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Bartleby and Me: Reflections of an Old Scrivener
by Gay Talese“Literary Legend” (New York) Gay Talese retraces his pioneering career, marked by his fascination with the world's hidden characters.In the concluding act of this "incomparable" (Air Mail) capstone book, Talese introduces readers to one final unforgettable story: the strange and riveting all new tale of Dr. Nicholas Bartha, who blew up his Manhattan brownstone—and himself—rather than relinquish his claim to the American dream.“New York is a city of things unnoticed,” a young reporter named Gay Talese wrote sixty years ago. He would spend the rest of his legendary career defying that statement by celebrating the people most reporters overlooked, understanding that it was through these minor characters that the epic story of New York and America unfolded. Inspired by Herman Melville’s great short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” Talese now revisits the unforgettable “nobodies” he has profiled in his celebrated career—from the New York Times’s anonymous obituary writer to Frank Sinatra’s entourage. In the book’s final act, a remarkable piece of original reporting titled “Dr. Bartha’s Brownstone,” Talese presents a new “Bartleby,” an unknown doctor who made his mark on the city one summer day in 2006. Rising within the city of New York are about one million buildings. These include skyscrapers, apartment buildings, bodegas, schools, churches, and homeless shelters. Also spread through the city are more than 19,000 vacant lots, one of which suddenly appeared some years ago—at 34 East 62nd Street, between Madison and Park Avenues—when the unhappy owner of a brownstone at that address blew it up (with himself in it) rather than sell his cherished nineteenth-century high-stoop Neo-Grecian residence in order to pay the court-ordered sum of $4 million to the woman who had divorced him three years earlier. This man was a physician of sixty-six named Nicholas Bartha. On the morning of July 10, 2006, Dr. Bartha filled his building with gas that he had diverted from a pipe in the basement, and then he set off an explosion that reduced the fivestory premises into a fiery heap that would injure ten firefighters and five passersby and damage the interiors of thirteen apartments that stood to the west of the crumbled brownstone.Talese has been obsessed with Dr. Bartha’s story and spent the last seventeen years examining this single 20 x 100 foot New York City building lot, its serpentine past, and the unexpected triumphs and disasters encountered by its residents and owners—an unlikely cast featuring society wannabes, striving immigrants, Gilded Age powerbrokers, Russian financiers, and even a turncoat during the War of Independence—just as he has been obsessed with similar “nobodies” throughout his career. Concise, elegant, tragic, and whimsical, Bartleby and Me is the valedictory work of a master journalist.
Bartlett: The Great Explorer
by Harold HorwoodThis is the story of the greatest Canadian ice captain who ever lived--the greatest, by general consent, of any nationality in this century. Robert Bartlett took ships to the north coast of Ellesmere Island, sledged to within 150 miles of the North Pole, made twenty-two voyages into the Canadian Arctic, and six to other parts of the Arctic, yet is almost wholly unknown in Canada.Besides piloting some of the most famous exploring voyages of all time--those of Robert E. Peary and Vilhajalmur Stefansson--Bartlett made four arctic voyages for the American Government and sixteen expeditions of his own which produced, in the period between the world wars, an immense wealth of scientific knowledge. He was the first arctic explorer to place science ahead of exploration.Harold Harwood worked from the original manuscripts and ships' logs to tell the life-story of this remarkable man. Bartlett was a colourful, often controversial character, a man whose extraordinary courage and tenacity were of heroic proportions.
Bartolomé de las Casas
by Lawrence A. ClaytonThe Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas (1485-1566) was a prominent chronicler of the early Spanish conquest of the Americas, a noted protector of the American Indians and arguably the most significant figure in the early Spanish Empire after Christopher Columbus. Following an epiphany in 1514, Las Casas fought the Spanish control of the Indies for the rest of his life, writing vividly about the brutality of the Spanish conquistadors. Once a settler and exploiter of the American Indians, he became their defender, breaking ground for the modern human rights movement. Las Casas brought his understanding of Christian scripture to the forefront in his defense of the Indians, challenging the premise that the Indians of the New World were any less civilized or capable of practising Christianity than Europeans. Bartolomé de las Casas: A Biography is the first major English-language and scholarly biography of Las Casas' life in a generation.
