Baseball Names and How They Got That Way! Part XV (H)

The words and phrases are spoken and written day after day, year after year - generally without any wonderment as to how they became part of the language. All have a history, a story. For those of you who liked Part I, Part II, Part III, X and all the others and wanted more, here is more, just a sampling of the all the "G's out there. As always, reactions and suggestions always welcome

HACK WILSON A short, red-faced, gorilla-shaped man, Hack Wilson played for the Chicago Cubs from 1926 to 1931. In those years he was an American folk hero--the million-dollar slugger from the five- and ten-cent store. In those years he drove in more runs than any other player except for Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. He set National League records that still stand for the most home runs and most total bases in a season and the major league record for runs batted in. The stock market crashed in 1929, but the Li'l Round Man soared in 1930: he smashed 56 homers, drove in 190 runs, and batted .356.
The Cubs purchased Robert Lewis Wilson in 1926 from Toledo for $5,000. Dubbed Hackenschmidt, after a famous wrestler of the time, he ripped by day and nipped by night. The Hacker was called the poor man's Babe Ruth because of the $40,000 he earned in 1931--a salary second only to the Babe's. Wilson's batting trademarks were parallel knuckles on a no nub bat handle, and a booming voice that declared when rival players taunted him, "Let 'em yowl. I used to be a boilermaker and noise doesn't bother me." In 1932 Hack became a Brooklyn Dodger and finished out his career as a member of the so-called Daffiness Boys. It was a perfect climate for the man with so many nicknames, and with the Dodgers he was called the Hacker. With all his accomplishments, with all the verve he exhibited, with all the fame he had--Hack Wilson was not admitted to the Hall of Fame until 1979.

HAMMERIN' HANK Four times he led the American League in home run hitting. In 1938 he blasted 58--and no man had hit more in a season up to that point in time except Babe Ruth. His name was Henry Benjamin Greenberg, but he was better known as Hank Greenberg. He played a dozen years for the Detroit Tigers and finished his career in 1947 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Greenberg was admitted to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1956 (see GREENBERG GARDENS).

HAPPY JACK Former major league pitcher Jack Chesbro spent time before he hit the majors as an attendant at the state mental hospital in Middletown, New York where he pitched for the hospital team and showed off a very pleasant disposition.

THE HARMONICA INCIDENT Despite a string of four straight pennants, the Bronx Bombers were a bust throughout much of the 1964 season. Yogi Berra had succeeded Ralph Houk as skipper; there were reports that he got more laughs than lauds from his players. It was getting to be late August; the Yankees were in third place behind Baltimore and Chicago. The Yankees were on the team bus heading to O'Hare Airport on August 20, 1964, losers of four straight to the White Sox, winless in 10 of their last 15 games. A 5-0 shutout at the hands of Chicago's John Buzhardt had totally demoralized them.
Phil Linz, #34, reserve infielder, a career .235 hitter was a tough, aggressive player who loved being a Yankee. But he was regarded by some to be un-Yankee like along with teammates Joe Pepitone and Jim Bouton.
I sat in the back of the bus," Linz recalled. The bus was stuck in heavy traffic. It was a sticky humid Chicago summer day. "I was bored. I pulled out my harmonica. I had the Learner's Sheet for 'Mary Had a Little Lamb.' So I started fiddling. You blow in. You blow out."
An angry Berra snapped from the front of the bus: "Knock it off!" But Linz barely heard him. When asked what their manager had said, Mickey Mantle said, "Play it louder." Linz played louder.
Berra stormed to the back of the bus and told Linz to "shove that thing." "I told Yogi that I didn't lose that game," Linz related." Berra smacked the harmonica out of Linz's hands. The harmonica flew into Joe Pepitone's knee and Pepitone jokingly winced in pain. Soon the entire bus - except for Berra - was in stitches.
Another version has it that Linz flipped the harmonica at the angered Berra and screamed: "What are you getting on me for? I give a hundred per cent. Why don't you get on some of the guys who don't hustle?"
Linz was fined $200 - but as the story goes received $20,000 for an endorsement from a harmonica company. "The next day," Linz gives his version, "the Hohner Company called and I got a contract for $5,000 to endorse their harmonica. The whole thing became a big joke."
Actually, the whole thing changed things around for the Yankees. The summer of 1964 was Linz's most productive season. Injuries to Tony Kubek made the "supersub" a regular: Linz started the majority of the games down the stretch, and every World Series game at short. New respect for Yogi propelled the Yanks to a 22-6 record in September and a win in a close pennant race over the White Sox. A loss in the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games cost Berra his job. But there were those who said he was on his way out the day of the "Harmonica Incident."

