Most baseball fans know of the amazing accomplishments Hall of Fame members achieved on the field, from Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak to Cy Young’s 511 career wins. But few are as familiar with the ballplayers’ lives away from the diamond—especially those icons who played before the Internet and 24/7 media coverage. Beyond their baseball statistics, what kind of individuals were they? How did they conduct themselves out of the spotlight? What made them tick? In Beyond the Ballpark: The Honorable, Immoral, and Eccentric Lives of Baseball Legends, John A. Woodlooks at the personal lives of fifty members of the Hall of Fame, examining their childhoods, families, influences, life-changing events, defining moments, and more. The players range from the really good guys to bizarre characters and even the downright immoral. The author considers how tragedies may have impacted players, such as the shooting of Ty Cobb’s beloved father by his own mother, and seeks to explain the dispositions of others, such as why the great Rogers Hornsby couldn’t seem to get along with anybody. By taking a closer look at who the players were as men, Beyond the Ballpark captures the essence of these fifty Hall of Famers. Including such names as Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, and Babe Ruth, this book is for all fans who are interested in more than just a ballplayer’s statistics.
Charles "Dazzy" Vance became known as the strike out king after leading the National League in strikeouts seven years in a row. Dazzy mesmerized opposing hitters with a blazing fastball, off-the-tabletop curve, a high leg kick and a sleeve on the undershirt of his pitching arm with slits cut into it that would flutter and distract batters as he delivered the pitch. This famed baseball pitcher was in the minor leagues for 10 years and didn't make it to the majors to stay until he was 31. He retired at age 44 just missing his goal of winning 200 games. He finished with 197 victories. In 1955, he became the first Brooklyn Dodgers player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. This biography covers the life of Vance, including the Major League Hall of Fame career and his personal life off the diamond. Also included is a list of Dazzy's lifetime statistics, from 1915 through 1935, containing his 1934 World Series Game. Conversations held with family, friends, sports writers and teammates are quoted throughout this biography.
Sabermetrics, the specialized analysis of baseball through empirical evidence, provides an impartial perspective from which to explore the game. In this work, the third in a series, three mathematicians employ statistical science in an attempt to answer some of baseball's toughest questions. For instance, how good were the 1961 New York Yankees? How bad were the 1962 Mets? Which team was the best of the Deadball Era? They also strive to determine baseball's greatest player at various positions. Throughout, the objective evidence allows for debate devoid of emotion and personal biases, providing a fresh, balanced evaluation of these and many other challenging questions. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
The St. Louis Cardinals is one of the most successful franchises in National League history. Having won a record ten World Championships, the team has cultivated a huge fan base. 365 Oddball Days in Cardinals History combines easy-to-browse baseball trivia with a never-out-of-date annual. It delivers historical and statistical information in quick nuggets, elevating this collection to the perfect water cooler book or bathroom reader for Cardinals fans everywhere.
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
When record men first traveled from Chicago or invited musicians to studios in New York, these entrepreneurs had no conception how their technology would change the dynamics of what constituted a musical performance. 78 Blues: Folksongs and Phonographs in the American South covers a revolution in artist performance and audience perception through close examination of hundreds of key “hillbilly” and “race” records released between the 1920s and World War II. In the postwar period, regional strains recorded on pioneering 78 r.p.m. discs exploded into urban blues and R&B, honky-tonk and western swing, gospel, soul, and rock 'n' roll. These old-time records preserve the work of some of America's greatest musical geniuses such as Jimmie Rodgers, Robert Johnson, Charlie Poole, and Blind Lemon Jefferson. They are also crucial mile markers in the course of American popular music and the growth of the modern recording industry. When these records first circulated, the very notion of recorded music was still a novelty. All music had been created live and tied to particular, intimate occasions. How were listeners to understand an impersonal technology like the phonograph record as a musical event? How could they reconcile firsthand interactions and traditional customs with technological innovations and mass media? The records themselves, several hundred of which are explored fully in this book, offer answers in scores of spoken commentaries and skits, in song lyrics and monologues, or other more subtle means.
