Hal Chase

Author : Martin Donell Kohout
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 348 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2017-07-06
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9780786450435

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Hal Chase by Martin Donell Kohout Pdf

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.

Author : Charles Fountain
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 317 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : History
ISBN : 9780199795130

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The Betrayal by Charles Fountain Pdf

In the most famous scandal of sports history, eight Chicago White Sox players--including Shoeless Joe Jackson--agreed to throw the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for the promise of $20,000 each from gamblers reportedly working for New York mobster Arnold Rothstein. Heavily favored, Chicago lost the Series five games to three. Although rumors of a fix flew while the series was being played, they were largely disregarded by players and the public at large. It wasn't until a year later that a general investigation into baseball gambling reopened the case, and a nationwide scandal emerged. In this book, Charles Fountain offers a full and engaging history of one of baseball's true moments of crisis and hand-wringing, and shows how the scandal changed the way American baseball was both managed and perceived. After an extensive investigation and a trial that became a national morality play, the jury returned not-guilty verdicts for all of the White Sox players in August of 1921. The following day, Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, baseball's new commissioner, "regardless of the verdicts of juries," banned the eight players for life. And thus the Black Sox entered into American mythology. Guilty or innocent? Guilty and innocent? The country wasn't sure in 1921, and as Fountain shows, we still aren't sure today. But we are continually pulled to the story, because so much of modern sport, and our attitude towards it, springs from the scandal. Fountain traces the Black Sox story from its roots in the gambling culture that pervaded the game in the years surrounding World War I, through the confusing events of the 1919 World Series itself, to the noisy aftermath and trial, and illuminates the moment as baseball's tipping point. Despite the clumsy unfolding of the scandal and trial and the callous treatment of the players involved, the Black Sox saga was a cleansing moment for the sport. It launched the age of the baseball commissioner, as baseball owners hired Landis and surrendered to him the control of their game. Fountain shows how sweeping changes in 1920s triggered by the scandal moved baseball away from its association with gamblers and fixers, and details how American's attitude toward the pastime shifted as they entered into "The Golden Age of Sport." Situating the Black Sox events in the context of later scandals, including those involving Reds manager and player Pete Rose, and the ongoing use of steroids in the game up through the present, Fountain illuminates America's near century-long fascination with the story, and its continuing relevance today.

Author : Chris Goode
Publisher : Lulu.com
Page : 392 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2009-10-14
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9780557087600

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California Baseball: from the Pioneers to the Glory Years by Chris Goode Pdf

Beginning in the 1890s, the book examines the personalities, schools, teams, managers, and owners that helped shape baseball in California. It provides an insightful history of the game from the perspective of the California minor leagues, particularly the California League and Pacific Coast League. While focusing on the lives of a select group of pioneers integral to the sport in the Golden State, it reveals a representative and interesting sample of the achievements, events, and contributions spanning a half-century. Frank Chance, Walter Johnson, Hal Chase, Mike Donlin, Charlie Graham, Hap Hogan, Hen Berry, and Cy Moreing lead teams including Santa Clara College, St. Mary's, the Los Angeles Angels, Stockton Millers, San Jose Prune Pickers, Vernon Tigers, Santa Cruz Sand Crabs, Oakland Oaks, and San Francisco Seals. We begin in San Francisco in 1897 at the genesis of professional baseball in California ' at the San Francisco Examiner Baseball Tournament.

Author : Donald Dewey,Nicholas Acocella
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 456 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2016-05-01
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780803299665

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The Black Prince of Baseball by Donald Dewey,Nicholas Acocella Pdf

As America lurched into the twentieth century, its national pastime was afflicted with the same moral malaise that was enveloping the rest of the nation. Players regularly bet on games, games were routinely fixed, and league politics were as dirty as the base paths. Against this backdrop, Hal Chase emerged as one of the game's greatest players and also as one of its most scandalous characters. With charisma and bravado that earned him the nickname The Prince, Chase charmed his way across America, spinning lies in the afternoon, dealing high-stakes poker at night, and gambling with beautiful women until dawn. Most notoriously of all, he undermined his stature as the era's greatest first baseman by conniving with gamblers to fix games and draw teammates into his diamond conspiracies. But as Donald Dewey and Nicholas Acocella reveal in their groundbreaking biography, The Black Prince of Baseball, Chase was also a scapegoat for baseball notables with hands even dirtier than his. These included league officials who ignored facts in an attempt to pin the 1919 Black Sox scandal on him and--a previously unknown twist--the fabled John McGraw, who perjured himself on a witness stand against the first baseman. Although Chase, contrary to popular belief, was never banned from the major leagues, meticulous research by the authors implicates him in other shady enterprises as well, not least an attempt to blackmail revivalist Aimee Semple McPherson. As The Black Prince of Baseball makes clear, in his protean talents and larcenies, Hal Chase personified all the excesses of Ragtime.