HARRY THE HAT Harry William Walker of St. Louis Cardinal outfielding fame was in the habit of adjusting his baseball cap between pitches and annoying those around him.

HAWK Ken Harrelson baseball's "bad boy" in the 1960s and provided fans with a colorful character on and off the field. He wore long blond hair, love beads, bell-bottoms and Nehru jackets and his own "Hawk" medallion.

HESITATION PITCH A specialty of Leroy "Satchel" Paige, this pitch came out of a slow windup that had a hitch in it. The ball would came at the hitter at various speeds, causing problems in the timing of a swing and helping Satchel to win many games.

HIGHLANDERS The team began in 1901 as the Baltimore Orioles and then moved to New York in 1903. Originally called the Highlanders for its Hilltop Park location, in 1914, Jim Price of the New York Press is credited with coming up with a new name for the team - the New York Yankees.

HIGHPOCKETS George Kelly played for the New York Giants in the 1920s. A 6-4, 190-pound first baseman, he earned his main nickname for the way his uniform pants hung on his spindly build. He was also called "Long George" by the press, and "Kell" by teammates.

HIT 'EM WHERE THEY AIN'T William Henry Keeler played 19 years in the major leagues and finished his career with a .345 lifetime batting average. In 1897 Keeler batted an incredible .432. A reporter asked the diminutive batter, "Mr. Keeler, how can a man your size hit four-thirty-two?" The reply to that question has become a rallying cry for all kinds of baseball players in all types of leagues. "Simple," Keeler smiled, "I keep my eyes clear and I hit'em where they ain't."

HITLESS WONDERS The 1906 Chicago White Sox had a team batting average of .230, the most anemic of all the clubs in baseball that year. The team's pitching, however, more than made up for its lack of hitting. The White Sox staff recorded shutouts in 32 of the team's 93 victories. The "Hitless Wonders" copped the American League pennant and faced the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. The Cubs of 1906 are regarded as one of the greatest baseball teams of all time; they won 116 games that year, setting the all-time major league mark for victories in a season and for winning percentage. The White Sox continued their winning ways in the World Series, however, trimming their cross town rivals in six games.

HIYA KID! Babe Ruth had a great deal of difficulty in remembering names, and "Hiya Kid!" was his traditional greeting to make up for this shortcoming. However, he once was introduced to President Calvin Coolidge and improved on his traditional greeting by shouting, "Hiya Prez!"

HOLY COW Former New York Yankee broadcaster Phil Rizzuto was an exuberant and excitable individual. Some accused him of rooting for the home team, but most everyone admitted that the Scooter watched and described baseball through the eyes of a fan. The phrase associated with Rizzuto underscored his amazement at the happenings on a baseball field and is generally his "last word." (see SCOOTER, THE).

HOME RUN BAKER If there ever was a baseball player who became a legend because of a nickname, it had to be John Franklin Baker. Admitted to the Hall of Fame in 1955, he had a powerful image but not much in the way of home runs. Baker played 13 years and collected a grand total of 93 homers. His best homerun year was 1913, when he popped 12 round-trippers. Baker's lifetime home-run percentage was 1.6, as compared to Babe Ruth's 8.5, Hank Aaron's 6.3, and Rocky Colavito's 5.8. Powerful press agentry or key home runs in crucial situations have to be the explanations for Baker's nickname. His home-run hitting did not make him deserving of it.

But to be fair - -there were some moments: For his day he was a good home run hitter. In the Dead Ball Era, Baker led or tied for the league lead in homers four straight seasons (1911-14), including winning the home run title in 1913 with 12. In the 1911 World Series, he hit game-winning home runs on successive days against the Giants' future Hall of Fame pitchers Rube Marquard and Christy Mathewson

HOME RUN TWINS Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, phrase coined in 1961.

HOMESTEAED GRAYS Negro League team out of Pittsburgh that played many of its games in Washington in the 1930s and 1940s.

HOME WHITES Uniform worn by a team playing in its home ballpark.

