The Negro Southern League

The Negro Southern League
Author: William J. Plott
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2015-04-02
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1476617392

The Negro Southern League was a baseball minor league that operated off and on from 1920 to 1951. It served as a valuable feeder system to the Negro National League and the Negro American League. A number of NNL and NAL stars got their start in the NSL, among them five Hall of Famers including Satchel Paige and Willie Mays. During its history, more than 80 teams were members of the league, representing 40 cities in a dozen states. In the end only four teams remained, operating more as semipro than professional teams. This book is a narrative history of the league from its inception with eight teams in major Southern cities until its demise three decades later.

Baseball's Funnymen

Baseball's Funnymen
Author: Lew Freedman
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2017-01-05
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1476663580

From Nick Altrock to Casey Stengel, Dizzy Dean to Satchel Paige, Bill Veeck to Bob Uecker, baseball has always admired the clever. This book tells the stories of some of the players, coaches, managers and broadcasters who had the most fun in the Major Leagues and made fans laugh out loud (or shake their heads in disbelief). The author recounts tales both famous and little known that capture the character of unusual and offbeat players, unique and engaging personalities and the succession of eccentrics who were officially dubbed "Clown Prince of Baseball."

The Baseball Adventure of Jackie Mitchell, Girl Pitcher vs. Babe Ruth

The Baseball Adventure of Jackie Mitchell, Girl Pitcher vs. Babe Ruth
Author: Jean L. S. Patrick
Publisher: Graphic Universe ™
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0761371842

During the biggest game of her life . . . a girl pitches to the world’s best slugger. Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1931. Jackie Mitchell is a girl pitcher on a minor-league baseball team, the Chattanooga Lookouts. In her day, few women played sports. But her skill earned her a spot on a men’s team. When the New York Yankees come to town, Jackie must face Babe Ruth at the plate. Can she strike out one of the greatest players in baseball?

The Ultimate Minor League Baseball Road Trip

The Ultimate Minor League Baseball Road Trip
Author:
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 484
Release:
Genre: Baseball fields
ISBN: 9781599216270

An enthusiastic, irreverent, but exhaustive guidebook to all the stadiums of Minor League Baseball, following up on the success of the first Ultimate Baseball Road Trip book, which was dedicated to Major League stadiums.

Black Baseball's Last Team Standing

Black Baseball's Last Team Standing
Author: William J. Plott
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2019-07-25
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1476636036

 The Birmingham Black Barons were a nationally known team in baseball's Negro leagues from 1920 through 1962. Among its storied players were Hall of Famers Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, and Mule Suttles. The Black Barons played in the final Negro Leagues World Series in 1948 and were a major drawing card when barnstorming throughout the United States and parts of Canada. This book chronicles the team's history and presents the only comprehensive roster of the hundreds of men who wore the Black Barons uniform.

Black Baseball, 1858-1900

Black Baseball, 1858-1900
Author: James E. Brunson III
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 1402
Release: 2019-03-22
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1476616582

This is one of the most important baseball books to be published in a long time, taking a comprehensive look at black participation in the national pastime from 1858 through 1900. It provides team rosters and team histories, player biographies, a list of umpires and games they officiated and information on team managers and team secretaries. Well known organizations like the Washington's Mutuals, Philadelphia Pythians, Chicago Uniques, St. Louis Black Stockings, Cuban Giants and Chicago Unions are documented, as well as lesser known teams like the Wilmington Mutuals, Newton Black Stockings, San Francisco Enterprise, Dallas Black Stockings, Galveston Flyaways, Louisville Brotherhoods and Helena Pastimes. Player biographies trace their connections between teams across the country. Essays frame the biographies, discussing the social and cultural events that shaped black baseball. Waiters and barbers formed the earliest organized clubs and developed local, regional and national circuits. Some players belonged to both white and colored clubs, and some umpires officiated colored, white and interracial matches. High schools nurtured young players and transformed them into powerhouse teams, like Cincinnati's Vigilant Base Ball Club. A special essay covers visual representations of black baseball and the artists who created them, including colored artists of color who were also baseballists.

