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.

Willie Mays

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

Get Book Here

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.

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.

Willie Mays Aikens

Willie Mays Aikens PDF Author: Gregory Jordan
Publisher: Triumph Books
ISBN: 1600786960
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
An intimate portrait of a tortured player, this biography culls interviews, letters, and the personal account of baseball legend Willie Mays Aikens. Touted from a young age as the next Reggie Jackson, Aikens' promising career quickly turned disastrous when he fell into drug abuse and was ultimately sentenced to the longest prison sentence ever given to a professional athlete in a drug case. Not only an exploration of baseball and culture in the 1980s, this book also delves into the United States justice and penal systems.

Willie's Boys

Willie's Boys PDF Author: John Klima
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 0470485221
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
The story of Willie Mays's rookie year with the Negro American League's Birmingham Black Barons, the Last Negro World Series, and the making of a baseball legend Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays is one of baseball's endearing greats, a tremendously talented and charismatic center fielder who hit 660 career homeruns, collected 3,283 hits, knocked in 1,903 runs, won 12 Gold Glove Awards and appeared in 24 All-Star games. But before Mays was the "Say Hey Kid", he was just a boy. Willie's Boys is the story of his remarkable 1948 rookie season with the Negro American League's Birmingham Black Barons, who took a risk on a raw but gifted 16-year-old and gave him the experience, confidence, and connections to escape Birmingham's segregation, navigate baseball's institutional racism, and sign with the New York Giants. Willie's Boys offers a character-rich narrative of the apprenticeship Mays had at the hands of a diverse group of savvy veterans who taught him the ways of the game and the world. Sheds new light on the virtually unknown beginnings of a baseball great, not available in other books Captures the first incredible steps of a baseball superstar in his first season with the Negro League's Birmingham Black Barons Introduces the veteran group of Negro League players, including Piper Davis, who gave Mays an incredible apprenticeship season Illuminates the Negro League's last days, drawing on in-depth research and interviews with remaining players Explores the heated rivalry between Mays's Black Barons and Buck O'Neil's Kansas City Monarchs , culminating in the last Negro League World Series Breaks new historical ground on what led the New York Giants to acquire Mays, and why he didn't sign with the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees, or Boston Red Sox Packed with stories and insights, Willie's Boys takes you inside an important part of baseball history and the development of one of the all-time greats ever to play the game.

Satchel

Satchel PDF Author: Larry Tye
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1588368475
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The superbly researched, spellbindingly told story of athlete, showman, philosopher, and boundary breaker Leroy “Satchel” Paige “Among the rare biographies of an athlete that transcend sports . . . gives us the man as well as the myth.”—The Boston Globe Few reliable records or news reports survive about players in the Negro Leagues. Through dogged detective work, award-winning author and journalist Larry Tye has tracked down the truth about this majestic and enigmatic pitcher, interviewing more than two hundred Negro Leaguers and Major Leaguers, talking to family and friends who had never told their stories before, and retracing Paige’s steps across the continent. Here is the stirring account of the child born to an Alabama washerwoman with twelve young mouths to feed, the boy who earned the nickname “Satchel” from his enterprising work as a railroad porter, the young man who took up baseball on the streets and in reform school, inventing his trademark hesitation pitch while throwing bricks at rival gang members. Tye shows Paige barnstorming across America and growing into the superstar hurler of the Negro Leagues, a marvel who set records so eye-popping they seemed like misprints, spent as much money as he made, and left tickets for “Mrs. Paige” that were picked up by a different woman at each game. In unprecedented detail, Tye reveals how Paige, hurt and angry when Jackie Robinson beat him to the Majors, emerged at the age of forty-two to help propel the Cleveland Indians to the World Series. He threw his last pitch from a big-league mound at an improbable fifty-nine. (“Age is a case of mind over matter,” he said. “If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.”) More than a fascinating account of a baseball odyssey, Satchel rewrites our history of the integration of the sport, with Satchel Paige in a starring role. This is a powerful portrait of an American hero who employed a shuffling stereotype to disarm critics and racists, floated comical legends about himself–including about his own age–to deflect inquiry and remain elusive, and in the process methodically built his own myth. “Don’t look back,” he famously said. “Something might be gaining on you.” Separating the truth from the legend, Satchel is a remarkable accomplishment, as large as this larger-than-life man.

Willie & Me

Willie & Me PDF Author: Dan Gutman
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062332074
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
With more than 1.5 million books sold, the Baseball Card Adventures series brings the greatest players in history to life. Featuring black-and-white photographs and stats throughout, plus back matter separating fact from fiction, Willie & Me is the perfect mix of history and action for every young baseball fan. Stosh thought he was finished traveling back in time. But then Ralph Branca shows up in his room one night, begging for Stosh's help. In 1951, Branca pitched a ball to Bobby Thomson that would become the "Shot Heard Round the World," a home run that won the National League pennant for the New York Giants and changed the lives of Branca and Thomson forever. Branca says the Giants were cheating, and he needs Stosh to use his power with baseball cards to go back in time and set things right. Stosh is determined to help, but he quickly learns that you can't change just one little thing in history. If he erases the "Shot Heard Round the World," he may forever alter the life of a young rookie named Willie Mays. With wisdom from all the players he has helped before—plus the surprise return of some familiar faces—Stosh uses his power to travel in time using baseball cards one last time in a fabulous finale to the adventure of a lifetime. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in the English Language Arts