John I. Goodlad has been an unflagging voice for humanistic ideals in education for more than six decades and has helped reframe the modern discourse on the role and function of schools. For Goodlad the goal of public education is to help children become free and full participants in a democratic society by instilling them with a love of learning and a sense of civic responsibility—goals that are incompatible with our present system of schooling that teaches to standardized tests. In Romances with Schools, John Goodlad steps out from behind the public persona of distinguished scholar and advocate for public schooling to offer a moving personal account of a life devoted to educating the young. He deftly interweaves fascinating personal details with reflections on many of the larger issues in education that he has explored throughout his career. John’s early encounters with formal schooling began just before the Great Depression in Canada with the humble North Star School. From there we are taken through sixty-plus years in education, starting with John’s first teaching job as the sole instructor of a one-room schoolhouse through his years as an education activist, dean of the UCLA Graduate School of Education, and national voice for educational renewal. Along the way, he treats us to vivid characterizations of the men, women, and above all, children who shaped him as a person and inspired his thinking on education. Romances with Schools is both a poignant memoir and a persuasive argument for the need to renew public education to fit the demands of a free society. Stephen Goodlad, John’s son, has written a moving Prologue to the book that provides behind-the-scenes insight into John’s life. An Epilogue by Roger Soder, a long-time colleague, places John’s work of school renewal in the context of political change.
Wee Willie Sherdel was a very humble, courageous left-handed pitcher who became one of the all-time great southpaws in St. Louis Cardinals history. The son of a German blacksmith in a small Pennsylvania village, Willie’s dream was to become a major league pitcher – a rather big dream for a small boy. Not the most talented or biggest, he worked hard and learned from greats like Eddie Plank, Branch Rickey and Grover Cleveland Alexander. Sherdel’s best years were in the 1920s while Rickey was developing the farm system concept and the Cards were playing in two World Series. Known for his slow ball, Willie was given the honor of pitching the first game against Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and the powerful Yankees in both Series. Although labeled a hard-luck pitcher in the Series, Sherdel performed many great feats on the diamond. Since his retirement in 1932, he remains the Redbirds’ winningest left-hander and fourth all-time winner. Willie also has pitched the third-most games and the fourth-most innings. Like all pitchers, he loved to talk about his hitting. Among Cardinals’ pitchers, Sherdel owns the fourth-most career home runs and the fifth-best batting average for his .337 in 1923. His contemporaries included over 90 Hall of Famers and some of the greatest players of all-time including Ruth, Gehrig, Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby.
The nightmare scenario has come to pass. America has fallen. In the aftermath, one woman becomes the last hope of a nation and its people in New York Times bestselling author John Gilstrap’s electrifying new Victoria Emerson thriller series. West Virginia Congresswoman Victoria Emerson has always put the needs of her community before the power games of Washington, D.C. Then an Army officer appears on her doorstep, deploying the code words “Crimson Phoenix”—meaning this is not a drill. The United States is on the brink of nuclear disaster. The major will escort her to a secure bunker. She cannot bring her family. A single mother, Victoria refuses to abandon her teenage sons. Denied entry to the bunker, the family somehow survives the unthinkable. In the aftermath, the nation is in chaos. The grid is gone. Food is scarce. Civility gives way to desperate survival. Against this total collapse, Victoria creates a new home in a small Appalachian mountain town. The community she builds around her shines like a beacon in a dark wasteland. Now she must defend it with her life—to give hope to a new America. “A gripping page-turner.” —Taylor Stevens, New York Times bestselling author of Liars’ Legacy “An explosive story that locks you into your chair until the final page.” —Jamie Freveletti, international bestselling author of Running from the Devil and Robert Ludlum’s The Janus Reprisal “Snaps with action from the very first page. It's certain to hit the 10-ring with old and new readers alike.” —Marc Cameron, New York Times bestselling author ofBone Rattleand Tom Clancy’s Chain of Command
