Arthur Louis Shamsky (nicknamed "Sham" and "Smasher"; born October 14, 1941) is an American former Major League Baseball player. He played right field, left field, and first base from 1965 to 1972 for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, and Oakland Athletics. He tied a major league record by homering in four consecutive at bats in 1966. He was an integral player on the 1969 World Champion Miracle Mets, batting .300 with 14 home runs (both second on the team) while platooning, and then hitting .538 in the post-season batting cleanup. In 2007, he was the manager of the Modi\'in Miracle of the Israel Baseball League.\n', '

Shamsky is Jewish, and was born in St. Louis to William (whose family came from Ukraine) and Sadie Shamsky (whose family came from Poland), and grew up in its University City neighborhood. He attended University City High School in St. Louis and played on the school\'s baseball team, as did pitcher Ken Holtzman four years later—who in 1972 was his teammate on the Oakland A\'s. He also played basketball for the school, and graduated at the age of 16.\n', '

After playing ball for the University of Missouri in his freshman year in 1958–59, Shamsky was signed by Cincinnati as a free agent in September 1959. He said: "My father would have preferred that I had gone into business, but he was into baseball and I think he was thrilled when I signed. My mother certainly wanted me to go to college and become a doctor, of course. What else is a Jewish boy supposed to do?"\n', '

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