Everything seemed to be going the Phillies' way. Up by 6 1/2 games with just 12 left to play in the 1964 season, they appeared to have clinched their first pennant in more than a decade. Outfielder Johnny Callison narrowly missed being the National League MVP. Third baseman Richie Allen was Rookie of the Year. But the "Fightin' Phils" didn't make it to the postseason--they lost 10 straight and finished a game behind the St. Louis Cardinals. Besides engineering the greatest collapse of any team in major league baseball history, the '64 Phillies had another, more important distinction: they...
Everything seemed to be going the Phillies' way. Up by 6 1/2 games with just 12 left to play in the 1964 season, they appeared to have clinched the...
Charles Albert Bender was one of baseball's most talented pitchers. By the end of his major league career in 1925, he had accrued 212 wins and more than 1,700 strikeouts, and in 1953, he became the first American Indian elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. But as a high-profile Chippewa Indian in a bigoted society, Bender knew firsthand the trauma of racism. In Money Pitcher: Chief Bender and the Tragedy of Indian Assimilation, William C. Kashatus offers the first biography of this compelling and complex figure.
Bender's career in baseball began on the sandlots of...
Charles Albert Bender was one of baseball's most talented pitchers. By the end of his major league career in 1925, he had accrued 212 wins and more...
Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played stood for decades until Cal Ripken Jr. broke it in 1995. Most people remember Gehrig for this record, or for the disease that claimed his life (and now bears his name). But what many forget is how prolific a hitter he was. The son of German immigrants, Gehrig rose from inauspicious beginnings to become a scholar-athlete at Columbia University, and then moved to Major League Baseball, where he knocked in almost 2,000 runs and helped his team win six world championships. William Kashatus recounts the perserverance and poise of a life which...
Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played stood for decades until Cal Ripken Jr. broke it in 1995. Most people remember Gehrig for this reco...
Michael Jack Schmidt, in the minds of many the greatest third baseman of all time, was a Philadelphia institution. From 1973 to 1989 he led the Phillies to five National League championship series and two World Series. Twelve times an All-Star, Schmidt was perhaps baseball's premier power hitter during the 1970s and 1980s. His 548 home runs are seventh best all-time. In the field he was just as exceptional, winning ten Gold Gloves, more than any other third baseman besides Brooks Robinson. A three-time N.L. Most Valuable Player (1980, 1981 and 1986), Schmidt was elected to the Baseball Hall...
Michael Jack Schmidt, in the minds of many the greatest third baseman of all time, was a Philadelphia institution. From 1973 to 1989 he led the Philli...
This work explores the childhood, and minor and major league experiences of 21 players, managers, and umpires who exemplify the great talent, dedication, humility, and hardship that many northeastern Pennsylvanians experienced.
This work explores the childhood, and minor and major league experiences of 21 players, managers, and umpires who exemplify the great talent, dedicati...
It has been said that Connie Mack managed only two kinds of teams during his half-century in the City of Brother Love--unbeatable and lousy. His teams collected nine pennants and five World Series titles, balanced by 17 last place finishes. While Mack, an enterprising businessman, had a gift for discovering talented players and molding them into a team, by the time he was well into his sixties, Philadelphians suspected that the A's skipper had lost his ability. Mack went on to disprove all doubts, however, with a second championship dynasty in 1929 that vindicated the "Tall Tactician." This...
It has been said that Connie Mack managed only two kinds of teams during his half-century in the City of Brother Love--unbeatable and lousy. His teams...
Located just over the Mason-Dixon line dividing free and slave states, Chester County was an important and dangerous junction on the Underground Railroad's Eastern Line. Predominantly populated by the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, the county saw much debate and conflict brought about by the terrible risk involved in this radical and subversive activity. While traditionally Quakers have been believed to be very cooperative in the enterprise of conducting runaways in their flight to freedom, the analysis offered here by William C. Kashatus shows that it was not that simple. For...
Located just over the Mason-Dixon line dividing free and slave states, Chester County was an important and dangerous junction on the Underground Ra...
Daniel J. Flood was among the last of the old-time movers and shakers on Capitol Hill. A flamboyant vaudevillian who became a Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, he was a sight on the House floor, sporting white linen suits, silk top hats, and dark, flowing capes. Flood presented his addresses and arguments with the overly precise and clipped accent of an old-fashioned stage actor, and he reveled in the attention he attracted for every performance.
At the same time, "Dapper Dan" understood the complexities of the old power politics and played the legislative game with sheer...
Daniel J. Flood was among the last of the old-time movers and shakers on Capitol Hill. A flamboyant vaudevillian who became a Democratic congressma...
In this book the author captures all the familiar figures and symbols of Philadelphia's rich eighteenth-century past as well as the drama of American history's greatest scenes, from the clandestine meetings of the Second Continental Congress to the drafting of the United States Constitution, to the final days of Philadelphia's prestigious role as the nation's capital. The author's experience as an historical interpreter of Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, enables him to take the reader into the Congress to hear the stirring debates over American independence, into the...
In this book the author captures all the familiar figures and symbols of Philadelphia's rich eighteenth-century past as well as the drama of American ...