A thrilling new suspense novel with shades of The Stand and One Second After from the New York Times bestselling author of the Jonathan Grave series, that fans of Ben Coes and Brad Taylor won’t want to miss! In the wake of a global conflict that has devastated America, those who survived live in a world without technology or governance. They look to one woman—single mother and former West Virginia Congressperson Victoria Emerson—to lead and protect those determined to rebuild all they have lost… “Engrossing…Fans of doomsday military thrillers will delight in the resilience of Gilstrap’s family of preppers and their quest for survival on their terms.” –Publishers Weekly They call it Hell Day—a world war that lasted less than twenty-four hours. Nations unleashed weapons that destroyed more than a century’s worth of technology. Electrical grids cannot generate power. Communications and computers cannot run. And the remnants of the U. S. government cannot be depended upon. Those who survived must live as their ancestors did, off a land ruled by the whims of nature. One-time congressional representative Victoria Emerson has become the new leader of the small town of Ortho, West Virginia. She has been struggling to provide food and shelter for the town’s inhabitants, while coping with desperate refugees. An autumn morning’s calm is shattered when her teenage son sounds the alarm with the cry “Blue Fire”—the code phrase for imminent danger. A band of National Guardsmen intends to take Ortho and its resources for themselves. They have enough soldiers and firepower to eliminate anyone who dares to stop them. But Victoria swore an oath to defend and protect her people, and she isn’t about to surrender. It’s time to tap into the traditional American values of courage, ingenuity, and determination – and fight fire with fire.
Back in 1982, the Society for American Baseball Research was still young, barely a decade past its founding, and had grown to some 1600 members. One of their number, a "defrocked English Lit guy poking around in journalism," suggested to the board of directors that SABR, and the world, might benefit from a publication along the lines of American Heritage, only about baseball. Before long that member, John Thorn, found himself at the helm of the newly christened periodical, The National Pastime: A Review of Baseball History. The very first issue included names we think of today as luminaries in the field of baseball history and analysis: Harold Seymour, Lawrence S. Ritter, Pete Palmer, David Voigt, Bob Broeg, and more. Over the years the significance of that flagship issue has only grown, while the inventory has dwindled. SABR is pleased to present a replica edition here, with the addition of a new preface by John Thorn, now the official historian of Major League Baseball. This issue includes: Nate Colbert's Unknown RBI Record by Bob Carroll Nineteenth-Century Baseball Deserves Equal Time by Art Ahrens Dandy at Third: Ray Dandridge by John B. Holway How Fast Was Cool Papa Bell? by Jim Bankes The Field of Play by David Sanders Ladies and Gentlemen, Presenting Marty McHale by Lawrence S. Ritter Remembrance of Summers Past by Bob Broeg The Merkle Blunder: A Kaleidoscopic View by G. H. Fleming A Tale of Two Sluggers: Roger Maris and Hack Wilson, by Don Nelson Baseball's Misbegottens: Expansion Era Managers by David Voigt The Early Years: A Gallery by Mark Rucker and Lew Lipset The Egyptian and the Greyhounds by Lew Lipset All the Record Books Are Wrong by Frank J. Williams Goose Goslin's Induction Day by Lawrence S. Ritter The Great New York Team of 1927—and It Wasn't the Yankees by Fred Stein Modern Times: A Portfolio by Stuart Leeds Books Before Baseball: A Personal History by Harold Seymour, Ph.D. Ballparks: A Quiz by Bob Bluthardt Runs and Wins by Pete Palmer Baltimore, the Eastern Shore, and More by Al Kermisch David and Goliath: Figures by Ted DiTullio Double Joe Dwyer: A Life in the Bushes by Gerald Tomlinson
When in 1911 Phillies pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander set the National League record for wins by a rookie (28), it was a sign of things to come. Alexander went on to win 373 games over his 20-year career, the third highest total in major league history, and he would lead the league in ERA four times, shutouts seven times, complete games six times, and wins six times. But he also became a deeply troubled man. After the Shell-Shocked pitcher returned from World War I, he would battle alcoholism, epilepsy, and personal demons that damaged his reputation and proved disastrous for his life outside of baseball. This biography sheds new light on the pitcher and the man, focusing on Alexander's personal life, especially his complex relationship with his wife, Aimee, as well as their marriages and divorces. His Hall of Fame career, wartime service, and long decline are also documented.
