Running Reds

The era of free agency in Major League Baseball ensured that it would be difficult to keep star teams together year after year. The 1976 Cincinnati Reds were one of the last to be considered a “dynasty,” and this book documents the season of one of the greatest teams in baseball history. During the pursuit of a second-straight world championship in 1976, the “Big Red Machine” was fueled by all-time hits leader Pete Rose, slugger George Foster, and all-stars Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan, as well as a balanced pitching staff that had seven players notching double-digit win totals. The 102-win regular season ended with a World Series sweep of the New York Yankees.

The author, John Sandham, uses his personal knowledge and experiences from working in Central America during the 'Cold War' to create this fast moving action suspense novel for adults. The story starts just before the Falklands War in April 1982, with Margaret Thatcher requesting support from Ronald Reagan to enable victory in the South Atlantic. The story soon moves on to the civil war raging in Guatemala, Central America. It was the height of the 'Cold War'. Reagan's US Adminisation was secretly working with President Ríos Montt to eradicate communism, while the USSR backed Cuban government militarily and financially supported the communist rebels, known locally as 'the reds'. Danny Sinclaire was a tough, resilient, but ordinary Royal Air Force engineer based at Airport Camp in Belize, where he looked after ground support equipment, as part of the British protection force. He is soon plunged into a dangerous situation on the border, not of his making, which leaves him, and his team in grave danger with very few options. Carlos Cruz, a lieutenant in the Guatemalan army, is intent on clearing all communist rebels, known to him as 'the reds', from his patch of the Guatemalan Jungle. He has a highly trained platoon of 40 soldiers under his command, whose job is to find and destroy all the rebel held villages in Northern Guatemala. Sisasi, a brave and determined Guatemalan schoolteacher finds herself unintentionally caught up in the civil war. A terrifying life or death ordeal starts, and escape is her only option. The British, Guatemalan, and rebel forces clash in no-mans-land on the border.

Why is the American working class different? For generations, scholars and activists alike have wrestled with this question, with an eye to explaining why workers in the United States are not more like their radicalized European counterparts. Approaching the question from a different angle, Reds or Rackets? provides a fascinating examination of the American labor movement from the inside out, as it were, by analyzing the divergent sources of radicalism and conservatism within it. Kimeldorf focuses on the political contrast between East and West Coast longshoremen from World War I through the early years of the Cold War, when the difference between the two unions was greatest. He explores the politics of the West Coast union that developed into a hot bed of working class insurgency and contrasts it with the conservative and racket-ridden East Coast longshoreman's union. Two unions, based in the same industry—as different as night and day. The question posed by Kimeldorf is, why? Why "reds" on one coast and racketeers on the other? To answer this question Kimeldorf provides a systematic comparison of the two unions, illuminating the political consequences of occupational recruitment, industry structure, mobilization strategies, and industrial conflict during this period. In doing so, Reds orRackets? sheds new light on the structural and historical bases of radical and conservative unionism. More than a comparative study of two unions, Reds or Rackets? is an exploration of the dynamics of trade unionism, sources of membership loyalty, and neglected aspects of working class consciousness. It is an incisive and valuable study that will appeal to historians, social scientists, and anyone interested in understanding the political trajectory of twentieth-century American labor.

 The Cincinnati Reds are recognized as one of the great teams in baseball history. Left fielder George Foster, an integral part of the Reds’ back-to-back 1975 and 1976 World Championships, has never received proper credit for his contribution to their legacy. In 1977, Foster became the most feared slugger in the National League, batting .320, with 52 home runs and 149 runs batted in to win the NL MVP Award, establishing a new single-season home run record for the Reds’ franchise that still stands. Yet Foster’s big year was not enough to stem the emergence of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who roared out of the gate and ran away with the NL West Division pennant. This book tells the story of Foster’s record-setting season and puts his pre-steroid era achievements in their proper perspective. The author chronicles the subsequent decline of the Big Red Machine and the rest of Foster’s big league career.

In this provocative and eye-opening classic of investigative journalism, the #1 New York Times bestselling author and “America’s best true-crime writer” (Kirkus Reviews), Ann Rule, explores the nearly twenty-year long search for America’s most prolific and horrifying serial killer. In 1982, the body of Wendy Coffield is discovered floating near the sandy shore of Washington’s Green River. Authorities have no idea that this tragic and violent death is only the beginning of a string of murders that will rock and terrify the Seattle area for two decades. With her signature riveting prose and in-depth research, Ann Rule takes us behind the scenes of the search for the Green River Killer, a terrifying specter who ritualistically killed young women and eluded authorities for years. From seeking the help of incarcerated serial killer Ted Bundy to Ann Rule’s horrifying realization that the killer she was writing about had attended her book signings, Green River, Running Red is the suspenseful and unforgettable “definitive narrative of the brutal and senseless crimes that haunted the Seattle area for decades” (Publishers Weekly).

They were a one-year wonder, but what a year. The 1990 Cincinnati Reds stunned the baseball world by winning the National League pennant and then sweeping the heavily favored Oakland A's in the World Series. The Reds held first place from game one through the end of the world championships -- becoming one of only three wire-to-wire champions in major league history. Surprisingly, the story of this colorful team has never been told before in a book. In conjunction with the 20th anniversary of this historic achievement, The Wire-to-Wire Reds brings back the memories with original interviews, more than one hundred photos, and riveting storytelling by award-winning Cincinnati Enquirer columnist John Erardi and blog-master Joel Luckhaupt. With a foreword by Hall of Fame Reds announcer Marty Brennaman, The Wire-to-Wire Reds is the ultimate keepsake for fans throughout Reds Country.