Bartolomé de las Casas (Colección Españoles Eminentes)
by Bernat HernándezUna gran biografía de Bartolomé de las Casas, un personaje fascinante y contradictorio cuyas ideas siguen generando debate. Esta biografía de Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566) pretende devolver al personaje a su época, en una Monarquía Hispánica cuya expansión en Indias iba dando forma a un Nuevo Mundo del que surgían las estructuras e identidades del Occidente moderno. Como primer hombre atlántico, infatigable nómada entre Europa y América, con una notable capacidad de concitar intereses para crear nexos de comunicación y poder, Bartolomé de las Casas protagonizó episodios fundamentales del siglo XVI en Indias. A partir de una interpretación de la conquista que contempla sus dimensiones simultáneas de destrucción y de formación de ese Nuevo Mundo, la trayectoria de Bartolomé de las Casas encarnó las contradicciones de muchos conquistadores, que han suscitado polémicas valoraciones sobre su figura. Auténtico animal político,desde las filas de la orden dominica y en los entornos más decisivos de poder real, impulsó una legislación protectora de los indígenas americanos, aunque sus iniciativas de poblamiento y evangelización tuvieron desenlaces más ambiguos. Ese activismo se conjugó con un perfil intelectual enorme, forjado en la escuela de pensamiento hispánico moderno, con crónicas y estudios comparados de las civilizaciones americanas, pero que tuvo en la defensa de la evangelización pacífica, la crítica a la guerra de conquista, y en sus propuestas de justicia restaurativa o de apología republicana, contribuciones de carácter universal. Los debates entre Iglesia y Monarquía, entre idealismo evangélico y realismo político, que marcarían el pensamiento occidental posterior acabaron teniendo en la vida y obra de Bartolomé de las Casas el auténtico protagonismo, hasta restar trascendencia objetiva en su biografía a episodios como la controversia de Valladolid o la publicación menor y polémica de la Brevísima, para hacer del indio, como metáfora de la víctima y de su imperativa compensación, el sujeto de reclamación de la primera y la última utopía: lograr la dignidad humana del conjunto de Occidente. La crítica ha dicho... «El innovador análisis de Bernat Hernández es una excelente #biografía social#.»ABC Cultural «En sus obras subyace un profundo sentido ético y una verbo que nos sigue aguijoneando.» Diario de Córdoba ESPAÑOLES EMINENTES Esta colección persigue fomentar el desarrollo del género biográfico en España a la luz de la ejemplaridad de determinadas personalidades que, por su excelencia moral o humanística, destacaron en su época y siguen teniendo vigencia en la conciencia colectiva. Su propósito es aportar biografías verdaderamente modernas que contribuyan a reescribir nuestra historia de una forma mucho más integradora, a la vez que dar a conocer la influencia de figuras que por sus méritos y su general reconocimiento pueden ejercer una influencia vertebradora en la sociedad actual.
Barça: The inside story of the world's greatest football club
by Simon Kuper'This is a masterfully written history of the world's greatest football club. Més que un book!' - GARY LINEKERFrom the bestselling co-author of Soccernomics comes the story of how FC Barcelona became the most successful football club in the world - and how that envied position now hangs in the balance.Barça is not just the world's most popular sports club, it is simply one of the most influential organisations on the planet. With almost 250 million followers on social media and 4 million visitors to its Camp Nou stadium each year, there's little wonder its motto is 'More than a club'. But it was not always so. In the past three decades, Barcelona has transformed from regional team to global powerhouse, becoming a model of sporting excellence and a consistent winner of silverware.Simon Kuper unravels exactly how these transformations took place. He outlines the organisational structure behind the club's business decisions, and details the work of its coaches, medics, data analysts and nutritionists who have revolutionised the sporting world. And, of course, he studies the towering influence of the club's two greatest legends, Johan Cruyff and Lionel Messi.Like many leading global businesses, FC Barcelona closely guards its secrets, granting few outsiders a view behind the scenes. But, after decades of writing about the sport and the club, Kuper was given unprecedented access to the inner sanctum and to the people who strive daily to keep Barcelona at the top. Erudite, personal, and capturing all the latest successes and upheavals, his portrait of this incredible institution goes beyond football to understand Barça as a unique social, cultural, and political phenomenon."I began my research thinking I was going to be explaining Barca's rise to greatness, and Ihave, but I've also ended up charting the decline and fall."
