Foxy Ned Hanlon

This is the first book-length biography of Ned Hanlon, a Hall of Famer but yet an underappreciated figure in baseball history. As a first generation Irish-American, Ned Hanlon left behind a childhood in the cotton mills to become a star player in the major leagues and the famous manager of the colorful 1890s Baltimore Orioles. He traveled the world on an all-star team and was a key member of the first attempt by baseball players to unionize, which led to the creation of the upstart Players' League. Hanlon was an innovative and shrewd tactician whose strategies and ideas helped baseball transition from its rough infancy into the modern game we know today. As one of the premier baseball minds of his time, "Foxy Ned" also exerted a profound influence on the sport through the managerial tree he established, which includes Hall of Fame managers such as John McGraw, Miller Huggins, and Connie Mack.

Hal Chase is considered by many to be one of the best first basemen ever to play the game of baseball. He was able to make the routine look spectacular, the spectacular look routine. But Chase will never have his plaque in Cooperstown because he has gone down in history as the biggest crook in baseball. Chase was repeatedly accused of throwing games, bribing players, betting against his own team, and various other crimes, yet with his relaxed nature he always managed to get off the hook for his misdeeds by working his charm. His major league career lasted from 1905 to 1919, and by the mid-1930s he was a destitute alcoholic living off friends. The last fifteen years of Chase's life saw him hospitalized repeatedly for a variety of ailments, living off a sister and brother-in-law who loathed him. This work traces the turbulent life and times of Hal Chase from his humble beginnings to his sad end.

Fictionalized account of Walter Settle's baseball career and 19th century baseball in Norwalk, California.

"Biography of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize, who grew up in a broken home in the mountains of northeast Georgia and played fifteen Major League seasons with the Cardinals, Yankees, and New York Giants, winning five World Series titles with the Yankees and being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981"--

Rescued in 2010 from the small creek that runs next to Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York, a simple baseball launched an epic quest that spanned the United States and beyond. For eight years, "The Hall Ball" went on a journey to have its picture taken with every member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, both living and deceased. The goal? To enshrine the first crowd-sourced artifact ever donated to the Hall. Part travelogue, part baseball history, part photo journal, this book tells the full story for the first time. The narratives that accompany the ball's odyssey are as funny and moving as any in the history of the game.

The early Deadball Era featured landmark achievements, great performances by several of baseball's immortals, and a delightful array of characters. John McGraw won his first pennant as a manager and repeated the feat the following year with the team he later called his greatest. His Giants were praised for their playing ability and criticized for their rowdy behavior. Meanwhile the Cubs were putting together the greatest team in franchise history, emphasizing speed on the bases, solid defense and outstanding pitching. Jack Chesbro won 41 games in 1904 by employing a new pitch--the spitball. Other pitchers began using it, accelerating the trend toward lower batting averages. The White Sox entered baseball lore as the "Hitless Wonders," winning the 1906 pennant through adroit use of "scientific baseball" tactics.

Professional baseball took root in America in the 1860s during the same years that the sons of the first wave of Irish famine refugees began to reach adulthood, and the Irish quickly demonstrated a special affinity for baseball. This is a survey of the enormous contribution of the Irish to the American pastime and the ways in which Irish immigrants and baseball came of age together. Chapters cover Irish immigrants in Boston; the Chicago White Stockings; the Shamrocks, Trojans and Giants; Charlie Comiskey; Patsy Tebeau and the Hibernian Spiders; Ned Hanlon and the Orioles; Hugh Duffy and Tommy McCarthy, the “Heavenly Twins”; umpires; John McGraw; “Wild Bill” Donovan, Patrick Joseph “Whiskey Face” Moran, and Connie Mack; the Red Sox and the Royal Rooters; and more.

Baseball player and manager Hugh Ambrose Jennings was the kind of colorful personality who inspired nicknames. Sportswriters called him “Ee-yah” for his famous coaching box cry and “Hustling Hughey” for his style of play. But to the nearly 100 other men from northeast Pennsylvania who followed Jennings from the coal mines to the major leagues, he was known as “Big Daddy,” not for his physical stature but for his iconic status to men desperate to escape the mines. The son of an immigrant coal miner from Pittston, Pennsylvania, Jennings himself became a miner at the ripe old age of 11 or 12. He eventually became a mule driver, earning $1.10 per day and dreaming of getting $5 per day for playing baseball on Saturday afternoons. From the rough-and-tumble world of semi-pro baseball to the major leagues, Jennings was driven to succeed and fearless in his pursuit of his dream. He joined the Baltimore Orioles in 1894 and went on to become manager of the Detroit Tigers during Ty Cobb’s heyday. Jennings’ story is emblematic of how the national pastime and the American dream came together for a generation of ballplayers in the early 20th century.