INTRODUCTION – Last Time Out Finding the right ending is a problem equally shared by writers, filmmakers, poets, songwriters and, thanks to Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, maybe even baseball players. Unleashing that flawless swing one last time on a dark, nasty fall afternoon in Boston, Williams’ perfect parting shot, launching a majestic home run into the Fenway Park bullpen in his final appearance at the plate, set a standard for baseball farewells that has rarely been equaled. It was as if Williams himself was saying to the game – take that! Gracefully walking away from the game that had been such a crucial part of any major leaguer’s life is a trick managed by only a few. The great Babe Ruth, stuffed into an unfamiliar Boston Braves’ uniform, walked off the field for the last time with no fanfare. Ty Cobb left before his final season was even over, his final bid for a World Series title gone after a Yankees’ sweep of Connie Mack’s Philadelphia A’s. And so it goes; Bob Gibson cursing out a mediocre player who’d just reached him for a grand slam on his final pitch, the extraordinary Willie Mays stumbling in the outfield in a World Series, Nolan Ryan unable to get out of the first inning of his final start and on and on. Considering that all these men had been so triumphant in the game – just making it to the major leagues is an extraordinary achievement – even for one game - choosing where to go out was intriguing. And of course, the mystique of Williams’ final HR started with the work of an author, the great John Updike, who came to Boston anticipating a romantic liaison. Instead, Updike turned his disappointment into a trip to Fenway Park and brilliantly captured the final moments of a historic career. His legendary New Yorker piece “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,” made a nation reconsider Williams’ career and made me, eventually, come up with the idea for this. True enough, that was where “Last Time Out” started. Working for the local newspaper, I’d had a chance to meet and chat with Updike after his appearance at a Florida State workshop in 2000 and we chatted about his oft-discussed essay. “Looking back,” he said, “I’m still surprised that it was his last game and there was nobody there.” He was right. Fenway Park had just 10,453 fans – and Updike - that September afternoon. On the way home, I wondered about how other great players had left the game. I remembered Babe Ruth had hit three homers in a game, was it his finale? And, teary-eyed, I remembered Carl Yastrzemski’s last game in Boston, his trot around the field, slapping hands with watery-eyed Fenway Faithful. What about Hank Aaron, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson…I’d have to look. And did. Times have changed, of course, since Williams’ finale in 1960. The final games of these recent stars, like so many other events in professional sports, have become important. Sometimes they become a scripted, carefully planned, media circus like departures of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, David Ortiz and a few others. Sometimes, they just leave. Take a spin through YouTube, for example, and you can find video documentation of all sorts of farewells to the game. But in most cases, you might see video but not the stories. In this, the sequel to my original book, I’ve looked back at the departures of some of the most memorable players in my lifetime, all of whom I watched play, some of whom I even got to interview in my 25-year career as a sportswriter. There are even a few personal moments sprinkled in. And, as my connection to the game has deepened in a way I couldn’t have anticipated, only dreamed about, I had another renewed interest in our National Pastime. My son, the kid you see leaning on my shoulder on the back jacket of my original book, is now 28. After a long, sometimes bumpy stint in the minor leagues, is a major-league baseball player in the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization. John made his big-league debut in Chicago a week before my birthday in 2020. I share the story of his big-league debut in the concluding chapter. I’m hoping that his final at-bat is a few years away. As a writer and fan, what has been truly fascinating in the intervening 16 years since the first publication of “Last Time Out” is suddenly how accessible everything is. Writing and researching that original book pre-Internet, I remember spending hour after hour in Florida State’s Strozier Library, eyes blurry from the trusty microfilm machine, sifting through ancient box scores, game stories and newspaper columns. For this edition, almost all the material was found online or in books I had in my own library. Enjoy!
