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George Edward "Rube" Waddell was one of the zaniest characters ever
to play baseball. The legendary Connie Mack, who saw quite a few
cards during his nearly seven decade stint in the majors, once
observed that no other screwball he ever saw could hold a candle to
Rube. Mack also said that Rube's curveball was the best he'd ever
seen. Indeed, Waddell was one of the greatest pitchers in the
history of the game. Rube won 191 games in 13 seasons, had four
straight 20-win seasons for Mack and the Philadelphia A's, and
claimed six consecutive strikeout titles. In 1904 he struck out 349
batters, a record that held for six decades. This biography traces
his early life in western Pennsylvania, the fits and starts of his
first years in professional baseball, his big years with the A's,
and his subsequent fade into obscurity and his early death in a
sanatorium on April Fool's Day, 1914.
The Political Life of Bella Abzug, 1976 1998 is the second part of
the first full biography of Bella Abzug. Alan H. Levy explores the
political life of one of the most important women in politics in
mid- and late-twentieth-century America. This second part takes up
Abzug s life from the point in 1976 when she narrowly lost her bid
for the New York Democratic Party s nomination for the U.S. Senate.
The biography follows her subsequent failed effort to win the
Democratic Party s nomination for Mayor of New York City in 1977,
her leading a controversial National Women s Convention in Houston
in late 1977, her failed attempt to return to the U.S. Congress in
1978, and her conflicts with President Jimmy Carter and his
administration. The biography then traces the efforts in which
Abzug was engaged to regain political prominence, and her work on
behalf of women at both national and international levels. Through
the events in Abzug s life, Levy explores tensions that surrounded
the contrasts between political principles, which idealized a world
in which gender posed no barriers to any human effort, and
political views, which sought to extol and develop notions of
gender and of ideas about its special meanings in human affairs and
politics."
Many books have been written outlining problems with higher
education in America. Many have been written in broad strokes.
Where specific, many others have tended to focus on some of the
nation's most famous schools. The average American family sends
their children not to the Ivy League but to less noteworthy state
schools, where quality could prevail but is often compromised. It
is in such schools that many of the problems of American education
continue to thrive without any meaningful reform. Levy's book
endeavors to explain many of the problems which plague our schools
and which shortchange students and their parents who pay the
ever-higher costs. Looking in depth at a typical university, Levy
reveals the ways that silly, at times corrupt, administrative and
union games, marginal disciplines, and mediocre, at times
fraudulent, academics have gained unjustifiably significant
positions in schools and have needlessly truncated valuable
resources which could otherwise be used to promote genuine quality
and make universities serve the students and citizens who foot the
bills.
Walter "Smokey" Alston is best known for his long and successful
tenure as manager of the Dodgers-first in Brooklyn, then in Los
Angeles. Yet few fans are aware of his years in the minors, where
he honed the skills that would make him famous. Raised in rural
Ohio, Alston graduated from Miami University, where he was noticed
by scouts for the St. Louis Cardinals. Signed in 1935, he played on
minor league teams in the Cardinals' system. He went to bat in the
majors just once-and struck out. But Cardinals President Branch
Rickey recognized other talents in Alston and made him a
player-manager for several clubs. He steadily produced winning
teams and in 1946 led the racially integrated Nashua "Little"
Dodgers to a championship. In 1953, he was tapped to run the big
club and over the next 23 seasons led the Dodgers to nine pennants
and four World Series wins. This book traces Alston's rise through
the minor and major leagues to become a Hall of Famer with more
than 2000 career wins.
The Political Life of Bella Abzug, 1920-1976: Political Passions,
Women's Rights, and Congressional Battles, by Alan H. Levy, marks
the first full biography of Bella Abzug. Abzug was one of woman in
politics in mid- and late-twentieth-century America. Levy traces
the New York City world of Russian-Jewish immigrants into which
Abzug was born. He then examines her education through Columbia Law
School, her marriage, and her early work both as a labor attorney
and as an advocate for many controversial causes, including that of
an African-American falsely accused of raping a white woman in Jim
Crow Era Mississippi. Levy studies Abzug's work for nuclear
disarmament, her activism against the Vietnam War, and her
successful bid for Congress in 1970. From there, the biography
details the myriad of issues with which Abzug grappled as a Member
of Congress from 1971 to 1977, and ends with her close loss to
Daniel Patrick Moynihan in a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1976. A
second book, studying the rest of Abzug's life from 1976 to 1998,
is to follow.
The Political Life of Bella Abzug, 1920-1976: Political Passions,
Women's Rights, and Congressional Battles, by Alan H. Levy, marks
the first full biography of Bella Abzug. Abzug was one of, if not
the most important woman in politics in mid and late 20th-century
America. Levy traces the New York City world of Russian-Jewish
immigrants into which Abzug was born. He then examines her
education through Columbia Law School, her marriage, and her early
work as a labor attorney and as an advocate for many controversial
causes, including that of an African-American falsely accused of
raping a white woman in Jim Crow-era Mississippi. This biography
studies her work for nuclear disarmament, her activism against the
Vietnam War, and her successful bid for Congress in 1970. From
there the book details the myriad of issues with which she grappled
as a Member of Congress from 1971 to 1977, and ends with her close
loss to Daniel Patrick Moynihan in a bid for the U.S. Senate in
1976. A second book is to follow which studies the rest of Abzug's
life from 1976 to 1998.
Joe McCarthy was headed towards a career as a plumber - until the
parish priest intervened, and convinced McCarthy's mother that he
could make more of himself in baseball. She relented, and Joseph
Vincent McCarthy embarked on a career that ranks him among the
greatest managers ever. In 24 years his teams took nine pennants,
seven World Series titles, and never finished lower than fourth.
This biography of Joe McCarthy details the 90-year life of one of
the greatest managers in baseball's history. Baseball was
McCarthy's ticket out of a working-class existence in Germantown,
Pennsylvania, taking him to college, the minor leagues, managerial
stints in baseball's backwaters, and on to remarkable years with
the Yankees, Cubs and Red Sox - years filled with triumph and
heartbreak. Seven championships and the highest managerial winning
percentage ever earned him entry to the Hall of Fame, but McCarthy
will always be remembered for his deft handling of his players.
McCarthy's ability to handle even ""unmanageable"" players won him
the respect of all. His effect on the lives of his young charges
was, in his mind, his greatest legacy.
Floyd Patterson delivered a number of knockout punches during his
Hall of Fame career, but it might have been the fights he won
beyond the boxing ring that made him great. Born in 1935, he
overcame poverty and prejudice to become the youngest world
heavyweight championship in history. He would later became the
first man to regain the crown after losing it. Boxing legend
Muhammad Ali called Patterson the most skillful fighter he ever
faced.In the first biography of the former heavyweight, Alan Levy
covers Patterson's meteoric rise as boxer while giving equal
attention to the boxer's life away from sport, including
Patterson's work as an activist for civil rights causes in the
1960s. Joining Ali and George Frazier as boxers who used their
celebrity to bring attention to social issues, he became an icon of
the movement.
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