The New York Yankees were the strongest team in the major leagues from 1948-1960, capturing the American League Pennant 10 times and winning seven World Championships. Ask the average baseball fan who made the Yankees so dominant and most will mention players such as Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, or Mickey Mantle. Some may insist that manager Casey Stengel was the key. But sports pundits at the time, and respected sports historians today consider the real genius behind the Yankees' success their general manager, a portly, often taciturn, and very shy man named George Martin Weiss. Weiss loved baseball but lacked the ability to play the game. What he had was the savvy to run a baseball team better than virtually anyone he competed against. Weiss spent more than 50 years in baseball, including nearly 30 years with the Yankees. Before he was Yankee GM, he created and ran their superlative farm system that continuously supplied talented players to the parent club. When the Yankees fired him at age 67, because he was ""too old"", the newly franchised New York Mets immediately hired him to build their team. This is the first in-depth biography of George M. Weiss, who, when inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame in 1972, was hailed for contributing ""as much to baseball as any man the game could ever know.

This book is about the successful operation of a sports franchise. While there are many sports-related books about what happens on the playing field, there are few written about the equally interesting but seldom told stories of what happens on the business side. Why does someone acquire a professional sports team? What goes into the branding, marketing and entertainment that make some teams successful, and others not? What are the key challenges that managers, athletic directors and other sports staff face? Are there valuable lessons from the major and minor leagues for university, high school and other amateur sports programs? Do sports teams generate a profit? And if so, how? While the examples are drawn from the business of minor league baseball, the lessons are equally applicable to all other sports, and even to many retail businesses.

More than 300 ballplayers have spent time with both the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, opposing teams in one of the most intense rivalries in sports. This book examines the century long antagonism between the two clubs, chronicling their storied pasts and their evolution during the 20th century. Several what-ifs are considered: what if Babe Ruth had never been traded from the Red Sox to the Yankees? What if the clubs had swapped Joe DiMaggio for Ted Williams, as was proposed by the owners of both teams? What if Alex Rodriguez had gone to Boston, as was originally intended, rather than to New York? The debate as to which team has made out better with shared players is explored.

Major League Baseball was in crisis in 1968. The commissioner was inept, professional football was challenging the sport's popularity and the game on the field was boring, with pitchers dominating hitters in a succession of dull, low-scoring games. The League expanded for the 1969 season but the muddled process by which new franchises were selected highlighted the ineffective management of the sport. This book describes how baseball reached its nadir in the late 1960s and how it survived and began its slow comeback. The lack of offense in the game is examined, taking in the great pitching performances of Denny McLain, Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale and others. Colorful characters like Charley Finley and Ken Harrelson are covered, along with the effects dramatic changes in American society and the war in Vietnam had on the game.

In 1916, over 500 men played in a major league game. Many of those players' names are inseparable from baseball - 39 are members of the Hall of Fame - while others have only one line in the record books. Some enjoyed highly productive careers after leaving the game; others lacked the temperament, skills or opportunities to find success after baseball. This book is the first to focus on a representative group of major leaguers, the Class of 1916, in seeking answers to the questions Who was the average major leaguer in the late deadball era? What was his background? and What became of him when his playing days ended? Introductory chapters offer background information on the era and discuss the 1916 season; provide information on the players' ethnic and geographic origins, ages, and average physical sizes; chart player performance; and summarize post-playing careers and mortality statistics for the group. The main body of the work, a biographical dictionary, is arranged alphabetically, and each entry includes career and biographical information, statistics, post-baseball accomplishments and death. Many rare photographs accompany the text.

This is the biography of Bud Fowler (ne John Jackson), the first African American to play in organised baseball, and the longest tenured at the time that the colour line was drawn. In addition to his professional playing career, which lasted more than 25 years, Fowler was a scout, organiser, owner, and promoter of touring black baseball clubs - including the legendary Page Fence Giants - in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Emphasising the social and cultural contexts for Fowler's accomplishments on and off the baseball diamond, and his prominence within the history and development of the national pastime, author Jeff Laing builds a convincing case for Fowler as one of the great pioneering figures of the early game.