This book arose from the authors knowledge of a small number of doctors who were not behaving in a professional or proper manner. As he read about them, he found he was astonished at the extent of some offenders. Any human being can have flaws in their character, personality disorders or mental illnesses, what if that person is your doctor? This book takes the reader on a journey from the colorful life of Geoffrey Edelsten through Medawar's The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice, a fertility specialist who used his own sperm to impregnate over 50 women without their knowledge to the lasting and devastating effects of the MMR vaccine debacle. The author suggests that a test needs to be devised to detect character flaws such as greed before they harm innocent people through fraud and deceit. As much a reference book as it is a celebration of the brave‘whistleblower’and witty commentary on human nature, capturing the imagination, leading the reader to wonder why people make the decisions they do. Anderson himself had a colorful life and a brilliant career, leaving an immeasurable legacy to medicine. His wish was that this book would prompt change, leading to enhanced integrity in the medical and scientific world.
In the 1930s, a German anthropologist researching a primitive people makes an amazing discovery. Eighty years later this leads to the development of a miracle drug that could be one of the biggest breakthroughs in the history of man's fight against disease. An American physician suspects the drug might have a serious side effect with dire consequences for ethnic Jews. He begins an investigation not knowing that the scientist who created the formula is someone who'll stop at nothing to hide the truth. The story ranges from the jungles of New Guinea to the laboratories of Nazi Germany and the boardrooms of the modern pharmaceutical industry. Profit, prestige, and an undercurrent of racial intolerance provide the motivations for keeping a deadly secret from the world. Physician Scott Cutler races against time and powerful forces to expose the attempt at full-blown genocide.
How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Pepper Martin, and Their Colorful, Come-from-Behind Ball Club Won the World Series-and America’s Heart-During the Great Depression
How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Pepper Martin, and Their Colorful, Come-from-Behind Ball Club Won the World Series-and America’s Heart-During the Great Depression
With The Gashouse Gang, John Heidenry delivers the definitive account of one the greatest and most colorful baseball teams of all times, the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals, filled with larger-than-life baseball personalities like Branch Rickey, Leo Durocher, Pepper Martin, Casey Stengel, Satchel Paige, Frankie Frisch, and -- especially -- the eccentric good ol' boy and great pitcher Dizzy Dean and his brother Paul. The year 1934 marked the lowest point of the Great Depression, when the U.S. went off the gold standard, banks collapsed by the score, and millions of Americans were out of work. Epic baseball feats offered welcome relief from the hardships of daily life. The Gashouse Gang, the brilliant culmination of a dream by its general manager, Branch Rickey, the first to envision a farm system that would acquire and "educate" young players in the art of baseball, was adored by the nation, who saw itself -- scruffy, proud, and unbeatable -- in the Gang. Based on original research and told in entertaining narrative style, The Gashouse Gang brings a bygone era and a cast full of vivid personalities to life and unearths a treasure trove of baseball lore that will delight any fan of the great American pastime.
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.
It is 1956, and although Jonathon Statler is barely fifteen, he is already a proven survivor. Locked in a world of loneliness and abuse, Jonathon has nonetheless managed to learn golf and tennis, and embrace a levelheaded approach to life. He has paid a price, however. He is grossly overweight and short on self confidence. His eyes are more often on the tops of his sneakers than level with the world around him. Until one magical summer when Jonathon meets Malcolm Platt, the Director of Robert Morris Camp for Boys, and Angus McClatchy, a former teacher who now considers himself nothing more than an old man and, finally, a sensitive young woman named Becky Wilson. The Echoes of Summer is set against a background of racial and religious tension so prevalent during the 1950s. Author John Kendall captures the interaction of youth and age that provides the catalyst for a story that lifts the spirit and makes it soar.
Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first World Series with The World Series Most Wanted M/i>. You'll find fascinating facts, oddball tales, and record-breaking achievements from that initial World Series between the Boston Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates all the way up to the 2003 World Series. The next in a long line of vaunted Most Wanted books from Potomac. THE The World Series Most Wanted tells the tale of October glory and heartbreak, of heroes and goats, and of the thin line between success and failure on baseball's grandest stage. With a hopping sixty top-ten lists.
The acclaimed classic on the statistical analysis of baseball records in order to evaluate players and win more games. Long before Moneyball became a sensation or Nate Silver turned the knowledge he’d honed on baseball into electoral gold, John Thorn and Pete Palmer were using statistics to shake the foundations of the game. First published in 1984, The Hidden Game of Baseball ushered in the sabermetric revolution by demonstrating that we were thinking about baseball stats—and thus the game itself—all wrong. Instead of praising sluggers for gaudy RBI totals or pitchers for wins, Thorn and Palmer argued in favor of more subtle measurements that correlated much more closely to the ultimate goal: winning baseball games. The new gospel promulgated by Thorn and Palmer opened the door for a flood of new questions, such as how a ballpark’s layout helps or hinders offense or whether a strikeout really is worse than another kind of out. Taking questions like these seriously—and backing up the answers with data—launched a new era, showing fans, journalists, scouts, executives, and even players themselves a new, better way to look at the game. This brand-new edition retains the body of the original, with its rich, accessible analysis rooted in a deep love of baseball, while adding a new introduction by the authors tracing the book’s influence over the years. A foreword by ESPN’s lead baseball analyst, Keith Law, details The Hidden Game’s central role in the transformation of baseball coverage and team management and shows how teams continue to reap the benefits of Thorn and Palmer’s insights today. Thirty years after its original publication, The Hidden Game is still bringing the high heat—a true classic of baseball literature. Praise for The Hidden Game “As grateful as I was for the publication of The Hidden Game of Baseball when it first showed up on my bookshelf, I’m even more grateful now. It’s as insightful today as it was then. And it’s a reminder that we haven’t applauded Thorn and Palmer nearly loudly enough for their incredible contributions to the use and understanding of the awesome numbers of baseball.” —Jayson Stark, senior baseball writer, ESPN.com “Just as one cannot know the great American novel without Twain and Hemingway, one cannot know modern baseball analysis without Thorn and Palmer.” —Rob Neyer, FOX Sports
From 1921 through 1930, a young George E. Outland, who would go on to be a Yale Ph.D. and become a professor and United States Congressman, documented his love for baseball by arriving early at major league and Pacific Coast League ballgames armed with his camera and an album of his own photographs. He used his photographs to gain access to some of the greatest players and ballparks of his era. Collected here are more than 400 of Outland's photographs from the twenties, along with the stories of the ballplayers and ballparks depicted.
The six pioneers profiled here were promising graduates of the Wright Brothers' School of Aviation, which flourished in Ohio from 1910 to 1916. These airmen fairly represent their 113 fellow alumni in their all-consuming love of flying. The pilots are Arthur L. Welsh, a Russian immigrant who rose to become Orville Wright's chief instructor; Howard Warfield Gill, heir to an international tea dynasty; Archibald Freeman, whose flour-bag bombing of Boston Harbor won him attention as an early exponent of the supremacy of air power; Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, whose promise as a pilot quickly soured; George A. Gray, whose marriage resulted in an extraordinary husband and wife exhibition team; and Howard Max Rinehart, aerial mercenary, international racing competitor, Wright test pilot, South American explorer, and co-owner of one of America's premier charter services.
