Addie Joss (1880-1911) mowed down batters for the Cleveland Broncos/Naps from 1902 to 1910 before his career was cut short by his tragic death from tubercular meningitis in 1911. With a career ERA of 1.89 and two no-hitters, Joss earned Hall of Fame election despite a career that lasted less than ten years, the only player to do so. In the off-season, Joss also excelled as a sportswriter for the Toledo News-Bee and the Cleveland Press, filling the empty winter months penning stories about the game he knew firsthand. This collection of Joss's newspaper columns and World Series reports is a treasury of the deadball era with intimate first-person observations of the game and its players from the first decade of the American League. Informative annotations, archival photographs, and a brief biography complete the work.
Addie Joss (1880-1911) mowed down batters for the Cleveland Broncos/Naps from 1902 to 1910 before his career was cut short by his tragic death from tubercular meningitis in 1911. With a career ERA of 1.89 and two no-hitters, Joss earned Hall of Fame election despite a career that lasted less than ten years, the only player to do so. In the off-season, Joss also excelled as a sportswriter for the Toledo News-Bee and the Cleveland Press, filling the empty winter months penning stories about the game he knew firsthand. This collection of Joss's newspaper columns and World Series reports is a treasury of the deadball era with intimate first-person observations of the game and its players from the first decade of the American League. Informative annotations, archival photographs, and a brief biography complete the work.
As a seven-year-old growing up in the small town of Juneau, Wisconsin, Adrian "Addie" Joss had one ambition: To be a ballplayer. He excelled at the high school level, town ball, semi-pro and one year of college. Through hard work and a tremendous fast ball, he earned a tryout with the minor league Toledo Mud Hens. He made the best of the opportunity, and in 1902 became a member of the American League's Cleveland Blues. In his first Major League start against the St. Louis Browns he allowed only one hit, a disputed pop fly single. Weeks later he nearly had a no-hitter against Detroit. In the ninth inning, angry Tiger fans stormed the field, taunting the twenty-two-year-old pitcher. The Tigers got a hit, yet notice was served that Addie Joss had the goods. From 1905 through 1908, Joss won twenty games each season, with a high of twenty-seven in 1907. He had established himself as an elite pitcher, going head-to-head with Rube Waddell, Eddie Plank, Ed Walsh and Walter Johnson. Fans in their suits and straw hats were spellbound watching Addie mow down batter after batter. Even with tiny wooden ballparks and fans standing in the outfield, Joss continued to rack up the wins, including a legendary perfect game in the midst of a fantastic 1908 pennant race between Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago. Addie Joss was not just a Hall of Fame pitcher. He was an accomplished sportswriter, editing the Sunday sports page for the Toledo News Bee. He wrote features for newspapers all around the United States. Addie had a magnetic personality with friends in every Major League city. Tragically, he only lived to be thirty-one-years-old, dying of tubercular meningitis before the start of the 1911 season. King of the Pitchers takes the reader back to a golden time before radio, television and the earliest computers. A time when fans left their jobs early and boarded a streetcar to get to the ballpark. Scott Longert's book is a must read for baseball fans of any generation.
Among baseball achievements, the perfect game--one in which no runners reach base--remains the greatest. Though many have come close, only 20 pitchers have achieved such perfection in more than a century of baseball. This exhaustive compendium examines the fascinating story behind every perfect game and uncovers details both great and small, illuminating the majesty of these titanic achievements. The faithfully narrated record of all 20 games--punctuated by statistics, trivia, little-known anecdotes, and personal memories from both witnesses and the pitchers themselves--gets inside the minds of the players who made baseball history. In addition to profiling some of the game's greatest pitchers, such as Cy Young, Sandy Koufax, and Randy Johnson, or others including Charley Robertson who had otherwise unremarkable careers, this updated edition features new chapters devoted to Dallas Braden, Mark Buehrle, and Roy Halladay, the three latest pitchers to throw a perfect game, and a comprehensive appendix profiles several pitchers who almost achieved perfection.
"Baseball is a sport with its own lingo and jargon, a colorful patois that developed over decades and millions of games. Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, storyteller, commentator, voice - delves into the language of the national pastime: from Vin Scully's philosophy on no-hitters to Red Barber's classic turns of phrase to a definitive listing of broadcasters' trademark home run call." -- Back cover.
The Ultimate Baseball Trivia Book In this third title published by National Baseball Hall of Fame Books, test your knowledge of baseball trivia against the experts–the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The history of baseball is etched in its trivia. No American sport is chronicled through its trivia and statistics more than baseball. Now, the National Baseball Hall of Fame presents the ultimate baseball trivia book, So You Think You Know Baseball. Hit it out of the park at your MLB trivia night or in an after-dinner baseball quiz with your family. Selected by the historians and curators at the Baseball Hall of Fame, over 100 years of rich baseball history is packed into this virtual reference guide of facts, figures, and fascinating tidbits about our national pastime. In So You Think You Know Baseball, find 450 challenging baseball trivia questions organized into nine themed chapters covering a wide range of baseball history: • Baseball Firsts – famous firsts for almost every aspect of baseball history • First Year Phenoms – rookie sensations and first year wonders • Legendary Sluggers – Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth & more • Historic Hurlers – celebrated pitchers and their remarkable accomplishments on the mound • Record Breakers – notable players and teams who left their mark in the record books • Hall of Famers – baseball’s all-time greats enshrined in Cooperstown • Baseball in Pop Culture – discover the many ways baseball has influenced American culture • The Postseason – highlighting the celebrated moments in World Series history • Baseball Potpourri – unique facts about America’s Pastime Also don’t miss two other titles published by National Baseball Hall of Fame Books, Picturing America’s Pastime and Memories from the Microphone.
Intertwines the personal histories of baseball Hall of Famers Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn with the events of their sixteen-inning pitching duel at San Francisco's Candlestick Park in the summer of 1963.
A minor league pitcher deals with both the lighter and darker sides of a life at the edge of the pro ranks where he refuses to quit and eventually finds himself playing for the league championship.
