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In his classic account of two years with the most audacious bush
league ballclub ever to plumb the bottom of the pro sports barrel,
Neal Karlen presents a dizzying collection of characters: co-owners
comedian Bill Murray and sports impresario Mike Veeck; baseball's
formerly winningest pitcher Jack Morris; outfielder Darryl
Strawberry, on his way back to the majors; the back-rubbing Sister
Rosalind; baseball's first woman player Ila Borders; frantic fans,
a ball-carrying pig, a blind sportscaster, and a host of others.
They all prove the credo of the Saints: Fun is Good. "Hilarious,
insightful, touching, informative, Neal Karlen's baseball account
delivers a world of vivid characters and ironic redemptions. Karlen
is simply one of the best, most sophisticated, and literate
practitioners of journalism we have. He goes out and gets the full
story, while turning himself into a wonderfully self-mocking,
truthful, and likable narrator. I loved every page of this book."
--Phillip Lopate, author, essayist, and film critic "Two things
make it great: characters and story line. The tale is rendered in
hilarious fashion, mixing plenty of baseball with plenty of
laughs." --"Rocky Mountain News" "A fun-is-good book . . . with]
enough oddballs to make Alice's Adventures in Wonderland seem like
a straightforward account of a schoolgirl's visit to a theme park."
--"Sports Illustrated" this isn't from a review, must be from a
column] "The funkiest team in baseball." --"The New York Times
"
Neal Karlen, who has written for the "New York Times," "Newsweek,"
and" Rolling Stone," is the author or co-author of seven books,
including "Augie's Secrets" from the Minnesota Historical Society
Press.
Maverick marketing whiz Mike Veeck is ready to share his simple,
fail-proof formula for business success: Make work fun and you'll
create a culture of creativity that attracts the best employees and
encourages customers to spend their money.
Veeck stresses the need to reexamine the way business is conducted,
from employer-employee relationships to customer service.
The Fun Is Good philosophy has worked to make enjoyable evenings
for all at Veeck's ballparks but has also transformed a half-dozen
struggling or start-up teams into a thriving $25 million business.
Peppered with firsthand accounts from businesspeople who have
benefited from Veeck's philosophy, Fun Is Good is an innovative,
off-the-beaten-track approach to getting the most out of your work
life, in and outside the office.
Making My Pitch tells the story of Ila Jane Borders, who despite
formidable obstacles became a Little League prodigy, MVP of her
otherwise all-male middle school and high school teams, the first
woman awarded a baseball scholarship, and the first to pitch and
win a complete men's collegiate game. After Mike Veeck signed
Borders in May 1997 to pitch for his St. Paul Saints of the
independent Northern League, she accomplished what no woman had
done since the Negro Leagues era: play men's professional baseball.
Borders played four professional seasons and in 1998 became the
first woman in the modern era to win a professional ball game.
Borders had to find ways to fit in with her teammates, reassure
their wives and girlfriends, work with the media, and fend off
groupies. But these weren't the toughest challenges. She had a
troubled family life, a difficult adolescence as she struggled with
her sexual orientation, and an emotionally fraught college
experience as a closeted gay athlete at a Christian university.
Making My Pitch shows what it's like to be the only woman on the
team bus, in the clubhouse, and on the field. Raw, open, and funny
at times, her story encompasses the loneliness of a groundbreaking
pioneer who experienced grave personal loss. Borders ultimately
relates how she achieved self-acceptance and created a life as a
firefighter and paramedic and as a coach and goodwill ambassador
for the game of baseball.
Making My Pitch tells the story of Ila Jane Borders, who despite
formidable obstacles became a Little League prodigy, MVP of her
otherwise all-male middle school and high school teams, the first
woman awarded a baseball scholarship, and the first to pitch and
win a complete men's collegiate game. After Mike Veeck signed
Borders in May 1997 to pitch for his St. Paul Saints of the
independent Northern League, she accomplished what no woman had
done since the Negro Leagues era: play men's professional baseball.
Borders played four professional seasons and in 1998 became the
first woman in the modern era to win a professional ball game.
Borders had to find ways to fit in with her teammates, reassure
their wives and girlfriends, work with the media, and fend off
groupies. But these weren't the toughest challenges. She had a
troubled family life, a difficult adolescence as she struggled with
her sexual orientation, and an emotionally fraught college
experience as a closeted gay athlete at a Christian university.
Making My Pitch shows what it's like to be the only woman on the
team bus, in the clubhouse, and on the field. Raw, open, and funny
at times, her story encompasses the loneliness of a groundbreaking
pioneer who experienced grave personal loss. Borders ultimately
relates how she achieved self-acceptance and created a life as a
firefighter and paramedic and as a coach and goodwill ambassador
for the game of baseball.
For anyone who has ever sung "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during
the seventh-inning stretch and wondered why we sing it when we are
already at the ball game, this entertaining book supplies the
answers. And why did this song become the sport's anthem rather
than one of hundreds of other baseball songs, such as George M.
Cohan's "Take Your Girl to the Ball Game," written the same month?
This story, told here in full for the first time, evokes the bright
hope of turn-of-the-century America, the backstage drama of
vaudeville, and the beguiling charm of baseball itself.
Amy Whorf McGuiggan supplies the fascinating details behind the
song's beginnings in 1908, when Jack Norworth, a vaudeville
headliner and Tin Pan Alley songwriter who had never even been to a
game, was inspired by a subway advertisement to create the song
that, though a hit in its day, did not become a time-honored
tradition until broadcaster Harry Caray and team owner and
marketing genius Bill Veeck Jr. reintroduced it during the 1970s.
Here is America's game and the American century seen through the
prism of one impossibly catchy tune and illustrated throughout with
vintage photographs, advertising images, and sheet music culled
from America's premier collections.
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