HONDO HURRICANE, THE He was 6'5" and weighed 210 pounds. He came up from the minor leagues to the New York Giants in 1947 with a "can't miss" label. Clint Hartung batted .309 that first year and this meshed with his Hondo, Texas, birthplace to earn him his nickname. Unfortunately, the hurricane blew itself out. Hartung batted only .179 in 1948 and .190 in 1949. His major league career lasted but six years, and Hartung left with a .238 career batting average, just 14 big league homers and thoughts of what might have been.

HOOP A shortening of Harry Hooper's surname who with Duffy Lewis and Tris Speaker formed Boston's famous "Million-Dollar Outfield."

THE HOOSIER THUNDERBOLT Amos Rusie Played For Indianapolis Hoosiers (1889), New York Giants (1890-1895, 1897-1898), Cincinnati Reds (1901)

HORSE NOSE Given to catcher Pat Collins by Babe Ruth, a reference to a facial feature.

HORSEWHIPS Sam Jones earned this because of his sharp-breaking curve ball.


HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT On April 18, 1923 - that "The House That Ruth Built" opened for business. The New York Yankees' first home opponent was the Boston Red Sox. No one back then was bold enough to predict the fabulous and outstanding moments the future held in store for the brand new American League park.

The press release first announcing the new stadium indicated it would be shaped like the Yale Bowl and that it would contain towering battlements enclosing the entire park so that those lacking tickets would not even be able to get a glimpse of the action.

Built at a cost of $2.5 million, "The Yankee Stadium", as it was originally named, had a brick-lined vault with electronic equipment under second base, making it possible to have a boxing ring and press area on the infield. Yankee Stadium was the first ballpark to be called a stadium, the last privately financed major league park. It was a gigantic horseshoe shaped by triple-decked grandstands. Huge wooden bleachers circled the park. The 10,712 upper-grandstand seats and 14,543 lower grandstand seats were fixed in place by 135,000 individual steel castings on which 400,000 pieces of maple lumber were fastened by more than a million screws.

A massive crowd showed up for the proudest moment in the history of the South Bronx. Many in the huge assemblage wore heavy sweaters, coats and hats. Some sported dinner jackets. The announced attendance was 74,217, later changed to 60,000. More than 25,000 were turned away. They would linger outside in the cold listening to the sounds of music and the roar of the crowd inside the stadium. At game time, the temperature was a nippy 49 degrees. Wind whipped the two Yankee pennants and blew dust from the dirt road that led to the stadium. The dominant sound of the day was the march beat played by the Seventh Regiment Band, directed by John Phillip Sousa. Seated in the celebrity box were Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, New York State Governor Al Smith and Yankee owner Colonel Jacob Ruppert.

At 3:25 in the afternoon, Babe Ruth was presented with an oversized bat handsomely laid out in a glass case. At 3:30, Governor Smith threw out the first ball to Yankee catcher Wally Schang. At 3:35, home plate umpire Tommy Connolly bellowed: "Play ball!"
Babe Ruth said: "I'd give a year of my life if I can hit a home run in the first game in this new park". His wish and that of the tens of thousands in attendance came true. The Babe came to bat in the third inning. There were two Yankee base runners. Boston pitcher Howard Ehmke tried to fool Ruth with a slow pitch. The Sultan of Swat turned it into a fast pitch, hammering it on a line into the right-field bleachers. It was the first home run in Yankee Stadium history; Ruth got his wish.
The huge crowd was on its feet roaring as Ruth crossed the plate, removed his cap, extended it at arm's length in front of him, and waved to the ecstatic assemblage - witnesses to baseball history. The game played out into the lengthening afternoon shadows. "Sailor Bob" Shawkey, sporting a red sweatshirt under his jersey, pitched the Yankees to a 4-1 victory, making the first Opening Day at Yankee Stadium a matter of record.

THE HOOSIER THUNDERBOLT Hall of Fame Amos Rusie, out of Indiana, played For Indianapolis Hoosiers (1889), New York Giants (1890-1895, 1897-1898), Cincinnati Reds (1901). He paced the league in strikeouts five times passed the 300-strikeout mark three straight seasons.

HORSE COLLAR Describes a situation when a player gets no hits in a game.

HOT STOVE LEAGUE Winter-time baseball doings and gossip.


HUMAN VACUUM CLEANER Brooks Robinson made a name for himself with Baltimore as one of the top fielding third basemen of all time.

