Sam Bercovich - 2006

If not for Sam Bercovich, baseball fans would be poorer indeed. Through his Oakland youth leagues and his mentoring activities, the longtime Temple Beth Abraham congregant and nonagenarian pointed future legends like Frank Robinson, Curt Flood and Vada Pinson in the direction of the Big Leagues. Popular legend has Robinson claiming Bercovich “took the knife out of my hand and gave me a bat.”