Author : Bill James
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 1026 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2010-05-11
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9781439106938

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The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract by Bill James Pdf

When Bill James published his original Historical Baseball Abstract in 1985, he produced an immediate classic, hailed by the Chicago Tribune as the “holy book of baseball.” Now, baseball's beloved “Sultan of Stats” (The Boston Globe) is back with a fully revised and updated edition for the new millennium. Like the original, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is really several books in one. The Game provides a century's worth of American baseball history, told one decade at a time, with energetic facts and figures about How, Where, and by Whom the game was played. In The Players, you'll find listings of the top 100 players at each position in the major leagues, along with James's signature stats-based ratings method called “Win Shares,” a way of quantifying individual performance and calculating the offensive and defensive contributions of catchers, pitchers, infielders, and outfielders. And there's more: the Reference section covers Win Shares for each season and each player, and even offers a Win Share team comparison. A must-have for baseball fans and historians alike, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is as essential, entertaining, and enlightening as the sport itself.

Author : L.M. Sutter
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2014-01-10
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9780786456307

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New Mexico Baseball by L.M. Sutter Pdf

This work traces New Mexican baseball from its beginnings in the West of Billy the Kid and Geronimo to today's modern game. Set against the background of the state's remarkable beauty and many cultures are stories of teams of miners, Native Americans, Hispanos, bomber pilots, outlawed major leaguers, prisoners, record setters and others. From the territory's earliest base ballists to today's AAA Albuquerque Isotopes, baseball has flourished on the high desert diamonds of the 47th state.

Author : Rick Huhn
Publisher : University of Missouri Press
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2004-11-22
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780826215550

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The Sizzler by Rick Huhn Pdf

Annotation "Gorgeous George" Sisler, a left-handed first baseman, has faded from baseball's collective consciousness. Rick Huhn presents the story of one of baseball's least appreciated players and studies why his status became so diminished.

Author : David George Surdam
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 405 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9781496205711

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The Age of Ruth and Landis by David George Surdam Pdf

As the 1919 World Series scandal simmered throughout the 1920 season, tight pennant races drove attendance to new peaks and presaged a decade of general prosperity for baseball. Babe Ruth shattered his own home-run record and, buoyed by a booming economy, professional sports enjoyed what sportswriters termed a "Golden Age of Sports." Throughout the tumultuous 1920s, Major League Baseball remained a mixture of competition and cooperation. Teams could improve by player trades, buying Minor League stars, or signing untried youths. Players and owners had their usual contentious relationship, with owners maintaining considerable control over their players. Owners adjusted the game so that the 1920s witnessed a surge in slugging and a diminution in base stealing, and they provided a better ballpark experience by both improving their stadiums and minimizing disruptions by rowdy fans. However, they hesitated to adapt to new technologies such as radio, electrical lighting, and air travel. The Major Leagues remained an enclave for white people, while African Americans toiled in the newly established Negro Leagues, where salaries and profits were skimpy. By analyzing the economic and financial aspects of Major League Baseball, The Age of Ruth and Landis shows how baseball during the 1920s experienced both strife and prosperity, innovation and conservatism. With figures such as the incomparable Babe Ruth, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Rogers Hornsby, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Tris Speaker, and Eddie Collins, the decade featured an exciting brand of livelier baseball, new stadiums, and overall stability.

Author : The New York Times,
Publisher : Black Dog & Leventhal
Page : 544 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2017-04-04
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9780316553292

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New York Times Story of the Yankees by The New York Times, Pdf

There has never been a team like the New York Yankees. No team has won as many World Series titles. No team has hit as many home runs. No team has had as many great superstars playing for them: Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Berra, Ford, Rivera, and Jeter to name a few. No team draws as many fans--and enemies--as the Yankees. The New York Times Story of the Yankees includes more than 350 articles chronicling the team's most famous milestones-as well as the best writing about the ball club. Each article is hand-selected from The Times by the peerless sportswriter Dave Anderson, creating the most complete and compelling history to date about the Yankees. Organized by era, the book covers the biggest stories and events in Yankee history, such as the purchase of Babe Ruth, Roger Maris's 61st home run, and David Cone's perfect game. It chronicles the team's 27 World Series championships and 40 American League pennants; its rivalries with the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox; controversial owners, players, and managers; and more. The articles span the years from 1903-when the team was known as the New York Highlanders-to the present, and include stories from well-known and beloved Times reporters such as Arthur Daley, John Kieran, Leonard Koppett, Red Smith, Tyler Kepner, Ira Berkow, Richard Sandomir, Jim Roach, and George Vecsey. This up-to-date, paperback edition, which includes Derek Jeter's last season and Yogi Berra's obituary, is illustrated with hundreds of black-and-white photographs that capture every era. A foreword by die-hard Yankees fan, Alec Baldwin, completes the celebration of baseball's greatest team.

