John Holway brings history to life, like watching nine movies unroll before your eyes. American heroes you didn't read about in school. Yankee artists descend on Claude Monet's French village to paint with the Master and dally with his pretty daughters. Until the Old Man finds out. Then there's hell to pay. A pretty black Amelia Earhart does loop the loops in her bi-plane over Paris - and dazzles the men of France and America. Steve Nelson endures police beatings fighting for coal miners' rights, then sails to Spain to fight Fascist Armies while America sleeps. Bert Shepard straps himself into a fighter plane and roars into combat. He loses a leg but straps on a new one to pitch in the major leagues. While Congressmen cringe at the bully Joe McCarthy, a tiny woman, Margaret Chase Smith, strikes the first blow to bring him down. Charlie Bussey climbs a Korean hill with three men and two machine guns and blows away 258 enemy. But the Army refuses to award a Medal of Honor, because he's black. Three Salem Witches battle gamblers and amorous players to zap the Patriots to their first NFL flag. Arguing, aloholic Solveg, 36, and gimpy Eddie, 18, set out to cross a 20,000-foot mountain pass before the snows close it. They also fall in love. But can it endure?
The foremost historian of the "blackball" era spent nearly 10 years researching this acclaimed oral history, interviewing 17 outstanding players including Cool Papa Bell, Buck Leonard, and Willie Wells. Over 80 vintage photographs.
John B Holway's Blackball Stars won the coveted Casey award as best baseball book of 1989. Blackball Stars is a wonderful collection of profiles and itself a fair history of the Negro Leagues. The Washington Post. This is more than a collection of baseball biographies. Its strength is Holway's ability to recreate the aura of this time through colorful anecdotes and player reminiscences. San Francisco Chronicle on Voices From the Great Black Baseball Leagues. John Holway's statistics prove the greatness of the Negro League players. Now, we can truly call baseball the National Pastime." Ken Burns on The Complete Book of the Negro Leagues Holway, one of the deans of black baseball history, provides the most complete statistical study yet of the game's segregated half, the obvious by-product of painstaking research. Library Journal on The Complete Book of the Negro Leagues. The Complete Book of the Negro Leagues is a compelling story and a must-read for all baseball fans. Allan 'Bud' Selig, Commissioner of baseball. Holway is the granddaddy of researchers on black baseball. Even other authorities will learn something on each page of The Complete Book of the Negro Leagues, a must-read for every student and historian. Robert Peterson, author of Only the Ball Was White. This book is a culmination of three decades of dedicated research by the man who knows more about Negro baseball history than any writer ever. Royce "Crash" Parr, author of Glory Days of Summer . Blackball Tales, Holway's third series of oral compilations, relates the joys, travails, and aspirations of members of the Negro Leagues. Holway has done as much as anyone to chronicle the story of segregated baseball. Highly recommended for general libraries. Library Journal.
Ted Williams is perhaps the most fascinating, the most controversial - yes, and possibly the greatest - figure in American sports history. Only Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, and Michael Jordan stand on a pedestal with him. It is sad that millions of young people know only what they have read of his death. This book is not about his death. It is about his life. Ted Williams was an enigma, who just wouldn't fit into a mold. The Boston press once took a poll to name the least cooperative, most temperamental, most generous, and most cooperative players on the Red Sox. Williams came in first in every category. I knew Ted Williams for 45 years, beginning in 1957, and saw him play for 20, beginning in 1941. This has given me a unique box seat to this amazing chapter of Americana. To me he is the Beethoven and Monet of baseball. But why another Ted Williams book? Ted is already the subject of a large and growing hagiography of excellent and readable books. His own My Turn At Bat is one of the most engaging autobiographies in sports literature. I made a modest contribution in 1991 with The Last 400 Hitter, about his magnificent season of 1941. Each biography draws on different sources. They are like the blind men who clutch different parts of an elephant. Each adds to the mosaic, as each gropes to discover this ebullient yet elusive and enigmatic man. In the present work I have tapped hitherto untapped sources in hopes of presenting the most complete story yet assembled of an amazing Renaissance man. Based on half a century of research, I have examined this many-sided genius from as many new angles as possible, hoping to paint the Cromwellian portrait that he himself would have wanted, warts and all. Ted and I spent hours probing his memory for games and players now largely lost to living memory. Beginning 20 years ago I also probed the memories of dozens of men, many now gone, who played with and against
April 10, 1945 -- Note on statistics -- Frank (Doc) Sykes -- Rogelio Crespo -- George (Never) Sweatt -- William (Nat) Rogers -- Floyd (Jelly) Gardner -- Carroll (Dink) Mothell -- Frank Duncan -- Clint (Buckeye) Thomas -- Holsey (Scrip) Lee -- Arthur (Rats) Henderson -- Laymon Yokely -- Clifford (Connie) Johnson -- Bill (Ready) Cash -- Jim (Cat) Canada -- Artie Wilson -- Negro League leaders.
Legendary author John Holway takes a serious yet fun look at the most magical, mystical events in baseball history, xxxxx. From the greatest curses and lucky charms, to the eeriest coincidences and foreshadowings, to the beautiful numerical dance of baseball statistics, it is clear much of baseball, like religion, exists beyond our comprehension, and only through belief can come enlightenment.
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