History Of Baseball Research Articles

Leo Durocher: Baseball’s Prodigal Son by Paul Dickson

Reviewed by: Leo Durocher: Baseball’s Prodigal Son by Paul Dickson Robert F. Garratt Paul Dickson. Leo Durocher: Baseball’s Prodigal Son. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. 358 pp. Cloth, 28.00. The scrutiny of one of baseball’s bad boy figures by a seasoned historian of the game with many books to his credit should yield a lively and colorful story. Paul Dickson’s biography of Leo Durocher chronicles those episodes and events in the life of one of the most well-known and controversial personalities in baseball history. Dickson tracks Durocher from his young and ambitious days when a major league baseball career was still a dream, through his playing days beginning with the Yankees, followed by his star-crossed run as a player-manager and manager, to his final years as an embittered, isolated figure retired from the game that dominated and defined his life. All the key moments are here: Durocher as a player, a manager, and a public figure connected to Hollywood show business, offering a portrait of this flawed, talented, difficult, and outrageous individual. Dickson’s version of Durocher’s life is often entertaining and engaging, but also surprisingly incomplete. On several occasions, Dickson prefers to recount events in his subject’s life rather than to delve beneath the surface, to get at the inner workings of the man and reveal some evidence of his complexities. The appeal of Dickson’s book lies in the narrative of the feisty, colorful individual who is Leo “the Lip” Durocher. And Dickson covers the development of that flamboyant personality faithfully, from youth to decrepitude. Beginning with Durocher’s early years with the Yankees, where he carries on as a brash youth, dressing and speaking in a manner beyond his abilities and experiences, Dickson gives evidence of Durocher as “enfant terrible.” Dickson makes much of the famous stolen watch caper, when Durocher allegedly steals Babe Ruth’s watch on a Yankee road trip, a mysterious event that lingers throughout Durocher’s twenty-year acquaintance with Ruth. His early years in New York also prompted Durocher’s fascination with sartorial splendor, evident in his life-long love of expensive clothes and shoes, his attraction to the city’s night life, and a love of gambling that would linger throughout his career in baseball. One of the highlights of Dickson’s account of Leo’s days as a player emerges in the description of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1930s and Leo’s role as a leading member of the Gas House Gang. Branch Rickey, the GM of the Cardinals, saw Durocher’s spirit and competitiveness as a missing ingredient in his ball club and traded with Cincinnati for Leo where he was an outstanding shortstop. He would bait umpires, fight with both team mates and opponents, and add his own brand of zaniness to an already colorful team that included Dizzy Dean and his brother Daffy. Durocher’s relationship with Rickey is an [End Page 207] important one, that carries over a number of years and two organizations, and while Dickson makes much of Rickey’s influence of Durocher’s life, both in St. Louis and, later, in Brooklyn, he does so without so much as a mention of Lee Lowenfish’s award-winning biography of Rickey. Dickson gives appropriate emphasis to Durocher’s life as a Brooklyn Dodger, where Leo would enjoy the lights of the big city and the attention of New York’s many sportswriters. Dickson credits John Lardner with the phrase “Leo the Lip,” used in a March 1938 article, a description that would stick throughout the remainder of Durocher’s career. It is with Brooklyn that Leo begins his managerial career, a role that would make him one of the most famous figures in all of twentieth century baseball. Dickson develops this managerial aspect of Durocher’s career, from Brooklyn, to the New York Giants where he achieved great success, and finally with the Chicago Cubs, where he received criticism for underachieving. Throughout his development of Durocher as manager, Dickson highlights the feistiness, the pugnaciousness, and the driving competitiveness that became Durocher’s style. There are descriptions of Durocher’s ability as a heckler...

National Pastime: U.S. History Through Baseball by Martin C. Babicz and Thomas W. Zeiler

Reviewed by: National Pastime: U.S. History Through Baseball by Martin C. Babicz and Thomas W. Zeiler David Lucander Martin C. Babicz and Thomas W. Zeiler. National Pastime: U.S. History Through Baseball. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. 277 pp. Cloth, $36.00. The game of baseball and the United States are so intertwined that pointing this fact out is a veritable cliché. From its beginnings in the antebellum era, baseball has been “a window through which we can examine and clarify American history” (ix). This remains as true for us today as it was for Walt Whitman in the 1850s. Then and now, the game reflects many of the developments that made modern America. Some of the parallels between sport and society include the professionalization and specialization of labor, the rise of various reform movements, demographic shifts, globalization, and the spread of revolutionary technologies that changed the way we consume media. Martin C. Babicz and Thomas W. Zeiler’s National Pastime: U.S. History Through Baseball is a fact-laden survey of the game’s history that seeks to wed baseball history and American history in a neatly organized single-volume. This is the newest installment in the increasingly prestigious American Ways Series and is rooted in academia, but the book is a crossover text that targets a general reading audience. The fifteen generally chronologically arranged chapters are roughly twelve pages each, making it an unintimidating read and a quick study for those who are specialists in sports history. There are only two endnotes in the entire monograph, but a lengthy bibliographical essay directs readers to the vast amount of readily accessible books used in the research for this study. Roughly half of the book’s fifteen chapters are devoted to baseball’s early history, with names like Henry Chadwick, Alexander Cartwright, Alexander Spaulding, and Cap Anson being central to the narrative. This early history is essential, but the disproportionate emphasis on the game’s earliest era could be difficult for younger readers to connect with because this past seems so far [End Page 184] removed from the game that they know. Absent from this is even a mention of recent Hall of Famers Nolan Ryan or Carlton Fisk and the cultural significance of their personas. This imbalance also manifests in the omissions of generationally famous moments such as Dirk Denkinger’s missed call in the 1985 Cardinals-Royals World Series, the significance of curse-breaking championships by the Red Sox and Cubs, and the deep symbolism of Mariano Rivera’s retirement as the last player to wear uniform number 42. “Babe Ruth and the Roaring Twenties” is one of the book’s strongest chapters. In this section, the authors most concretely connect the subject of baseball with broader societal events. Babe Ruth “personified” much of what we know about this era by being “big, loud, and rambunctious, like the decade itself ” (89). This period of previously unprecedented prosperity is marked by the rapid growth of cities, a tremendous rise of immigration, the flaunting of excess, and technological innovations in mass media. All of this led to the creation of celebrity, and Babe Ruth fit the bill perfectly. Another especially strong section is a chapter on the Negro Leagues. Jackie Robinson has unquestionably attained iconic status as an American hero, but the general public is veritably unaware of the African American ballplayers and business people who came before him. The authors fill this lacunae by shining the spotlight on Gus Greenlee, Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, and Josh Gibson. These figures should be household names and carry the kind of cultural esteem that Babe Ruth, Cy Young, and Stan Musial enjoy. By contextualizing the Negro Leagues within the history of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Great Migration, and the Harlem Renaissance, Babicz and Zeiler tell a story of survival and resilience in the face of Jim Crow. Various appendices constitute over forty pages of National Pastime. These franchise histories, and charts of playoff results are interesting to have on hand, but this valuable space could have been allocated to incorporate more detailed historical analysis. For instance, the short-lived Player’s League is discussed alongside the 1892 Homestead Steel Strike...