Hub Perdue

Hub Perdue
Author: John A. Simpson
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2013-10-23
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0786472251

A strong-armed devastating spitball pitcher from rural Tennessee who once won 16 games with the Boston Braves, Hub Perdue is better remembered today as one of the clown princes of the Deadball Era. Often compared with fellow player-comedians Germany Schaefer, Nick Altrock, and Rabbit Maranville, Perdue had a quick wit and a rebellious streak that amused teammates but sometimes led to conflicts with management and umpires. ("Mix 'em up!" manager George Stallings had told him, encouraging the weak-hitting pitcher to take his at-bats more seriously; Perdue, a right-hander, dutifully took his strikeouts from alternating sides of the plate.) His penchant for the subversive--he was also a players' union representative who freely dispensed advice on contracts and negotiation--might in fact have curtailed what had been a promising big league career. But his antics in the majors and minors became the stuff of legend, known as "Hublore."

101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out

101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out
Author: Josh Pahigian
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2015-02-10
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1493016474

A brand new edition of the finalist for the 2008 Casey Award, presented annually to the best baseball book, 101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out profiles America’s greatest baseball museums, shrines, sports bars, pop culture landmarks and ballpark sites. From sandlots and skyboxes to TV rooms and sports bars, America’s love for baseball has inspired countless memories, discussions, and tributes. Josh Pahigian takes us across America to explore the places where the game’s history, culture, and lore come to life. Whether we travel by car or sit in the comfort of our favorite armchair, the book guides us to 101 amazing baseball places—including Ted Williams’ boyhood home, the Field of Dreams movie site, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the Chicago bar where the Cubs’ “Curse of the Billy Goat” was born, Babe Ruth’s grave, and scores of other captivating landmarks and curios. Replacing the now-extinct sites from the previous edition, updating entries for attractions that have moved, re-assigning coveted chapters to more inspiring baseball venues that have since opened, and including stunning color photos for nearly all of them, Josh Pahigian has created the perfect gift for any baseball fan.

Never a Bad Game

Never a Bad Game
Author: Mark McCarter
Publisher:
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2020-09-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9781938532535

Fans of the Southern League have seen it all since the circuit was founded over 50 years ago: colorful characters, charming ballparks, and some of the best baseball players showing their potential. From Chipper Jones and Cal Ripken, Jr. to Michael Jordan and Jose Canseco, Mark McCarter has seen them all-and tells their stories with grace, humor, and style in Never a Bad Game: Fifty-Plus Years of the Southern League.The updated edition from McCarter, a four-time Alabama Sportswriter of the Year and four times the Southern League Writer of the Year, features his tales of the Southern League. From can't-miss prospects like Cal Ripken, Jr. and Jose Canseco to some of the most colorful players in the minors, like Joe Charboneau, Bo Jackson, Chipper Jones, and Derrek Lee, Never a Bad Game: Fifty-Plus Years of the Southern League is a fascinating account of the people who make baseball what it is. In Never a Bad Game: Fifty-Plus Years of the Southern League, you'll find entertaining tales about the likes of Jose Canseco, Charlie O. Finley, Jim Bouton, Michael Jordan, Cal Ripken, Jr., and the legendary Joe Charboneau. Mark McCarter is a former sports reporter and columnist who began covering the Southern League in 1976 for the Chattanooga News-Free Press. He is the author of Pandamonium: Engineering Pro Baseball's Return to the Rocket City, the story of the Rocket City Trash Pandas' arrival in north Alabama, to be published in the fall of 2020 by August Publications. A four-time Alabama Sportswriter of the Year and four times the Southern League Writer of the Year, he lives in Huntsville with his wife Patricia. He has been inducted into the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame and the Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame, a bittersweet honor when he learned it was for his writing-not for having led the Brainerd Dixie Youth League in home runs in 1966.

Baseball's Longest Games

Baseball's Longest Games
Author: Philip J. Lowry
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2010-04-23
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0786457341

Baseball is the only major team sport that doesn't feature a clock, and there's a familiar saying among fans that as long as outs remain, the game can, theoretically, go on forever. Every now and again, it nearly does, as author Phil Lowry demonstrates. The product of more than four decades of research, this book catalogs baseball games from around the world and throughout history that lasted 20 or more innings, stretched five or more hours, or ended after 1:00 am. Lowry also examines probability models to predict how often games of unusual length will occur.