Mount Rushmore, located in the Black Hills of Keystone, South Dakota, is one of the most iconic landmarks in the United States. The face of the mountain features 60-foot heads of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. It depicts four of the greatest men our country has ever known. In recent years, it has become fashionable for sports fans to select the Mount Rushmore of their franchise's history. For some franchise's, which have been around for 100+ years, it can be a daunting task. Even for younger franchises, such as the New York Mets, picking a Mount Rushmore can be a challenge. Mostly because fans always seem to favor players that they have seen play--leading older and younger fans to differ on who belongs carved on that fictional mountain in Queens. In 2015, Major League Baseball announced its decision for each team's Mount Rushmore. For the Mets, voters chose Keith Hernandez, Mike Piazza, Tom Seaver, and David Wright. No one would argue that Tom Seaver is on the franchise's Mount Rushmore. He was, after all, "The Franchise." Some might even argue that the Mets' Mount Rushmore is Tom Seaver four times! However, that not-withstanding, when it comes to rounding out the other three players, did MLB get it right Thankfully, Mount Rushmore of the New York Mets tackles such a question. Covering the team by decade, author Brett Topel share the best players from the team's almost sixty-year history. From Jerry Koosman and Ed Kranepool, Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, to Edgardo Alfonzo and Jose Reyes, each decade is covered, reliving the highs and lows of the Metropolitans. So whether you remember the Miracle Mets, the Amazin' run of 1986, or the almost of the 2000s, Mount Rushmore of the New York Mets breaks down the fan favorites who earned their prominence in the Polo Grounds, Shea Stadium, and Citi Field.

From Princeton Charlie Reilly, the first pinch-hitter ever, to today's pinnacle in pinch-hitting, Lenny Harris, this book enumerates the exploitsand records of the best in this craft through the 2001 season. Among the statistics are many anecdotes of their performances.

The decade-by-decade study of pinch-hitting begins in 1892 when it first became permissible to substitute players in major league baseball for reasons other than injury. In addition to focusing on the substitute batters who were the leaders in each era, there are chapters devoted to the characteristics of an effective pinch-hitter, preparation for the job, the impact of the designated hitter, and how a player becomes a pinch-hitter in the first place. The considerable accomplishments and strengths of these players, who for too long have not been given the recognition they deserve, are presented in detail.

Many assume incorrectly that confrontations between baseballs players and management began in the 1960s when the Major League Baseball Players Association started showing signs of becoming a union to be reckoned with. (The tensions of the 1960s prompted the owners to form the Player Relations Committee to deal with them and in February 1968, the two groups negotiated the games first Basic Agreement.) The struggles between players and management to gain the upper hand did not, however, start there--the two groups have had numerous clashes since baseball began (as well as since the 1968 agreement). There have been various periods of conflict and peace throughout the century and before. This work traces the history of the relationship between players and management from baseball's early years to the new challenges and developing tensions that led to spring training lockouts instigated by the owners and to player strikes in 1972, 1981, 1985, and 1994. An important agreement in 1996 brought labor peace once again. The future of player-management relations is also covered.

Ranking just below the top major and minor leagues in the first half of the twentieth century was another group of quality circuits. The Southern Association, which was formed in 1901 and had teams in several prominent Southern cities, was part of that group. In the mid 1930s, league directors decided to make the old Southern League, which had enjoyed an off-and-on existence since 1885, part of the Southern Association. This work is a complete history of the Southern Association, beginning with 1885, the year the Southern League began, and ending with 1961, the year it went out of business. Each chapter covers one year of the Southern Association's history and contains an essay describing a team, player, or trend in that particular year, and a list of teams in order of winning percentage. Details provided for each team include its record, winning percentage, the number of games it finished behind first place, its manager, and a list of its known players, their positions and statistics. The statistics for hitters include games played, at bats, runs, hits, RBIs, doubles, triples, home runs, walks, strikeouts, stolen bases, and batting average. Pitchers are listed separately and listed in order of games won. Statistics for pitchers include wins, losses, winning percentage, games played and started, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched, hits allowed, walks, strikeouts, and ERAs.

