92-Year-Old NSMA Hall of Famer Izenberg Has New Book Out

NEW YORK (May 1, 2023) -- It's been said that Jerry Izenberg has always been on the right side of history. Now, Izenberg will be on the right side of his story. The legendary sports columnist and one-time Bar Mitzvah boy (barely) released his memoir, Baseball, Nazis & Nedick's Hot Dogs: Growing Up Jewish in the 1930s in Newark (The Sager Group, LLC) on Monday. The book, his 15th, is available at most major book retailers, including Amazon, AmazonUK, and Barnes & Noble.

The nonagenarian author, in the 73rd year of his hall of fame newspaper career, looks back on his first two formative decades of life. Somehow, during a fraught period of antisemitism, the Great Depression, and World War II, Izenberg finds love, community, and purpose. It's a poignant and insightful memoir of his early life, and what it was like to grow up in that treacherous era that not only saw Hitler's insidious rise to power but also how the Nazi influence emboldened the public support of American anti-Semites which was on full display when 20,000 American Nazi sympathizers were greeted by a giant portrait of George Washington flanked by two large swastikas at the 1939 German-American Bund rally in Madison Square Garden, some who carried posters that warned of Jewish domination of Christian America

But more importantly, this is the story of a young Jerry Izenberg, a first generation American, and his dad Harry, a former minor league second baseman, who credits baseball with his assimilation in his adopted country, and with whom he had the kind of rough-but-loving man-to-man relationship that no longer seems to be in favor in an era of helicopter parenting and participation trophies for everyone. Their shared love of baseball, specifically the New York Giants, the minor league Newark Bears, the Negro League Newark Eagles, and Hank Greenberg, created a strong and meaningful bond between father and son, whether it be at the ballpark or on the front porch listening to the games' radio broadcasts. At its core, what jumps from every page is that this is a love story -- a love story you sense he has been working on for decades: the one between Harry and Jerry Izenberg, father and son.

Now living in Henderson, Nevada, with his wife Aileen, Izenberg, 92, is still producing topical sports columns and social commentary on a regular basis as columnist emeritus at the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

Milestones are nothing new for this Newark native. He is one of only two daily newspaper columnists to have covered the first 53 Super Bowls, not to mention 54 consecutive Kentucky Derby races and the last five Triple Crown-winning horses. And no one has covered more of Muhammad Ali's fights than he, dating back to the 1960 Olympics. The recipient of the Red Smith Award, which is bestowed annually by the Associated Press Sports Editors to a writer or editor who has made major contributions to sports journalism, Izenberg is also a five-time winner of the New Jersey Sportswriter of the Year Award. He is an inductee in 17 Halls of Fame, including the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters (now National Sports Media Association) Hall of Fame, the International Boxing Hall of Fame, the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame, and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (Jerry Izenberg (jewishsports.net)). Closer to home, Izenberg has been inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame, the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame, the Rutgers-Newark Athletic Hall of Fame, and the Rutgers Hall of Fame of Distinguished Alumni.

Best-selling books he has authored include, Once There Were Giants: The Golden Age of Heavyweight Boxing, No Medals For Trying, and Rozelle: A Biography. In 2020, at age 90, he released his first novel, the well-received After the Fire: Love and Hate in the Ashes of 1967. Said Izenberg, "You can't put off working on your bucket list forever!"

Perhaps nearest and dearest to Jerry's heart was the pet project he founded, Newark Project Pride, which promoted an annual college football game during its 29 years and raised the funds to send 1,100 local kids to college.

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Fred Sternburg, Sternburg Comm: 303 548 0707 / Toofred@aol.com