1954

1954 PDF Author: Bill Madden
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0306823330
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
1954: Perhaps no single baseball season has so profoundly changed the game forever. In that year—the same in which the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled, in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, that segregation of the races be outlawed in America's public schools—Larry Doby's Indians won an American League record 111 games, dethroned the five-straight World Series champion Yankees, and went on to play Willie Mays's Giants in the first World Series that featured players of color on both teams. Seven years after Jackie Robinson had broken the baseball color line, 1954 was a triumphant watershed season for black players—and, in a larger sense, for baseball and the country as a whole. While Doby was the dominant player in the American League, Mays emerged as the preeminent player in the National League, with a flair and boyish innocence that all fans, black and white, quickly came to embrace. Mays was almost instantly beloved in 1954, much of that due to how seemingly easy it was for him to live up to the effusive buildup from his Giants manager, Leo Durocher, a man more widely known for his ferocious "nice guys finish last" attitude. Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Bill Madden delivers the first major book to fully examine the 1954 baseball season, drawn largely from exclusive recent interviews with the major players themselves, including Mays and Doby as well as New York baseball legends from that era: Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford of the Yankees, Monte Irvin of the Giants, and Carl Erskine of the Dodgers. 1954 transports readers across the baseball landscape of the time—from the spring training camps in Florida and Arizona to baseball cities including New York, Baltimore, Chicago, and Cleveland—as future superstars such as Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and others entered the leagues and continued to integrate the sport. Weaving together the narrative of one of baseball's greatest seasons with the racially charged events of that year, 1954 demonstrates how our national pastime—with the notable exception of the Yankees, who represented "white supremacy" in the game—was actually ahead of the curve in terms of the acceptance of black Americans, while the nation at large continued to struggle with tolerance.

Hurricane

Hurricane PDF Author: James S. Hirsch
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618087280
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
The inspiration for the recent film starring Denzel Washington, "Hurricane" recounts the miraculous journey of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter--a boxer wrongly jailed for three murders--from fierce despair to freedom and enlightenment. of photos.

The Life and Times of Willie Mays

The Life and Times of Willie Mays PDF Author: Mervin S Cohen
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Discover the incredible life of Willie Mays, a baseball legend who captured hearts with his talent and spirit. From his early days in Alabama, where he first fell in love with baseball, to joining the Birmingham Black Barons and rising as a star in the Negro Leagues, Mays's journey unfolds with determination and skill. Transitioning to Major League Baseball, he made an immediate impact, winning Rookie of the Year and thrilling fans with iconic moments on the field. His legendary catch during the 1954 World Series became etched in baseball history, symbolizing his unmatched athleticism and dedication to excellence. Moving with the Giants to San Francisco, Mays adapted seamlessly to a new city while continuing to showcase his exceptional abilities. Even military service couldn't halt his passion for the game, as he balanced duty with baseball, returning to the field with resilience and commitment. Achieving milestones like 600 home runs, Mays exemplified consistency and longevity, earning admiration and respect across the baseball world. Beyond his playing days, he dedicated himself to coaching, mentoring, and contributing to his community, leaving a lasting impact on future generations. In his personal life, Mays found strength in family and faced challenges with courage, becoming a beacon of inspiration. His legacy extends far beyond the diamond, influencing not just baseball but also society with his values of perseverance and integrity. As we reflect on his storied career, tributes and remembrances continue to pour in, celebrating Willie Mays as a true icon. This biography explores the enduring impact of his life, offering lessons in resilience, sportsmanship, and the power of chasing dreams with unwavering determination. Celebrate the life of Willie Mays-a legend whose journey from humble beginnings to baseball greatness continues to inspire and captivate audiences worldwide. Discover the essence of a remarkable man whose legacy transcends sports, leaving an indelible mark on history and hearts alike. ACT FAST, LIMITED SUPPLY REMAINING! SECURE YOUR COPY BEFORE IT'S GONE-TAP TO PURCHASE NOW!

The Soul of Baseball

The Soul of Baseball PDF Author: Joe Posnanski
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780060854041
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
When legendary Negro League player Buck O'Neil asked Joe Posnanski how he fell in love with baseball, the renowned sports columnist was inspired by the question. He decided to spend the 2005 baseball season touring the country with the ninety-four-year-old O'Neil in hopes of rediscovering the love that first drew them to the game. The Soul of Baseball is as much the story of Buck O'Neil as it is the story of baseball. Driven by a relentless optimism and his two great passions—for America's pastime and for jazz, America's music—O'Neil played solely for love. In an era when greedy, steroid-enhanced athletes have come to characterize professional ball, Posnanski offers a salve for the damaged spirit: the uplifting life lessons of a truly extraordinary man who never missed an opportunity to enjoy and love life.