Lipman Pike was the first Jewish ballplayer, Howard Goldstein explains.

Befitting this status, a painting of Pike is at the center of a wall of paintings in Goldstein’s home office in Southwest Portland. This wall – and every other wall of the room and the hall leading into it – are packed with art depicting Jewish figures from the history of America’s pastime. All the names that history knows are there; Hank Greenberg, Al Rosen and Sandy Koufax among them. But Lipman, who led his league in home runs on four occasions without ever hitting more than seven in one year, debuted for the Troy Haymakers of the National Association in 1871, five years before the founding of the modern National League. He was the first Jewish professional baseball player, and one of the first professional players in the game’s history.

Goldstein’s memories of baseball don’t go back that far, but his love for the game goes back as far as he does; back to his childhood in Brooklyn, where he recalls men like Gil Hodges and other Dodgers’ stars could be seen around the neighborhood.

“Back in those days, these guys were just normal human beings,” Goldstein said. “It was a totally different thing growing up in the 50s and 60s in Brooklyn.”

When the Dodgers left, Goldstein became a Yankees fan, and later adopted the Phillies, the team his children grew up cheering for while the family lived in Philadelphia. He’s always been avid about his Judaism, recalling his shomer kashrut (kosher observant) parents, his bar mitzvah and his time living in Israel. But the two streams didn’t come together until a happenstance encounter at Philadelphia’s convention center.

A sign advertised that Yogi Berra, the Yankees’ legendary catcher, was signing autographs at a memorabilia convention. Goldstein went, carrying a ball that Berra had thrown into the stands during a game in 1961 that Goldstein caught. Later, he strolled around the booths of the convention.

I’m walking around, this guy says to me, ‘What do you collect?’” Goldstein recalled. “I said, ‘I have no idea. I don’t do this.’ “

The man asked Goldstein’s name.

“He says, ‘You should collect Jewish baseball players,’” Goldstein said. “He pulls me in and gives me my first little signed postcard from Izzy Goldstein.”

Izzy Goldstein, a right-handed pitcher, played just 16 major league games, all for the 1932 Detroit Tigers. His biggest claim to fame is being Greenberg’s high school teammate. But that postcard started Howard Goldstein on what’s been a 40-plus-year journey cataloging the more than 150-year journey of Jews in baseball.

That cataloging eventually grew to encompass, Goldstein estimated, around 400 game-used bats, 400 game-worn jerseys and 60 storage tubs of other artifacts. Goldstein became known as the foremost collector of all things Jews and baseball – he’s discussed in depth in Larry Ruttman’s 2015 book “American Jews and America’s Game.” Before Goldstein moved to Portland in 2014, he sold the vast majority of the collection to Chicago’s Jeff Aeder, who was planning the yet-unrealized Jewish Baseball Museum. Goldstein kept most of the artwork, however, and that side of the collection has grown.

That wasn’t the end of the journey, though. Really, it was just the beginning. In addition to moving to Portland, the Goldstein family had a second home in Las Vegas, where he recalled sitting surrounded by a portion of the art which now adorns his Portland office.

“I was bored. I was retired. I didn’t have a good project at that point,” he said. “Okay, I’m going to tell the history of Jews in baseball from 1871 to the present through art. I then proceeded to figure out how the heck I was going to go do that.”

Goldstein connected with sports artists around the country, practitioners of a beautiful but dated craft that was the only way to visually tell sports stories in newspapers before the advent of modern sports photography. A few, he knew through the connections of his legal career. More than a few, he cold called.

“There are pieces in this collection from 90 percent of them,” he said, as well as emerging artists.

Describing the breadth and depth of the art in Goldstein’s office would require more words than any newspaper can hold. This reporter’s tour took more than 90 minutes; double that amount of time might not have covered everything. The figures on Goldstein’s walls include the players on the field, from Pike to recent Hillsboro Hop Jacob Steinmetz, the first Orthodox Jewish player drafted into a major league organization; Goldstein commissioned a painting of Steinmetz from an observant friend from his childhood. They also include Dolly Stark, baseball’s first Jewish umpire, Ida Schnall, the captain of the New York Female Giants in the early 1900s who played nine sports at a high level but loved baseball, and Justine Segal, who was the first woman to coach for a major league organization, has coached the Israeli national team and was recently appointed commissioner of the soon-to-debut Women’s Professional Baseball League.

There’s Jimmy Reese (born Hyman Solomon), who roomed with Babe Ruth (who was out on the town so much that Reese joked he roomed with Ruth’s suitcases) on the 1932 Yankees and was still coaching with the then-California Angels when he passed away at age 92 in 1994. There’s Shlomo Lipitz, who followed his time as American college baseball’s second Israeli-born player by pitching to a 0.98 ERA over 27 2/3 innings for the Netanya Tigers in the first and only season of the Israeli Baseball League; he is now an executive at City Winery in New York but still appeared for Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic at age 44. And there’s Max Patkin, the famous Clown Prince of Baseball who had a cameo in Kevin Costner’s “Bull Durham,” as well as Al Schacht, his predecessor and baseball’s original Clown Prince.

Of course, there’s Koufax, who attended the same high school as Goldstein, and Greenberg, whom Goldstein said should be known as baseball’s greatest Jewish player.

“Hank Greenberg came up in Detroit in a time when Father Coughlin was spouting incredible antisemitism there, when things were really tough for the Jews, and he was the bulwark against that,” Goldstein said. “He really was the first great Jewish sports role model. But even after he finished his ballplaying career, what separates him from Koufax is that he had a significant impact on the game.”

Greenberg’s last major league season, for the Pittsburg Pirates, was Jackie Robinson’s first year on the Dodgers; Greenberg, after enduring antisemitic insults from fans, was one of the few opposing players who was supportive of Robinson. Later, as farm director for the then-Cleveland Indians, Greenberg helped develop Larry Doby, the American League’s first Black player. Greenberg later became general manager of the club and recruited more African-American players.

“Sandy’s great, but he just never had any impact after his playing career, as opposed to Hank. That really is the difference,” Goldstein said.

For now, the treasure of Goldstein’s collection is reserved for those fortunate enough to be invited to visit.

“When I finished this collection, I thought I’d have a museum exhibit in 10 minutes,” he said. “I have been in contact with every Jewish museum in the country. There are two that want to do it. They don’t have the money.”

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., had been discussing exhibiting the collection, but pulled out as soon as the recent Iran War began. Goldstein is still looking for avenues to get his collection in front of the public.

“If that doesn’t happen, I’m going to do a coffee table book on everything and maybe get some exposure that way,” he said. “It’s always been about Jewish education, Jewish pride, and just getting it out there for people to see, because what good is it sitting here?”

Until then, perhaps there’s the satisfaction of assembling something truly unique, at the intersection of Goldstein’s love for the game and his love for his people.

“It truly has been a labor of love.”

PHOTO: Courtesy Howard Holdstein