In the early 1920s, when the New York Yankees' first dynasty was
taking shape, they were outplayed by their local rival, the New
York Giants. Led by manager John McGraw the Giants won four
consecutive National League pennants and two World Series, both
against the rival Yankees. Remarkably, the Giants succeeded despite
a dysfunctional and unmanageable front office. And at the center of
the turmoil was one of baseball's more improbable figures: club
president Charles A. Stoneham, who had purchased the Giants for $1
million in 1919, the largest amount ever paid for an American
sports team. Short, stout, and jowly, Charlie Stoneham embodied a
Jazz Age stereotype-a business and sporting man by day, he led
another life by night. He threw lavish parties, lived
extravagantly, and was often chronicled in the city tabloids.
Little is known about how he came to be one of the most successful
investment brokers in what were known as "bucket shops," a highly
speculative and controversial branch of Wall Street. One thing
about Stoneham is clear, however: at the close of World War I he
was a wealthy man, with a net worth of more than $10 million. This
wealth made it possible for him to purchase majority control of the
Giants, one of the most successful franchises in Major League
Baseball. Stoneham, an owner of racehorses, a friend to local
politicians and Tammany Hall, a socialite, and a man well placed in
New York business and political circles, was also implicated in a
number of business scandals and criminal activities. The Giants'
principal owner had to contend with federal indictments, civil
lawsuits, hostile fellow magnates, and troubles with booze,
gambling, and women. But during his sixteen-year tenure as club
president, the Giants achieved more success than the club had seen
under any prior regime. In Jazz Age Giant Robert Garratt brings to
life Stoneham's defining years leading the Giants in the Roaring
Twenties. With its layers of mystery and notoriety, Stoneham's life
epitomizes the high life and the changing mores of American culture
during the 1920s, and the importance of sport, especially baseball,
during the pivotal decade.
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