THE HUMAN RAIN DELAY Mike Hargrove, as a player, took a long time to bat, stepping in and out of the box to adjust stuff

HOW ABOUT THAT Former New York Yankee broadcaster Mel Allen must have uttered that phrase thousands of times in noting the spectacular fielding plays, long home runs, and superb pitching performances that he viewed during his long career. It was a phrase expressed in an excited Southern accent that almost made those who heard it want to respond to Allen and given their opinion of what he had described.

HOWDY DOODY Darrell Evans was called this or "Howdy" by his Braves' teammates because of his resemblance to Howdy Doody. The nicknames were encouraged by Atlanta team owner Ted Turner.


HURRICANE For Bob Hazle after the storm that hit the South Carolina coast in 1954. The Milwaukee Braves, locked in the 1957 pennant race, lost outfielder Bill Bruton to a knee injury. Hazle replaced him he responded to the chance. He joined the starting lineup on Aug. 4, 1957 helping the Braves win the pennant as he batted .403 over the end of that season.

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Harvey Frommer is in his 34th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 40 sports books including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his acclaimed REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work CELEBRATING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION is next.

FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.



Other Frommer sports related articles can be found at:

http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/excerpts/growing_up_baseball.stm

http://www.baseballsavvy.com/archive/w_pumpsie.html

http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/02/sports_frommer083002.htm

http://www.redsoxnation.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=15388&s=93d3ba714519f785d290b4305f62c42d

Harvey Frommer along with his wife, Myrna Katz Frommer are the authors of five critically acclaimed oral/cultural histories, professors at Dartmouth College, and travel writers who specialize in cultural history, food, wine, and Jewish history and heritage in the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean.

This Article is Copyright © 1995 - 2010 by Harvey Frommer. All rights reserved worldwide.

Dr. Harvey Frommer on Sports -- SPORTS BOOK REVIEW

“The Eastern Stars” and University of Nebraska Worthies and More
A book filled with wonderful stories. A book that explain the story behind a true baseball phenomenon. A book that is crafted and written with care and zeal by an informed and inspired writer. All of these things are what makes “Eastern Stars” by Mark Kurlansky (Riverhead Books, $25.95) a grand slam treat.

Kurlansky, best selling New York Times author, writer of much fiction and nonfiction about the Caribbean, spins this wondrous tale of the town San Pedro de Macoris and how its legendary baseball team the Eastern Stars changed it.

Part baseball, part travel piece, part Caribbean cultural history, part personal stories of such as Sammy Sosa, Julio Franco, Rico Carty, Tony Fernandez, Alfredo Griffin and others. It is the story of a town that gave by the year 2008 79 players from San Pedro de Macoris to the Major Leagues - -meaning that one in six Dominicans playing in the bigs came from the small town. This is just one of the fascinating themes of “The Eastern Stars,” a book that is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

From the University of Nebraska, an emporium of first class sports books, comes a worthy inventory appealing to all tastes and pocket books.

“Ed Barrow” by Daniel R. Levitt ($21.95,427 pages, paper ) is a page turning bio of the man who built the original and best New York Yankees dynasty.

For Red Sox fans especially there is “Joe Cronin” ($31.95, 382 pages). The book ably covers many facets and features of the ambitious Cronin’s time – player, player-manager, general manager, American League president. Well written and well worth owning.

“Rooney” by Rob Ruck, Maggie Jones Patterson and Michael P. Weber ($36.95, 641 pages) is an absorbing and very long account of Art “The Chief” Rooney, Sr. who truly is “Mr. Pittsburgh. Filled with incredible details, “Rooney” gets behind the man and the legend who founded the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1933.

“American Hoops” by Carson Cunningham is a 508 page look at U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball From Berlin to Beijing. With so much scope to this work, so many interesting nuggets of information, so much careful research – this is a must read especially for fans of the hoop game.

“Final Innings” compiled and edited by Dean A. Sullivan (Bison Books, $29.95, 344 pages, paper) is a documentary history of baseball 1972-2008. The book is a conclusion to the author’s four-volume documentary history. In essence, Sullivan carefully selected relevant stories from newspapers and periodicals and pieced them together in an engaging and informing narrative.

“Living Out of Bounds” by Steven J. Overman (Bison Books, $18.95, 227 pages, paper) is an insightful look at the everyday life of male athletes.

