Download or read book Farewell to the Last Golden Era written by Bill Morales and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2011-08-10 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1960, Major League Baseball reached a crossroads in its history. Facing a challenge from the Continental Baseball League, the owners of the original 16 major league teams elected to admit new clubs. This in-depth look at that pivotal season--the last played with only the original 16 teams--follows the New York Yankees and the Pittsburgh Pirates on their march to the 1960 World Series. The trials and triumphs of these two teams reflect the changes, large and small, that came to define the sport in the following decades--surnames on the backs of the uniforms, exploding scoreboards, the increasing impact of international players, and foremost of all, expansion. Marking the end of the "Golden Age" of baseball and the beginning of the ascendancy of professional football as the national pastime, this historic season witnessed the intersection of the past and future of American professional sports.
Download or read book The Golden Era of Major League Baseball written by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-11-05 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Jackie Robinson made his debut at Ebbets Field on opening day in 1947, the Brooklyn Dodgers became the first major league team with a black player anywhere in its organization. By the end of the Golden Era of baseball, a period in and around the 1950s, there would be an unprecedented number of notable black players in the major leagues, including Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, and Jackie Robinson. While this era is defined by integration, it was also the age of the “boys of summer” Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankee dominance, and the first major change in the geographic landscape of the big leagues in half a century. In The Golden Era of Major League Baseball: A Time of Transition and Integration, Bryan Soderholm-Difatte explores the significant events and momentous changes that took place in baseball from 1947 to 1960. Beginning with Jackie Robinson’s rookie season in 1947, Soderholm-Difatte provides a careful and thorough examination of baseball’s integration, including the struggles of black players who were not elite to break into the starting lineups. In addition, the author looks at the dying practice of player-managers, the increasing use of relief pitchers and platooning, the iconic 1951 pennant race between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers, and more. Soderholm-Difatte also tells the stories of three central characters to this era, whose innovations, strategies, and vision changed the game—Branch Rickey, who challenged the baseball establishment by integrating the Dodgers; Casey Stengel, whose 1949-1953 Yankees won five straight championships; and Leo Durocher, whose spy operations was a major factor in the Giants’ 1951 pennant surge. In an age when baseball was at the forefront of American society, integration would come to be the foremost legacy of the Golden Era. But this was also a time of innovative strategy, from the use of pinch hitters to frequent defensive substitutions. Concluding with an overview of how baseball is still evolving today, The Golden Era of Major League Baseball will be of interest to baseball fans and historians as well as to scholars examining the history of integration in sports.
Download or read book The Victory Season written by Robert Weintraub and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2013-04-02 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The triumphant story of baseball and America after World War II. In 1945 Major League Baseball had become a ghost of itself. Parks were half empty, the balls were made with fake rubber, and mediocre replacements roamed the fields, as hundreds of players, including the game's biggest stars, were serving abroad, devoted to unconditional Allied victory in World War II. But by the spring of 1946, the country was ready to heal. The war was finally over, and as America's fathers and brothers were coming home, so too were the sport's greats. Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Joe DiMaggio returned with bats blazing, making the season a true classic that ended in a thrilling seven-game World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals. America also witnessed the beginning of a new era in baseball: it was a year of attendance records, the first year Yankee Stadium held night games, the last year the Green Monster wasn't green, and, most significant, Jackie Robinson's first year playing in the Brooklyn Dodgers' system. The Victory Season brings to vivid life these years of baseball and war, including the littleknown "World Series" that servicemen played in a captured Hitler Youth stadium in the fall of 1945. Robert Weintraub's extensive research and vibrant storytelling enliven the legendary season that embodies what we now think of as the game's golden era.