Barça: The rise and fall of the club that built modern football
by Simon Kuper"Imagine the club not as a theatre of dreams but as a workplace. What is office life like day to day? Who are the people who run the club? How much power do they actually have over the players? What should the players eat, and how can you persuade them to eat it?"From the author of bestselling Soccernomics comes a book that will reshape our understanding of football and the world's most talked-about club: FC Barcelona. After 30 years of unprecedented access, this book takes the reader behind closed doors into the changing room, the training ground and the boardroom to reveal the real stories behind Barça's rise to global sports superpower - and its recent fall from grace. It includes interviews with the towering personalities responsible for transforming Barça including Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola. It details the work of coaches, medics, data analysts and nutritionists, as well as extraordinary players like Lionel Messi, in building not just a club but a football philosophy. It analyses the unique structure of Barça from the Catalan power politics at the top, the cutting-edge sports science hub it has created and its legendary youth academy known as La Masia. This is truly a book decades in the making, which establishes how an army of coaches, medics, data analysts and nutritionists have built the foundations for one of the outstanding successes of the modern game.(P)Octopus Publishing Group 2021
Bas Jan Ader: Death is Elsewhere
by Alexander DumbadzeOn July 9, 1975, Dutch-born artist Bas Jan Ader set sail from Chatham, Massachusetts, on a thirteen-foot sailboat. He was bound for Falmouth, England, on the second leg of a three-part piece titled "In Search of the Miraculous. " The damaged boat was found south of the western tip of Ireland nearly a year later. Ader was never seen again. aSince his untimely death, Ader has achieved mythic status in the art world as a figure literally willing to die for his art. Considering the artistOCOs legacy and concise oeuvre beyond the romantic and tragic associations that accompany his peculiar end, Alexander Dumbadze resituates AderOCOs art and life within the conceptual art world of Los Angeles in the early 1970s and offers a nuanced argument about artistic subjectivity that explains AderOCOs tremendous relevance to contemporary art. a"Bas Jan Ader "blends biography, theoretical reflection, and archival research to draw a detailed picture of the world in which AderOCOs work was rooted: a vibrant international art scene populated with peers such as Ger van Elk, William Leavitt, and Allen Ruppersberg. Dumbadze looks closely at AderOCOs engagement with questions of free will and his ultimate success in creating art untainted by mediation. The first in-depth study of this enigmatic conceptual artist, "Bas Jan Ader" is a thoughtful reflection on the necessity of the creative act and its inescapable relation to death. "
Base Notes: The Scents of a Life
by Adelle Stripe'It's got both style and warmth and made me cry' Amy Liptrot'A beautiful book' Anna Wood'Compelling and deeply evocative' Wendy Erskine 'Already your future has been planned out. There is not much choice about what to become in the small town where you live . . .'A bedroom dreamer with a headful of Warhol, Adelle Stripe's formative years were ones of daytime drinking and religious fervour, frustrated mothers and reckless daughters, desire, ambition and the pursuit of creativity. Told through a prism of vintage perfumes, and played out in vivid detail with startling clarity and colour, Base Notes chronicles an unbridled Northern England of the late 20th century already fading from view.With a keen eye for the absurd, an ear cocked to eavesdropped conversations and a nose that finds perfume wherever it goes, this tragicomic tale of working-class womanhood is no clichéd story of redemption or escape, but instead a bleakly funny yet unflinching memoir of dead-end jobs, lost weekends, brief encounters and those wild, forgotten characters who slip through the cracks.Infused with acerbic observations and unexpected poignancy, Base Notes sees Adelle Stripe boldly laying her lived experience on the page, creating literature from a life less ordinary.
