The Waner brothers, Paul and Lloyd--also known as "Big Poison" and "Little Poison"--played together for fourteen seasons in the same Pittsburgh outfield in the 1920s and 1930s. More than half a century after retiring, they still rank as the best-hitting brothers in major league history with a combined 5,611 hits--517 more than the three Alou brothers, 758 more than the three DiMaggio brothers, and 1,400 more than the five Delahanty brothers. And both Waners are in the Hall of Fame, the only playing brothers so honored. This work tells the story of the Waner brothers from their early lives in Oklahoma through their playing days. It is also the story of two American eras: the Roaring Twenties and the Depression years. The Waners experienced the excitement of playing in the World Series, but they also encountered the pressures of having to perform in order to keep their jobs, and they struggled to overcome health problems. Both put up impressive numbers individually: Paul amassed 3,152 hits, and his .333 lifetime average ranks among the highest ever in the game. Lloyd, a lifetime .316 hitter, collected 2,459 hits, and had it not been for health problems, he might have cleared the 3,000 hit milestone as well. Together, they were baseball heroes.

Al Simmons, at top form in the Roaring Twenties, sparked one of baseball's greatest dynasties, the Philadelphia Athletics, to multiple championships--before becoming just another ballplayer. Why? While his achievements demonstrated greatness, he was not an easy man to like--for those competing against him, or even with him--and he seemed to play to the level of team expectation. Today, contemporary accounts and other recollections give us a sense of Al Simmons the person and the ballplayer, his connections to people, his teams and his ability to capture the fans' imagination in his halcyon days. This work gives us an understanding who Simmons was and what he means to the national pastime.

A hundred and ninety-one. Mention the number anywhere near a ballpark and before you can ask who or what, fans will almost certainly shape their lips with a single word: Wilson. They'll tell you Hack Wilson, a burly, bull-necked outfielder who roamed Wrigley Field in the 1920s and 1930s, was the man who drove in 191 runs in 1930--more than most players had hits. A few of them will know that in 1929, Wilson racked up 159 RBI and hit 39 home runs. Still fewer might be able to tell you that for the four seasons 1927-1930, the slugger hit no fewer than 30 home runs a season and drove home no fewer than 120. But you are unlikely to find more than a handful of fans who know how the Cub great's career came to an end. Or when. Or why. The heir apparent to Ruths title of world-beater, Wilson was a star by his late 20s and a record setter by 30. But he was also an alcoholic who was as practiced at swinging his fists as he was his bat. By his early 30s his days as a full-time player were behind him, and by 48 he was dead; his son refused to claim the body. This biography examines the turbulent life and career of one of the most dominant short-stint powerhitters ever to pull on a uniform. From Wilsons early career as a steelworker, through his time as the beloved ballplayer and icon for the City of Big Shoulders to his days as a down-on-his-luck baseball washout and itinerant laborer, an unflinching look at this Hall of Famer is provided.

Sweet '60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates Edited by Clifton Blue Parker and Bill Nowlin With Associate Editors: Ron Antonucci, Clem Comly, and Len Levin With contributions by: Alan Cohen, Alfonso Tusa, Andy Sturgill, Bob Hurte, C. Paul Rogers, Cary Smith, Charles Faber, Clem Comly, Clifton Blue Parker, Curt Smith, Dan Even, Dan Fields, David Fleitz, Dick Rosen, Donald Frank, Gary Gillette, George Skornickel, Greg Erion, Gregory Wolf, Jack V. Morris, James Forr, Jan Finkel, Jim Sandoval, Joe Schuster, Joe Wancho, Joel Goss, Jorge Iber, Mark Miller, Mike Jaffe, Peter Bauck, Rich Westcott, Rob Edelman, Rodney Johnson, Ron Briley, Rory Costello, Skip Nipper, Stew Thornley, Thomas Ayers, Thomas Van Hyning, Tim Herlich, Warren Corbett 340 pages, including over 75 photos from the Pirates archives. Sweet '60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates is the joint product of 44 authors and editors from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) who have pooled their efforts to create a portrait of the 1960 team which pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the last 60 years. Game Seven of the 1960 World Series between the Pirates and the Yankees swung back and forth. Heading into the bottom of the eighth inning at Forbes Field, the Yankees had outscored the Pirates, 53-21, and held a 7-4 lead in the deciding game. The Pirates hadn't won a World Championship since 1925, while the Yanks had won 17 of them in the same stretch of time, seven of the preceding 11 years. The Pirates scored five times in the bottom of the eighth and took the lead, only to cough it up in the top of the ninth. The game was tied 9-9 in the bottom of the ninth. At 3:36, Bill Mazeroski swung at Ralph Terry's slider. As Curt Smith writes in these pages: "There goes a long drive hit deep to left field " said Gunner. "Going back is Yogi Berra Going back You can kiss it good-bye " No smooch was ever lovelier. "How did we do it, Possum? How did we do it?" Prince said finally, din all around. Woods didn't know-only that, "I'm looking at the wildest thing since I was on Hollywood Boulevard the night World War II ended." David had toppled Goliath. It was a blow that awakened a generation, one that millions of people saw on television, one of TV's first iconic World Series moments.