Classic Baseball Stories : Twenty-Two Legendary Stories from the Diamond

by Silverman, Jeff

• ISBN13: 9781585747634
• ISBN10: 1585747637
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-01
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

Before multimillion-dollar salaries, luxury boxes, and player strikes became synonymous with professional sports, there existed the belief in playing simply "for the love of the game." Nothing captures that spirit better than these twenty classic pieces about America's favorite pastime. Collected here are the writings of Ring Lardner, Zane Grey, the Giants' immortal Christy Mathewson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Finley Peter Dunne (who for a time was America's most popular humorist after Mark Twain), Burt Standish (creator of that all-American hero, Frank Merriwell), and many more. Baseball's golden era may have long since passed, but in the pages of CLASSIC BASEBALL STORIES, you can still sit in the bleachers for a nickel. Relive the golden era of baseball with timeless classics from: Albert G. Spalding Henry Chadwick Ernest Lawrence Thayer Grantland Rice Sol White Brig. Gen. Fredrick Funston Zane Grey Candy Cummings Alfred H. Spink Burt L. Standish Lester Chadwick Finley Peter Dunne Christy Mathewson Damon Runyon Grover Cleveland Alexander Gerald Beaumont Ring Lardner Hugh Fullerton Ralph D. Blanpied Charles E. Van Loan P.G. Wodehouse

Author Biography

JEFF SILVERMAN, a former columnist for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, has written for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and several national magazines. He is also editor of The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told (page 206), Lardner on Baseball (page 15), The Greatest Golf Stories Ever Told (page 206), Classic Golf Stories (page 170), Bernard Darwin on Golf (page 21), and The Greatest Boxing Stories Ever Told (page 206). He lives with his family in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
Why Base Ball Has Become Our National Game	1	(12)
Albert G. Spalding
The Model Base Ball Player	13	(4)
Henry Chadwick
Casey at the Bat	17	(6)
Ernest Lawrence Thayer
Casey's Revenge	23	(6)
Grantland Rice
The Color Line	29	(8)
Sol White
A Whale of a Pastime	37	(8)
Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston
The Rube's Honeymoon	45	(24)
Zane Grey
How I Pitched the First Curve	69	(6)
Candy Cummings
Discovering Cy Young	75	(6)
Alfred H. Spink
Varsity Frank	81	(16)
Burt L. Standish
Baseball Joe's Winning Throw	97	(14)
Lester Chadwick
Mr. Dooley on Baseball	111	(6)
Finley Peter Dunne
Jinxes and What They Mean to a Ball-Player	117	(22)
Christy Mathewson
One Down, 713 to Go	139	(6)
Damon Runyon
How I Lost the 1915 World Series	145	(10)
Grover Cleveland Alexander
The Crab	155	(26)
Gerald Beaumont
My Roomy	181	(36)
Ring Lardner
The Longest Game	217	(6)
Ralph D. Blanpied
Fullerton Says Seven Members of the White Sox Will Be Missing Next Spring	223	(4)
Hugh S. Fullerton
His Own Stuff	227	(36)
Charles E. Van Loan
The Pitcher and the Plutocrat	263	(22)
P. G. Wodehouse
The Slide of Paul Revere	285	(4)
Grantland Rice
Sources	289