Download or read book Willard Mullin s Golden Age of Baseball Drawings 1934 1972 written by Willard Mullin and published by Fantagraphics Books. This book was released on 2013-08-17 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Fantagraphics’ ceaseless effort to rediscover every world-class cartoonist in the history of the medium, we turn your attention to a neglected part of the art form—sports cartooning—and to its greatest practitioner—Willard Mullin. The years 1930-1970 were the Golden Age of both American sports and American comic strips, when giants strode their respective fields—Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Hank Aaron in one, George (Krazy Kat) Herriman, Milton (Steve Canyon) Caniff, Walt (Pogo) Kelly in the other—and Mullin was there, straddling both fields, recording every major player and event in the mid-20th-century history of baseball. Mullin was to baseball players what Bill Mauldin was to soldiers: advocate and critic, investing them with personality, humanity, dignity, and poignancy; Mauldin had Willie & Joe and Mullin had the Brooklyn Bum, his affectionate 1939 character representing the bedraggled figure of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Willard Mullin’s Golden Age of Baseball: Drawings 1934-1972 collects for the first time Mullin’s best drawings devoted to baseball—depictions of players like Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, and Sandy Koufax, legendary managers like Casey Stengel and George Steinbrenner, and events like Lou Gehrig’s emotional retirement speech on July 4, 1939, for which Mullin not only drew a portrait but composed a poem (which he often incorporated into his cartoons). Mullin’s fluid line and delicate but vigorous brushwork are shown to beautiful effect, with many drawings reproduced from original art. See why millions of baseball fans from the ’30s to the ’70s looked forward to Mullin’s cartoons in their daily paper.
Download or read book Baseball written by Harold Seymour and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1989-07-13 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available in paperback, Harold Seymour and Dorothy Seymour Mills' Baseball: The Early Years recounts the true story of how baseball came into being and how it developed into a highly organized business and social institution. The Early Years, traces the growth of baseball from the time of the first recorded ball game at Valley Forge during the revolution until the formation of the two present-day major leagues in 1903. By investigating previously unknown sources, the book uncovers the real story of how baseball evolved from a gentleman's amateur sport of "well-bred play followed by well-laden banquet tables" into a professional sport where big leagues operate under their own laws. Offering countless anecdotes and a wealth of new information, the authors explode many cherished myths, including the one which claims that Abner Doubleday "invented" baseball in 1839. They describe the influence of baseball on American business, manners, morals, social institutions, and even show business, as well as depicting the types of men who became the first professional ball players, club owners, and managers, including Spalding, McGraw, Comiskey, and Connie Mack. Note: On August 2, 2010, Oxford University Press made public that it would credit Dorothy Seymour Mills as co-author of the three baseball histories previously "authored" solely by her late husband, Harold Seymour. The Seymours collaborated on Baseball: The Early Years (1960), Baseball: The Golden Age (1971) and Baseball: The People's Game (1991).
Download or read book The Dickson Baseball Dictionary Third Edition written by Paul Dickson and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2011-06-13 with total page 1001 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive work on the language of baseball—one of the “Five Best Baseball Books” (Wall Street Journal). Hailed as “a staggering piece of scholarship” (Wall Street Journal) and “an indispensable guide to the language of baseball” (San Diego Union-Tribune), The Dickson Baseball Dictionary has become an invaluable resource for those who love the game. Drawing on dozens of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century periodicals, as well as contemporary sources, Dickson’s brilliant, illuminating definitions trace the earliest appearances of terms both well known and obscure. This edition includes more than 10,000 terms with 18,000 individual entries, and more than 250 photos. This “impressively comprehensive” (The Nation) book will delight everyone from the youngest fan to the hard-core aficionado.
Download or read book The Golden Era of Major League Baseball written by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the significant events and momentous changes that took place in baseball from 1947 to 1960. Beginning with Jackie Robinson's rookie season in 1947, it provides a careful and thorough examination of baseball's integration, including the struggles of the black players who were not elite enough to break into the starting lineups. It also looks at the dying practice of player-managers, the increasing use of relief pitchers and platooning, the iconic 1951 pennant race between New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers, and more. In also highlights three central figures whose innovations, strategies, and vision changed the game: Branch Rickey, who integrated the Dodgers; Casey Stengel, whose 1949-1953 Yankees won five straight championships; and Leo Durocher, whose spy operation was a major factor in the Giants' 1951 pennant surge. -- Publisher description.
