Spitballers
Spitballers

Author: Charles F. Faber

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-09-17

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 0786482621

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On September 10, 1934, grizzled reliever Burleigh Grimes helped the Pittsburgh Pirates to an inconsequential 9-7 win over the New York Giants in the Polo Grounds. For Grimes, the September contest marked his 270th and final win. For baseball, it marked the last time a legal spitballer would win a major league contest. Though the pitch had been banned in 1920, the American and National leagues both agreed to grant two exemptions per team to spitballers who were already in the majors. In 1921, both leagues agreed to extend grandfather provisions to cover the veteran spitball pitchers for the remainder of their careers. Under the extended rule, 17 pitchers were granted exemptions for their careers. This work looks at the lives and careers of these 17: Red Faber, Burleigh Grimes, Jack Quinn, Urban Shocker, Stan Coveleskie, Bill Doak, Ray Caldwell, Clarence Mitchell, Dutch Leonard, Ray Fisher, Dick Rudolph, Allen Sothoron, Phil Douglas, Allan Russell, Doc Ayers, Dana Fillingim and Marvin Goodwin.

Baseball, 3rd Ed.
Baseball, 3rd Ed.

Author: Benjamin G. Rader

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2008-05-02

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0252075501

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A succinct history of baseball, newly revised and updated

Baseball
Baseball

Author: Benjamin G. Rader

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 9780252070136

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"In this second edition of his lively, compact history of America's game--widely recognized as the best of its kind--Benjamin G. Rader expands his scope to include commentary on baseball in the 1990s: the building of retroparks, the return of the Yankees, the dizzying race for new home-run records, and other topics."

Comeback Pitchers
Comeback Pitchers

Author: Lyle Spatz

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2021-04

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 1496226623

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2022 SABR Baseball Research Award Finalist for the 2022 SABR Seymour Medal The careers of pitchers Jack Quinn and Howard Ehmke began in the Deadball Era and peaked in the 1920s. They were teammates for many years, with both the cellar-dwelling Boston Red Sox and later with the world champion Philadelphia Athletics, managed by Connie Mack. As far back as 1912, when he was just twenty-nine, Quinn was told he was too old to play and on the downward side of his career. Because of his determination, work ethic, outlook on life, and physical conditioning, however, he continued to excel. In his midthirties, then his late thirties, and even into his forties, he overcame the naysayers. At age forty-six he became the oldest pitcher to start a World Series game. When Quinn finally retired in 1933 at fifty, the "Methuselah of the Mound" owned numerous longevity records, some of which he holds to this day. Ehmke, meanwhile, battled arm trouble and poor health through much of his career. Like Quinn, he was dismissed by the experts and from many teams, only to return and excel. He overcame his physical problems by developing new pitches and pitching motions and capped his career with a stunning performance in Game One of the 1929 World Series against the Chicago Cubs, which still ranks among baseball's most memorable games. Connie Mack described it as his greatest day in baseball. Comeback Pitchers is the inspirational story of these two great pitchers with intertwining careers who were repeatedly considered washed up and too old but kept defying the odds and thrilling fans long after most pitchers would have retired.

1921
1921

Author: Lyle Spatz

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2010-04-01

Total Pages: 538

ISBN-13: 0803229941

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At the dawn of the roaring twenties, baseball was struggling to overcome two of its darkest moments: the death of a player during a Major League game and the revelations of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. At this critical juncture for baseball, two teams emerged to fight for the future of the game. They were also battling for the hearts and minds of New Yorkers as the city rose in dramatic fashion to the pinnacle of the baseball world. "1921" captures this crucial moment in the history of baseball, telling the story of a season that pitted the New York Yankees against their Polo Grounds landlords and hated rivals, John McGraw's Giants, in the first all-New York Series and resulted in the first American League pennant for the now-storied Yankees' franchise. Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg recreate the drama that featured the charismatic Babe Ruth in his assault on baseball records in the face of McGraw's disdain for the American League and the Ruth-led slugging style. Their work evokes the early 1920s with the words of renowned sportswriters such as Damon Runyon, Grantland Rice, and Heywood Broun. With more than fifty photographs, the book offers a remarkably vivid picture of the colorful characters, the crosstown rivalry, and the incomparable performances that made this season a classic.

Urban Shocker
Urban Shocker

Author: Steve Steinberg

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2017-04

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 1496200977

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2018 SABR Baseball Research Award Winner Baseball in the 1920s is most known for Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees, but there was another great Yankee player in that era whose compelling story remains untold. Urban Shocker was a fiercely competitive and colorful pitcher, a spitballer who had many famous battles with Babe Ruth before returning to the Yankees. Shocker was traded away to the St. Louis Browns in 1918 by Yankees manager Miller Huggins, a trade Huggins always regretted. In 1925, after four straight seasons with at least twenty wins with the hapless Browns, Shocker became the only player Huggins brought back to the Yankees. He finally reached the World Series, with the 1926 Yankees. In the Yankees’ storied 1927 season, widely viewed to be the best in MLB history, Shocker pitched with guts and guile, finishing with a record of 18‑6 even while his fastball and physical skills were deserting him. Hardly anyone knew that Shocker was suffering from an incurable heart disease that left him able to sleep only while sitting up and which would take his life in less than a year. With his physical skills diminishing, he continued to win games through craftiness and well-placed pitches. Delving into Shocker’s baseball career, his love of the game, and his battle with heart disease, Steve Steinberg shows the dominant and courageous force that he was. Purchase the audio edition.