Base Notes: The Scents of a Life
by Adelle Stripe'It's got both style and warmth and made me cry' Amy Liptrot'A beautiful book' Anna Wood'Compelling and deeply evocative' Wendy Erskine 'Already your future has been planned out. There is not much choice about what to become in the small town where you live . . .'A bedroom dreamer with a headful of Warhol, Adelle Stripe's formative years were ones of daytime drinking and religious fervour, frustrated mothers and reckless daughters, desire, ambition and the pursuit of creativity. Told through a prism of vintage perfumes, and played out in vivid detail with startling clarity and colour, Base Notes chronicles an unbridled Northern England of the late 20th century already fading from view.With a keen eye for the absurd, an ear cocked to eavesdropped conversations and a nose that finds perfume wherever it goes, this tragicomic tale of working-class womanhood is no clichéd story of redemption or escape, but instead a bleakly funny yet unflinching memoir of dead-end jobs, lost weekends, brief encounters and those wild, forgotten characters who slip through the cracks.Infused with acerbic observations and unexpected poignancy, Base Notes sees Adelle Stripe boldly laying her lived experience on the page, creating literature from a life less ordinary.
Baseball Biographies for Kids: Stories of Baseball's Most Inspiring Players (Sports Biographies for Kids)
by Dean BurrellGet to know the game with inspiring baseball biographies for ages 8 to 12!It's the bottom of the ninth, bases are loaded, and your team is down by three—who do you want coming up to bat? Discover the most talented players in every position on the field with Baseball Biographies for Kids! This lineup shows you what it takes to be a real MVP, with a run-down of stories, stats, and achievements of the best players in baseball, from the 1960s through today.Legends of the league—Get inspired by the players who defined the game, like Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, and Ichiro Suzuki.Key career stats—Each biography in this baseball history book includes the player's life story, as well as their major statistics like games played, ERA, hits, and more.Draft your own all-star team—Fill out the included starting lineup sheet with your favorite picks for each position.Whether you're an aspiring athlete or just a big fan, this book of baseball stories for kids is sure to give you a greater love of the game!
Baseball Biographies for Kids: The Greatest Players from the 1960s to Today (Biographies of Today's Best Players)
by Dean BurrellGet to know the game with inspiring baseball biographies for ages 8 to 12!It's the bottom of the ninth, bases are loaded, and your team is down by three—who do you want coming up to bat? Discover the most talented players in every position on the field with Baseball Biographies for Kids! This lineup shows you what it takes to be a real MVP, with a run-down of stories, stats, and achievements of the best players in baseball, from the 1960s through today.Legends of the league — Get inspired by the players who defined the game, like Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, and Ichiro Suzuki.Key career stats — Each biography in this baseball history book includes the player's life story, as well as their major statistics like games played, ERA, hits, and more.Draft your own all-star team — Fill out the included starting lineup sheet with your favorite picks for each position!Whether you're an aspiring athlete or just a big fan, this book of baseball stories for kids is sure to give you a greater love of the game!