A History of Badger Baseball: The Rise and Fall of America’s Pastime at the University of Wisconsin by Steven D. Schmitt

Reviewed by: A History of Badger Baseball: The Rise and Fall of America’s Pastime at the University of Wisconsin by Steven D. Schmitt Lee Lowenfish Steven D. Schmitt. A History of Badger Baseball: The Rise and Fall of America’s Pastime at the University of Wisconsin. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2017, 342 pp. Cloth, $29.95. It comes as a shock to most people that the University of Wisconsin is the only Big Ten conference member not to field a baseball team. This unfortunate state of affairs dates back to after the 1991 season when after 117 years of college play and 1445 victories, the plug was pulled on the Badger program by [End Page 188] cost-conscious administrators concerned about low attendance and revenue and Title IX regulations demanding the addition of women’s sports. As someone who earned an MA and PhD at UW–Madison in the 1960s and who has since become a fervent follower of Badger basketball and football teams, I find the situation distressing. So does veteran Wisconsin general reporter and sportswriter Steven D. Schmitt. Happily, instead of whining, he has done what a good historian must do—dig into the past to recreate the neglected years of Badger baseball history. In so doing, he has produced a book that is a meticulous chronological chronicle of a sport that has always been a stepchild in the athletic department and yet has produced many winning seasons, a 1950 College World Series participant, and developed many major leaguers, especially after World War Two. Informed readers will recognize many of the names. Among them are catcher John “Red” Wilson who also was a Badger football center; shortstop Harvey Kuenn (later an outfielder, batting champion, and Milwaukee Brewers World Series manager); bonus baby outfielder John DeMerit rushed to the majors to play a small part in the Milwaukee Braves 1957 World Series-winning season; southpaw Jim O’Toole, and outfielder Rick Reichardt, a great football running back whose 1964 $205,000 baseball bonus precipitated the passage of the free agent amateur draft in 1965. Schmitt has dug deep into Reichardt’s story, citing a remarkable four-part NBC national television series, Odyssey of a Bonus Baby—The Courting of Rick Reichardt, reported by future Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Wolff. (In a rare error in the book, Schmitt misspells Wolff ’s name as Wolf.) “Cameras recorded Reichardt’s every move” (122), Schmitt writes—from the superstar’s home town of Stevens Point, Wisconsin to the Sunset Strip and Malibu in southern California where he eventually signs with owner Gene Autry’s California Angels. At a party for Stanley Kramer’s movie Ship of Fools, actor Lee Marvin advises young Reichardt to get all the money he can from the owner. (A serious kidney injury kept Reichardt from fulfilling his great promise but he did experience an eleven-year major league career cut short probably by his active participation in the Players Association at the dawn of free agency.) Another delicious tidbit Schmitt has unearthed is that before Red Wilson arrived in Madison, he played for the national high school team against New York high schoolers in the 1947 annual All-Star game at the Polo Grounds sponsored by the Hearst newspaper chain. Wilson’s manager was Ray Schalk, the upright catcher on the 1919 Black Sox, and one of his coaches was Honus Wagner. [End Page 189] The first chapters of Badger Baseball will be of interest to sports historians. Schmitt informs us that like most universities at the turn of the twentieth century, Wisconsin was roiling with the controversy about whether high-level competitive sport belonged in a university devoted to learning. In 1906, Wisconsin actually dropped both football and baseball, but three years later in the fall of 1909 the reinstated baseball team “made the longest trip ever taken by college athletes-seven thousand miles” (24) to play nine games against two Japanese university teams. Masao Matsuoka, a political science graduate of UW, was the inspiration for the trip that drew the praise of none other than President William Howard Taft who said “it cannot be but of advantage to the universities in...

My Eighty-Two Year Love Affair with Fenway Park: From Teddy Ballgame to Mookie Betts

My Eighty-Two Year Love Affair with Fenway ParkFrom Teddy Ballgame to Mookie Betts Larry Ruttman (bio) Many people would say that Harvard University, founded in 1636, is the premier university in Massachusetts, the United States of America, and maybe even the world. Most people would also say that the Boston Red Sox, founded in 1901, and now an independent nation within a commonwealth, is one of the most storied athletic enterprises in America. Few, if any, people would say these two institutions are linked in history. But they are. How? In 1912, the year Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox from then to now and going forward, was erected. There, on a cold, blustery and snow touched early April day, the Red Sox took on their first opponent. New York? No. Then who? The Harvard Crimson, that’s who! My God! The seats were still being riveted into place and the clubhouses not yet ready when the appropriately named Harvard leadoff hitter and third baseman, Dana Joseph Paine Wingate, stepped in against plainly named Sox pitcher Casey Hageman and promptly fanned. Arrayed in the field that day against the Harvard boys were such players as Hall of Famers Tris Speaker and Harry Hooper; Duffy Lewis; manager and first sacker, Jake Stahl; and a keystone combination of Marty Krug at short and Steve Yerkes at second. Yerkes’ first-inning single was Fenway Park’s first hit. The less elegantly named Robert Potter of the Harvards singled through the hole into left field in the fifth for his team’s only hit that day, demonstrating not only Harvard’s gamesmanship, but also the democracy starting to prevail [End Page 150] in its ranks. Dusk, cold, snow, and the muddy ball forced the game to be called after the top of the seventh, the Red Sox winning by a modest 2–0 score, which hardly foreshadowed the World Championship they would win in the fall of that year, but was prescient of Harvard’s 1–0 victory over the Sox in an exhibition game at Fenway three years later in 1916, another Red Sox championship season. The Boston Red Sox and Harvard University have been trading blows ever since to lay claim as world class Boston’s most revered institution. The winner is still in doubt. Some years ago, I happened on a book published by the American Institute of Architects in which they listed the many notable buildings in Boston. I looked for Fenway Park and didn’t find it. I thought it was an error because there can be no question that Fenway Park is one of the most revered structures in Boston. A lot of baseball history has been made there, millions of people have memories of what has taken place there, and that is important and significant considering the central place baseball occupies in the American psyche, including my own as a citizen of Red Sox nation. In fact, shoehorned as it is into a relatively small and roughly parallelogram shaped plot of land in the center of Boston, architecturally significant for its celebrated plethora of eccentric on- and off-field nooks and crannies multiplied over its now 106-year history, and the site of many of my most thrilling moments, Fenway Park is as animate to me as any of the good friends I am lucky to have. I was born in February 1931. I first set eyes on Fenway Park in 1936, on a bright summer day when a sellout crowd overflowed onto the field of play as the Boston Red Sox squared off against the vaunted New York Yankees. My father Morris (Moe to everybody who knew this gentle gentleman) took me by the hand to watch the game, beginning a now 80-year-plus love affair with that evergreen arena. At that time there were no bullpens in right field, and that side of the field was a huge expanse which I can remember was roped off to accommodate the standing room crowd. That is where my dad and I stood. Of course, at five years old, I can’t remember specifics of the game, but stuck in my...

Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character by Marty Appel

Reviewed by: Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character by Marty Appel Rob Edelman Marty Appel. Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character. New York: Doubleday, 2017. 432 pp. Cloth, $27.95. Everybody loves Casey Stengel. That’s a fact. You need not be an aficionado of New York pinstripe lore to adore him. (The same holds true for fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, and New York Mets.) Casey is as much a staple of New York baseball history as Mugsy, Uncle Robbie, The Mick, and, lest we forget, Marvelous Marv, and the Old Perfessor’s life and career are lovingly, knowingly celebrated in Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character, Marty Appel’s full- bodied, appropriately- titled biography. The Stengel stereotype that emerged from his years as a New York icon is that of a likable, comical character and a wrecker of the English language who, despite his less than stellar pre- and post- New York Yankees managerial career, was a smart- enough baseball man to lead the Bronx Bombers to baseball’s zenith. Yet there was more to Casey— much more— and Appel does a fine job of capturing the life of the man behind the myth. Those who know little or nothing of Casey Stengel will glean much from Appel’s tome, while those who are familiar with his life and legend will smile throughout this pleasurable read. [End Page 195] So much is covered here; at its best, Appel offers a recollection of several epochs of baseball’s past. Granted, Casey’s lifespan is dutifully covered off the field, from his birth and youth in Kansas City and his ever- so- brief career in dentistry to his relationship with his beloved wife Edna and the oil well investments which, starting in the late 1930s, “provided a fine income for the Stengels for the rest of their lives” (118). However, at its center is Casey’s lifetime connection to baseball: his early years as a minor league player, starting out in Kankakee, Illinois, in the Northern Association, and his decades as a big- league player and coach and minor and major league skipper. Early on, a picture of the future Old Perfessor emerges. As a player, he was “feisty and competitive” as well as “a bench jockey and provocateur in on- field scrapes” (63– 64). Upon being traded to the New York Giants, he got “a heavy dose of platoon baseball” by “observing [John] McGraw’s tactics, learning about moving players in and out of the lineup. What he learned would one day come to define his own managing style” (68). Certainly, Appel provides an adoring portrait of his subject. But Casey was not without flaws; Appel notes that “with good players he was a good manager, and with bad players, not” (326). And he was far from superhuman. Most intriguingly, during the 1915 season, Casey for a range of reasons allegedly contemplated suicide. Countless anecdotes cram the pages, as do characteristic Casey quotes. A typical example: Just prior to the opening of Shea Stadium, Casey quipped: “It has 57 bathrooms, and I need one now” (313). Plus, what would a Stengel tome be without referencing his shrewdly rambling July 9, 1958, testimony before Estes Kefauver’s US Senate Anti- Trust and Monopoly Subcommittee, an abridged version of which appears in one of the book’s appendixes? Casey’s relationships with his players and other baseball folk also are dutifully charted, and not all were gracious. Tension existed between Casey and Phil Rizzuto, for example, and he “didn’t like [Jackie] Robinson, and it was mutual. A lot of it was competitive, a Yankees- Dodgers thing, when that rivalry was very strong. But some of it was surely subtle racism” (202). The personality and habits of the Old Perfessor are not confined to the ballfield, as Appel observes: “Indeed, Casey’s capacity to drink a lot without showing any more effect than prolonged talking was legendary . . . Most people simply marveled at his capacity for drink and his ability to go on till the early morning, continuing to hold his own while closing up bars around the country” (41). While reading Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character, one...

Fate’s Take-Out Slide: A Baseball Scout Recalls Can’t-Miss Prospects Who Did by George Genovese, Dan Taylor