For nearly 40 years, Ed Bolden dominated black baseball in Philadelphia. He owned two teams, the Darby-based Hilldale Club and the Philadelphia Stars, and briefly led the Eastern Colored League, which he founded. Winner of two championships - one with each team - he experienced the highs and lows of the Negro Leagues and remained with the Stars until his death in 1950. Bolden's passing foreshadowed the dissolution the Negro Leagues in the face of Major League Baseball's integration. His funeral was attended by many Philadelphia dignitaries, former players and longtime business associate Eddie ""Mr. Basketball"" Gottlieb. This book analyzes Bolden's leadership of both teams through economic downturns, racial discrimination and two world wars, linking him with Philadelphia's 19th-century African American leaders.

As a young man living in the Anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania, it seemed Ed Walsh's course in life was set. But he emerged from the hardscrabble life of the mines to become one of the Deadball Era's greatest pitchers, winning fame, world championships, and eventually induction to the Hall of Fame. This biography closely describes Walsh's life and 14-year playing career, with special discussion of the spitball, a pitch that profoundly affected his fortunes????????????and ultimately his arm. The years 1905????????????1911 are explored in depth, especially his contributions to the 1906 world champion White Sox and his prominent role in the now-famous 1908 pennant race. Chapters are also devoted to his holdout in 1909, the athletic careers of his sons Bob and Ed, and his repeated attempts at comebacks after his arm injury.

"[An] essential study of a previously unexplored chapter of the game's history. An important addition to baseball collections...." Library Journal, Starred Review The gripping story of how one of the most infamous scandals in American history-the Black Sox scandal-continued for nearly a year following the fixed World Series of 1919 until the truth began to emerge. The Black Sox scandal has fascinated sports fans for over one hundred years. But while the focus has traditionally been on the fixed 1919 World Series, the reality is that it continued well into the following season-and members of the Chicago White Sox very likely continued to fix games. The result was a year of suspicion, intrigue, and continued betrayal. In Double Plays and Double Crosses: The Black Sox and Baseball in 1920, Don Zminda tells the story of an unforgettable team and an unforgettable year in baseball and American history. Zminda reveals in captivating detail how the Black Sox scandal unfolded in 1920, the level of involvement in game-fixing by notable players like Shoeless Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver, and the complicity of White Sox management in covering up details of the scandal. In addition, Zminda provides an in-depth investigation of games during the 1920 season that were likely fixed and the discovery during the year of other game-fixing scandals that rocked baseball. Throughout 1920, the White Sox continued to play-and usually win-despite mistrust among teammates. Double Plays and Double Crosses tells for the first time what happened during this season, when suspicion was rampant and the team was divided between "clean" players and those suspected of fixing the 1919 World Series.

Described as ""the Greatest Batsman in the Country"" by sports writers of his era, Dennis ""Big Dan"" Brouthers compiled a .342 batting average, tying with Babe Ruth for ninth place all-time, and slugged 205 triples, eighth all time, in 16 major league seasons. He won five batting and on-base percentage titles, and seven slugging titles, and was the first player to win batting and slugging crowns in successive years. Although he ranked fourth among nineteenth-century home run hitters, many fair balls he hit into the stands or over the fence were counted only as doubles or triples due to local ground rules. Brouthers was extremely difficult to strike out--in 1889, for example, he did so just six times in 565 plate appearances. He was the first player to be walked intentionally on a regular basis. This comprehensive biography of Dan Brouthers examines his life and career from his youth as an apprentice in a print and dye factory to his final years as an attendant at the Polo Grounds. It corrects numerous errors that have crept into earlier accounts of his life, and clarifies his position as one of the greatest hitters ever to play the game.

Today's baseball catcher stolidly goes about his duty without attracting much attention. But it wasn't always that way, as Peter Morris shows in this lively and original study. In baseball's early days, catchers stood a safe distance back of the batter without protective gear. Then the introduction of the curveball in the 1870s led them to move up directly behind home plate, even though they still wore no gloves or other protection. Extraordinary courage became the catcher's most notable requirement, but the new positioning also demanded that the catcher have lightning-fast reflexes, great hands, and a throwing arm with the power of a cannon. With so great a range of required skills, a special mystique came to surround the position, and it began to seem that a good catcher could single-handedly make the difference between a winning and losing team.

