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
"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
Review
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
"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 his heart as Baldassaro writes about the progress of Italian Americans through the 20th century until today."and#8212;Buddy Fortunato, Italian Tribune
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.'"and#8212;Mike Bauman, MLB.com
Review
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
In The Grand Old Man of Baseball, Norman L. Macht chronicles Connie Mack's tumultuous final two decades in baseball. After Mack had built one of baseball's greatest teams, the 1929-31 Philadelphia Athletics, the Depression that followed the stock market crash fundamentally reshaped Mack'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 team's heirs (Mack'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 choose-unwisely-between them; and, finally, the disastrous 1951-54 seasons in which Roy and Earle ran the club to the brink of bankruptcy. 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. In Macht's third volume of his trilogy on Mack, he describes the physical, mental, and financial decline of Mack's final years, which unfortunately became a classic American tragedy. Norman L. Macht is the author of more than thirty books, including Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball (Nebraska, 2007) and Connie Mack: The Turbulent and Triumphant Years, 1915-1931 (Nebraska, 2012), as well as biographies of Cy Young, Babe Ruth, and Lou Gehrig. He is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research.
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.
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.
and#160;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 author of numerous articles on baseball, coeditor of The American Game: Baseball and Ethnicity, and editor of Ted Williams: Reflections on a Splendid Life. Dom DiMaggio (1917and#8211;2009), the younger brother of Joe and Vince DiMaggio, played for the Boston Red Sox for his entire ten-year career.