Spitball n., an illegal pitch in which a foreign substance (spit or Vaseline) is applied to the ball by the pitcher before it is thrown.Dead ballera n., a time period during baseball, usually regarded as 1900-1919, when the game used a "dead" or almost soft ball during play. Usually, the same ball was used for the entire game.In 1911, when Bradley Hogg began his major-league pitching career for the National League's Boston Rustlers, baseball was a different game. Hogg played during a time known as the dead ball era, when a pitcher could...
Spitball n., an illegal pitch in which a foreign substance (spit or Vaseline) is applied to the ball by the pitcher before it is thro...
"Imagine that there was a time in America when a child sat next to a radio and simply listened. But didn t just listen, was enthralled and knew that this time was his alone, that he was part of the vortex of drama unfolding inside the radio s innards. . . . I never saw a punch thrown, or a glass shatter, or a blood-smeared shirt as I listened to the radio. Nor did I know Barbara Stanwyck s hairstyle as she overacted in "Sorry, Wrong Number "on the Lux Radio Theatre. And I had no idea how corpulent Happy Felton was as he dropped ten silver dollars that jangled into a Sheffield s Milk bottle...
"Imagine that there was a time in America when a child sat next to a radio and simply listened. But didn t just listen, was enthralled and knew tha...
Why should a particular game, played with a round ball by twenty-year-olds in short pants often hundreds of miles away, mean so much to me, since I seem to have so little to gain or lose by its outcome? Fred Hobson thus begins "Off the Rim, " his narrative of college basketball and society, of growing up and not growing up. He seeks the answer to this question by delving into the particulars of his own experience. Growing up in a small town in the hills of North Carolina where basketball was king, he became a rabid UNC basketball fan (like many others) at the tender age of thirteen during the...
Why should a particular game, played with a round ball by twenty-year-olds in short pants often hundreds of miles away, mean so much to me, since I se...
The St. Louis Baseball Reader is a tale of two teams: one the city's lovable losers, the other a formidable dynasty. The St. Louis Cardinals are the most successful franchise in National League history, while the St. Louis Browns were one of the least successful, yet most colorful, American League teams. Now Richard Peterson has collected the writings of some of baseball's greatest storytellers to pay tribute to both these teams. His book, the first anthology devoted exclusively to the Cardinals and Browns, covers the rich history of St. Louis baseball from its...
The St. Louis Baseball Reader is a tale of two teams: one the city's lovable losers, the other a formidable dynasty. The St. Loui...
1942: Americans suddenly found themselves at war but were not about to be distracted from the National Pastime. The Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees were looking to continue their World Series rivalry from the 1941 season, and a youthful team from St. Louis was determined to stop them. With only one player older than thirty, the St. Louis Cardinals were the youngest team to win the National League pennant and World Series. Built on good pitching and tremendous speed on the base paths and in the field, the team featured rookie Stan Musial, future Hall of Famer Enos...
1942: Americans suddenly found themselves at war but were not about to be distracted from the National Pastime. The Brooklyn Dodgers and New Yo...
Rather than as a Falstaffian figure of limited intellect, Edmund Wehrle reveals Babe Ruth as an ambitious, independent operator, one not afraid to challenge baseball's draconian labour system. This new perspective, approaching Ruth more seriously and placing his life in fuller context, is long overdue.
Rather than as a Falstaffian figure of limited intellect, Edmund Wehrle reveals Babe Ruth as an ambitious, independent operator, one not afraid to cha...