Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia is the perfect companion to the ultimate classic baseball reference work, Total Baseball. Whereas Total Baseball, now in its sixth edition, lists the statics of every player in major league history, Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia reveals the stories of 2,000 of the national pastime's greatest movers and shakers.
In a special collector's edition format, this revised edition of The New Biographical History of Baseball presents updated statistical research to create the most accurate picture possible of the on-field accomplishments of players from earlier eras. It offers original summaries of the personalities and contributions of over 1,500 players, managers, owners, front office executives, journalists, and ordinary fans who developed the great American game into a national pastime. Each individual included has had an impact on the sport as mass entertainment or as a cultural phenomenon, and as an athletic art or a business enterprise. Also included are first-time entries on players like Sammy Sosa and Albert Belle, and expanded entries for such players as Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds. This special resource for fans of baseball reflects the breakout talent and enduring fan favorites from all eras of the historic game.
The playing and post-playing careers of all 1,560 players who appeared in a major league box score between 1950 and 1959--the "golden age," many say--are profiled in this exhaustive work. From Aaron to Zuverink: this treasure-trove of anecdotes, many gathered from personal interviews, is full of historical facts, controversy, and trivia. Readers will be reminded, that Milwaukee Braves pitcher Humberto Robinson was asked by a gambler to fix a game against the Phillies (he refused), Joe Adcock chased Giants pitcher Ruben Gomez around the field with a bat, Bob Turley reached the top of the corporate ladder after his playing days, Casey Wise became an orthodontist, Bobby Brown became a heart surgeon and president of the AL, and that Chuck Conners became an actor. All of this and much more can be found here.
Don Mattingly is perhaps the greatest Yankee never to have won a World Series. A nine-time Gold Glove winner at first base, the mustachioed star affectionately called Donnie Baseball was named to six All-Star teams in the 1980s and slugged 222 home runs in 14 seasons. Yet Mattingly never reached the postseason until his final season in 1995 a campaign that ended with a crushing divisional playoff loss to Seattle. This book reveals the inner complexities of a man whose hard-nosed approach to the game turned him from a 19th-round draft choice who struggled to hit for power into the 1985 American League MVP. Mattingly reflected on his career and shared unique insights on his public debates with George Steinbrenner, the true motivation behind his retirement at age 34, his chances of being voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and more. This book also focuses on Mattingly s coaching career, including the Yankees choice to hire Joe Girardi instead of Mattingly to succeed Joe Torre as the Yankees skipper before the 2008 season and Mattingly's path to Los Angeles, where he was named Torre's successor as the Dodgers manager following the 2010 season. Through lengthy interviews with Mattingly and the players, coaches, and opponents who know him best, Donnie Baseball will finally reveal the player and coach fans have adored for decades.-Publisher's description.
As America lurched into the twentieth century, its national pastime was afflicted with the same moral malaise that was enveloping the rest of the nation. Players regularly bet on games, games were routinely fixed, and league politics were as dirty as the base paths. Against this backdrop, Hal Chase emerged as one of the game's greatest players and also as one of its most scandalous characters. With charisma and bravado that earned him the nickname The Prince, Chase charmed his way across America, spinning lies in the afternoon, dealing high-stakes poker at night, and gambling with beautiful women until dawn. Most notoriously of all, he undermined his stature as the era's greatest first baseman by conniving with gamblers to fix games and draw teammates into his diamond conspiracies. But as Donald Dewey and Nicholas Acocella reveal in their groundbreaking biography, The Black Prince of Baseball, Chase was also a scapegoat for baseball notables with hands even dirtier than his. These included league officials who ignored facts in an attempt to pin the 1919 Black Sox scandal on him and--a previously unknown twist--the fabled John McGraw, who perjured himself on a witness stand against the first baseman. Although Chase, contrary to popular belief, was never banned from the major leagues, meticulous research by the authors implicates him in other shady enterprises as well, not least an attempt to blackmail revivalist Aimee Semple McPherson. As The Black Prince of Baseball makes clear, in his protean talents and larcenies, Hal Chase personified all the excesses of Ragtime.
Alphabetically profiles over 600 members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from the 1940s and the 1950s. Notes their places of birth, heights, weights, positions, teams played for, and complete career statistics. Also includes photographs and post-baseball career notes for some players.
In Baseball History Research 101, Brian McKenna has brought together in one quick and easy synopsis a complete guide for the beginning researcher.Individual chapters highlight the necessary topics:* Selecting Your Field of Study* Available Resources* Web Sites* Digital Archives* Searching Resources, Sites and Archives* Making Contacts* Organizing Your Data* Writing and Getting PublishedYou will discover not only where to search but how and why. Then, you'll be given hints in making notes, maintaining your data and organizing it.The program utilizes the most inexpensive methods possible. Most resources are free or can be examinedrather cheaply. Appendixes are also provided which offer a bibliographical listing of baseball works and pre-prepared forms which you'll find useful duringyour endeavors.