Reviewed by: Fate’s Take-Out Slide: A Baseball Scout Recalls Can’t-Miss Prospects Who Did by George Genovese, Dan Taylor Rob Edelman George Genovese with Dan Taylor. Fate’s Take-Out Slide: A Baseball Scout Recalls Can’t-Miss Prospects Who Did. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017. 214 pp. Paper, $29.95. Across the decades, how many up-and-coming movie actors have been hyped as the next James Dean, the wannabe Marilyn Monroe, the hot new Humphrey Bogart? Each gripped the attention of moviegoers with star-turns in highly-publicized films only to have no follow-up, no second-act. Five years later, those who lauded their initial successes were asking themselves, “Gee, whatever happened to so-and-so? What was his name again?” It’s the same in sports. The 1954 Topps baseball card dubbed 18-year-old Frank Leja a “prize Big League prospect” who “has been likened by Yankee scouts to the immortal Lou Gehrig.” But Leja played in just twenty-six major league games. In twenty-three at-bats, he made just one hit. How many other youngsters have been tabbed as sure shots by big league scouts, managers, or coaches, only to quickly fade into oblivion? This question is at the core of Fate’s Take-Out Slide: A Baseball Scout Recalls Can’t-Miss Prospects Who Did, a thoughtful and, at its best, fascinating volume charting the plights and fates of “can’t-miss” superstars. Its author is George Genovese, who played in the minor and (ever-so-briefly) major leagues, managed in the minors and, most impressively, topped his career as a big-league scout. Genovese of course has no spot in Cooperstown; however, the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation honored him with its lifetime achievement award. And his awareness of the quirks of scouting is summed up in his Introduction. “Success and failure can be as close as the length of a gnat’s wing,” he observes. “For every Maury Wills, whose speed changed the game, there is a Howie Jennings, who might have achieved as much or more if it wasn’t for a bad decision. For every Sandy Koufax, whose name became synonymous with pitching greatness, there is a Paul Pettit, who may have been every bit as good were it not for a flawed idea. For every Juan Marichal, who used a unique pitching style and great talent to reach Cooperstown, there is a Nestor Chavez, whose date with brilliance was taken by tragedy” (3–4). Fate’s Take-Out Slide combines Genovese’s recollections of his career with bits of baseball history penned by Dan Taylor, his co-author. A range of individuals are touched upon, each in a separate chapter. Perhaps the best-known is Monty Stratton, whose big league promise was negated by crippling tragedy when a hunting mishap shed him of his right leg. “Maybe he’d [sic] would have been like Lefty Gomez and Bob Feller,” Genovese muses. “Maybe he would have followed his teammate, Ted Lyons, into the Hall of Fame. Who [End Page 229] knows” (26–27). Of infielder Jim Baxes, a 1949 Pacific Coast League all-star-turned minor league nomad with one lone big-league campaign a decade later, Genovese observes, “He had a lot of ability. He should have been in the big leagues back when he had that big year with Hollywood, but that girl (sultry screen newcomer Barbara Payton) had a ring in his nose. She really ruined his career” (45). The ballplayer on the book’s cover may not be readily recognizable, but it is a face who in 1950 was earning headlines as baseball’s initial $100,000 bonus baby. That would be the aforementioned Pettit, who never quite cut it as a big leaguer. “Paul Pettit was tremendous,” Genovese recalls. “He was something special . . . . Paul was a very good athlete. He could hit, he had power, and he could run, too. It’s unfortunate that when people talk about Paul, they talk about the money because he was a very good ballplayer, a real good ballplayer and a real good person, too” (46). The sagas of Pettit, Baxes, and Stratton cover the first...

Lefty O’Doul: Baseball’s Forgotten Ambassador by Dennis Snelling

Reviewed by: Lefty O’Doul: Baseball’s Forgotten Ambassador by Dennis Snelling C. Paul Rogers III Dennis Snelling. Lefty O’Doul: Baseball’s Forgotten Ambassador. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017. 355 pp. Cloth, $27.95 I’m an unabashed Lefty O’Doul fan and in fact cannot visit San Francisco without a stop at the restaurant bearing Lefty’s name (and many wonderful photos of him) just off Union Square. So I happily devoured Dennis Snelling’s full length biography of O’Doul, all to my betterment. First, the book is aptly titled for O’Doul’s role in popularizing baseball in Japan, both before and after World War II, is today largely forgotten. This biography, thoroughly researched, well written and full of fascinating anecdotes, will help to rectify that. O’Doul is in a real sense one of the founders of Japanese professional baseball, as the author recounts in some detail. O’Doul first organized a barnstorming tour to Japan after the 1934 World Series which included the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer, and Moe Berg among others. After the tour O’Doul remained in Japan for several weeks to help organize professional baseball there. He suggested that the Tokyo team be called the Giants, after the New York Giants team he played for in the United States (135). The club even adopted the New York Giants orange and black color scheme. Of course, O’Doul’s imprint in Japan remains as today the Tokyo Giants continue to be the most popular and successful team in Japanese professional baseball history, replete with their orange and black trimmed uniforms. The author points out that in 2002, Japanese baseball rectified a significant oversight by electing O’Doul to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame (280). That long overdue honor brings up an interesting corollary point; O’Doul’s non-election to our Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. After all, O’Doul was an exceptional ballplayer and has an astonishing lifetime batting average of .349 in 11 major league seasons (his minor league batting average over parts of 16 seasons was .352). The rub, however, is longevity because O’Doul was a major league regular for only six of those 11 seasons. Still, as the author duly notes, those six seasons were remarkable. After hitting .319 for the New York Giants in 1928, he had two gargantuan years with [End Page 204] the Philadelphia Phillies, batting a league-leading .398 (one hit from a .400 season) in 1929 and then .383 in 1930. In 1929 he pounded out a major league record 254 hits. After “slumping” to .336 in 1931 with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he again led the league in hitting in 1932 with a .368 average. He then hit .286 in 1933 before finishing his big-league career as a part-time player while batting .316 in 1934. The author suggests that O’Doul’s own stubbornness may have cost him a spot in the Hall of Fame. He broke into the major leagues with the New York Yankees in 1919 as a 22-year-old pitcher with indifferent success. In fact, in parts of four big league seasons on the mound he won only one game. But, although his batting skills began to emerge during that time, O’Doul stubbornly refused to give up pitching and become a full-time outfielder (40). He finally did become a position player in 1924 and put together four exceptional years in the Pacific Coast League with the Salt Lake City Bees, Hollywood Stars, and the San Francisco Seals. However, by the time the New York Giants purchased O’Doul’s contract in 1928 and he became a big league regular, he was 31 years old. Thus, when O’Doul left the big leagues after the 1934 season to begin a long and distinguished career as a manager in the Pacific Coast League, he was turning 38. One might ask why it took O’Doul so long to return to the big leagues after switching to the outfield, since he hit .392, 375, .338, and .378 in those four PCL seasons. In part, according to the author...