In 1939, baseball's past ran headlong into its future. As the game celebrated its 100th anniversary with the opening of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, it learned that the legend of the sport's origins was purely a myth. On the field, the veteran players who had saved the game after the Black Sox scandal were slowly giving way to a new wave of players, men who would usher in the Golden Age of the game. Through extensive research, augmented by interviews with such Hall of Famers as Bob Feller, Ernie Harwell, Charlie Gehringer and Monte Irvin, the game's pivotal season is retold here. The appendix provides a statistical summary of the year.

An unforgettable pilgrimage through America's oldest major league ballpark The Green Monster. Pesky's Pole. The Lone Red Seat. Yawkey Way. To baseball fans this list of bizarre phrases evokes only one place: Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. Built in 1912, Fenway Park is Americas oldest major league ballpark still in use. In Faithful to Fenway, Michael Ian Borer takes us out to Fenway where we sit in cramped wooden seats (often with obstructed views of the playing field), where there is a hand-operated scoreboard and an average attendance of 20,000 fewer fans than most stadiums, and where every game has been sold out since May of 2003. There is no Hard Rock Cafe (like Toronto's Skydome), no swimming pool (like Arizona's Chase Field), and definitely no sushi (which has become a fan favorite from Baltimore to Seattle). As Borer tells us in this captivating book, Fenway is short on comfort but long on character. Faithful to Fenway investigates the mystique of the ballpark. Borer, who lived in Boston before and after the Red Sox historic 2004 World Series win, draws on interviews with Red Sox players, including Jason Varitek and Carl Yastrzemski, management, including Larry Lucchino and John Henry, groundskeepers, vendors, and scores of fans to uncover what the park means for Boston and the people who revere it. Borer argues that Fenway is nothing less than a national icon, more than worthy of the banner outside the stadium that proclaims, "America's Most Beloved Ballpark". Certainly as one of New England's greatest landmarks, Fenway captures the hearts and imaginations of a deferential and devoted public. There are T-shirts, bumper stickers, banners, and snow globes that honor the ballpark. Fenway shows up in popular films, novels, television commercials, and in replicated form in people's backyards-and coming in 2008 to Quincy, Massachusetts, is Mini-Fenway Park, a replica stadium built especially for kids. Full of legendary stories, amusing anecdotes, and the shared triumph and tragedy of the Red Sox and their fans, Faithful to Fenway offers a fresh and insightful perspective, offering readers an unforgettable pilgrimage to the mecca of baseball.

Ross reveals the story of New York Yankees baseball, as told by Yankee players, coaches, opponents, fans, and the media. It salutes the great pinstripers and the unrivaled championship teams, major moments, and the tradition. Includes a tribute to the immortal No. 7, Mickey Mantle.

For the first time, witness and read about New York's most prominent black teams, from post Civil War days through the late 1950s. Discover the greatness of teams like the Cuban Giants, Lincoln Stars/Giants, and Brooklyn's original Bums, the Royal Giants, the Brown Dodgers and the Eagles; and Manhattan's Black Yankees, the Cubans and the early integration days of Major League teams like the Dodgers, Yankees and Giants. Packed in 75 years of history are images of well known New York legends, such as Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Willie Mays, Don Newcombe, Joe Black, Monte Irvin and Elston Howard, et al. Also, once masked in anonymity and now exposed in this illustrated narration are rare, vintage images of legendary stars like Minnie Minoso, Ray Dandridge, Martin Dihigo, Satchel Paige, Willie Wells, Smokey Joe Williams, John Henry "Pop" Lloyd, Pete Hill, Spots Poles, Cannonball "Dick" Redding, Rap Dixon, George "Mule" Suttles, John Beckwith, and Jose Mendez, et al. There is no comparative work on New York's Sugar Hill teams and its socio-economic impact on the National Pastime. Become an eye-witness to roughly 300 images of sporting life in the Naked City.

