For more than five decades, pioneering researcher Dorothy Seymour Mills has studied and written about baseball's past. With this groundbreaking book, she turns her attention to the historians, stat hounds, and many thousands of not-so-casual fans whose fascination with the game and its history, like her own, defies easy explanation. As Mills demonstrates, baseball elicits a passion--and inspires a slightly off-kilter, obsessive behavior--that is only slightly less interesting than the people who indulge it.

Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1948, Pie Traynor was the face of Pittsburgh baseball during the twenties and thirties, a time when the Pirates were a perennial pennant contender. (They would win the Series in 1925.) Traynor was a line-drive hitter who drove in runs as effectively with doubles and triples as most of his peers did launching balls over the fence, and by all accounts he was a dazzling defender. After his playing days ended, Traynor stayed in Pittsburgh, managing the Pirates for five years and working as a popular broadcaster for decades, cementing his place as one of the most popular athletes ever to play in the Steel City.

After winning the 1968 World Series, the Detroit Tigers looked to be sliding their way into obscurity. Though they still had some marquee players, including Kaline, Cash, Lolich and Freehan, the dynastic Baltimore Orioles seemed to have passed them by. But then in a move that seemed to stoke the competitive fires of the team, Detroit hired manager Billy Martin, the star second baseman on Yankees teams that won five World Series and whose managerial debut in 1969 ended in the league championship series. Told against the backdrop of a momentous summer in American history, this is the story of a great team's last hurrah.

It's been more than a century since Connecticut had big league baseball - and many fans today might be surprised to learn that the state ever did - but in the 1870s, Middletown, Hartford, and New Haven fielded pioneering professional teams that competed at the highest level. By the end of the decade, when the state's final big league team, Mark Twain's beloved Hartford Dark Blues, left the National League, baseball's transition from amateur pastime to major league sport had been accomplished. And Connecticutt had played a significant role in its development.The story of the Nutmeg State's three major league teams is told here in full, the rise, brief tenure, and eventual collapse of each described and the impact of the Connecticut teams on the regional baseball scene thoughtfully examined. The book includes a foreword by noted 19th - century baseball expert Bill Ryczek and an appendix including dates, opponents, location, and scores for all National Association, National League, and non-league games played by the Middletown, Hartford and New Haven clubs.

This book presents season-by-season information for the original South Atlantic Baseball League, which operated for 60 years in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. (In 1963, with the collapse of the Southern Association, the league was promoted to Double-A status and renamed the Southern League.) Its each chapter opens with a season summary and is followed by league standings, team records and rosters, and statistics for each player.

This collection of essays by some of the most widely recognized experts on baseball history focuses on the national pastime as a marker of our times and cultural ideals. Topics include the rise and spread of baseball in the nineteenth century, the influence of iconic major league players from Honus Wagner to Jackie Robinson, the fates of great teams well known (the Yankees and Orioles) and undeservedly obscure (the Elite Giants), and the advances of Latinos and blacks on the field and in the broader culture.

In the fall of 1908, no one could have guessed that the Chicago Cubs, a team that had dominated the National league three straight years, would for a century be shut out in its efforts to reclaim the world championship. Stars like Frank Chance, Johnny Evers, Ed Reulbach, and Three Finger Brown were still in their primes, and they had just emerged the winner in the most remarkable pennant race in major league history.In the decades since, the achievement of the 1908 Cubs has been overshadowed first by the events of the season, which included the Merkle Game and a playoff that pitted two all-time great pitchers against each other, and more recently by the calendar, as the centennial anniversary of the last Cubs championship closed in. This engaging book rescues the 1908 team from its status as footnote to baseball history, following one of the all-time great clubs on a thrilling, season-long march toward the World Series.

This is the first book-length biography of Hall of Fame catcher Ray Schalk, once described as the yardstick against which all other catchers were measured. For years the top defender at his position, Schalk was also a fiery leader on the field, and he guided two teams to the World Series. (One of those teams, however, was the 1919 Black Sox, whose conspiracy to throw the Series left Schalk with a deep and abiding sense of betrayal.)

After he retired as a player, the Illinois native spent decades as a manager or coach on the collegiate, minor league, and major league levels. Schalk entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.

What grandstand collapsed during a game, killing twelve? How high is the Green monster in Fenway? In what park was the outfield fence only 187 feet from home plate? ""Ballparks of North America"" is a comprehensive encyclopedia of the grounds, yards and stadiums used for organized baseball from the invention of the sport in the 1840s to the present. Entries, listed alphabetically by community, cover everything from cornfields to Yankee Stadium. Each entry gives the location of the park, who played there and when, home run dimensions, seating capacity, architectural comments, attendance records, and anecdotes. This title includes over 100 photos and drawings, some rare.

