Heading into their ninth season, the expansion Washington Senators had never won more than 76 games in a season. New Senators owner Bob Short hired Hall of Famer Ted Williams to manage the team. Williams sparked the Senators to their only winning record for a Washington team since 1952. This book recounts that 1969 season in-depth.
Heading into their ninth season, the expansion Washington Senators had never won more than 76 games in a season. New Senators owner Bob Short hired Hall of Famer Ted Williams to manage the team. Williams sparked the Senators to their only winning record for a Washington team since 1952. This book recounts that 1969 season in-depth.
Despite a long and uneven history, Major League Baseball's Washington franchises have hardly been the stuff of legend. However, in 1969, when new owner Bob Short coaxed batting legend and rookie manager Ted Williams out of retirement, these annual no-names climbed out of the depths and straight into the hearts of Washington baseball fans starving for a winner. Led by The Capital Punisher Frank Howard, whose tape-measure home runs sometimes seemed like optical illusions, the Senators simply won ball games with a determination rarely seen in D.C. environs. A Whole New Ballgame showcases the 1969 Senators' magical season, complete with updated player bios, new photographs, stats, game action, and stories. Foreword by Dick Bosman.
"A biography of a baseball player whose path to stardom was cut short by war. Chapters cover his childhood years, high school and his professional career with the Chattanooga Lookouts, and the Washington Senators. Travis's time as a soldier is discussed,followed by chapters on postwar playing decline from 1945 to 1947 and his retirement from baseball"--Provided by publisher.
Dick Bosman’s career in Major League Baseball as a player and coach has spanned more than 50 years. He pitched eleven seasons in the American League, was the Major League pitching coach for multiple teams, and has served as a minor league pitching coordinator for the Tampa Bay Rays since 2001. Throughout his years in baseball, Bosman has developed a distinct pitching philosophy and astute insights into the cat-and-mouse game between hitter and pitcher. In Dick Bosman on Pitching: Lessons from the Life of a Major League Ballplayer and Pitching Coach, author Ted Leavengood examines Bosman’s life in baseball, from his winning the ERA title in the American League in 1969 and his no-hitter in 1974 to his current coaching position with the Tampa Bay Rays. For those wanting an inside look at the essentials of pitching, Leavengood includes insights and tips from Bosman throughout the book, compiled through hours of personal interviews. Bosman has worked for and with some of the best pitchers and coaches in major league baseball, and he not only shares stories from their time together but also the many things he learned from them about the game. Dick Bosman has found enormous success working with young ballplayers at all levels and fostered innovations—such as his signature slide step—that have impacted pitching in today’s game. With personal anecdotes from Bosman, his teammates, and those he coached, Dick Bosman on Pitching will entertain and inform young pitchers as well as baseball fans of all generations.
“First in War, First in Peace . . . and Last in the American League.” Expressions such as this characterized the legend and lore of baseball in the nation's capital, from the pioneering Washington Nationals of 1859 to the Washington Senators, whose ignominious departure in 1971 left Washingtonians bereft of the national pastime for thirty-three years. This reflective book gives the complete history of the game in the D.C. area, including the 1924 World Series championship team and the Homestead Grays, the perennial Negro League pennant winners from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s who consistently outplayed the Senators. New chapters describe the present-day Nationals, who, in 2012, won the National League East led by the arms of Gio Gonzalez and Stephen Strasburg and the bats of Ryan Zimmerman, Adam LaRoche and rookie Bryce Harper. The book is filled with the voices of current and former players, along with presidents, senators, and political commentators who call the team their own.
Wilker marks the stages of his life through the baseball cards he collected as a child. He captures the experience of growing up obsessed with baseball cards and explores what it means to be a fan of the game.
One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Washington, DC, in 1901 as the Washington Senators. In 1905 the team changed its name to the Washington Nationals. But, fans and newspapers persisted in using the 'Senators' nickname. This title tells the story of this baseball team.
The Mariners were not Seattle's first major league baseball team. In 1937, Seattle businessman Emil Sick bought the city's failing Pacific Coast League team, the Indians, renamed them the Rainiers and constructed a new, state-of-the-art stadium. Over the next few decades, at least two teams--the Kansas City A's and the Cleveland Indians--would consider relocating to Seattle, and both PCL president Dewey Soriano and Cleveland Indians owner William Daly lobbied to bring a major league team to the booming city. Their efforts paid off in 1967, when despite shrinking Rainiers attendance figures, Seattle was awarded the second of two American League expansion teams. For one season--1969--Sick's Stadium became the home of the Seattle Pilots. From the earliest days of the franchise through their final move, this book tells the story of the first one-year team in the American or National League since 1901 (when, ironically, the Milwaukee Brewers left town after the AL's first year of major-league status). After a concise discussion of Seattle's amateur and minor league history, the main text provides a detailed account of the efforts to bring major league baseball to town, the first team draft, the 1969 spring training and regular season, the attempt to save the team, and finally the move to Milwaukee. Brief interviews with fourteen players round out the text. Tables including a team roster, final league standings, wins and losses and player stats are also provided.