Bob Feller is a true baseball icon. Along with such legends as Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Ted Williams, he is recognized as one of the greatest players of the twentieth century. In fact, he was voted the greatest right-handed pitcher in the history of baseball. But Bob Feller is known for his quick wit as much as for his fastball. In Bob Feller's Little Black Book of Baseball Wisdom, the sharp-tongued Hall of Famer offers philosophical, anecdotal, and candid reflections on baseball and everyday American life. In the process he introduces us to such legends as Jackie Robinson, Ralph Kiner, and Joe DiMaggio the way he knew them--as baseball rivals, fellow sportsmen, and good friends. Bob Feller's Little Black Book of Baseball Wisdom is a treasure trove of down-to-earth advice for baseball fans of any generation.

Baseball is woven into American culture and history to the point where myth and reality blend, making it difficult at best to distinguish between the two. Rarely is this more apparent than in the life and times of Bob Feller, one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the game. From his childhood during the Great Depression in rural Iowa, Feller lived storybook experiences that seemed to foretell his unparalleled ascent to big league stardom. His father structured everything to help young Bob realize his potential as a baseball player, including building a farmland "field of dreams" expressly for young Bob's diamond education. But Feller's professional life in baseball was far from the near-mythic quality of his childhood. Feller became a controversial figure from the moment he signed his first professional contract. Battling with owners, the press, and fellow players, Feller alienated and charmed them by turns, reflecting the complex motivations of a man aware of his own prodigious talent and opportunities. Feller was both an unabashed patriot who enlisted in the Navy the day after Pearl Harbor and a remarkably successful businessman who organized lucrative winter barnstorming tours. His unquestioned position as one of the first players to advocate integrating the game was complicated by his combative relationship with Jackie Robinson. As a result, Feller's contribution to the game has been the subject of both positive and negative interpretation. John Sickels has produced the first balanced, historical portrait of this controversial player whose commitment and talent inspired his teammates and whose outspoken opinions just as frequently exasperated them.

The riveting story of four men—Larry Doby, Bill Veeck, Bob Feller, and Satchel Paige—whose improbable union on the Cleveland Indians in the late 1940s would shape the immediate postwar era of Major League Baseball and beyond. In July 1947, not even three months after Jackie Robinson debuted on the Brooklyn Dodgers, snapping the color line that had segregated Major League Baseball, Larry Doby would follow in his footsteps on the Cleveland Indians. Though Doby, as the second Black player in the majors, would struggle during his first summer in Cleveland, his subsequent turnaround in 1948 from benchwarmer to superstar sparked one of the wildest and most meaningful seasons in baseball history. In intimate, absorbing detail, Luke Epplin's Our Team traces the story of the integration of the Cleveland Indians and their quest for a World Series title through four key participants: Bill Veeck, an eccentric and visionary owner adept at exploding fireworks on and off the field; Larry Doby, a soft-spoken, hard-hitting pioneer whose major-league breakthrough shattered stereotypes that so much of white America held about Black ballplayers; Bob Feller, a pitching prodigy from the Iowa cornfields who set the template for the athlete as businessman; and Satchel Paige, a legendary pitcher from the Negro Leagues whose belated entry into the majors whipped baseball fans across the country into a frenzy. Together, as the backbone of a team that epitomized the postwar American spirit in all its hopes and contradictions, these four men would captivate the nation by storming to the World Series--all the while rewriting the rules of what was possible in sports.

Honig interviewed former big-league players across the country to compile this nostalgic book packed with statistics, action, revelations, and an extraordinary oral history of the halcyon days of baseball between the world wars. Includes comments by Ted Williams, Bucky Waters, Lou Gehrig, and others. Photos.

This is a new release of the original 1947 edition.