A history of baseball in 100 objects: a tour through the bats, balls, uniforms, awards, documents, and other artifacts that tell the story of the national pastime

Organized chronologically, beginning with a rare illustration depicting an early predecessor to the modern game of baseball on a 14th-century Flemish Book of Hours manuscript, The History of Baseball in 100 Objects is a visual and historical record of the game as told through essential documents, letters, and photographs, equipment, memorabilia, food and drink, merchandise and media items, and relics of popular culture, each of which has had a major impact on the history and evolution of the game. Objects include the original ordinance banning baseball in Pittsfield, MA, in 1791 (the earliest known reference to the game in America); the By-laws and Rules of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, 1845 (first codified rules of the game); Fred Thayer's catcher's mask from the 1870s (the first use of this equipment in the game); a scorecard from the 1903 Series (the first world series); Grantland Rice's typewriter (the role of sportswriters in making baseball the National Pastime); Babe Ruth's bat, circa 1927 (the emergence of the long ball); Pittsburgh Crawford's team bus, 1935 (the Negro Leagues); Jackie Robinson's Montreal Royals uniform, 1946 (the breaking of the color barrier); ticket stub from the 1951 Giants-Dodgers playoff game and Bobby Thomson's Shot Heard 'Round The World (one of baseball's iconic moments); Sandy Koufax's Cy Young Award, 1963 (the era of dominant pitchers); Reggie! candy bar, 1978 (the modern player as media star); Rickey Henderson's shoes, 1982 (baseball's all-time greatest base-stealer); original architect's drawing for Oriole Park at Camden Yards (the ballpark renaissance of the 1990s); and Barry Bond's record-breaking bat (the age of PEDs). Each full-page photograph of the object is accompanied by lively text that describes the object itself (always fascinating in its own right), the historical significance of the object and its connection to the moment in baseball's history it represents, and additional stories and information about that particular period in the history of the game.

‘Don’t mention (them) again’! Shame, the Black Eagles Incident and Winds of September

Abstract The 1997 Black Eagles Incident of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) marks the Edenic fall in the history of baseball in Taiwan. Since the Black Eagles Incident, the nationalist discourse of glory had been intertwined with the narrative of shame. Having been immersed in the spirit of triumphalism in the early 2000s, baseball in Taiwan was again beset by a series of large-scale game-fixing scandals in the latter half of the 2000s. The neologism mozaiti – ‘don’t mention again’ – was coined as a response by desperate fans. This article reads Lin Shu-yu’s 2008 film Jiujiang feng/Winds of September, a baseball story of initiation and disillusion featuring a former professional baseball player’s cameo appearance, against this backdrop. The film visually frames a phantasmatic space in which the ‘not-to-be-mentioned’ fallen hero is staged to perform his failure and guilt. In so doing, his affect of shame is exchanged with his fans’ through that cinematically imagined, constructed phantasmatic space. In this sense, the image of baseball in the post-martial-law era is internalized within one’s adolescence and familial (especially father-and-son) relationship. In Winds of September, one’s faulted youth and troubled family ties are reconciled through coming to terms with the baseball scandal.

Understanding baseball: a textbook

The study of baseball history and culture reveals the national game as a contested field where debates about sport, character, work and play, the country and the city, labor, race, and a host of other issues, circulate. Understanding baseball, then, calls for careful consideration of several different perspectives and what each contributes to the conversation. Intended as a readable textbook for undergraduates (and perhaps advanced high school students) and their instructors, Understanding Baseball is designed to offer insights and inroads into baseball history as a rewarding academic subject worthy of careful scholarly attention. Each chapter introduces a specific disciplinary approach to baseball - in this edition, history, economics, media, law, and fiction - and covers representative questions scholars from that academic field might consider.

Tales from the Deadball Era: Ty Cobb, Home Run Baker, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and the Wildest Time in Baseball History

Tales from the Deadball Era: Ty Cobb, Home Run Baker, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and the Wildest Time in Baseball History

Split Season, 1981 by Jeff Katz

Reviewed by: Split Season, 1981 by Jeff Katz Michael Haupert Jeff Katz. Split Season, 1981. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2015. 326 pp. Cloth, $27.99. As Jeff Katz delightfully reminds us, 1981 was a special year in baseball for many reasons. We saw the debut of Hall of Famers Cal Ripken and Rickey Henderson, Pete Rose broke Stan Musial's NL hit record, Nolan Ryan threw his record-setting fifth no-hitter, Len Barker tossed the first perfect game in more than a decade, and the Yankees and Dodgers squared off in a classic [End Page 208] World Series. But the most memorable event of the year was what didn't happen: midseason baseball. More than 700 games were lost to a strike that ran from mid-June through July, leading to MLB's only split-season schedule. Split Season is a well written, comprehensive review of the 1981 season. Katz covers all the relevant topics from Rose to Reggie to Bowie and Marvin. He delves deeply into the labor relations that led to the mid-season work stoppage but never bogs down in legal quagmires, as it would have been so easy to do. He nicely mixes the important business issues with on field action, and for those of us who lived through the season, he brings back many pleasant memories. For those too young to remember that infamous season, Katz will take you on a wonderful tour through the craziness that was the Bronx zoo, the original Billyball (yes, before Billy Beane, there was another Billy doing maverick things in Oakland), Fernandomania, and the controversial split season that left baseball's winningest team on the sideline for the postseason. Katz cannot be accused of driving his book down the middle of the road. He lands firmly on the side of Marvin Miller and the players in the labor dispute and passes up no chance to bash the ownership, coming down particularly hard on Bowie Kuhn and Ray Grebey. He paints the owners as obtuse, clinging to antiquated ideas, and badly outmaneuvered by Miller and the players. Kuhn comes off as clueless, hapless, and disrespected by just about everyone involved with the business of baseball. I don't say this as a criticism, since history suggests such castigation is not misplaced. Being a competitive labor market fan myself, I rather enjoyed reading about the owner's gaffes and chuckled at the descriptions of Kuhn, such as "The Dodgers had … only enough time to get from Montreal to New York [which] was enough time for Kuhn to make another poor decision" (261). Katz sets up the story with a prologue detailing the end of the 1980 season, then takes us into the off season free agent signings, winter meetings, and early labor negotiations. He provides just the right amount of background to set up the story, introducing the issues and foreshadowing the problems that ultimately led to the work stoppage. The opening chapters will assure the reader that this is going to be a pleasant journey focused on baseball, but yet covering the important labor issues that made 1981 a noteworthy year in baseball history. The book then proceeds in chronological order through the season. It ranges from MLB action to significant minor league issues, but always present in the background are the labor negotiations. As entertaining as the on-field action was, it was the labor negotiations and the resulting split season that make 1981 stand out in baseball history. Katz never lets us forget that, but also never strays far from the exciting baseball action. [End Page 209] The final chapter serves as a nice epilogue, bringing closure to the major stories Katz followed through 1981, including Valenzuela's career after his dual Cy Young-Rookie of the Year season, Pete Rose and his quest for Ty Cobb's MLB hit record and then sad fall from grace, Reggie Jackson who spent 1981 battling a horrific slump and the mercurial Steinbrenner, and Bowie Kuhn and the Player's Association. It was a satisfying ending for a reader who remembers the season but didn't quite remember every detail, and it will be a perfect wrap up for...

