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When it came to football in the 1930s, the college sport was king.
But in 1933, former boxer and minor league baseball player Art
Rooney, who had quarterbacked the squad at Duquesne University,
purchased a team for Pittsburgh for $2,500. Thus began the legacy
we know as "Steeler Nation." At the time, no one could have
imagined that the Pirates, as they were originally named, would
become a treasured possession for Pittsburghers. For the first 40
years, the franchise was a national joke. With only one playoff
performance-a 21-0 defeat at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles
for the eastern division title in 1947-highlights were minimal for
a team that regularly found itself at the bottom of the standings.
Then in 1969, Art Rooney's son Dan hired Chuck Noll from the
Baltimore Colts to coach his team. Noll replaced undisciplined
players with future hall of famers. By 1974 the team won its first
world championship and went on to capture four Super Bowl titles in
six years. Noll's legacy for excellence continued with four more
Super Bowl appearances and two championships in 2005 and 2008,
garnering the franchise a league record of six Super Bowl wins.
Classic Steelers includes these six championship tilts and takes
citizens of the Steeler Nation on a play-by-play tour of the most
memorable games in the team's history. Author David Finoli recounts
in vivid detail the thrilling gridiron performances that have made
the Steelers so special to their legions of fans.
We're gathered here: To select and celebrate the Steel City 500,
the greatest athletes in Western Pennsylvania history. A few notes
of explanation as you're getting your beer and preparing to argue
with the choices. First, in the case of team sports, we're limiting
our picks to those who competed here at either the collegiate or
professional level. That same rule doesn't hold true for individual
sports (more on that in a minute). Therefore, of our great legacy
of NFL quarterbacks like Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, Joe Montana and
Dan Marino, only Marino qualifies for inclusion on the Steel City
500 list (No. 20), based upon his exploits at the University of
Pittsburgh. Likewise, Donora's Stan "The Man" Musial doesn't crack
the list, despite being one of the 20 greatest baseball players of
all time, because he unfortunately never played for the Pittsburgh
Pirates. For us, high-school athletics paled in comparison, so we
chose to identify those who competed at a higher level. (However,
we'e not nuts, so we included a separate listing of great athletes
who hailed from but never played here.) How did we choose the 500,
you may ask, and was there beer involved? Carefully and yes. We
cast a wide net in determining what athletes and indeed what sports
to include. Among the 500 you'l find the expected football,
baseball, hockey and basketball players. But you'll also find
boxers, swimmers, jockeys, wrestlers, sprinters, long jumpers,
golfers and tennis players' and a whole host of others who competed
in individual sports. We have a number of Hall of Famers. Some from
Cooperstown and Canton, but also others from Danai Beach, Florida,
home of the Fishing Hall of Fame as well as the Basketball, Hockey,
College Football, Track, Soccer, Bowling and Tennis halls of fame
just to name a few. We don't have any figure skaters because we
don't consider it a sport but rather an activity. But who in their
right mind can come up with rankings when you're comparing and
contrasting across different sports? How do you determine that a
great running back ranks higher than a power-hitting first baseman?
Good question. There were a number of factors weighed: Records held
and other awards/achievements, longevity/number of great seasons in
Pittsburgh, championships, inclusion into halls of fame and impact.
That's why Louise Fulton comes in at No. 194. As the first
African-American woman to win a title on the Women's Professional
Bowlers Association Tour in the midst of the Civil Rights movement,
she had impact at a turbulent time. And yes, we'll probably hear it
for ranking a horse, Adios, at No. 32. But before you say nay (or
is it neigh?), take a look at our reasoning. Chances are you might
not agree with where some of our competitors fall in the list.
Barry Bonds outside the top 20? You'll see why. That's the beauty
of this project, the discussions that are sure to ensue. The other
highlight for us is to be able to showcase many of the top athletes
you may not have heard of or have been overlooked. Western
Pennsylvania has a great sporting heritage. Join us in celebrating
it.
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Forbes Field (Hardcover)
David Finoli, Thomas Aikens
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R842
R691
Discovery Miles 6 910
Save R151 (18%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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The 1909 World Series featured Hall of Fame players Ty Cobb and
Honus Wagner and was the first championship to extend to Game
Seven, the final and deciding game. This work examines the entire
regular season of both the Tigers and the Pirates but pays special
attention to the seven games of that World Series. Each player is
given his due, with a complete biographical sketch. Includes 60
photographs, complete club statistics, box scores for each game,
and tables on the acquisition of each player as well as information
on how they departed.
