. And it’s hard for him to get around.

I loved Bill Virdon too. We had him as Manager when we went from Yankee to Shea Stadium. He was a military guy like Ralph. We had some characters on that team and he put them in their place.

And then there was Billy…

I was there when Billy was there three or four times. A lot of turmoil and he had a little bit of ego, but you know what, he won. But I think anyone could have won with the team we had. He was a different type of manager is what I’ll say.

You were also on the team when the infamous Mike Kekich-Fritz Peterson family swap occurred.

Oh that was great [laughter]. Fritz has been down in fantasy camp for the past few years and Fritz is the funniest guy you’d ever want to meet. Mike is definitely a left-handed character. I roomed a little with Mike Kekich but no one knew what was going on until Spring Training. Thurman Munson and I were walking into the clubhouse and Mel Stottlemyre comes running out and we see hundreds of TV cameras descending. Now there were people from Kansas, Texas and everywhere and Mel says to Thurman and me that we can’t go in the clubhouse.

We said “why?” Mel says “Don’t you know what happened? We say “no.”

Mel tells us Mike and Fritz got divorced and married each other’s wives. Now we figure he was joking because we had some pranksters on our team. And he said “No. It’s for real.” Mike and Fritz were giving interviews right then. They traded kids, dogs, bank accounts and everything. Susan and Fritz are still together, living in the Midwest.

You mentioned Thurman Munson. Where were you on August 2, 1979?

I was at home and somebody called me and said Thurman was killed in a plane crash. My ex-wife told me about it too. I couldn’t get to the funeral because there were no flights from Atlanta to Canton or Cleveland so I couldn’t get in and I regret that. I said major prayers for Thurman in Atlanta. He was like a brother to me. Thurman touched a lot of lives. He was a leader.

Thurman used to always beat up on Carlton Fisk. That’s when the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry really got hot, when Thurman had his fights with Fisk on the field. Then there was the Gene Michael fight at second base and Mickey and Nettles got into it with Bill Lee. That’s when things escalated. To this day people still talk about it. The Yankees and Red Sox rivalry is the greatest in sports.

One time a few years ago my wife and I were in Boston and my wife gets on the plane with a Yankee hat and warm-up suit. I told her “That’s not going to work. We’re at Logan.” People told her she couldn’t get on the plane and that her luggage wouldn’t arrive, in a kidding way, so it was funny.

You were diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff and other injuries in your career.

I had a torn rotator cuff and four knee operations. Of course when we played we did not have the advantage of modern medical technology. When we had an operation, they cut muscle to muscle. So it had to heal naturally. Nowadays they can scope it and you can be back in 3 or 4 months rather than a year or more.

Tell us about your experiences writing the book Designated Hebrew

I wanted to tell the story of a Jewish athlete who overcame adversity and lived his fantasy. Four years ago Dick Schaap comes up to me and says “Bloomy, they can never take away you being the first DH in the Major Leagues.” And I don’t know how this came out, I said, “Ya, the Designated Hebrew.” He said, “You have to write a book. That’s the greatest title I’ve ever heard.”

So Marty Appel, a PR guy with the Yanks when I was there, has a PR firm and he sat down and gave me his publicist and we started the book and it’s doing well. It’s on the third printing in four months and it’s been fun. I go to a lot of Jewish organizations to speak and I do a lot of corporate work. My message is if I can do it, you can do it. I lived my dream. Other people can live their dream also. This ties into all my motivational speaking. I like to tell people they are underdogs and they can overcome it. You gotta be strong. Now that I’ve written my book people contact me and I have 30 book signings in the next few months.

You still follow the Yanks?

Absolutely! George Steinbrenner is very giving and honest. If you produce he takes care of you. People are jealous of him because he’s successful. He does so much charity work that goes unnoticed. If you own the Yankees you have to be tough. That’s the way it is.

I’d love to see a Subway Series and it’s great to see Willie doing so well with the Mets. You couldn’t find a nicer human being. One of the top five people I’ve ever met. Look what he’s done. One other guy who I hope becomes a manager is Chris Chambliss. He’s not outgoing but he is a great baseball mind.


Visit Ron’s website: www.designated-hebrew.com

Ronald Mark Blomberg (Boomer)
Bats Left, Throws Right
Height 6' 1", Weight 205 lb.
Debut September 10, 1969
Final Game October 1, 1978
Born August 23, 1948 in Atlanta, GA USA

SEASON 	TEAM 	G 	AB 	R 	H 	2B 	3B 	HR 	RBI 	TB 	BB 	SO 	SB 	CS 	OBP 	SLG 	AVG
1969 	NYY 	4 	6 	0 	3 	0 	0 	0 	0 	3 	1 	0 	0 	0 	.571 	.500 	.500
1971 	NYY 	64 	199 	30 	64 	6 	2 	7 	31 	95 	14 	23 	2 	4 	.363 	.477 	.322
1972 	NYY 	107 	299 	36 	80 	22 	1 	14 	49 	146 	38 	26 	0 	2 	.355 	.488 	.268
1973 	NYY 	100 	301 	45 	99 	13 	1 	12 	57 	150 	34 	25 	2 	0 	.395 	.498 	.329
1974 	NYY 	90 	264 	39 	82 	11 	2 	10 	48 	127 	29 	33 	2 	1 	.375 	.481 	.311
1975 	NYY 	34 	106 	18 	27 	8 	2 	4 	17 	51 	13 	10 	0 	0 	.336 	.481 	.255
1976 	NYY 	1 	2 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	.000 	.000 	.000
1978 	CHW 	61 	156 	16 	36 	7 	0 	5 	22 	58 	11 	17 	0 	0 	.280 	.372 	.231
  	  	  	  	  	  	  	  	  	  	  	  	  	  	  	  	  	 
Career Totals 	  461 	1333 	184 	391 	67 	8 	52 	224 	630 	140 	134 	6 	7 	.360 	.473 	.293

 

Phil is a staff writer for NYYFans.com, and he writes a weekly column for the website of WCBS News Radio 88, the home of the Yankees. You can reach him at PhilAllard27(at)hotmail.com.