Synopses & Reviews
Between 1894 and 1896, the Baltimore Orioles acquired a reputation as the slickest, smartest, and dirtiest team in baseball. Behind the play of future Hall of Famers John McGraw, Wee Willie Keeler, and “Foxy” Ned Hanlon, the Orioles had won three straight National League pennants heading into the 1897 season. Their style of play, however, met with widespread disapprobation among fans – the Oriole repertoire included deliberately hitting batters, tampering with the playing surfaces, interfering with opposing baserunners, and verbally assaulting anyone within earshot including the umpires, opposing players, and occasionally each other.
So it was that the 1897 pennant race between the vaunted Baltimore club, and the comparatively saintly Boston Beaneaters (themselves three-time champs before being knocked off by the Orioles in 1894), took on a decidedly moralistic flavor – the inveterate Orioles versus the benevolent Beaneaters. It was the most intensely watched team sporting event in the country’s history to that time. Fittingly, the race came down to a three-game series between the two teams in the season’s final week. In the third and decisive game of the series, 30,000 fans literally knocked down the gates and walls of a facility designed to hold 10,000 to watch the Beaneaters grind out a win and bring down baseball’s first and most notorious evil empire.
Review
“Bill Felber has woven a picturesque tale of how baseball was played more than 100 years ago in the rowdy days of the 1890s. The story, although concentrating on the 1897 pennant race between Baltimore and Boston, vividly describes the atmosphere of the game on and off the field, and in doing so creates a rollicking good tale to boot.”—Pete Palmer, coeditor of ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, 4th edition Publishers Weekly
Review
“Felber . . . excels at demonstrating the dissimilarities between these two evenly matched opponents. . . . [He] gives a spirited retelling of the season, giving life to greedy owners, rabid fans, drunken ballplayers and terrorized umpires, all the while bringing to life an era of baseball when home runs were a rarity, players fielded with no gloves and starting pitchers threw almost 400 innings a season.”—Publishers Weekly NPR's "Only a Game"
Review
“A fine source of stories about the days when . . . Boston fans celebrated victories by tossing into the air beans which they had carried to the games in their pockets for that purpose, and when an umpire could be arrested twice in one season without losing his job.”—Bill Littlefield, WBUR-FM Radio, NPRs “Only a Game” Bill Littlefield
Review
“This book is a hoot from start to the cliff-hanging conclusion.”—John Linsenmeyer, Greenwich Times (CT) Palmer, Pete
Review
"If you are a fan of baseball, this is a great book to pick up. If you are an Orioles fan, especially one that can remember the 1970 team, it's essential."and#8212;cardinal70.com
Review
and#8220;Iand#8217;ll never forget the men whose efforts earned the 1970 Orioles consideration as one of the best ball clubs of all time and after reading Pitching, Defense, and Three-Run Homers, you wonand#8217;t either.and#8221;and#8212;Brooks Robinson, Hall of Fame third baseman
Review
and#8220;After the embarrassment of the year before and the shock of losing to the Miracle Mets, the 1970 Orioles couldnand#8217;t wait to avenge that defeat and show the baseball world what the fans of Baltimore already knew. Brooks Robinson and his cast of All-Stars were knocking on dynastyand#8217;s door. The Oriole Way was alive and well on 33rd Street.and#8221;and#8212;Ted Patterson, Orioles history expert
Synopsis
Not only was it probably the most cutthroat pennant race in baseball history; it was also a struggle to define how baseball would be played. This book re-creates the rowdy, season-long 1897 battle between the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Beaneaters. The Orioles had acquired a reputation as the dirtiest team in baseball. Future Hall of Famers John McGraw, Wee Willie Keeler, and “Foxy” Ned Hanlon were proven winners—but their nasty tactics met with widespread disapproval among fans. So it was that their pennant race with the comparatively saintly Beaneaters took on a decidedly moralistic air.
Bill Felber brings to life the most intensely watched team sporting event in the countrys history to that time. His book captures the drama of the final week, as the race came down to a three-game series. And finally, it conveys the madness of the third and decisive game, when thirty thousand fans literally knocked down the gates and walls of a facility designed to hold ten thousand to watch the Beaneaters grind out a win and bring down baseballs first and most notorious evil empire.
Synopsis
For the Baltimore Orioles, the glory days stretched to decades. Through the 1960s and 1970s, the team arguably had the best players, the best manager, the best Minor League teams, the best scouts and front officeand#8212;and, unarguably, the best record in the American League. But the best of all, and one of baseballand#8217;s greatest teams ever, was the Orioles team of 1970.
Pitching, Defense, and Three-Run Homers documents that paradoxically unforgettable yet often overlooked World Champion team.
Led by the bats of Frank Robinson and Boog Powell and a trio of 20-win pitchers, the Orioles won 108 regular season games and dropped just 1 postseason game on their way to winning the World Series against the Reds. The club featured three future Hall of Fame players (Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, and Jim Palmer), a Hall of Fame manager (Earl Weaver), and several other star players in the prime of their careers. Featuring biographical articles on Weaver, his coaches, the broadcasters, and the players of the 1970 season, this book tells what happened in and out of the game. It details highlights and timelines, the memorable games, spectacular plays, and the teamand#8217;s working philosophy, and#8220;the Oriole Wayand#8221;and#8212;and in sum recreates the magic of one of the greatest seasons in baseball history.
About the Author
Mark Armour, the director of the Society for American Baseball Researchand#8217;s Baseball Biography Project, is the author of three books on baseball, most recently
Joe Cronin (Nebraska, 2010).
Baltimore native Malcolm Allen has served as associate editor of La Prensa del Beisbol Latino, the quarterly newsletter of the Society for American Baseball Researchand#8217;s Latino baseball committee.