Why We Argue (And How We Should)
Why We Argue (And How We Should)

Author: Scott Aikin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-09-03

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 1351616226

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Why We Argue (And How We Should): A Guide to Political Disagreement in an Age of Unreason presents an accessible and engaging introduction to the theory of argument, with special emphasis on the way argument works in public political debate. The authors develop a view according to which proper argument is necessary for one’s individual cognitive health; this insight is then expanded to the collective health of one’s society. Proper argumentation, then, is seen to play a central role in a well-functioning democracy. Written in a lively style and filled with examples drawn from the real world of contemporary politics, and questions following each chapter to encourage discussion, Why We Argue (And How We Should) reads like a guide for the participation in, and maintenance of, modern democracy. An excellent student resource for courses in critical thinking, political philosophy, and related fields, Why We Argue (And How We Should) is an important contribution to reasoned debate. What’s New in the Second Edition: Updated examples throughout the book, including examples from the 2016 U.S. election and first years of the Trump presidency; Expanded coverage of dialectical fallacies, including coverage of new types of fallacies and of sites where such fallacies thrive (e.g., cable news, social media); Revised For Further Thought questions and definitions of Key Terms, included at the end of each chapter; The addition of five new chapters: Deep Disagreement Argument by Analogy Argument between the Ads The Owl of Minerva (or weaponizing metalanguage) Argumentative Responsibility and Repair.

George Brace
George Brace

Author: Society for American Baseball Research (Sabr)

Publisher:

Published: 2003-09

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780910137935

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The National Pastime offers baseball history available nowhere else. Each fall this publication from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) explores baseball history with fresh and often surprising views of past players, teams, and events. Drawn from the research efforts of more than 6,700 SABR members, The National Pastime establishes an accurate, lively, and entertaining historical record of baseball. A Note from the Editor, Jim Charlton: If there is a theme in this issue of The National Pastime it is about baseball in the 1940s. Seven articles discuss some aspect of baseball during WW2 or immediately following the war. Jim Smith's wonderful homage to Chicago photographer George Brace, written and edited with the cooperation of George's daughter Mary Brace, is the cover article. Her recollections form the captions for her father's wonderful images. Brace's career photographing ballplayers began in the late 1920s and covered eight decades. Not even Minnie Minoso can match that! For forty years, Brace shot in black & white, but finally switched to color in 1959. His cover image of the great Stan Musial at Wrigley Field was shot that season, while the back cover photo of Billy Williams and Curt Flood was made ten years later. Tom Barthel writes a lively account of Joe Medwick and Leo Durocher's little-known USO trip in Italy at the height of WW2, while Steve Bullock's analysis on the war's impact on hitters is an intriguing one. Eric Moskowitz recounts how The Sporting News was on the forefront of the effort to support the war--and baseball. Going back a few decades, Bill Nowlin makes a persuasive case that the Pilgrims--Boston, that is--never existed. Steve Steinberg's account of spitballers before and after 1920 is admirably researched, while Sam Bernstein looks at the same era, discussing George Sisler and the National Commission. A quartet of profiles of little known major leaguers--one of which is from SABR's noteworthy Bioproject--are fine reading.

K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches
K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches

Author: Tyler Kepner

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2020-03-03

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1101970855

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From The New York Times baseball columnist, an enchanting, enthralling history of the national pastime as told through the craft of pitching, based on years of archival research and interviews with more than three hundred people from Hall of Famers to the stars of today. The baseball is an amazing plaything. We can grip it and hold it so many different ways, and even the slightest calibration can turn an ordinary pitch into a weapon to thwart the greatest hitters in the world. Each pitch has its own history, evolving through the decades as the masters pass it down to the next generation. From the earliest days of the game, when Candy Cummings dreamed up the curveball while flinging clamshells on a Brooklyn beach, pitchers have never stopped innovating. In K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Tyler Kepner traces the colorful stories and fascinating folklore behind the ten major pitches. Each chapter highlights a different pitch, from the blazing fastball to the fluttering knuckleball to the slippery spitball. Infusing every page with infectious passion for the game, Kepner brings readers inside the minds of combatants sixty feet, six inches apart. Filled with priceless insights from many of the best pitchers in baseball history--from Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, and Nolan Ryan to Greg Maddux, Mariano Rivera, and Clayton Kershaw--K will be the definitive book on pitching and join such works as The Glory of Their Times and Moneyball as a classic of the genre.

Middle School: Million Dollar Mess
Middle School: Million Dollar Mess

Author: James Patterson

Publisher: jimmy patterson

Published: 2024-01-08

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 0316410721

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In this laugh-out-loud funny installment of a #1 New York Times bestselling series, Rafe inherits a million dollars—and a million problems—as he finds himself struggling to fit in at one of the snobbiest schools in the country. When Rafe discovers that he's inherited a fortune, it's not all good news. Sure, he gets an all-expenses-paid trip to glamorous Beverly Hills…. but he also has to go to school while he's in California. Blergh. And not just any school–St. Benedict’s, the snobbiest of snobby establishments. You can bet your bottom dollar that Rafe doesn’t exactly fit in. Toss in a ramshackle house Rafe’s family has to live in before they can inherit the money and a group of bullies who make Miller the Killer look downright friendly, and this trip might be more trash than treasure. Rafe finds himself in the middle of a very big mess. Can he tidy his life up, or will he be sent packing?