Crack of the Bat: A History of Baseball on the Radio by James R. Walker

Crack of the Bat: A History of Baseball on the Radio by James R. Walker

A Calculus of Color: The Integration of Baseball's American League by Robert Kuhn McGregor

Reviewed by: A Calculus of Color: The Integration of Baseball's American League by Robert Kuhn McGregor Thomas Mueller Robert Kuhn McGregor. A Calculus of Color: The Integration of Baseball's American League. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2015. 214 pp. Paper, $39.95. A Calculus of Color should not only be required reading in every baseball history class, but every twentieth-century American history class. It is an outstanding piece of work as the author examines the integration of baseball, in the American League, utilizing the racial history of America as a backdrop. For example, there are sections on the great African-American migration and how racism is interconnected with the economic structure of the United States, which the author connects to baseball history. The author focuses on the American League to answer why it was a "poor second when it came to claiming black stars … [and] … home to the last team to integrate" (15). The author begins with a comprehensive summary of racism against African American players and the rise of the Negro Leagues with a discussion of the "colored line" that barred African Americans from playing in the majors. [End Page 234] The Negro Leagues had some of the best baseball players of all time and the author also provides a glimpse into their stories. One of the most interesting parts of the book was the discussion of Negro Leagues' business plan. There were the obvious economic issues due to the "buying power" of African Americans being less than that of whites, and team owners increasing salaries to keep their players from jumping to other teams or leagues. Also, very few Negro League teams had their own stadium, which meant some teams had to pay rent to play in stadiums of the white-only major leagues. This rent obviously cut into the profits of the Negro League teams. Besides economic issues, there were issues with the media. White newspapers were not covering the Negro Leagues and the high-profile African American newspapers were weekly and focused more national coverage. This meant fans did not have a daily update of their favorite Negro League team. This part hit home with the reviewer. He remembered reading the sports page every day of child to follow his baseball team, reading the box scores, etc. Without that constant coverage of every game the reviewer wondered one would lose touch with team and thus minimize the fan base. As the narrative continues the author analyzes the integration of the American League from a business framework. The author separates the teams into championship teams, just below championship teams, and the cellar dwellers. Integration was tied to the power structure of the American League teams that would complete for the AL title versus those below them. The author examined the salaries, profits, and attendance and posited that Chicago, Baltimore, and Cleveland benefitted from integrating by vaulting past the other teams (Detroit and others) who were slow to integrate. The author then examines each of the American League teams' road to integration. The first team was the Cleveland Indians with the signing of Larry Doby. The section compared owner Bill Veeck's "integration policy" with the Dodgers general manager, Branch Rickey. Veeck did have discussions with Rickey on integration, however Veeck had his own way of doing things. Veeck compensated the Negro League team for Doby's services, unlike the Dodgers, but kept the signing of Doby secret. Rickey's approach was more out in the open, so the whole team was brought along. The author continues with the Indians' signing of Satchel Paige which helped relieve the pressure on Doby. The Cleveland story intersects with the Chicago White Sox and Minnie Minoso, a Cleveland signee who would be remembered because of his time with the White Sox. However, his story adds another layer to America's racial history. Minoso was Cuban but the prejudices against African American ball-players [End Page 235] were extended to include black Latino players. The author explains that the "roots" were different but the discrimination was the same. The book continues by examining the rest of the American League's integration by describing three teams, the Philadelphia Athletics, Washington Senators and...

Clemente’s Overzealous Romp: Roberto Clemente and Baseball as Theater

This essay examines the erasure of Roberto Clemente’s 1956 walk-off, inside-the-park grand slam—the only one of its kind in baseball history—and argues that its disappearance is due to the racial prejudice of sports commentators and historians. Using period sports reporting and subsequent sports scholarship, Espada builds a case for Clemente’s marginalization based on racial resentment and stereotype.

Willie Keeler: From the Playgrounds of Brooklyn to the Hall of Fame by Lyle Spatz

Reviewed by: Willie Keeler: From the Playgrounds of Brooklyn to the Hall of Fame by Lyle Spatz Robert A. Moss Lyle Spatz. Willie Keeler: From the Playgrounds of Brooklyn to the Hall of Fame. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, 356 pp. Paper, $40.00 Lyle Spatz's fine biography of Willie Keeler is a chronicle of his times and an engrossing history of major-league baseball from 1890 to 1915, when rules changed, teams and leagues went into and out of existence, and new styles of play were developed. Born in Brooklyn in 1872, Keeler began his professional career in 1892 with the Binghamton Bingos of the Eastern League, was sold to the New York Giants of the National League, and then to Brooklyn. In December 1893, he was sold again, this time to the Baltimore Orioles, where his meteoric rise began. "Wee Willie" Keeler stood 5 ft. 4 in. and weighed 140 lbs. Speed and exquisite bat control were his game or, as he said, "Keep your eye clear and hit 'em where they ain't" (157). In his greatest season, with the 1897 Orioles, Keeler batted .424, still the highest average ever for a lefthanded batter, with 239 hits, including a record 44-game hitting streak that stood until DiMaggio's 56 in 1941. In 1899, Keeler batted .379 with only 2 strikeouts in 633 plate appearances—a record of contact unlikely ever to be equaled. Willie did lack power; of [End Page 192] his 33 career home runs, 32 were inside-the park, and many of his hits were bunt singles. Still he logged eight successive 200-hit seasons, a record that lasted until Ichiro Suzuki put together a run of ten from 2001 through 2010. At the end of the 19th century, Keeler's career average of .381 was the best of all players with more than 1500 hits. The Baltimore Orioles with whom Keeler played from 1894–98 were NL champions (1894–96). Most of them, like Keeler, were Irish, then the dominant ethnicity in professional baseball, and the "rowdiest, dirtiest, most vile conglomeration that ever spat in an opponent's eye or threw a ball at an umpire" (45), a "sort of Irish street gang wearing baseball uniforms" (45). They featured future Hall of Fame players John McGraw, Hugh Jennings, Joe Kelley, Dan Brouthers, Keeler, and Wilbert Robinson and Ned Hanlon, the latter two inducted as managers. They invented "inside baseball," a style of play that introduced the hit and run, sacrifice bunt, suicide squeeze, and, on defense, the pitcher covering first base. They doctored the third base line with a lip that kept their bunts fair, and hardened the infield for Keeler's "Baltimore chop" singles. Despite his team's reputation, Keeler was universally regarded as a gentleman. He lived at home in Brooklyn with his parents during the off-season, eschewed alcohol and women, and invested his salary in local real estate. He did, however, fancy cigars and betting on the ponies. After 1898, attendance declined. Baltimore's owners bought stock in the Brooklyn franchise and moved their best players, including Keeler, to Brooklyn which went on to win pennants in 1899 and 1900, with Keeler batting .379 and .362. Said he, "I would rather play in Brooklyn, my home, than anywhere else" (118). Spatz highlights many changes in baseball during Keeler's career: 1893, the distance from the pitcher's "plate" to home plate was increased from 55 feet to today's 60 feet 6 inches; the league batting average of .245 in 1892 rose to .309 in 1894. 1892, Baltimore was added to the National League, bringing the total to 12 teams, until 1900 when Louisville, Baltimore, Washington, and Cleveland were dropped. 1900, home plate was modified from a diamond to the now-familiar pentagon. 1899–1900, the American League was formed and raids on over 100 NL stars helped staff new teams in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Washington. The New York franchise that would become the Yankees was added in 1903 as the NY Highlanders, intended to compete with the Giants of the NL. 1901, in the NL, the first two fouls were made strikes...