Download or read book America s Game written by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-06-08 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive survey of major league baseball looks at the national pastime’s legendary figures, major innovations, and pivotal moments, from the beginning of the twentieth century through World War II. In America's Game: A History of Major League Baseball through World War II, Bryan Soderholm-Difatte provides a comprehensive narrative of the major developments and key figures in Major League Baseball, during a time when the sport was still truly the national pastime. Soderholm-Difatte details pivotal moments—including the founding of the American League, the 1919 Black Sox scandal, and navigating the Great Depression and two World Wars—and concludes with a chapter examining the exclusion of black ballplayers from the major leagues. Central personalities covered in this book include baseball executives Judge Landis and Branch Rickey, managers John McGraw and Joe McCarthy, and iconic players such as Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb. America’s Game isn’t simply about celebrating the exploits of great players and teams; it is just as much about the history of Major League Baseball as an institution and the evolution of the game itself. With significant changes taking place in baseball in recent times, this book will remind baseball fans young and old of the rich history of the game.
Download or read book The Era 1947 1957 written by Roger Kahn and published by Diversion Books. This book was released on 2014-01-15 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of The Boys of Summer explores the golden age of baseball, an unforgettable time when the game thrived as America’s unrivaled national sport. The Era begins in 1947, with Jackie Robinson changing major league baseball forever by taking the field for the Dodgers. Dazzling, momentous events characterize the decade that followed—Robinson’s amazing accomplishments; the explosion on the national scene of such soon-to-be legends as Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Bobby Thomson, Duke Snider, and Yogi Berra; Casey Stengel’s crafty managing; the emergence of televised games; and the stunning success of the Yankees as they play in nine out of eleven World Series. The Era concludes with the relocation of the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, a move that shook the sport to its very roots. “Kahn knows where the bodies are buried and allows his audience a joyous read as he digs them up.”—Publishers Weekly “[Kahn] engagingly captures the flavor of the times by bringing to the fore the defining traits and relationships that added human dimension to the sport.”—Library Journal “Kahn weaves such personal information into his rich descriptions of thrilling regular-season, playoff and World Series games. And in doing so he endows the players, managers and owners with more dynamic dimensions than any baseball writer of his generation. The men in The Era are ballplayers, not deities; and it takes the unerring strength of a straight shooter like Kahn to remind nostalgic baseball fans of that simple fact.”—Chicago Tribune
Download or read book Latino Stars in Major League Baseball written by Jonathan Weeks and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-06-16 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some of the best players in Major League Baseball were born outside the United States, with Latino players representing one of the fastest growing ethnicities in the league. Current and former stars such as Albert Pujols, Rod Carew, and Miguel Cabrera all found incredible success in MLB. They have won major awards, guided their teams to the postseason, played in All-Star games, and an elite few have been enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Latino Stars in Major League Baseball: From Bobby Abreu to Carlos Zambrano celebrates the ever-increasing diversity of baseball in America. It includes more than 140 in-depth profiles of retired and active ballplayers representing countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. For many of these players, the road to “The Show” wasn’t easy—discrimination, poverty, language barriers, and government restrictions are major obstacles that Latino players have faced in the past and continue to face today. Author Jonathan Weeks covers these struggles and more in the profiles, showing the players’ strength, resiliency, and ultimately, their rise to the top of professional baseball. Latino Stars in Major League Baseball is a definitive collection of the best and brightest Latino stars both past and present. Full of colorful anecdotes and inspiring stories, this book provides a rich understanding of Latino players’ impact on baseball in the United States.
Download or read book Baseball written by Harold Seymour and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1989-07-13 with total page 517 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Baseball: The Golden Age, Harold Seymour and Dorothy Seymour Mills explore the glorious era when the game truly captured the American imagination, with such legendary figures as Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb in the spotlight. Beginning with the formation of the two major leagues in 1903, when baseball officially entered its "golden age" of popularity, the authors examine the changes in the organization of professional baseball--from an unwieldy three-man commission to the strong one-man rule of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. They depicts how the play on the field shifted from the low-scoring, pitcher-dominated game of the "dead ball" era before World War I to the higher scoring of the 1920's "lively ball" era, with emphasis on home runs, best exemplified by the exploits of Babe Ruth. Note: On August 2, 2010, Oxford University Press made public that it would credit Dorothy Seymour Mills as co-author of the three baseball histories previously "authored" solely by her late husband, Harold Seymour. The Seymours collaborated on Baseball: The Early Years (1960), Baseball: The Golden Age (1971) and Baseball: The People's Game (1991).