Baseball Cop
by Teri Thompson Christian Red Eddie Dominguez"We Could Clean Up This Game" <P><P> In the wake of 2005's sometimes contentious, sometimes comical congressional hearings on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball and the subsequent Mitchell Report, Major League Baseball established the Department of Investigations (DOI). An internal and autonomous unit, it was created to not only eliminate the use of steroids, but also to rid baseball of any other illegal, unsavory, or unethical activities. <P><P>The DOI would investigate the dark side of the national pastime--gambling, age and identity fraud, human trafficking, cover-ups, and more--with the singular purpose of cleaning up the game. Eduardo Dominguez Jr. was a founding member of that first DOI team, leaving a stellar career with the Boston Police Department to join four other "supercops"--a group that included a 9/11 hero, a mob-buster, and narcotics experts--keeping watch over Major League Baseball. <P><P>A decorated detective as well as a member of an FBI task force, Dominguez was initially reluctant to leave his law-enforcement career to work full-time in baseball. He had already seen the game's underbelly when he worked as a resident security agent (RSA) for the Boston Red Sox in 1999 and become wary of the game's commitment to any kind of reform. <P><P> Only at the persuasion a widely respected NYPD detective tapped to lead the DOI did Dominguez agree to join the unit, which was the first--and last--of its kind in major American sports. "We could clean up this game," his new boss promised.In Baseball Cop, Dominguez shares the shocking revelations he confronted every day for six years with the DOI and nine as an RSA. He shines a light on the inner workings of the commissioner's office and the complicity of baseball's bosses in dealing with the misdeeds compromising the integrity of the game. <P><P>Dominguez details the investigations and the obstacles--from the Biogenesis scandal to the perilous trafficking of Cuban players now populating the game to the theft of prospects' signing bonuses by buscones, street agents, and even clubs' employees. He further reveals how the mandates of former senator George Mitchell's report were modified or ignored altogether. <P><P> Bracing and eye-opening, Baseball Cop is a wake-up call for anyone concerned about America's national pastime.
Baseball GOATs: The Greatest Athletes of All Time (Sports Illustrated Kids: GOATs)
by Bruce BerglundHow do you pick baseball’s GOATs? Is Sandy Koufax the greatest pitcher to take the mound? Is Ted Williams the greatest pure hitter the game has seen? It comes down to stats, history, and hunches. Read more about some of the legends of baseball and see if you agree that they’re the greatest of all time.
Baseball Heroes
by Glenn StoutBaseball Heroes is the first book in the new middle grade nonfiction series Good Sports, about the inspiring life stories of major league athletes who have overcome obstacles in the course of their life and careers. Each book tells the stories of athletes who have encountered and overcome significant obstacles, and whose story exempifies character and nerve in the face of adversity. Baseball Heroes highlights players who were among the first to break through barriers of race, ethnicity and even sex in order to play professional baseball. Subjects include Jackie Robinson, Hank Greenburg, Fernando Valenzuela, and Ila Borders. This ebook includes a sample chapter of SOLDIER ATHLETES.
Baseball Heroes
by Glenn StoutBaseball Heroes is the first book in the new middle grade nonfiction series Good Sports, about the inspiring life stories of major league athletes who have overcome obstacles in the course of their life and careers. Each book tells the stories of athletes who have encountered and overcome significant obstacles, and whose story exempifies character and nerve in the face of adversity. Baseball Heroes highlights players who were among the first to break through barriers of race, ethnicity and even sex in order to play professional baseball. Subjects include Jackie Robinson, Hank Greenburg, Fernando Valenzuela, and Ila Borders.
Baseball Life Advice: Loving the Game That Saved Me
by Stacey May FowlesA passionate ode to baseball, its culture, and its community, which both celebrates and challenges the game – and reminds us why it really matters. What is it about a man hitting a small white ball with a slim wooden bat out of a park that’s so beautiful? In this entertaining and thoughtful book, Stacey May Fowles gives us a refreshingly candid and personal perspective on subjects ranging from bat flips to bandwagoners, from the romance of spring training to the politics of booing, from the necessity of taking a hard look at players’ injuries and mental health issues to finding solace at the ballpark. Fowles confronts head-on the stereotype that female fans lack real knowledge about the game, and calls out the “boys will be boys” attitude and its implications both on and off the field. She also offers exhilarating snapshots of the Toronto Blue Jays’ 2015 and 2016 seasons. With remarkable humanity, intelligence, and an unabashed enthusiasm for the game, Fowles explores how we can use the lens of baseball to examine who we are. A must-read for both diehard and casual fans.