An Age-Old Problem in Little League Baseball

The relative age effect (RAE) has become a well-studied consequence of organizations utilizing a cutoff date to establish age cohorts. Within this case study, students will explore and learn how to perform various statistical analyses (i.e., chi-square, effect sizes, standardized residuals) to determine whether the RAE exists among those who competed in the 2011 and 2012 Little League World Series (LLWS). Students will learn about the mission and history of Little League Baseball (LLB) and discuss potential changes and/or strategies that could be used by the organization to make the LLWS more inclusive. Furthermore, students can use the knowledge gained from this case study to critically analyze the current status of various other sport organizations to help develop potential strategies to ensure fairness and equality for all participating athletes.

Minnesota Twins Baseball: Hardball History on the Prairie by Stew Thornley

Reviewed by: Minnesota Twins Baseball: Hardball History on the Prairie by Stew Thornley William Harris Ressler Stew Thornley. Minnesota Twins Baseball: Hardball History on the Prairie. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2014. 128 pp. Paper, $19.99. Stew Thornley's writing is a banquet of Minnesota baseball. He has penned scholarly and general interest books—along with scores of articles—about Millers, Saints, Twins, and countless others who have played baseball in his native Minnesota. Thornley's latest book about the Minnesota Twins takes its place at the banquet table of his writing as an appetizer, a smaller dish of baseball history and culture that stimulates the appetite of his more voracious readers yet satisfies the cravings of those looking for a lighter repast. Among readers who have already partaken of Thornley's offerings and have also read broadly and extensively on baseball, Minnesota Twins Baseball will enhance their appreciation for the universal yet unique story of the Minnesota Twins. For others who are less familiar with either the Twins or with the broader contexts and meanings of baseball, this book will certainly inspire both an appreciation for the history of professional baseball in Minnesota and a desire to learn more, both about Minnesota baseball and about the history, culture, and social meanings of the game. Thornley's ability to present a specific team in a way that elicits readers' interest in the wider setting of the game itself is evident from the outset. Although the book focuses on the Twins, Thornley provides useful historical background to the introduction of modern major-league baseball to Minnesota in 1961. (Minnesota did have a team in the major-league Union Association in 1884, for all of nine games; this is but one of the more arcane and delightful bits of Minnesota baseball trivia artfully packed into Thornley's thin volume.) In a short but surprisingly comprehensive opening chapter, he covers prior incarnations of professional baseball in Minnesota as well as the sixty-year history of the Washington Senators that preceded their move to Minnesota; he describes, as well, the political, social, and economic factors under-girding the on-again, off-again endeavor of bringing a team to the Twin Cities. Indeed, throughout the book Thornley provides pithy yet rich context in telling the story of the Twins. Despite its brevity, Minnesota Twins Baseball weaves a more complex, nuanced, and appetizing story than a simple on-field chronology could allow. Thornley provides local context. For example, he directs readers' attention to the Minnesota connections of Twins players and staff, connections that preceded (e.g., Minnesota native) or followed (e.g., future sports director for [End Page 213] Minneapolis's WCCO radio; future baseball coach at the University of Minnesota) their careers with the Twins. Thornley also captures, albeit telegraphically, broader historical context relative to all baseball: in-season exhibition games, the changing role of relief pitchers ("firemen" before the advent of "matchup relievers," "setup men," and "closers"), and the evolution of baseball statistics. Moreover, Thornley gives his readers broader social and societal contexts. For example, descriptions of Twins' stadia include the cooperation between the private and public sectors that enabled Metropolitan Stadium to be built, the political and economic issues that accompanied construction of the Metrodome, and the architectural and environmental innovations that made Target Field possible. At times, the compactness of Minnesota Twins Baseball can frustrate readers. Thornley mentions "an incident with racial overtones" (44) and "racial divisions" (48) on the 1960s teams, with no further elaboration. He teases readers not in the know with a reference to Dave Boswell fighting outside a bar with Billy Martin while the latter was managing the Twins. Other times, Thornley gives a bit more detail. For example, he provides an extended quote from Calvin Griffith's infamous, public declaration in 1978, in which Griffith explained that he moved his team to Minnesota "when I found out you only had 15,000 blacks here" (65). As a rule, however, the constraints imposed by the succinctness of Minnesota Twins Baseball prevent Thornley from providing more than passing allusions to situations and events that interest the reader. Despite its brevity, Minnesota Twins Baseball is a worthy addition to...

