Spitter

Spitter

Author: David Vaught

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2022-11-17

Total Pages: 602

ISBN-13: 1648430651

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Finalist for the 2023 CASEY Award Gaylord Jackson Perry was born in 1938 as the younger son of a tobacco sharecropper in Martin County, North Carolina. He and his older brother Jim grew up against a background of backbreaking work six days a week in a community that boasted not a single paved road until the 1950s. Their only relaxation was playing baseball, first with their father and later at school. While both brothers would go on to succeed as pitchers in major league baseball, for Gaylord, success would require a lot of perseverance and an almost equal amount of subterfuge. After a couple of lackluster seasons with the San Francisco Giants, he learned from bullpen-mate Bob Shaw how to throw the illegal spitball. More importantly, he learned to control the tricky pitch and to conceal it from suspicious umpires, opposing managers, and baffled batters. When he finally broke out the spitter in a victory by attrition in a marathon, 32-inning, nine-hour doubleheader against the Mets in May 1964, his destiny was set. The Hall of Famer would go on to a 314–265 win-loss record, with a 3.11 earned-run average and 3,534 career strikeouts, becoming the first pitcher in major league history to win the Cy Young Award in both leagues. Sports historian David Vaught has mined archival and public records, game statistics, media accounts, and previously published works—including Perry’s 1974 autobiography—to compile the first critical biography of a player as famous for his wry humor and downhome banter as for his trademark illegal pitch. Written for baseball fans and American sports historians, Spitter: Baseball’s Notorious Gaylord Perry provides new insights and genuine enjoyment of the game for a wide range of readers.


The Farmers' Game

The Farmers' Game

Author: David Vaught

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM

Published: 2012-10-17

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 1421408333

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A journey through the national pastime’s roots in America’s small towns and wide-open spaces: “An absorbing read.” —The Tampa Tribune In the film Field of Dreams, the lead character gives his struggling farming community a magical place where the smell of roasted peanuts gently wafts over the crowded grandstand on a warm summer evening, just as the star pitcher takes the mound. In The Farmers’ Game, David Vaught examines the history and character of baseball through a series of essay-vignettes—presenting the sport as essentially rural, reflecting the nature of farm and small-town life. Vaught does not deny or devalue the lively stickball games played in the streets of Brooklyn, but he sees the history of the game and the rural United States as related and mutually revealing. His subjects include nineteenth-century Cooperstown, the playing fields of Texas and Minnesota, the rural communities of California, the great farmer-pitcher Bob Feller, and the notorious Gaylord Perry. Although—contrary to legend—Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball in a cow pasture in upstate New York, many fans enjoy the game for its nostalgic qualities. Vaught’s deeply researched exploration of baseball’s rural roots helps explain its enduring popularity.


The Spitball Knuckleball Book

The Spitball Knuckleball Book

Author: Tom E. Mahl

Publisher:

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780978628406

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Traces the histories of the spitball, the knucklecurve and the knuckleball and explains throwing techniques.


God, Man, and Devil

God, Man, and Devil

Author: Nahma Sandrow

Publisher: Syracuse University Press

Published: 2015-02-01

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 0815628161

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An anthology of five Yiddish plays in translation—all written by well-known playwrights in the first quarter of the twentieth century—God, Man, and Devil also includes two independent scenes, which in Nahma Sandrow's words, "show off the raucous characteristic of Yiddish theater, especially in popular performance." The settings of the plays range widely—a luxurious parlor, a haunted graveyard, a farmyard, a sweatshop on strike, a subway, and the boardwalk of Atlantic City. They are both comic and mournful, and reflect expressionism, satire, fantasy, farce, suspense, and romance. But all consider the same question: what makes life morally good and worth living? Before the modern Yiddish secular culture evolved as we know it today, Yiddish plays were being written for about a century. As Yiddish-speaking communities flourished, so did their love for theater. "Yiddish playwrights shared their experiences and made them art." Edited to make them more accessible for both reading and performance, each play is accompanied by an introduction, which provides historical context, production histories, and elucidation of references.


Smiling at Mother Freedom, Laughing with Father Time

Smiling at Mother Freedom, Laughing with Father Time

Author: Joe Gonzalez

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2018-05-07

Total Pages: 694

ISBN-13: 1984527193

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This is a story based on the life of a very humble family that had their roots set in Mexico in the midforties before heading north and setting foot in America. The family grew in a matter of years. Texas became their home. Raising six boys and one girl brought along many pranks and so many hardships. Lack of education, low wages, and a large family took a toll on the head of the family. But there was always the laughter and optimism of a better tomorrow that kept the family together. Believing in Jesus Christ and having a strong faith helped the family take one day at a time. And then came the Vietnam War. In time, marriages, prosperity, and new families gave new life to the grandparents who finally had it all, in that little town called New Deal.


Red Smoking Mirror

Red Smoking Mirror

Author: Nick Hunt

Publisher: Swift Press

Published: 2023-07-06

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1800753225

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xe2x80x98Withxc2xa0 Red Smoking Mirror, Nick Hunt has created the love child of JG Ballard and Ursula K Le Guinxe2x80x99 - Joanna Pocock, author ofxc2xa0 Surrender The year is 1521 in the Mexica city of Tenochtitlan. Twenty-nine years earlier, Islamic Spain never fell to the Christians, and Andalus launched a voyage of discovery to the New Maghreb. For two decades the Jewish merchant Eli Ben Abram, who led the first ships across the sea, has maintained a delicate peace in the Moorish enclave of Moctezumaxe2x80x99s breathtaking capital, assisted by his Nahua wife Malinala. But the emperor has been acting strangely, sacrifices are increasing at the temples, a mysterious sickness is spreading through the city, and there are rumours of a hostile army crossing the seaxe2x80xa6 A bravura reimagining of an alternate history,xc2xa0 Red Smoking Mirrorxc2xa0is a richly written novel of love and fate, of how cultures co-operate and clash, and of how individuals can shape and are shaped by the times they live through.


Rough Ride to Runnymede

Rough Ride to Runnymede

Author: Cat Glass

Publisher: WestBow Press

Published: 2019-08-29

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1973671301

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"Rough Ride to Runnymede is a very well written and historically detailed book. I much enjoyed it and as chairman of a children's book company I can say I am sure many in the 7-14-year-old age group will learn much from it." —Sir Robert Worcester KBE DL, founder of the social research company MORI; former Chancellor of the University of Kent and Chairman of the Emeritus Governors of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE); a Fellow at King's College London; a keen environmentalist and former Trustee of WWF, the World Wide Fund for Nature; Vice President of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust; and Deputy Chairman of the Magna Carta Trust and Chairman of the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary in 2015. In a 13th century kingdom studded with castles, cloaked with forests, and torn apart by evil, 14-year-old Taymor Wallop must win justice from a cruel king. If he doesn't, he will die and Magna Carta, the great charter of freedom and fairness, will never see the light of day. Bullied for being brown, orphaned and alone, Tay goes on a quest to raise the banner of fair play over England. Twelve-year-old Lucy, a runaway heiress, and Archer, a runaway serf, join him. To overcome lawless King John, the three have to become a team and Tay has to be brave enough to wield the Sword of the Spirit. Tay's adventure is the story of a homeless boy who risks his life to defeat bullying and injustice. Rough Ride joins a family of adventure books that include War Horse and Johnny Tremain. Adding to its interest are a glossary section, history report, and geography notes useful for teachers. Themes include: Empowerment, Self-Doubt, Courage, Confidence, Friendship, Fair Play, New Experiences