Author : Chris Ivy
Publisher : Heritage Capital Corporation
Page : 630 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2010-03
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1599674416

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Heritage Auctions Sport Collectibles Auction Catalog #717, Dallas, TX by Chris Ivy Pdf

Author : Dom Amore
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2018-07-03
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9781613219485

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A Franchise on the Rise by Dom Amore Pdf

2018 marks 115 years since the inception of the New York Yankees--and what a 115-year period it's been! But how did the team that has since won a league-leading 27 world championships get started? In A Franchise on the Rise, veteran sportswriter Dom Amore takes readers back in time to the first twenty years of the team's existence, from 1903 to 1923, focusing on all the major players and events, including their first ten years as the Highlanders, their move to Yankee Stadium, and their subsequent first World Series in 1923. In doing so, Amore successfully finds the characters' own voices and thereby vividly reconstructs events of more than a century ago. He recounts the snowy night Honus Wagner was offered twenty crisp $1,000 bills to join the new franchise in New York; the story behind the holes punched in the outfield fence that facilitated the stealing of signs in 1909; and why the team thought it may have had the next big superstar in a college football end named George Halas. This is a tale about the business of baseball as it was done at the time and, in many ways, as it still must be done. There was no secret to building a winning organization. It took money and luck, but it also took a group of people working as a team, each allowed to do his job and each doing it superbly.

Author : Steven A. Riess
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 1999-07-26
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0252067754

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Touching Base by Steven A. Riess Pdf

Discusses the ideology of baseball, professional baseball and urban politics, politics, ballparks, and the neighborhoods, social reform, and baseball as a source of social mobility.

Author : Lee Allen
Publisher : Kent State University Press
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 0873388860

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The Cincinnati Reds by Lee Allen Pdf

First published in 1948, Lee Allen's history of the Reds, like Franklin Lewis's history of the Cleveland Indians, was originally published by G. P. Putnam's Sons. Allen narrates the historic organization's success, beginning shortly after the Civil War with baseball's rising popularity among Cincinnati's elite. Eventually, as interest increased, America's first professional baseball team was established in 1868 - Cincinnati's Red Stockings. The Cincinnati Reds chronicles each season from the organization's early years, most notably the 1882 American Association pennant and the 1919 and 1940 National League pennants, and World Series championships, including the infamous Chicago White Sox scandal. Allen retells many of the early Reds stories likely forgotten or unknown by today's fans. This book is as thorough as it is absorbing, and will be enjoyed by those interested in the early days of America's favourite passtime.

Author : Jim Leeke
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2024-02
Category : History
ISBN : 9781640126121

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The Gas and Flame Men by Jim Leeke Pdf

When the United States officially entered World War I in 1917, it was woefully underprepared for chemical warfare, in which the British, French, and Germans had been engaged since 1915. In response, the U.S. Army created an entirely new branch: the Chemical Warfare Service. The army turned to trained chemists and engineers to lead the charge—and called on an array of others, including baseball players, to fill out the ranks. The Gas and Flame Men is the first full account of Major League ballplayers who served in the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I. Four players, two club executives, and a manager served in the small and hastily formed branch, six of them as gas officers. Remarkably, five of the seven—Christy Mathewson, Branch Rickey, Ty Cobb, George Sisler, and Eppa “Jeptha” Rixey—are now enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. The son of a sixth Hall of Famer, player and manager Ned Hanlon, was a young officer killed in action in France with the First Gas Regiment. Prominent chemical soldiers also included veteran Major League catcher and future manager George “Gabby” Street and Boston Braves president and former Harvard football coach Percy D. Haughton. The Gas and Flame Men explores how these famous baseball men, along with an eclectic mix of polo players, collegiate baseball and football stars, professors, architects, and prominent social figures all came together in the Chemical Warfare Service. Jim Leeke examines their service and its long-term effects on their physical and mental health—and on Major League Baseball and the world of sports. The Gas and Flame Men also addresses historical inaccuracies and misperceptions surrounding Christy Mathewson’s early death from tuberculosis in 1925, long attributed to wartime gas exposure.

Author : Kevin Nelson
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 456 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2015-07-01
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9780803284258

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The Golden Game by Kevin Nelson Pdf

The Golden Game presents in words and pictures 150 years of baseball history, from sandlot ball in the 1850s and the Pacific Coast League to the western arrival of the Dodgers, Giants, Angels, Athletics, and Padres. Here is a stirring, colorfully written narrative about the state that has been the birthplace and proving ground for more Major Leaguers than any other, including Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and Jackie Robinson. Blending U.S. and California history as a backdrop to a narrative rich with anecdotes, The Golden Game reveals the significant impact that California has had on baseball history. Written not just for Californians but for all baseball fans, The Golden Game goes beyond its geographic boundaries to tell the fascinating saga of California baseball and how it has indelibly shaped the national pastime.