Before Jackie Robinson integrated major league baseball in 1947, black and white ballplayers had been playing against one another for decades—even, on rare occasions, playing with each other. Interracial contests took place during the off-season, when major leaguers and Negro Leaguers alike fattened their wallets by playing exhibitions in cities and towns across America. These barnstorming tours reached new heights, however, when Satchel Paige and other African- American stars took on white teams headlined by the irrepressible Dizzy Dean. Lippy and funny, a born showman, the native Arkansan saw no reason why he shouldn’t pitch against Negro Leaguers. Paige, who feared no one and chased a buck harder than any player alive, instantly recognized the box-office appeal of competing against Dizzy Dean’s "All-Stars." Paige and Dean both featured soaring leg kicks and loved to mimic each other’s style to amuse fans. Skin color aside, the dirt-poor Southern pitchers had much in common. Historian Timothy M. Gay has unearthed long-forgotten exhibitions where Paige and Dean dueled, and he tells the story of their pioneering escapades in this engaging book. Long before they ever heard of Robinson or Larry Doby, baseball fans from Brooklyn to Enid, Oklahoma, watched black and white players battle on the same diamond. With such Hall of Fame teammates as Josh Gibson, Turkey Stearnes, Mule Suttles, Oscar Charleston, Cool Papa Bell, and Bullet Joe Rogan, Paige often had the upper hand against Diz. After arm troubles sidelined Dean, a new pitching phenom, Bob Feller—Rapid Robert—assembled his own teams to face Paige and other blackballers. By the time Paige became Feller’s teammate on the Cleveland Indians in 1948, a rookie at age forty-two, Satch and Feller had barnstormed against each other for more than a decade. These often obscure contests helped hasten the end of Jim Crow baseball, paving the way for the game’s integration. Satchel Paige, Dizzy Dean, and Bob Feller never set out to make social history—but that’s precisely what happened. Tim Gay has brought this era to vivid and colorful life in a book that every baseball fan will embrace.

This book presents a scientific but easy to understand explanation of pitching power. Illustrated with anecdotes about baseball's greatest power pitchers, it describes how they were able to achieve phenomenal fastball velocity and record-breaking strikeout numbers. How was a 17-year-old rookie named Bob Feller able to strike out Major League batters in record numbers? How do the tendons, ligaments, and muscles of the arm and shoulder work to amplify power for greater pitch velocity? How was minor league pitcher Steve Dalkowski able to throw the most phenomenal fastball ever seen (or heard)? Why do young pitchers with exceptional velocity often issue walks at exceptional rates? Why do good pitchers occasionally pitch badly? Why is exceptional hand speed important? What is it about overhand throwing that causes elbow and shoulder injuries? How can a pitcher achieve greater endurance and durability? What is the most reliable way to increase fastball velocity? This book addresses these and other questions for pitchers, coaches, managers, trainers, and fans.

Forty Champions of the Tribe Native Clevelander Russ Schneider has reveled in the successes and lamented the failures of the Cleveland Indians from his earliest childhood. After graduating from high school in 1946 and serving two tours of duty with the U.S. Marines, Schneider acquired a degree in English from Baldwin Wallace University. Following a brief (but uneventful) season as a minor league player, Schneider became a sportswriter and columnist at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He covered the Indians daily from 1964 through 1977 and became nationally known as the chronicler of the Indians' fortunes and history. That experience provided Schneider with the opportunity to meet and befriend the icons of the Tribe--among them, Bob Feller, Lou Boudreau, Larry Doby, Early Wynn, Bob Lemon, and others. This beautiful coffee-table book features forty twentieth-century Indians legends, beginning with the era when they were the Cleveland Blues. Schneider has divided the Indians' history into quartercentury periods, selecting ten players from each as stars of this historic franchise. Illustrator Tom Denny, known for his dynamic and creative images in oil, watercolor, and mixed media, has created portraits and action scenes for each of the forty iconic players. Napoleon Lajoie, Tris Speaker, and Jim Bagby Sr. from 1901-1925; Mel Harder, Bob Feller, and Lou Boudreau from 1926-1950; Larry Doby, Rocky Colavito, and Bob Lemon from 1951-1975; and Omar Vizquel, Jim Thome, and Kenny Lofton from 1976-2000 are some of the forty outstanding players selected. Also included are highlights of each player's career, biographical information, and career statistics. Sure to be treasured by sports enthusiasts and baseball lovers everywhere--especially Indians fans--Cleveland Indians Legends is a handsome and informative addition to the history of baseball.