When the 1949-1953 New York Yankees won an astounding five consecutive World Series, they did it without the offensive firepower that characterized so many of their championship teams before and after. The franchise came to rely instead on three aging pitchers, an unlikely trio that won 255 games during the five-year championship run.This book focuses on the close relationship and quiet achievement of Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi and Eddie Lopat. Soon after Robinson and the cross-town Dodgers had publicly confronted the issues of race and ethnicity, these men from very different backgrounds - Creek Indian, Italian and Polish - established a deep communion with each other, became lifelong friends, and over a handful of years re-wrote baseball history.This entry refers to the Large Print edition.

This study considers the importance of location for new and relocated major league franchises in the more than 130 years since the National League was founded. Included are an analysis of market differences and similarities, team performances and demographics and area economic comparisons. Market data are used to predict future expansions and relocations of major league teams.

Until 2004, when the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series Championship in 86 years, the team had been plagued by the Curse of the Bambino, a mythical drought attributed to the team's loss of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. Though Ruth was a star pitcher in Boston, he was merely continuing a 14-year tradition of the club's strong arms and bats. With rosters that included Cy Young, Jimmy Collins, Jesse Burkett, Jack Chesbro, Big Bill Dinneen, Smoky Joe Wood and Tris Speaker, among others, the young franchise powered its way to three pennants and a couple of world championships before Babe arrived in Beantown. This book covers the team's early years from the diamond to the executive offices.

In this work, first-hand accounts and original interviews illuminate how the father-son relationship thrives because of baseball, and, sometimes, in spite of it. Each of these men bears a legendary name in baseball broadcasting - Caray, Brennaman, Buck and Kalas - and some can count four generations of men whose voices defined a team. All of the sons relate how their fathers' names opened doors for them but concurrently raised expectations of how they should perform, and all relate how they learned from their fathers' (and grandfathers') triumphs and mistakes. Throughout the work, a clear picture of baseball as a generational bridge emerges. It includes a foreword by Chip Caray, speeches by Joe Buck about his father Jack, and articles by Skip Caray, Chip Caray and Marty Brennaman.

Though his Hall of Fame baseball career featured a curve ball nicknamed "Old Sal," Joseph McGinnity was as tough as the metal he worked in his off-season foundry job. This biography traces the hard life and colorful career of Iron Man McGinnity from his childhood working the coalfields of Illinois to his death in 1929. McGinnity may have been the most durable hurler in the history of the sport, often pitching both games of a doubleheader. He averaged more wins per season in his 10-year major league career than any pitcher in history, then continued to pitch for decades after that in the minor leagues, retiring at 54.

This history of America's pastime describes the evolution of baseball from early bat and ball games to its growth and acceptance in different regions of the country. The New York clubs (i.e., the Atlantics, Excelsiors and Mutuals) are a primary focus, serving as examples of how the sport became more sophisticated and popular. The author compares theories about many of baseball's "inventors," exploring the often fascinating stories of several of baseball's oldest founding myths. The impact of the Civil War on the sport is discussed and baseball's unsteady path to becoming America's national game is analyzed at length.

This volume examines early black baseball as it was represented in the artwork and written accounts of the popular press. From contemporary postbellum articles, illustrations, photographs and woodcuts, a unique image of the black athlete emerges, one that was not always positive but was nonetheless central in understanding the evolving black image in American culture. Chapters of this title cover press depictions of championship games, specific teams and athletes, and the fans and culture surrounding black baseball.

*Finalist for the 2007 Seymour Medal of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).*

*Winner of the 2007 Robert Peterson Book Award of the Negro Leagues Committee of the Society for American Baseball*

When to Stop the Cheering? documents the close and often conflicted relationship between the black press and black baseball beginning with the first Negro professional league of substance, the Negro National League, which started in 1920, and finishing with the dissolution of the Negro American League in 1957. When to Stop the Cheering? examines the multidimensional relationship the black newspapers had with baseball, including their treatment of and relationships with baseball officials, team owners, players and fans. Over time, these relationships changed, resulting in shifts in coverage that could be described as moving from brotherhood to paternalism, then from paternalism to nostalgic tribute and even regret.