Baseball Love
by George BoweringBowering's life in the game unfolds in a picaresque memoir of the storied ballparks of the poet's youthful dreams.
Baseball Maverick: How Sandy Alderson Revolutionized Baseball and Revived the Mets
by Steve Kettmann“An intimate portrait of one of the shrewdest, most decorated men to ever occupy the GM chair . . . A really fun read” (Jonah Keri, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Up, Up, & Away). In 2010, the New York Mets were in trouble. One of baseball’s most valuable franchises, they had recently suffered an embarrassing September collapse and two bitter losing seasons. To whom did they turn? Sandy Alderson, a former marine who got his baseball start in Oakland, where he led a revolution in the sport. The A’s partnered with Apple in 1980, pioneering the use of statistical analysis in baseball, and became a powerhouse—winning the 1989 World Series. Granted unprecedented access to the working general manager over several seasons, bestselling author Steve Kettmann traces Alderson’s history and his revival of the Mets, despite a limited budget, through big trades that brought back high-profile prospects to the development of young aces including Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, and Jacob deGrom. Baseball Maverick is a gripping, behind-the-scenes look at a Major League team and a fascinating exploration of what it means to be smart. A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Sports Book for Spring “A fascinating and fresh look at the resurgent team’s winning strategy. Whether you’re a diehard Mets fan like me or just a curious baseball fan in general, you’ll want to read Steve Kettmann’s new book because it’s a compelling human interest story and you will gain insight about how the game has changed.” —Forbes “Extremely well-written and unflaggingly interesting, [Baseball Maverick] will appeal to any baseball fan who wants insight into what GMs do and into how contemporary winning major league baseball teams are built.” —Spitball magazine “Outstanding.” —Dennis Eckersley, Hall of Fame pitcher “Revealing . . . [Alderson] gave serious access to Kettman, an astute reporter.” —George Vecsey, New York Times sports columnist and author of Baseball: A History of America’s Favorite Game
Baseball Superstar Aaron Judge (Bumba Books ® -- Sports Superstars Ser.)
by Jon M FishmanNew York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge became a fan favorite in his rookie season with the team. This title's reader-friendly text, critical thinking questions, and bright design will attract young baseball fans.
Baseball for Kids: A Young Fan's Guide to the History of the Game (Biographies of Today's Best Players)
by Adam C. MacKinnonBatter up! A complete history of baseball for kids 5 to 7Who invented baseball? How long has it been around? Who was the Great Bambino? Baseball for Kids answers all those burning questions and more as kids (ages 5-7) weave their way through the history of America's national sport through fun facts, stories, and legends.Your child will journey back to the beginnings of the game from the invention of the strikeout and foul ball to the integration of African-American ballplayers and the construction of iconic ballparks. They'll also learn about the sport's most famous personalities from big hitters like Lou Gehrig to heat-throwing pitchers like Bob Gibson.Baseball for Kids includes:Packed with fun—Children will revel in the cool information, trivia subjects, true or false challenges, and other tantalizing tidbits about the sport.From past to present—Baseball for Kids covers changes to the rules as well as adaptations to uniforms, mitts, bats, and other equipment.Get out there!—Use the Future Stars section to inspire your child to pick up a bat and a ball and swing for the fences.Hit a home run with your little one when you introduce them to our national pastime with Baseball for Kids.
Baseball in Alabama: Tales of Hardball in the Heart of Dixie (Sports)
by Doug Wedge Hal Baird - Head Baseball Coach Auburn University 1985-2000Although football may first spring to mind when talking about sports in Alabama, the state has certainly made its mark with the national pastime. Thirteen players with Alabama roots are enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, including all-time greats like Hank Aaron, Ozzie Smith and Satchel Paige. Bob Veale of Birmingham led the National League in strikeouts in 1964. Superstars and former players like Bo Jackson and Britt Burns give back to their home state by organizing charities and coaching Alabama's next generation of players. Author and baseball historian Doug Wedge explores stories from this rich history.