This is an extraordinary tale of life on the high seas aboard one of the last American merchant ships, the S.S. Stella Lykes, on a forty-two-day journey from Charleston down the Pacific coast of South America. As the crew of the Stella Lykes makes their ocean voyage, they tell stories of other runs and other ships, tales of disaster, stupidity, greed, generosity, and courage.
“A line-drive hit of a book” about the Iron Horse and the Iron Man—two legends from two eras of baseball—and the nature of human endurance (The Wall Street Journal). When Cal Ripken Jr. began his career with the Baltimore Orioles at age twenty-one, he had no idea he would someday beat the historic record of playing 2,130 games in a row, a record set forty-two years before by the fabled “Iron Horse” of the New York Yankees, Lou Gehrig. Ripken went on to surpass that record by 502 games, and the baseball world was floored. Few feats in sports history have generated more acclaim. But the record spawns an array of questions. When did someone first think it was a good idea to play in so many games without taking a day off? Who owned the record before Gehrig? Whose streak—Gehrig’s or Ripken’s—was the more difficult achievement? Through probing research, meticulous analysis, and colorful parallel storytelling, The Streak delves into this impressive but controversial milestone, unraveling Gehrig’s at-times unwitting pursuit of that goal (Babe Ruth used to think Gehrig crazy for wanting to play every game), and Ripken’s fierce determination to stay in the lineup and continue to contribute whatever he could even as his skills diminished with age. So many factors contribute to the comparisons between the two men: the length of seasons, the number of teams in the major leagues, the inclusion of nonwhite players, travel, technology, medical advances, and even media are all part of the equation. This is a book that captures the deeply American appreciation—as seen in the sport itself—for a workaday mentality and that desire to be there for the game every time it called. “It tackles the allure of human endurance and the pitfalls of fame, but it is mostly a baseball book for baseball fans. It succeeds as both a thorough accounting and a love note to the game.”—The Washington Post
Following up on Professor Wood’s 2016 Beyond the Ballpark: The Honorable, Immoral, and Eccentric Lives of Baseball Legends, which was listed in Sport’s Collector Digest’s top forty baseball books of 2016, he examines twenty-five additional legends. Included are such notables as the lovable Yogi Berra, Stan Musial, and Gil Hodges, the feisty Billy Martin, the complex Ted Williams, the tragic Shoeless Joe Jackson, the delightful Pepper Martin, and the crook Hal Chase. Wood tracks down how these players acted away from the ballpark, and the circumstances surrounding their deaths. The author also includes his pictures of all the gravesites, except for two who were not interred. There is much funny and sad stuff here.
Life is short - it has to be. It is every spark that illuminates our skies - gone, all too quickly, sometimes without warning - and leaving constellations of darkness within our souls. This book is a scliff of life, a moment from Kilmarnock, a point in time that will never again return. Please cherish these compositions and give each and every person the immortality they truly deserve." - John C Grant. This book contains over 160 compositions for the Scottish Fiddle. Each piece of music has been written to reflect the sights, sounds and 'well kent' characters of the town of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland in 2018.
Billy Southworth was the most successful major league baseball manager of the 1940s including the three straight years in which his St. Louis Cardinal teams won more than 100 games. He won three National League pennants with the Cardinals and one with the Boston Braves, and his .597 winning percentage is the fifth highest in baseball history. But Southworth was dogged by demons off the field, including the deaths of three children. On the field, his achievements were minimized by many because they occurred during the war years when the baseball talent level was below par. When he finally got top recognition, being elected to the Hall of Fame in 2007, the honor occurred 38 years after his death.
This book tells the story of how Mexican multimillionaire businessman Jorge Pasquel and the Mexican League hastened the integration of major league baseball. During the decade that preceded Jackie Robinson's breaking of the color barrier, almost 150 players from the Negro League played in Mexico, most of them recruited by Pasquel.
This will help us customize your experience to showcase the most relevant content to your age group
Please select from below
Login
Not registered?
Sign up
Already registered?
Success – Your message will goes here
We'd love to hear from you!
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.