Baseball at its best is a combination of chess match and gladiatorial combat, waged over a long season but turning on split-second decisions and physical instincts. The 1916 season encompassed the drama that made the sport the national pastime: tight pennant races, multiple contenders, record-breaking performances, and controversy, both on and off the field. Nine of the 14 teams battled for first place, four pitchers started and won both games of a doubleheader, Babe Ruth pitched on Opening Day, and players from the Federal League became the sport's first free agents. This book features full rosters, player biographies, statistics, photographs and an appendix of the sportswriters who chronicled the season.

The Second World War was in the bottom of the ninth inning in Germany and Japan, but back at home the bases were loaded with baseball players, many of them new to the big leagues. While the game's stars traded their stockings and gloves for khaki and rifles, America's leaders believed baseball would boost morale at home.

Teams filled out their rosters with retired stars such as Jimmie Foxx and Babe Herman; with players like Pete Gray and Dick Sipek, whose disabilities had kept them out of the majors; and with teenagers like 17-year-olds Putsy Caballero and Tommy Brown. But while the level of major league talent had reached its nadir, war-weary fans packed the ballparks, eagerly following pennant races as intense as any that preceded the war.

Though Willie Mays' World Series basket catch and Duke Snider's 1954 wall-climbing grab immediately come to mind, there are many catches that have been called 'the greatest'. This work documents baseball's best catches by outfielders from 1897 (the year of earliest catch described in a 1950 Baseball Digest attempt to describe baseball's greatest) to 1964 (the year of Duke Snider's retirement, the demolition of the Polo Grounds, and, arguably, Willy Mays' last great grab). After introductory chapters on factors that influenced the catches and their legacies - from ballpark quirks, changes to the baseball, and gloves, to sportswriters and photography - the book describes famous catches by decade. Extensive research yields a wealth of information for each catch, including commentary by period sportswriters, players, and, often, the man who snagged the ball.

Heading into their ninth season, the expansion Washington Senators had never won more than 76 games in a season. The team even seemed to be backsliding, as the 1968 season brought 31 more losses than wins. Desperate to try something new, Senators owner Bob Short hired Hall of Famer Ted Williams to manage the team. Williams sparked the Senators to the best record for a Washington team since the old Senators (now the Minnesota Twins) had won 87 games in 1945. ""The Splendid Splinter"" oversaw dramatic improvements in both offense and pitching, with Dick Bosman even leading the league in ERA.The Senators' last winning season, 1969 was an unlikely high point in an otherwise lackluster 11 - year stay in the capital. Prior to that season, they'd been a perennial cellar dweller, and after 1969 the team would experience steep declines in attendance and wins, leading to an acrimonious departure to Texas. This book recounts that 1969 season in-depth.

Though baseball would eventually come to embody the American spirit, in the nineteenth century onlookers regarded the game with some ambivalence. To capture the hearts of the public, baseball needed teams worth watching - and no team was a better ambassador for baseball in the 19th century than the New York Giants.The pre - John McGraw Giants were occasionally very good and frequently very fashionable, but they had not yet become the trademark team of the National League that they would become in the early 20th century. The Giants were, however, one of the league's premier teams simply because they played in the country's premier city. New York and its Giants epitomized the rise of industrialized America and the need for organized spectator diversions. Together, the city and the team helped propel baseball into its position as the national pastime.

During his playing career, a baseball player's every action on the field is documented--every at bat, every hit, every pitch. But what becomes of a player after he leaves the game? Some do, in fact, continue to be involved with baseball in some capacity, but many do not, following a different calling and fade into obscurity. This exhaustive reference work presents information that has never before been available in one source. It briefly details the post-baseball lives of some 7,600 major leaguers, owners, managers, administrators, umpires, sportswriters, announcers and broadcasters who are now deceased. Each entry tells the date and place of the player's birth, the number of seasons he spent in the majors, the primary position he played, the number of seasons he spent as a manager in the majors (if applicable), his post-baseball career and activities, date and cause of his death, and his final resting place.

From 1921 through 1930, the young George E. Outland, who would go on to be a professor and United States Congressman, documented his love for baseball by arriving early at major league and Pacific Coast League ballgames armed with his camera and an album of his own photographs. He used his photographs to gain access to some of the greatest players and ballparks of his era, and his subjects included such legends as Walter Johnson, Paul Waner, Sam Crawford, Babe Ruth, and many more.

Collected here are more than 400 of Outland's photographs from the twenties, along with the stories of the ballplayers and ballparks depicted. The book also summarizes Outland's homerun log, a record of the 1,503 homers that he witnessed at 66 different ballparks from 1922 to 1974.