The Golem's Mighty Swing

Summary

The Golem's Mighty Swing takes place around the 30's or 40's when baseball was still young. A baseball team of Jews travels the U.S. in a rickety bus playing games on a daily basis. They arrive in a town called Putnam, where they're greeted with hostility from the town folk. They're going to play against some of the best known baseball players. An agent gets in touch with them and tells them that with a substantial amount of money he can turn their team into a jackpot and make them popular. He comes up with the idea of creating an icon for their team so that they will be recognizable. The idea is to take their biggest player, who is a monster of a man, and dress him up in the bulky suit and shadow his face with a big wig to make him stand out and look intimidating. At first it seems like a good way to make more money so they accept the offer. In the end, their pitcher gets beat to a pulp in a bar and he can't play in the game and as they're able to turn the game around so that they're winning the crowd becomes hostile and breaks into the field creating a fiasco. The Jews are able to sneak out and escape the town without getting hurt, except for their pitcher.

Insight

One aspect of this story that really intrigued me was the creation of the Golemand the illustration of him. I don't even understand where someone would come up with that crazy idea. The Golem could have looked like anything and for some reason the agent thought he should be large, invasive and menacing. What is interesting though is that the effects of the Golem were similar to its features. After the creation of the Golem, more attention was brought to the team, but it was negative. The crowds became larger as well as menacing, and dangerous. During the game the Golem takes the field to pitch and suddenly the crowd is in a uproar yelling at them. In retaliation the Golem pitches the ball and hits the batter in the head. Suddenly the crowd is in the field attempting to tear the Jews apart, but they retreat to the dug out where the police refuse to let the public touch them. I think that the outcome is a reflection of the Golem. As soon as you bring more publicity to the matter you get a bigger reaction in this case violent. Things become more complicated and controversial. It's better to just be old fashioned and stick with the old ways. Bigger and better is most time bigger and messier.