Synopses & Reviews
In
The Grand Old Man of Baseball, Norman L. Macht chronicles Connie Mackandrsquo;s tumultuous final two decades in baseball. After Mack had built one of baseballandrsquo;s greatest teams, the 1929andndash;31 Philadelphia Athletics, the Depression that followed the stock market crash fundamentally reshaped Mackandrsquo;s legacy as his team struggled on the field and at the gate. Among the challenges Mack faced: a sharp drop in attendance that forced him to sell his star players; the rise of the farm system, which he was slow to adopt; the opposition of other owners to night games, which he favored; the postwar integration of baseball, which he initially opposed; a split between the teamandrsquo;s heirs (Mackandrsquo;s sons Roy and Earle on one side, their half brother Connie Jr. on the other) that tore apart the family and forced Mack to chooseandmdash;unwiselyandmdash;between them; and, finally, the disastrous 1951andndash;54 seasons in which Roy and Earle ran the club to the brink of bankruptcy.
and#160;By now aged and mentally infirm, Mack watched in bewilderment as the business he had built fell apart. Broke and in debt, Roy and Earle feuded over the sale of the team. In a never-before-revealed series of maneuvers, Roy double-crossed his father and brother and the team was sold and moved to Kansas City in 1954.and#160;In Machtandrsquo;s third volume of his trilogy on Mack, he describes the physical, mental, and financial decline of Mackandrsquo;s final years, which unfortunately became a classic American tragedy.
Review
“People used to say the Yankees won a lot because we led the league in Italians. All I’ll say is there’s a real good history of Italians in baseball, and this book has excellent history.”—Yogi Berra --Judith Anne Testa - Fra Noi
Review
“Can the story of America, and the story of immigrants to America, in the last one hundred-plus years, be told through the story of Italian baseball players and Italian contributors to our so-called national pastime? Absolutely, as Lawrence Baldassaro demonstrates decidedly, informatively, and entertainingly in Beyond DiMaggio.”—Ira Berkow, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Summers in the Bronx: Attila the Hun and Other Yankee Stories --Yogi Berra
Review
“Beyond DiMaggio is a major contribution to American sports history and, in a larger sense, cultural history.”—Judith Testa, author of Sal Maglie: Baseball’s Demon Barber --Ira Berkow
Review
"Baldassaro brings a great deal of affection and merriment to his storytellingand#8212;whether he is replaying Cookie Lavagetto's and Al Gionfriddo's exploits in the 1947 World Series or exploring the sporting and cultural significance of Joe DiMaggio."and#8212;Publishers Weekly
Review
"Baldassaro's sweep ranges from Ed Abbaticchio, one of the first Italian Americans in the game, and Ping Bodie, who, born Francesco Stephano Pezzolo, was the first Italian American who came close to baseball stardom, to general managers, team owners, commissioner Angelo Bartlett Giamatti and, most movingly, the rise and fall of Red Sox slugger Tony Conigliaro."and#8212;Robert Cottrell, Library Journal
Review
"With interviews conducted by the author over the past decade and references to first-person accounts of the play and personalities of the older subjects, Baldassaro unearths colorful details such as the origin of Oscar 'Spinach' Melillo's nickname and Sal Maglie's run-ins with his Mexican League pitching coach, former Big Leaguer Dolf Luque,and#160;which even included some gunplay."and#8212;Jerry Milani, Baseball Digest
Review
"The love of both his heritage and the great game of baseball pours from hi Jerry Milani - Baseball Digest
Review
"Through the stories of Italian-American baseball players—some famous, some modestly successful and some forgotten—Baldassaro brings to life what Italian Americans have endured and, just as important, what they've achieved."—Judith Anne Testa, Fra Noi Mike Bauman - MLB.com
Review
"Beyond DiMaggio is a well-written, long overdue tribute to the impact Italian Americans have made on major league baseball, which amazingly has been barely acknowledged given their overwhelming presence at every level of the sport."—Mark Concannon, Fox Sports Wisconsin Mike Bauman - MLB.com
Review
"There are countless stories of Italian-Americans in baseball in this book, but they all share not only a common heritage but also the experience of participating in what the author justifiably calls 'the quintessential American game.'"—Mike Bauman, MLB.com Buddy Fortunato - Italian Tribune
Review
andquot;Roberts Ehrgott has written a graceful, engrossing account of an era in which the Cubs, while already falling short of winning the World Series, built a national following in the age of flash, flappers, mobsters, molls, bank runs and breadlines.andquot;andmdash;Scott Simon, Chicago Tribune
Review
andquot;The Second City couldn't get enough of this team of assorted alcoholics, teetotalers, brawlers, carousers, fitness buffs and gamblers that captured two pennants and featured numerous eventual Hall of Famers. . . . An absolute must for any baseball fan's library.andquot;andmdash;Kirkus starred review
Review
andquot;A fun read . . . full of anecdote and color. Recommended for fans of the Cubs or Chicago or baseball history.andquot;andmdash;Library Journal
Review
andquot;What sets the book apart from many set in baseball is how Roberts Ehrgott handles the context in which the fun and games transpired. In the '20s, Chicago was certainly the Cubs, but it was also Al Capone, and, as Ehrgott writes, andquot;Chicagoans venturing to other parts of the country and abroad learned that their city was becoming a byword for mayhem and violence.andquot; . . . Chicago's dizzy baseball hopes and dreams seem especially poignant against the background of the onset of the Great Depression.andquot;andmdash;Bill Littlefield, Boston Globe
Review
"[Mr. Wrigley's Ball Club] is a smartly written, well-researched look at the Cubs from 1925 to 1932."and#8212;Bob D'Angelo, Tampa Tribune
