Synopses & Reviews
Before the feuding owners turned to Ed Barrow to be general manager in 1920, the Yankees had never won a pennant. They won their first in 1921 and during Barrowand#8217;s tenure went on to win thirteen more as well as ten World Series. This biography of the incomparable Barrow is also the story of how he built the most successful sports franchise in American history.and#160;Barrow spent fifty years in baseball. He was in the middle of virtually every major conflict and held practically every job except player. Daniel R. Levitt describes Barrowand#8217;s pre-Yankees years, when he managed Babe Ruth and the Boston Red Sox to their last World Series Championship before the and#8220;curse.and#8221; He then details how Barrow assembled a winning Yankees team both by purchasing players outright and by developing talent through a farm system.and#160;The story of the making of the great Yankees dynasty reveals Barrowand#8217;s genius for organizing, for recognizing baseball talent, and for exploiting the existing economic environment. Because Barrow was a player in so many of baseballand#8217;s key events, his biography gives a clear and eye-opening picture of how Americaand#8217;s sport was played in the twentieth century, on the field and off. A complex portrait of a larger-than-life character in the annals of baseball, this book is also an inside history of how the sportand#8217;s competitive environment evolved and how the Yankees came to dominate it.
Review
“The tale Macht offers is often riveting.”—Library Journal Robert Cottrell
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“[A] comprehensive and interesting portrait of one of baseballs most successful managers. . . . A compelling look at a legend and an era.”—Kirkus Reviews Library Journal
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“[Includes] many fascinating details of baseball from the 1880s to 1914.”—Boston Globe Kirkus Reviews
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“Richly enjoyable.”—Roanoke Times Katherine A. Powers - Boston Globe
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“Masterful. . . . A must read for all historians of the national pastime, particularly those with an interest in Philadelphia sports.”—Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Bob Willis - The Roanoke Times
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“No other baseball manager is going to win—or lose—as many games as Connie Mack did in his fifty years managing the Philadelphia Athletics. 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.”—George F. Will, syndicated columnist and author of Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
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"The game has changed dramatically since 1934, however one must go back in time and truly see how it was once played. This book shows the way the game was played by men from a different time."and#8212;Bob Swick, Gridiron Greats
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and#8220;Norman Macht captures in exacting detail the exciting 1934 Yale and Princeton seasons, culminating in the heroic sixty-minute effort of eleven tenacious Bulldogs as they upset the heavily favored Tigers.and#8221;and#8212;Jim Campbell, football historian
Review
http://rksbaseballbookshelf.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/prtops-to-university-of-nebraska-press/
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and#8220;The author has an astounding facility with detail: The sheer number of names, dates and salaries he tosses around is mind-blowing, and the 18 informational tables in the appendix are worthy of inclusion in an economics textbook. . . . A labor of love of great value to Yankees fans and hard-core baseball junkies.and#8221;and#8212;
Kirkus ReviewsReview
and#8220;Substantive baseball history filtered through the career of one of the gameand#8217;s overlooked titans.and#8221;and#8212;Wes Lukowsky, Booklist
Review
"Levitt revisits the vexed matter of Sox owner Harry Frazeeand#8217;s motives in selling baseballand#8217;s greatest player to New York and, in so doing, debunks the previous debunking of Glenn Stout and Richard A. Johnson in 2000, in Red Sox Century. . . . Eight years ago Stout and Johnson convinced me of their views; today I am just as convinced by Levitt."and#8212;Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe
Review
and#8220;A captivating overview of baseball from the and#8216;20s through the and#8216;40s.and#8221;and#8212;Bill Madden, New York Daily News
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"[Ed Barrow] will undoubtedly go down as the definitive work on one of the most important baseball figures in the first half of the 20th century."and#8212;Rich Lederer, baseballanalytics.com