Integrating the Orioles, Baseball and Race in Baltimore by Bob Luke

Reviewed by: Integrating the Orioles, Baseball and Race in Baltimore by Bob Luke J. L. Steele Bob Luke. Integrating the Orioles, Baseball and Race in Baltimore. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2016. 203 pp. Paper, $29.95. As years go by and older generations pass, it is important that the stories and names involved with American's Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s be preserved, remembered and learned from. The same holds true in America's great game of baseball. While Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day each April 15, the history of integrating each of the big-league clubs can and should be an interesting study. Integrating the Orioles, Baseball and Race in Baltimore is that type of study. This book will appeal to readers on multiple levels. It is first, a book of baseball history. Fans of the game should enjoy this even if they are not fans of the franchise. Orioles fans will of course, be interested in learning more about how their team and city dealt with race relations. Those interested in the Negro Leagues will also find this book informative. Finally, as America continues to deal with issues regarding race relations in the twenty-first century, it is a book which will remind all readers of not only the struggles that have gone before but of those we still face. Well researched and drawing heavily from primary sources, the author promises in the Preface, "This book shows how one major league baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles, traveled the path to integration. This book also examines the push by civil rights organizations, Baltimore residents and several players to integrate the Orioles' front office which was, and is today, where the organizational power lies. The reader will also see the ongoing struggle for civil rights in the city of Baltimore, how racial tensions in the city affected the team and how the Orioles contributed to integration in the city" (1). It does exactly that. Luke begins the book with a history of black baseball in the city of Baltimore, beginning in 1874. From that point on, he does an excellent job of weaving the histories of the city, the game and the Orioles organization. He provides the reader with ample background information about the first- and second-generation African American players who played for the Orioles, [End Page 238] beginning with the first black Oriole, pitcher Jehosie Heard, in 1954. Readers are cautioned early on that this story is not about the Orioles' on-field play throughout the years. That, however, is not a negative. The focus instead is on the men both on and off the field who were a part of the civil rights struggles of the franchise. In most cases, thanks to extensive first-hand quotes, readers learn how many of those involved view that era through the lens of time. The book provides an honest look at the tardy pace in which the Orioles signed and promoted black players. It informs us that outfielder Dave Pope joined the team in June of 1955 and was the only player of color on that season's team, which finished in seventh place. Interestingly enough, at the same time, the Dodgers won that year's World Series with five black players. Luke points out, "Five other black players, including Puerto Rican-born Roberto Clemente, made their major league debut in 1955." The narrative essentially ends with the unveiling of Eddie Murray's statue at Camden Yards in 2012. It is then followed by an epilogue which includes coverage of the 2015 arrest of Freddie Gray and its results. It feels forced. Although there are still obvious racial issues in the city, it is difficult to tie them to the baseball team. Yet, that's what Luke seems to do. In noting that game attendance by blacks has decreased in the last thirty years, he writes, "The Orioles do not publicize attendance figures by race, gender, or ethnicity but it is a safe bet that black attendance is less than ten percent" (161). Of course, no team in any professional sports league announces attendance figures based on those parameters. He follows that by citing the...

The Bilko Athletic Club: The Story of the 1956 Los Angeles Angels by Gaylon H. White, and: The Continental League: A Personal History by Russell D. Buhite

Reviewed by: The Bilko Athletic Club: The Story of the 1956 Los Angeles Angels by Gaylon H. White, and: The Continental League: A Personal History by Russell D. Buhite Lee Lowenfish Gaylon H. White. The Bilko Athletic Club: The Story of the 1956 Los Angeles Angels. Lanham, md: Rowman and Littlefield, 2014. 301 pp. Cloth, $38.00. Russell D. Buhite. The Continental League: A Personal History. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013. 201 pp. Cloth, $24.95. When it comes to writing baseball history about the 1950s, Steve Bilko and the Continental League are not topics that immediately come to mind. Among the big stories of the period were westward expansion and the emergence of such African American superstars in the National League as Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Frank Robinson. Yet there is a place in the annals of history for the tales of legendary slugger Steve Bilko, belter of 389 home runs (all but 76 in the minor leagues), and the abortive Continental League of 1959–60, which tried under Branch Rickey’s leadership to create a third major league. Though there are weaknesses in each endeavor, authors Gaylon White and Russell Buhite have made worthwhile contributions. Steve Bilko’s story is the stuff of legend. Born in 1930 in the southeastern Pennsylvania coal-mining town of Nanticoke, Bilko was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals before his junior year in high school by scout Bennie Borgmann. “I was convinced that here was a guy who one day would hit sixty-five home runs in a single season,” Borgmann said upon the premature death of Bilko in 1978 (84). (Borgmann was a well-regarded talent hunter who, incidentally, [End Page 179] was a great basketball player honored in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts—unfortunately, his name is misspelled by White with only one n in his last name.) The Cardinals brought up Bilko for a cup of coffee as a twenty-year-old in 1949; and in 1953, he enjoyed his best year in the majors when he hit 21 homers with 84 rbi. He collected a respectable 70 walks; but he hit only .251, with 125 strikeouts, a disturbing number at a time when a stigma was placed on striking out more than 100 times a season. Bilko was fated to play at a time when Stan Musial was being shuffled from the outfield to first base. “I always had Musial hanging over my head,” Bilko later reflected. “Like if I went oh-for-four or oh-for-ten . . . Stan comes in and plays first” (84). Another strike against Bilko was his excessive weight, which bordered on three hundred pounds—his postgame beer consumption was the stuff of liquid legend! “Few sports were as intolerant of excess flab as baseball,” White notes accurately (73). Soon the nicknames of Stout Steve, Lard Zeppelin, and Big Boy Balloon were hung on Bilko, who was sensitive to criticism. In one of the more profound comments in the book, outfielder Albie Pearson, who was later Bilko’s teammate on the American League expansion Los Angeles Angels, remarks, “Steve was constantly fighting a complex that everybody was against him. He didn’t handle rejection very well” (81). Another teammate, the pitcher-turned-author Jim Brosnan adds, “He was an introverted man. He was like Ferdinand the Bull” (81). The Cardinals let Bilko go to the Chicago Cubs in 1954, but he never came close to duplicating his best year. By 1955, Bilko was toiling for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, where his legend really took flight. When comedian-actor Phil Silvers was looking for a name for his conniving army sergeant in the cbs network tv show You’ll Never Get Rich, he chose the name Ernie Bilko. “I could just as well have been Corporal Hodges or Private First Class Musial,” Silvers explained. “I gave it to a guy who needed it” (91). Bilko got off to a great start in 1956 and by mid-July had equaled his 37 home runs of the previous year. He became not only a local phenomenon but a national one. Los Angeles Times columnist Ned Cronin suggested...