In the decades before baseball fans became enamored of sluggers like Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx, very few players were identified with the long ball. Instead, the game was dominated by men like Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner, players who sprayed the ball around the park, stole bases and mastered the hit and run. In fact, only one player entered the baseball mythology for his slugging: Frank ""Home Run"" Baker. Born in Trappe, Maryland, in 1886, Baker earned his moniker by hitting two game-changing homers in the 1911 World Series. That was the also the first year he led the American League in home runs, with the grand total of 11. Altogether, he led for four consecutive years (1911-1914), though he never hit more than 12 dingers in a single season. Playing third base for the Philadelphia Athletics and the New York Yankees, Baker led the way for the more Ruthian totals to come in the Roaring '20s. His is the story of a young player struggling to make it to the majors, and then nearly throwing it all away in a contract dispute with the legendary Connie Mack. It is the story of the deadball era and the transition to the game we know today.

Charlie Gehringer was the best second baseman of his era. He is regarded by many as the best two-strike hitter of all time and his seemingly effortless fielding ability earned him the nickname of "The Mechanical Man." Sports writers groused that he was too quiet to be a star. Charlie replied that he didn't hit with his mouth. This work follows Gehringer's career from the day a scout spotted him on the sandlots of Michigan in 1923 to his induction into the Hall of Fame in 1949 and into his life after baseball.

In all of baseball, one record shines as perhaps the most coveted: four home runs by one player in a single game. If the pinnacle of pitching is the perfect game, then the highpoint of hitting is four home runs, and only eighteen players in the history of the sport can boast this accomplishment. In The Four Home Runs Club: Sluggers Who Achieved Baseball's Rarest Feat, Steven K. Wagner profiles the select group of men who have accomplished the near impossible. Drawing on interviews with dozens of current and former major-league ballplayers, Wagner chronicles the lives of these few who, in the space of a few hours, left an indelible mark on the game. In doing so, the author draws attention to the unique features that distinguished some of these events: one player homered in three consecutive innings; another did it twice in the same inning; a third hit two inside-the-park home runs; one added a double and a single in the same game; and a fifth player drove in a record-tying twelve runs. Among the men in this elite club are legends Lou Gehrig, Willie Mays, and Mike Schmidt, as well as recent "inductees" Shawn Green, Scooter Gennett, and J. D. Martinez. From the sandlots of Coushatta, Louisiana, to the suburbs of New York City, this book examines the special batsmen who parlayed four mighty swings into baseball immortality. A fascinating look into this extraordinary exploit, The Four Home Runs Club will appeal to baseball fans everywhere.

It was the golden age of baseball, and all over the country teams gathered on town fields in front of throngs of fans to compete for local glory. In Rawlins, Wyoming, residents lined up for tickets to see slugger Joseph Seng and the rest of the Wyoming Penitentiary Death Row All Stars as they took on all comers in baseball games with considerably more at stake. Teams came from Reno, Nevada; Klamath Falls, Oregon; Bodie, California; and throughout the west to take on the murderers who made up the line-up. This is a fun and wildly dramatic and suspenseful look at the game of baseball and at the thrilling events that unfolded at a prison in the wide-open Wyoming frontier in pursuit of wins on the diamond.

At the time of Hank Aaron's birth in 1934, Babe Ruth reigned as baseball's home run king, and the Negro Leagues were an African American's only hope of playing professional baseball. Latent hopes for a different future thrived on Carver Park in Alabama, however, where a young Hank Aaron was soon to be seen perfecting the powerful stroke that would later make him one of the greatest hitters and most revered players in the history of the game. The owner of over 3,000 career base hits, the winner of two batting titles and one world championship, and the all time RBI leader and home run king, Hank Aaron began his historic career integrating the South Atlantic League, and spent much of his professional tenure as a member of the only major league team in the South. Despite the animosity that thus surrounded him both at home and on the road, Aaron never ceased to excel, and even achieved his most enduring feat-breaking Babe Ruth's career home run record-under threats to his own life. This enlightening biography provides a stunning portrait of one of the great hitters and great men of major league baseball history. It has been said that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing in professional sports. Baseball's All-Time Greatest Hitters presents biographies on Greenwood's selection for the 12 best hitters in Major League history, written by some of today's best baseball authors. These books present straightforward stories in accessible language for the high school researcher and the general reader alike. Each volume includes a timeline, bibliography, and index. In addition, each volume includes a "Making of a Legend" chapter that analyses the evolution of the player's fame and (in some cases)infamy.