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"In Ed Barrow: The Bulldog Who Built the Yankees' First Dynasty, author Daniel Levitt offers a well-detailed account of the great baseball man including his meteoric rise through the professional baseball world, the beginning of the Boston Red Sox's descent from championship status and what would become the legendary Yankee dynasty of the 1920s."and#8212;Anthony Basich, The Inside Game
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"One of the many strengths of Levitt's biography is that he provides ammunition for both sides in this schism while telling the story in an even-handed and convincing manner. . . . Levitt's work is of the highest order."and#8212;Lee Lowenfish, NINE
Review
and#8220;The University of Nebraska Press, long respected for its scholarly works, has emerged as a valuable baseball resource as well. . . . Notable American players and teams, baseball history overseas (in Latin America, Japan and Australia), sportswriters and broadcasters, the African-American baseball experience, early traces of the gameand#8217;s essential elements in medieval Europeand#8212;all these and more are among the subjects examined in the NU Pressand#8217;s fascinating explorations of baseball in its many dimensions. . . . . The University of Nebraska Press deserves praise for drawing attention to this notable figureand#8212;and for publishing dozens of titles that help fans of our national pastime better understand this venerable sport.and#8221;and#8212;Omaha World-Herald (NE)
Review
and#8220;An in-depth bio of the man best known for being the power behind the great Yankee dynasty. But he was much more than that as Levitt shows in this well researched and highly readable effort.and#8221;and#8212;Frommer Sportsnet
Review
"Thousands of fans pass by Barrow's large plaque in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park annually, and though it's among the largest, he is probably the one of whom they know the least. But, as Levitt makes clear, heand#8217;s among the most important in franchise history."and#8212;Jerry Milani. Baseballdigest.com
Review
and#8220;Baseball scholars will delight in Dan Levittand#8217;s Ed Barrow, a meticulously detailed biography of one of the most important figures in baseball history.and#8221;and#8212;Robert Creamer, author of Babe: The Legend Comes to Life and Stengel: His Life and Times
Review
and#8220;When we think about the beginnings of the Yankeesand#8217; long dynasty, we think of Gehrig, and DiMaggio, and the Babe. Especially the Babe. But thanks to Dan Levitt, now we know that mastermind Ed Barrow belongs on that list, too. Perhaps at the top.and#8221;and#8212;Rob Neyer, ESPN.com
Review
and#8220;Ed Barrow was a towering figure in baseball who arrived in New York to construct the Yankee dynastyand#8212;and who left decades later, with the dynasty and his legacy well intact. Dan Levitt has captured his power within the game, his complicated relationships, and his work ethic with a wonderful look at a man who helped shape the game for half a century.and#8221;and#8212;Marty Appel, former Yankees public relations director and baseball historian
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
In November 1934, the Princeton football teamand#8212;unbeaten in its last fifteen gamesand#8212;faced the 3and#8211;3 Yale Bulldogs, who gave new meaning to the term and#8220;underdogs.and#8221; As much a thrilling play-by-play account of college football at its finest as it is a fascinating work of sports history, this book chronicles the season that brought Princeton and Yale together in a game like no other since.and#160;Footballand#8217;s Last Iron Men follows the teams from the hiring of future Hall of Fame coaches Fritz Crisler and Greasy Neale through spring practice to their annual clash on November 17. The Yale Elis, it seemed, had no chance. How those eleven playersand#8212;who never left the gameand#8212;stunned Princeton 7and#8211;0 is a chapter in football history. It was an era of 165-pound linemen, quarterbacks who called their own plays, and student athletes who earned no special treatment. But the story of Yaleand#8217;s Iron Men is also part of a larger history, for it took place during the Great Depression, when millions of struggling Americans found hope in the courage and grit of the team who wouldnand#8217;t quit.
About the Author
Norman L. Macht is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and the author of more than thirty books, including Connie Mack: The Turbulent and Triumphant Years, 1915and#8211;1931 and Footballand#8217;s Last Iron Men: 1934, Yale vs. Princeton, and One Stunning Upset, both available from the University of Nebraska Press.