Baseball in the Mahoning Valley: From Pioneers to the Scrappers (Sports)
by Paul M. KovachAround the horn in the Mahoning Valley The history of baseball in Ohio's Mahoning Valley has been, to say the least, eventful. Murder, the Civil War, the hot dog, a presidential assassination and one of the deadliest known volcanic eruptions all shaped America's pastime in the Valley. African American baseball pioneer and Hall of Fame inductee Bud Fowler began his professional baseball career in the area, and the first ceremonial celebrity first pitch came from the arm of a prominent local. The area also contributed to Cleveland professional ballclubs like the enigmatic 1883 Blues and the 2016 Believeland Indians, which included numerous players from the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, a minor-league team with its own rich heritage. Digging up little-known facts about Fowler and sundry other colorful stories, local author and creator of Eastwood Field's Days Gone By exhibit PM Kovach celebrates the proud history of baseball in northeast Ohio.
Baseball's First Indian: The Story of Penobscot Legend Louis Sockalexis
by Ed RiceBorn in 1871 on Maine's Penobscot Indian reservation and nephew of a chief, Louis Sockalexis became professional baseball's first American Indian player. Ultimately, his prowess on the diamond inspired the name Cleveland's baseball team carries today.Exploring the brilliant but too-brief major league career of the "Deerfoot of the Diamond," Baseball's First Indian follows Sockalexis's rise to the majors, his fall to the minor leagues of New England, and his final return to the reservation in Maine, where he continued to coach baseball and work as an umpire.This fascinating study of the life of Louis Sockalexis is filled with game action and leavened by the flamboyant and colorful stories of 19th century sportswriters who frequently invented what the truth would not supply. It's a treasure for every student of baseball history.
Baseball's First Superstar: The Lost Life Story of Christy Mathewson
by Alan D. GaffIf there was a first face of baseball, it was arguably Christopher &“Christy&” Mathewson. At the opening of the twentieth century, baseball was considered an undignified game played by ruffians for gamblers&’ benefit. Mathewson changed all that. When he signed with the Giants in 1900, his contract stated he wouldn&’t pitch on Sundays, and he was known for his honesty, integrity, and good looks. In his first fourteen seasons, as a pitcher for the Giants, Mathewson never won fewer than twenty games in a season, and he almost single-handedly won the 1905 World Series. In 1918, though age thirty-eight and exempt from military service, he enlisted for World War I, where he exposed himself to nearly lethal amounts of mustard gas as he taught soldiers how to put on gas masks. When he returned home, he was diagnosed with lung problems and tuberculosis, which led to his untimely death at the age of forty-five. After Mathewson&’s death, his eulogies were many, but it was impossible to catch the essence of his life in a single newspaper column. Jane Mathewson, his widow, was determined to provide the reading public with a more intimate portrait of her husband and approached prominent sportswriter Bozeman Bulger, who had known Mathewson for twenty years. Bulger wrote a series of articles titled &“The Life Story of Christy Mathewson.&” His portraits about the player were amplified by original accounts from Jane, and several unpublished chapters from Mathewson himself, which had been discovered among his papers. These combined accounts allow readers to hear from Mathewson and those who knew him best. A superstar long before that term was coined, Mathewson became an icon of sportsmanship. He was posthumously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame at its first induction ceremony in 1936. In Baseball&’s First Superstar Alan D. Gaff brings Mathewson to life through Mathewson&’s own writings and those of others, largely lost to history until now.
Baseball's Great Tragedy: The Story Of Carl Mays, Submarine Pitcher
by Bob McGarigleBiography of Carl Mays, the New York Yankees pitcher who fatally struck Cleveland Indians batter Ray Chapman with a pitch in 1920.