In the first edition of Classic Pens readers were reminded of the
franchise's most memorable contests, from its beginnings in the
1960s through the 2010s. is new edition brings the team's standout
games up to date, including their triumphant 2016 Stanley Cup
victory. During the Penguins' early years, it wasn't uncommon to
buy a $5 ticket for a seat at the top of the Civic Arena (the
"Igloo") and at the end of the first period move to a seat in the
first row behind the glass. Except for a few winning moments
scattered through their first three decades, the idea of a
full-season sold-out arena was too farfetched, never mind the
thought of a Stanley Cup. The only constant was that the Penguins
were always in financial trouble and often threatening to move out
of the Steel City. The 1983-84 campaign proved to be the season
that turned everything around. e Penguins' prize was Mario Lemieux,
an 18-year-old center from Montreal, Quebec, who would lift the
Pens out of the canyon of last-place finishes to the lofty heights
of backto-back Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992. Lemieux
went on to become one of the greatest players the game had ever
seen. He and teammates such as Jaromir Jagr, Tom Barrasso, Ron
Francis, Joe Mullen, Kevin Stevens, Larry Murphy, and Paul Coffey
soon made the Civic Arena the place to be. In 1999 Mario Lemieux,
now in his 30s, headed a group that purchased the club. e new
ownership began a renaissance in which players like Sidney Crosby,
Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury, Kris Letang, and Jordan Staal
again made the Pens a powerhouse on the ice, led them to a third
Stanley Cup championship in 2009, and secured one of the best new
buildings in the NHL: the Consol Energy Center. In 2016 the
Penguins qualified for the playoffs for the tenth consecutive
season, winning their fourth Stanley Cup by defeating the San Jose
Sharks in a 4-2 series. In Classic Pens, author David Finoli's tour
of the best moments in the Penguins' long history will evoke
special memories from longtime fans and delight those who currently
follow the team.
A countdown of the greatest games of a Steel City institution When
slow-footed former Pirate Sid Bream broke the heart of the "Bucco"
nation, it was Game Seven of the 1992 NLCS. He slid across the
plate in the bottom of the 9th for the Braves, giving them the
pennant with a heart-wrenching 3-2 victory. The run began a
mind-numbing slide that enters its third decade of sub .500
performances. The curse of Sid Bream was born. Until the surprising
2012 campaign, a generation of Steel City baseball fans had
hungered for the Pirates to be involved in an actual pennant race,
a goal that even the most diehard could not have imagined. There
was a time that it wasn't a far-off dream, but instead an annual
right. From 1970 through 1979, Pittsburgh won six eastern division
crowns and two national championships. While impressive, the 1970s
were only the second-best decade in franchise history. Classic Bucs
looks back to the beginning of the twentieth century, the
indisputable best decade of the Pittsburgh Pirates, when a young
and brash team captured four senior circuit titles and their
initial World Series in 1909. During the years between those two
memorable seasons, the club won two other world championships in
1925 and 1960, the latter of which culminated in arguably the
greatest contest in the history of the game. On a memorable fall
afternoon on October 13, 1960, a second baseman known more for his
defensive prowess than his bat became the only man in the history
of the World Series to end the last game of the fall classic with a
home run. The second baseman was Bill Mazeroski, and he smacked a
Ralph Terry pitch over the left field wall at Forbes Field to give
the Bucs a wild 10-9 victory over the New York Yankees and send the
town into hysterics. Incredible moments like this are the
inspirations for this book chronicling the 50 greatest Pirate games
of all time. Memories of these games are sure to bring a collective
smile to the Pirates Nation. Classic Bucs tells the story of this
celebrated old franchise to a new generation of Pirate fans, a
generation that has been looking for its own Mazeroski moment ever
since Bream slid across home plate three decades ago.
The 1970s were both successful and tragic for the Pittsburgh
Pirates. They won five NL Eastern Division crowns and the 1971
World Championship, but lost the great Roberto Clemente in a plane
crash and pitcher Bob Mosse in a car accident during this time. By
the end of the 1970s, the Pirates were a good team, but no longer
were considered favorites to win a World Series. Thanks to a
fantastic finish in 1978, the Pittsburghers gained new hope for the
1979 season. As intriguing as the season was, it wasn't until the
evening of August 25th that the Pirate fans really started to
believe ""it"" could truly happen. The history of that magical ball
club is covered here, from how the 1979 world champion team was
built, to a thorough look at the season and post season, to how
""The Family"" finally fell. Also included are biographical
sketches of each player who appeared on the team's roster that year
and a section of complete statistics.
Like virtually every other aspect of American life, baseball was
affected by World War II. Many of its players left the playing
field for the battlefield, but the game continued, played by those
who stayed behind. Wartime baseball entertained a nation in
desperate need of a diversion and a morale boost in a time of
crisis. This book studies baseball during World War II, with both a
statistical analysis of the game and stories of its players--those
who went to war and those who did not. It provides recaps for each
season between 1942 and 1945, and season-by-season recaps and
highlights for each team. Starting lineups of the war years are
compared to the starting lineups of 1941 (the last year of
peacetime baseball) to show how dramatically the war changed the
game. A list of players who went to war is provided, along with a
list of players who replaced them on the roster if they were
starters or starting pitchers. Brief statistical sketches of
players who went to the war discuss their play before and after and
how they were replaced. Other lists include wartime players who
lost their starting jobs in 1946; minor league players who died in
the war; and Negro League players who were drafted.
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