Synopses & Reviews
The greatest American Indian baseball player of all time, Charles Albert Bender was, according to a contemporary, and#8220;the coolest pitcher in the game.and#8221; Using a trademark delivery, an impressive assortment of pitches that may have included the gameand#8217;s first slider, and an apparently unflappable demeanor, he earned a reputation as baseballand#8217;s great clutch pitcher during tight Deadball Era pennant races and in front of boisterous World Series crowds. More remarkably yet, and#8220;Chiefand#8221; Benderand#8217;s Hall of Fame career unfolded in the face of enormous prejudice. Winner of the 2009 Seymour Medal, this skillfully told and complete account of Benderand#8217;s life is also a portrait of greatness of character in the face of incredible pressure.and#160;With a journalistand#8217;s eye for detail and a novelistand#8217;s feel for storytelling, Tom Swift takes readers on Benderand#8217;s improbable journeyand#8212;from his early years on the White Earth Reservation, to his development at the Carlisle Indian School, to his big break and eventual rise to the pinnacle of baseball. The story of a paradoxical American sports hero, one who achieved a once-unfathomable celebrity while suffering the harsh injustices of a racially intolerant world, Chief Benderand#8217;s Burden is an eye-opening and inspiring narrative of a unique American life.
Synopsis
At the dawn of the roaring twenties, baseball was struggling to overcome two of its darkest moments: the death of a player during a game and the revelations of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. At this critical juncture for baseball, the two teams that emerged to fight for the future of the game were also battling for the hearts and minds of New Yorkers as the city dramatically rose to the pinnacle of the baseball world.
1921 tells the story of a season that pitted the New York Yankees against their Polo Grounds landlords and hated rivals, John McGrawand#8217;s Giants, in the first alland#8211;New York City World Series. Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg re-create the drama that featured the charismatic Babe Ruth in his assault on baseball records in the face of McGrawand#8217;s disdain for the American League and the Ruth-led slugging style. Their work evokes the early 1920s with the words of renowned sportswriters such as Damon Runyon, Grantland Rice, and Heywood Broun, and with more than fifty photographs, offering a vivid picture of the colorful characters, the crosstown rivalry, and the incomparable performances of this classic season.
Synopsis
Connie Mack (1862and#8211;1956) was the Grand Old Man of baseball and one of the gameand#8217;s first true celebrities. This book, spanning the first fifty-two years of Mackand#8217;s life, covers his experiences as player, manager, and club owner through 1914.
Norman L. Macht chronicles Mackand#8217;s little-known beginnings, recounting how Mack, a school dropout at fourteen, created strategies for winning baseball and principles for managing men long before there were notions of defining such subjects. And he details how, as a key figure in the launching of the American League in 1901, Mack won six of the leagueand#8217;s first fourteen pennants while serving as manager, treasurer, general manager, traveling secretary, and public relations and scouting director (all at the same time) for the Philadelphia Athletics.
This book brings to life the unruly origins of baseball as a sport and a business and provides the first complete and accurate picture of a character who was larger than life and yet little known: the tricky, rule-bending catcher; the peppery field leader and fan favorite; the hot-tempered young manager. Illustrated with previously unpublished family photographs, it affords unique insight into a colorful personality who helped shape baseball as we know it today.
Synopsis
Berra, Rizzuto, Lasorda, Torre, Conigliaro, Santo, Piazza. Casual baseball fansand#8212;in fact, even many nonfansand#8212;know these names, not as Italian Americans but as some of the most colorful figures in Major League Baseball. Ever since future Hall of Famer Tony Lazzeri became a key part of the Yankeesand#8217; Murderersand#8217; Row lineup of 1926, Italian Americans have been among the most prominent and intriguing players in the game. The first comprehensive study of the topic,
Beyond DiMaggio is also a social history of baseball, tracing the evolution of American perceptions toward those of Italian descent as it chronicles the baseball exploits that influenced those perceptions.
Lawrence Baldassaro tells the stories of Italian Americansand#8217; contributions to the game, from Joe DiMaggio, who transcended his ethnic identity to become an American icon, to A. Bartlett Giamatti, who served as commissioner of baseball, to Mike Piazza, considered the greatest hitting catcher ever. Baldassaro conducted more than fifty interviews with players, coaches, managers, and executivesand#8212;some with careers dating back to the thirtiesand#8212;in order to put all these figures and their stories into the historical context of baseball, Italian Americans, and, finally, the culture of American sports.
About the Author
Lawrence Baldassaro is a professor emeritus of Italian at the University of Wisconsinand#8211;Milwaukee. He is the editor of Ted Williams: Reflections on a Splendid Life and The American Game: Baseball and Ethnicity. Dom DiMaggio, youngest brother of Joe and Vince DiMaggio, made his Major League debut on April 16, 1940, for the Boston Red Sox. He died in 2009 at the age of ninety-two.