Alexander is the Ohio University historian whose 1984 study, Ty
Cobb, chronicled the life of a truly tough baseball player. This
thorough and energetic new biography dissects legendary N.Y. Giants
manager John McGraw - who makes the likes of Billy Martin, Earl
Weaver, and Dick Williams look like marshmallows. The feisty McGraw
was born in a little upstate N.Y. village in 1873 and grew up
eating, sleeping, and dreaming the hard-hitting, rough-hewn,
eccentric baseball - rural baseball - of the pre-stadium 19th
century. McGraw was not a naturally talented ballplayer, but his
hustle and fierce desire made him a star third baseman for the
Baltimore Orioles in the 1890's. But in 1902, at the age of 29, he
became manager of the N.Y. Giants and really came into his own,
staying on for 30 years, winning ten pennants, and bringing his
brand of hitting, running, platooning baseball into the
big-business, big-stadium 20th century. Alexander's narrative
provides glimpses of baseball's fabled past barely imaginable in
these days of Astroturf and Big Brother instant replays: McGraw
limping back to the dugout after ferociously attacking an opposing
player, his "black wool stocking soaked with blood"; McGraw (never
equaled as an umpire baiter) screaming at ump Bill Klem, "I can
lick any umpire in the league"; and McGraw on numerous occasions
suspected of involvement in shady deals to fix games. And on
occasion, Alexander concludes, the pointing fingers were right on.
Yet before he died in 1934, McGraw had become one of the greatest
managers of all time - Casey Stengel learned at his knee. Crisply
observed, intensely researched - a potent antidote for fans tired
of three-million-dollar baseball players and nickel ball. (Kirkus
Reviews)
"He ate gunpowder every morning," complained one umpire, "and
washed it down with warm blood." That described John McGraw, who in
the 1890s was the rowdiest member of the ferocious Baltimore
Orioles, the club that pioneered the hit-and-run, the cutoff, the
squeeze play, and the "Baltimore chop." In 1902 he began his
thirty-season reign as manager of the Giants, winning ten
pennants--a record matched only by Casey Stengel. His career in
baseball spanned forty years and two eras--from the game's raucous
early days to its emergence as big business.Charles C. Alexander, a
professor of history at Ohio University, Athens, and the author of
"Ty Cobb," calls John McGraw "perhaps the single most significant
figure in baseball's history before Babe Ruth transformed the game
with his mammoth home runs and unparalleled showmanship."
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