“Psychology Gets in the Game” edited by Christopher D. Green and Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr. (313 pages, paper) is a lengthy treatise via essays on the foundations on which modern sports psychology was created.

From the most intense and informed Philly fan around comes two books from Max Blue “God Is Alive and Playing Third Base for the Appleton Papermakers” (iuniverse, $29.95, 265 pages) and “Phillies Journal 1888-2008, Strategic, $19.95, 534 pages). Both are terrific tomes. The former is madcap, delicious escapist reading that has a little bit of everything and makes a lot of sense (at times). The latter is loaded with a thousand limericks and is chock full of Philly matter – stats, essays, trivia, musings. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for fans of the team and franchise.

“Roger Maris” by Tom Clavin and Danny Peary (Touchstone Books, $26.99, 422) is a workmanlike bio of what the book’s sub-title calls “baseball’s reluctant hero.” Many interviews and much effort expended.

BEST OF THE REST: Now out in paperback from Harper is George F Will’s classic “MEN AT WORK: The Craft of Baseball” ($14.99, 400 pages,) The book is required reading for all those with an interest in the national pastime. Page after page of well chosen and carefully crafted insights into the game of baseball. A MUST OWN!

“It’s What’s Inside the Lines That Counts” by Fay Vincent (Simon and Schuster, $25.00) is another terrific tome in the oral history project orchestrated by the former Baseball Commissioner. This one has baseball stars from the 1970s and 1980s talk and remember the way it was. Such as Tom Seaver, Willie McCovey, Ozzie Smith, Dick Williams are included in the book.

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Harvey Frommer is in his 34th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 41 sports books including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his acclaimed Remembering Yankee Stadium, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work CELEBRATING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION is next.
FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

Remembering Jackie Robinson - (From the Vault)

Lest we forget. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia on the last day of January in 1919 and died on October 24, 1972 in Stamford, Connecticut. Robinson attended UCLA, where he won letters in three sports.

He was in the Army during World War II and then played briefly in the Negro Leagues when the war ended. He was signed to a minor league contract with the Montreal Royals in 1946 by Branch Rickey, and the following year came up to the Brooklyn Dodgers and broke baseball's age-old color line on April 15, 1947.

He played in the major leagues for a decade. He won the inaugural Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949, and he helped the Dodgers win six pennants and one world championship.

Despite all the pressure he played under, he was still able to record a lifetime batting average of .311. His base-stealing ability and hustle won many games for the Dodgers. He set several records for fielding for second basemen.

His influence on sports is immeasurable. His breaking of baseball's color line against the greatest of odds is still one of the most dramatic stories in all of sports history. And there are those who still have special memories of the man and the legend. Here is how one from that time still remembers the great player Brooklyn Dodger fans called "Robby".

When school was out, I sometimes went with my father in his taxi. One summer morning, we were driving in East Flatbush in Brooklyn down Snyder Avenue. My father pointed to a dark red brick house with a high porch.

"I think Jackie Robinson lives there," my father said. He parked across the street and we got out of the cab, stood on the sidewalk and looked at the house. Suddenly, the front door opened. A black man in a short-sleeved shirt stepped out. I didn't believe it. Here we were on a quiet street on a summer morning with no one else around.

The man was not wearing the baggy, ice-cream-white-uniform of the Brooklyn Dodgers that accentuated his blackness. He was dressed in regular clothes, coming out of a regular house in a regular Brooklyn neighborhood, a guy like anyone else going out for a bottle of milk and a newspaper.

Then, incredibly, he crossed the street and came right toward me. Seeing that unmistakable pigeon-toed walk, the rock of the shoulders and hips that I had seen so many times before on the baseball field, I had no doubt who it was.

"Hi Jackie, I'm one of your biggest fans," I said self-consciously. "Do you think the Dodgers are going to win the pennant this year?"

"His handsome face looked sternly down at me. "We'll try our best," he said.

"Good luck," I said."

"Thanks," he replied."

He put his big hand out, and I took it. We shook hands and I felt the strength and firmness of his grip. I was a nervy kid, but I didn't ask for an autograph or try to prolong the conversation. I just he walked away down the street.

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Dr. Harvey Frommer is in his 34th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 40 sports books including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his acclaimed REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work CELEBRATING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION is next.

FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

“Bums” and “Dynasty” SPORTS BOOK REVIEW

Peter Golenbock is one of the most widely published and highly regarded sports authors in the business. I have read (and reviewed) most of the terrific tomes he has penned.

Now from Dover Publications comes “Bums” and “Dynasty” – two of the best the prolific Dartmouth alum has written. Both have new lives in attractive paperback formats. Both are sensibly priced at $19.95. Both merit a special place on your sports bookshelf.

“Bums,” 0riginally published in 1984, has a splendid preface by Paul Dickson and is a true page turner about a beloved team and a special era in baseball history. The Brooklyn Dodgers come back to life through Golenbock’s concise and incisive prose and oral histories conducted with such as Rachel Robinbson, Larry King, Roy Campanella, Carl Erskine, Roger Kahn, Clem Labine, Karl Spooner and many, many more.

The team the Dodgers of Brooklyn could never beat in the world series until 1955 – the New York Yankees – is given its due in “Dynasty,” originally published in 1975. The book’s focus is the Bronx Bombers of 1949-1964. We are there in the stirring chronological account with Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Whitey Fors, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Casey Stengel, Elston Howard, Billy Martin and more. We are there through the on field heroics and the off stage controversies.

I have written a great deal about both teams and about the time period that Peter Golenbock has covered. So I say with certainty that “Bums” and “Dynasty” are two gems that have only become more glistening, more appealing, more valuable through time.
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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Harvey Frommer is in his 34th consecutive year of writing sports books. "The prolific Frommer has a PhD in media and communications from New York University and his thesis focused on culture and sports." A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 40 sports books including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his acclaimed REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work CELEBRATING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION is next.
FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

UPCOMING RELEASE

Check out a sneak peak of Dr. Harvey Frommer's Upcoming Release.

The Book Review: “1921,” and much more ...

“1921” has one of the longest sub-titles - -“The Yankees, The Giants & the Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York” and two authors Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg and a foreword by Charles C. Alexander (University of Nebraska Press, $31.95, 515 pages). This is a book that carefully and cogently tells the narrative of the United States and big league baseball on the cusp of change. Its Babe Ruth vs. John J. McGraw and their respective teams and a very interesting season and much more.

The 1960 Pirates are the focus of “Kiss It Good-Bye” by John Moody (Shadow Mountain, $24.99, 372 pages, photos) is one of those peculiar books that comes along every once in a while – that blind sides you with its charm, relevance and appealing writing. The book re-lives the 50th anniversary season of the Bucs and their incredible victory over the vaunted New York Yankees. The author, just six years old then but a devoted fan of the team, writes in absorbing detail with new insights. Moody focuses on as the book’s sub-title proclaims: “The Mystery, the Mormon, and the Moral of the 1960 Pirates.” NOTABLE.

The ten greatest American sports rivalries of the 20th Century - - “Rivals” by Richard O. Davies (Wiley-Blackwell, $24.95, 280 pages, paper) is an academic look at the subject matter.
From Acta comes “Traded” by Doug Deatur, $19.95, 189 pages, paper). This trim tome is an explication and analysis of some of the most lop-sided trades in the history of baseball. There are lists of these trades by teams, in the 20th century, trading deadline deals and more. If you can find your way around the repetitious subject matter, there are lots of interesting nuggets.
“High Heat” by Tim Wendel (Da Capo Press, $25.00, 268 pages) is highly readable and slightly controversial probing as it does “the secret history of the fast ball and the improbable search for the fastest pitcher of all time.”

Unlike some of the current season’s crop of baseball books that are amateurish, repetitious, poorly conceived and edited, “High Heat” is a glistening gem.

Especially noteworthy (just half-kidding) is Wendel’s sagacious commentary in his acknowledgments: “Most athlete’s autobiographies are not much to write about. But I was struck by how candid “Throwing Heat,” (Nolan) Ryan’s autobiography with Harvey Frommer, was.”
For the golfers in the audience there is “Dream On” by John Richardson (Skyhorse Publishing, $23.95, 192 pages). This is a funny, dynamic, absorbing and inspirational story of how the author went from nowhere to somewhere, in less than a year, breaking par and playing the best round of his life. HIGHLY NOTABLE

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Dr. Harvey Frommer is in his 34th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 40 sports books including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his acclaimed REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work CELEBRATING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION is next.

DR. HARVEY FROMMER ON SPORTS (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.