Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark

Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark PDF Author: Allen Barra
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039307935X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
The extraordinary social history of Rickwood Field becomes the story of baseball itself, gloriously evoked for the centennial of America’s oldest ballpark. While America has changed dramatically over the last hundred years, Rickwood Field, the pride of Birmingham, Alabama, has remained fixed in time. Best-selling baseball writer Allen Barra journeyed to his native Alabama to capture the glories of a century of baseball lore. In chronicling the history of Rickwood Field, where the manually operated scoreboard still uses numbers painted on metal sheets, Barra also tells of segregated baseball, the vaunted Negro Leagues, and captures the ghosts of the players themselves, including Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Satchel Paige, and Willie Mays. Evoking such classics as Shoeless Joe and The Boys of Summer, Barra recalls not only a simpler, bygone era but also a city rife with racial tension and abject poverty, where a tattered ballpark was, and still is, a rare beacon of hope. Indeed, Barra skillfully convinces us that the histories of Rickwood Field, baseball, and the American south are inextricably bound together.

Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark

Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark PDF Author: Allen Barra
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039307935X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book Here

Book Description
The extraordinary social history of Rickwood Field becomes the story of baseball itself, gloriously evoked for the centennial of America’s oldest ballpark. While America has changed dramatically over the last hundred years, Rickwood Field, the pride of Birmingham, Alabama, has remained fixed in time. Best-selling baseball writer Allen Barra journeyed to his native Alabama to capture the glories of a century of baseball lore. In chronicling the history of Rickwood Field, where the manually operated scoreboard still uses numbers painted on metal sheets, Barra also tells of segregated baseball, the vaunted Negro Leagues, and captures the ghosts of the players themselves, including Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Satchel Paige, and Willie Mays. Evoking such classics as Shoeless Joe and The Boys of Summer, Barra recalls not only a simpler, bygone era but also a city rife with racial tension and abject poverty, where a tattered ballpark was, and still is, a rare beacon of hope. Indeed, Barra skillfully convinces us that the histories of Rickwood Field, baseball, and the American south are inextricably bound together.

Amazing Alabama: a Potpourri of Fascinating Facts, Tall Tales and Storied Stories

Amazing Alabama: a Potpourri of Fascinating Facts, Tall Tales and Storied Stories PDF Author: Joseph W. Lewis Jr. M.D.
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1665503394
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Amazing Alabama: A Potpourri of Fascinating Facts, Tall Tales and Storied Stories chronicles a brief history of the state, famous personages associated with Alabama, a discussion of state firsts, unique occurrences, antiquated laws and other fascinating topics.

Baseball State by State

Baseball State by State PDF Author: Chris Jensen
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786468955
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
Offering a fresh approach to the familiar concept of all-time baseball teams, this exhaustive work ranks more than 2,500 players by state of birth and includes both major league and Negro League athletes. Each chapter covers one state and opens with the all-time team, naming a top selection for each position followed by honorable mentions. Also included are all-time stat leaders in nine categories--games, hits, average, RBI, home runs, stolen bases, pitching wins, strikeouts and saves--a brief overview of the state's baseball history, notable player achievements, historic baseball places to see, potential future stars, a comprehensive list of player nicknames, and the state's all-time best player.

Baseball in Alabama

Baseball in Alabama PDF Author: Doug Wedge
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 143966434X
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Although football may first spring to mind when talking about sports in Alabama, the state has certainly made its mark with the national pastime. Thirteen players with Alabama roots are enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, including all-time greats like Hank Aaron, Ozzie Smith and Satchel Paige. Bob Veale of Birmingham led the National League in strikeouts in 1964. Superstars and former players like Bo Jackson and Britt Burns give back to their home state by organizing charities and coaching Alabama's next generation of players. Author and baseball historian Doug Wedge explores stories from this rich history.

Negro Leagues Baseball

Negro Leagues Baseball PDF Author: Roger Bruns
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313386498
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
This book traces the entire story of black baseball, documenting the growth of the Negro Leagues at a time when segregation dictated that the major leagues were strictly white, and explaining how the drive to integrate the sport was a pivotal part of the American civil rights movement. Part of Greenwood's Landmarks of the American Mosaic series, this work is a one-stop introduction to the subject of Negro League baseball that spotlights the achievements and experiences of black ball players during the time of segregation—ones that must not be allowed to fade into obscurity. Telling far more than a story about sports that includes engaging tales of star athletes like "Satchel" Paige and "Cool Papa" Bell, Negro Leagues Baseball documents an essential chapter of American history rooted in the fight for civil rights and human dignity and the battle against racism and bigotry. The book comprises an introduction, chronology, and narrative chapters, as well as biographical profiles, primary documents, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index. The recounting of individual stories and historical events will fascinate general readers, while rarely used documentary material places the subject of Negro League baseball in relation to civil rights issues, making the book invaluable to students of American social history and culture.

Mickey and Willie

Mickey and Willie PDF Author: Allen Barra
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 030771649X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 522

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Book Description
Acclaimed sportswriter Allen Barra exposes the uncanny parallels--and lifelong friendship--between two of the greatest baseball players ever to take the field. Culturally, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were light-years apart. Yet they were nearly the same age and almost the same size, and they came to New York at the same time. They possessed virtually the same talents and played the same position. They were both products of generations of baseball-playing families, for whom the game was the only escape from a lifetime of brutal manual labor. Both were nearly crushed by the weight of the outsized expectations placed on them, first by their families and later by America. Both lived secret lives far different from those their fans knew. What their fans also didn't know was that the two men shared a close personal friendship--and that each was the only man who could truly understand the other's experience.

Focus On: 100 Most Popular American League All-Stars

Focus On: 100 Most Popular American League All-Stars PDF Author: Wikipedia contributors
Publisher: e-artnow sro
ISBN: 4057664106
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1452

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Book Description


Oscar Charleston

Oscar Charleston PDF Author: Jeremy Beer
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496224965
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
The biography of Oscar Charleston, a Negro Leagues legend and one of baseball’s greatest and most unjustifiably overlooked players.

Black Baseball's Last Team Standing

Black Baseball's Last Team Standing PDF Author: William J. Plott
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476677883
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
 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.

Willie Mays

Willie Mays PDF Author: James S. Hirsch
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439171653
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 658

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Book Description
The New York Times bestselling, authorized, “enormously entertaining and wide-ranging” (The Seattle Times) biography of the late, great Willie Mays. Willie Mays (1931–2024) was arguably the greatest player in baseball history, revered for the passion he brought to the game. He began as a teenager in the Negro Leagues, became a cult hero in New York, and was the headliner in Major League Baseball’s bold expansion to California. He was a blend of power, speed, and stylistic bravado that enraptured fans for more than two decades. Author James Hirsch reveals the man behind the player. Mays was a transcendent figure who received standing ovations in enemy stadiums and who, during the turbulent civil rights era, urged understanding and reconciliation. More than his records, his legacy is defined by the pure joy that he brought to fans and the loving memories that have been passed to future generations so they might know the magic and beauty of the game. With meticulous research and drawing on interviews with Mays himself as well as with close friends, family, and teammates, Hirsch presents a brilliant portrait of one of America’s most significant cultural icons.