Review
andquot;Roberts Ehrgott takes us back to the days when the Cubs were kings and Chicago was a growing, thrilling, dangerous melting pot of Al Capone, speakeasies, andquot;flappersandquot; and vaudeville in his meticulously researched and extremely well crafted new book.andquot;andmdash;Terry Keshner, Seamheads
Review
"Wood was a great ballplayer and an even more fascinating man. Excellent reading."and#8212;Wes Lukowsky, Booklist
Review
"[Smoky Joe Wood is] a thorough and lively account of the career of Joe Wood."and#8212;W. T. Lindley, CHOICE
Review
"Gerald C. Wood (no relation), author of this first full-scale biography of 'Smoky Joe' Wood, delivers an impeccably researched and poignant account of a great athlete and even greater man."and#8212;Mark Hodermarsky, Cleveland.com
Review
"Aand#160;stunning account of the life of the best baseball player not in the Hall of Fame."and#8212;John Vorperian, Southern New England Chapter, Society for American Baseball Research
Review
and#8220;If I could have been one twentieth-century sports figure, I would like to have been Smoky Joe Wood in 1912. All that talent and all that common sense combined in one package and all showcased in a baseball-mad city. And reinventing himself to become a .366and#8211;hitting outfielder wasnand#8217;t bad either.and#8221;and#8212;Bob Ryan, Boston Globe sports columnist and author of When Boston Won the World Series
Review
andquot;As readers will discover in Gerald Wood's insightful and thorough portrait of the Red Sox hurler, Indians outfielder, Yale coach, and baseball ambassador, the appreciation for Smoky Joe Wood should come not from individual achievements but from the sum of all the parts of the man's life.andquot;andmdash;Ron Kates,
NINEReview
Praise for Norman L. Machtandrsquo;s earlier volumes on Connie Mack:and#160;andldquo;A major addition to the study of the game and its longest-serving icon.andrdquo;andmdash;NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Cultureand#160;andldquo;As a catcher and manager, Connie Mack deserves much of the credit for writing andlsquo;The Bookandrsquo; on baseball strategy and the managing of men. How he did it all is told here for the first time.andrdquo;andmdash;Roland Hemond, three-time winner of Major League Baseballandrsquo;s Executive of the Year awardand#160;andldquo;A biography of Mack cannot help but be a history of baseball in the first half of the twentieth century, and this biography is a feast of interesting facts and judgments.andrdquo;andmdash;George F. Will, syndicated columnist and author of Men at Work: The Craft of Baseballand#160;andldquo;Like the man he continues to so capably chronicle, Norman Macht is astute, authoritative, and meticulous. If you want to learn about twentieth-century baseball, youandrsquo;ll have to read this book.andrdquo;andmdash;Bob Edmonds, McCormick Messengerand#160;
Review
andldquo;Impeccably researched and finely judged,
The Grand Old Man of Baseball, the third volume of Norman Machtandrsquo;s definitive biography of Connie Mack, combines fascinating detail with narrative skill to dispel the uncertainty and confusion that has long surrounded the sale and relocation of the Philadelphia Athletics to Kansas City, setting the record straight on what really happened.andrdquo;andmdash;Bob Warrington, Philadelphia baseball historian and author
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.
Synopsis
Chicago in the Roaring Twenties was a city of immigrants, mobsters, and flappers with one shared passion: the Chicago Cubs. It all began when the chewing-gum tycoon William Wrigley decided to build the worldand#8217;s greatest ball club in the nationand#8217;s Second City. In this Jazz Age center, the maverick Wrigley exploited the revolutionary technology of broadcasting to attract eager throngs of women to his renovated ballpark.
Mr. Wrigleyand#8217;s Ball Club transports us to this heady era of baseball history and introduces the team at its crazy heartand#8212;an amalgam of rakes, pranksters, schemers, and choirboys who take center stage in memorable successes, equally memorable disasters, and shadowy intrigue. Readers take front-row seats to meet Grover Cleveland Alexander, Rogers Hornsby, Joe McCarthy, Lewis and#8220;Hackand#8221; Wilson, Gabby Hartnett. The cast of characters also includes their colorful if less-extolled teammates and the Cubsand#8217; nemesis, Babe Ruth, who terminates the ambitions of Mr. Wrigleyand#8217;s ball club with one emphatic swing.
and#160;
Synopsis
WINNER OF THE 2014 SEYMOUR MEDAL sponsored by the Society for American Baseball Research and finalist for 2014 SABR Larry Ritter Award
Though his pitching career lasted only a few seasons, Howard Ellsworth and#8220;Smoky Joeand#8221; Wood was one of the most dominating figures in baseball historyand#8212;a man many consider the best baseball player who is not in the Hall of Fame. About his fastball, Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson once said: and#8220;Listen, mister, no man alive can throw harder than Smoky Joe Wood.and#8221;and#160;
Smoky Joe Wood chronicles the singular life befitting such a baseball legend. Wood got his start impersonating a female on the National Bloomer Girls team. A natural athlete, he pitched for the Boston Red Sox at eighteen, won twenty-one games and threw a no-hitter at twenty-one, and had a 34-5 record plus three wins in the 1912 World Series, for a 1.91 ERA, when he was just twenty-two. Then in 1913 Wood suffered devastating injuries to his right hand and shoulder that forced him to pitch in pain for two more years. After sitting out the 1916 season, he came back as a converted outfielder and played another five years for the Cleveland Indians before retiring to coach the Yale University baseball team.
With details culled from interviews and family archives, this biography, the first of this rugged player of the Deadball Era, brings to life one of the genuine characters of baseball history.
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.