Download or read book Baseball Players of the 1950s written by Rich Marazzi and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-06-08 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The playing and post-playing careers of all 1,560 players who appeared in a major league box score between 1950 and 1959--the "golden age," many say--are profiled in this exhaustive work. From Aaron to Zuverink: this treasure-trove of anecdotes, many gathered from personal interviews, is full of historical facts, controversy, and trivia. Readers will be reminded, that Milwaukee Braves pitcher Humberto Robinson was asked by a gambler to fix a game against the Phillies (he refused), Joe Adcock chased Giants pitcher Ruben Gomez around the field with a bat, Bob Turley reached the top of the corporate ladder after his playing days, Casey Wise became an orthodontist, Bobby Brown became a heart surgeon and president of the AL, and that Chuck Conners became an actor. All of this and much more can be found here.
Download or read book The Golden Era of Golf written by Al Barkow and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-10-21 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Golden Era of Golf chronicles the rise of the sport in America from 1950 to the present by one of the most prolific and respected golf writers today. Until now, no one has made the point directly and unequivocally that the game "invented" by ancient Scots would not have reached its present stature in the world of sports if Americans had never gotten hold of it. Is this to say that Al Barkow is, in The Golden Era of Golf, being a narrow-minded, American-flag-waving jingoist? Not at all. In detailing how America expanded on the old Scots game, Barkow does not deny that the United States more or less fell into certain advantages that led to its dominion over the game - there is the geography, the luck of not having to endure the physical devastation of two world wars, and a naturally broader economic strength. Still, Barkow also makes it clear that there were, and there remains, certain especially American characteristics - a singular energy and enthusiasm for participation in and observation of games, for melding sports with business, for technological and industrial innovation, and by all means democratic traditions - that turned what had been (and would probably have remained) an insular, parochial past time into a game played by millions around the world. America has been golf's great nurturing force, and Barkow details why and how it happened. The history of American golf is not exactly a varnished treatment, a mindless glorification full of nationalist ardor, which is in keeping with the author's well-established reputation, developed over the past 37 years as a golf journalist, magazine editor, historian, and television commentator, as someone who looks with a sharp and candid eye at the game. Barkow has points of view and takes positions on affairs and personalities that impact on every aspect of golf. Is the United States Golf Association, in its restrictions on equipment, playing ostrich to inevitable technological innovation? Hasn't it always? And, hasn't the association always been hypocritical in its definition of amateurism? Was the Ryder Cup ever really a demonstration of pure hands-across-the-sea good fellowship? Why did it take so long for the members of the Augusta National Golf Club to invite a black to play in its vaunted Masters tournament? Barkow was one of the first journalists to research in depth and write about how blacks were excluded from mainstream American golf for most of this century. Here, he expands on an element of history which is intrinsic to the larger American experience and which led to the coming of Tiger Woods. How good has television been for golf, and when and by whom did this most powerful of mediums get involved in the game? Is Greg Norman's celebrity (and personal wealth) an example or the result of modern-day image making that gives greater value to impressions of greatness than the reality of actual performance? Although some curmudgeon emerges in this chronicle of golf, what also comes through, and on a larger note, is the author's passion for the game itself. Its demands on each player's will, determination, and both inherent and developed physical skills are so penetrating, and the satisfaction that comes from just coming close to fulfillment so great, that the manipulations of the golf "operators" - administrators, agents, some of its players, et al. - become mere sidebars. This is golf history with a certain perspective that arises from someone who has lived intimately with the game as a player and writer for at least half the century that is covered, and in particular the last half, on which there is the greater emphasis. It runs the gamut - from feisty, albeit well-considered, criticism to an evocation of the human drama that is finally the most vivid expression of any activity man takes on.
Download or read book Indiana Born Major League Baseball Players written by Pete Cava and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-10-02 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Indiana boasts a rich baseball tradition, with 10 native sons enshrined in Cooperstown. This biographical dictionary provides a close look at the lives of all 364 Hoosier big leaguers, who include New York City's first baseball superstar; the first rookie pitcher to win three games in a World Series; the man who caught most of Cy Young's record 511 career wins; one of the game's first star relievers; the player who held the record for consecutive games played before Lou Gehrig; an obscure infielder mentioned in Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strip; baseball's only one-legged pitcher; Indiana's first Mr. Basketball, who became one of baseball's greatest pinch-hitters; the first African American to play for the Cincinnati Reds; the only pitcher to throw a perfect game in the World Series; the skipper of the 1969 "Miracle Mets"; the pitcher for whom a ground-breaking surgical procedure is named; and the only two men to have played in both the World Series and the Final Four of the NCAA Basketball Tournament.
Download or read book When Baseball Was Still King written by Gene Fehler and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Baseball in the 1950s comes to life through the words of 92 players from the fifties. In their conversations with author Gene Fehler, they tell, in more than a thousand stories and comments, of memorable moments, their dealings with umpires and managers, injuries and trades that affected their careers, regrets and joys that still remain with them so many years later. Players spoken to include Hall of Famers, All Stars, journeymen, and a few who were in the big leagues for the proverbial cup of coffee. Regardless of stature, they all have wonderful stories to tell about big league life in the 1950s, high and low, and moments with other players.
Download or read book America s Game in the Wild Card Era written by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-04-23 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 2022 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title "Baseball fans actively following the sport in the 1990s and 2000s will greatly appreciate this fantastic book and its detailed insight." —Library Journal Major League Baseball has had a long and storied history, but perhaps no era has been as competitive and unpredictable as the past 25 years, with an expanded postseason making for an unexpected and entertaining end to each season. In America’s Game in the Wild-Card Era: From Strike to Pandemic, Bryan Soderholm-Difatte provides a compelling examination of Major League Baseball since the 1994 players’ strike. He reveals how the last quarter century has been the most dynamic in MLB history and argues that bringing wild-card teams and the division-series round into the postseason mix have fundamentally changed how dynasties should be perceived. Following the major storylines for all 30 teams, along with the division races and state of dynasties over the past 25 years, America’s Game in the Wild-Card Era is a captivating look into a new age of baseball. America’s Game in the Wild-Card Era, together with Soderholm-Difatte’s America’s Game, Tumultuous Times in America’s Game, and The Reshaping of America’s Game, form the author’s complete, definitive history of Major League Baseball.
Download or read book The Reshaping of America s Game written by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-04-23 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past 25 years have been the most dynamic in the history of Major League Baseball, from the league’s recovery after the players’ strike to the growth of analytics and the rise of new World Series contenders. In The Reshaping of America’s Game: Major League Baseball after the Players' Strike, Bryan Soderholm-Difatte reflects on the factors and challenges that have changed major league baseball since the 1994-1995 players’ strike. He examines the consolidation of power in the Commissioner’s Office, the influx of Latin and Asian players, the boom in new stadiums, the influence of analytics in reshaping how rosters are constructed, the relationship between managers and the front office, and the rise of the power-game between pitchers and batters that has led to unprecedented strikeout and home run totals. While Major League Baseball continues to develop and grow, the league has had to grapple with repeated steroids scandals, the struggle of small-market teams to remain competitive, and the “forever” unfinished business between players and owners over free agency and fair compensation. The Reshaping of America’s Game provides a detailed and intriguing review of the many issues affecting the national pastime during the liveliest years in MLB history. The Reshaping of America’s Game, together with Soderholm-Difatte’s America’s Game, Tumultuous Times in America’s Game, and America’s Game in the Wild-Card Era, form the author’s complete, definitive history of Major League Baseball.
