In 1887, Tip O'Neill, left fielder for the St. Louis Browns, won the American Association batting championship with a .492 average--the highest ever for a single season in the Major Leagues. Yet his record was set during a season when a base on balls counted as a hit and a time at bat. Over the next 130 years, the debate about O'Neill's "correct" average diverted attention from the other batting feats of his record-breaking season, including numerous multi-hit games, streaks and long hits, as well as two cycles and the triple crown. The Browns entered 1887 as the champions of St. Louis, the American Association and the world. Following the lead set by their manager, Charles Comiskey, the Browns did "anything to win," combining skill with an aggressive style of play that included noisy coaching, incessant kicking, trickery and rough play. O'Neill did "everything to win" at the plate, leaving the no-holds-barred tactics to his rowdier teammates.

Celebrating Canadian athletes and sporting history. The cultural impact of sport on a nation is not slight. Famous for a Time explores a number of important, if not well remembered, Canadian athletes and the sports they played to help explain the nation’s complicated history, sporting and otherwise. It is an exploration that reveals the socio-cultural trends that have shaped Canada since Confederation. Through the prism of some exceptional athletes, the prevailing attitudes of many Canadians about class, race, masculinity, femininity, and national identity are laid bare. Here, from the sidelines, we learn how these attitudes have changed — or not, as the case may be — over time. From team sports such as lacrosse, baseball, and cricket to Canada’s cycling craze, track and field, and boxing, each chapter offers insight into an important aspect of the nation’s narrative. The winners and losers of Canada’s games simply mirror the larger questions that have faced Canadian society across three centuries.

Canadian-born George "Mooney" Gibson (1880-1967) grew up playing baseball on the sandlots around London, Ontario, before going on to star with the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League. In an era known for tough, defensive catchers, Gibson was an ironman and set records for endurance. He helped the Pirates defeat Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers to win their first World Series in 1909. He played with and against some of the biggest names in the game and counted Cobb, Honus Wagner and John McGraw as friends. He then held numerous coaching and managing roles in New York, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Washington and Chicago--the last Canadian to manage full-time in the Major Leagues.

No metropolis in America has more pure baseball spirit than St. Louis, Missouri. It's a love affair that began in 1874, when a band of local boosters raised $20,000 to start a professional ball club, and the honeymoon still isn't over. Now Peter Golenbock, the bestselling author and master of baseball oral history, has written another remarkable saga enriched by extensive and incomparable remembrances from the scores of players, managers, and executives who lived it. These pages capture the voices of Branch Rickey on George Sisler. Rogers Hornsby and his creation of the farm system. Hornsby on Grover Cleveland Alexander -- and Alexander on Hornsby. Dizzy Dean on -- who else? -- Dizzy Dean. And so many others including "The Man" himself, Stan Musial; Eldon Auker, Ellis Clary, Denny Galehouse, and Don Gutteridge on the 1940s Browns; Brooks Lawrence, the second man to cross the Cardinals' color line; Jim Bronsnan, the first man to break the players' "code of silence"; Tommy Herr, Darrell Porter, and Joe McGrane on Whitey Herzog's Cardinals; and Cardinal owner Bill DeWitt, Jr., on the team today.

This comprehensive guide takes the reader on a historical journey, providing an in-depth look at the icons of sport, captured through their greatest collectibles. Composed by the leading experts in the field, never before has one book covered such a variety of hobby subjects. For those interested in building a fine collection of sports memorabilia, from baseball cards to autographs to game-used bats, each subject is covered in great detail. Within each chapter, the best of the best has been selected by the experts. Whether you are a hardcore collector or just an avid sports fan, this book not only helps bring the legends of sport to life but it provides crucial tips on how to assemble a world class collection. From Babe Ruth to Tiger Woods, from Wilt Chamberlain to Joe Namath, every major sport is covered. This book contains hundreds of sports memorabilia images, including many of the finest examples in the world.

The authoritative compendium of facts, statistics, photographs, and analysis that defines baseball in its formative first decades This comprehensive reference work covers the early years of major league baseball from the first game—May 4, 1871, a 2-0 victory for the Fort Wayne Kekiongas over the visiting Cleveland Forest City team—through the 1900 season. Baseball historian David Nemec presents complete team rosters and detailed player, manager, and umpire information, with a wealth of statistics to warm a fan’s heart. Sidebars cover a variety of topics, from oddities—the team that had the best record but finished second—to analyses of why Cleveland didn’t win any pennants in the 1890s. Additional benefits include dozens of rare illustrations and narrative accounts of each year’s pennant race. Nemec also carefully charts the rule changes from year to year as the game developed by fits and starts to formulate the modern rules. The result is an essential work of reference and at the same time a treasury of baseball history. This new edition adds much material unearthed since the first edition, fills gaps, and corrects errors, while presenting a number of new stories and fascinating details. David Nemec began the lifetime labor that helped produced this work in 1954 and admits it may never end, as there always will be some obscure player whose birth date has not yet been found. Until perfection is achieved, this work offers state-of-the-art accuracy and detail beyond that supplied by even modern baseball encyclopedias. As Casey Stengel, who was born during this era, was wont to say, “you could look it up.” Now you can.

Explore over a century of Cardinals baseball in this illustrated tour of the players, teams, ballparks, and historic moments! With a legacy that goes back to the Brown Stockings of the old American Association, the St. Louis Cardinals have one of the longest and greatest traditions in the history of baseball. Winners of ten World Series titles (second only to the New York Yankees) and twenty-one pennants dating back to 1885, the Redbirds have established a dynasty across the decades—from Charlie Comiskey’s four-time AA champs, through the “Gashouse Gang” of the 1930s and the “Runnin’ Redbirds” in the 1980s, up to the 2006 World Champions. Front-office pioneers like Chris von der Ahe and Branch Rickey have put the Cardinals franchise at the forefront of innovation, while bringing in some of baseball’s greatest talent—pitchers Dizzy Dean to Bob Gibson, sluggers Johnny Mize to Mark McGwire, and all-around superstars like Rogers “Rajah” Hornsby, Stan “the Man” Musial, and Albert Pujols. Pairing historic black-and-white photos and contemporary images of the modern game, St. Louis Cardinals: Past & Present explores the ballparks and the fans, the players and the teams that have defined Cardinals baseball.

Featuring every relevant team record, statistic, and award winner from the St. Louis Cardinals’ incredible past, this book includes a comprehensive collection of Redbirds all-time leaders in every conceivable category, from hits to strikeouts. From Dizzy Dean’s 30 wins or Lou Brock’s 938 career stolen bases to Bob Gibson’s single-season ERA of 1.12 or Mark McGwire’s 70 home runs in a season, this reference captures the legends and lore of the Cardinals. More than a collection of statistics, this guide provides profiles of the men behind the records and explores the context in which they were set while featuring stories which, in many cases, are even more fascinating than the actual records. Historical game details and evocative photographs blend with compelling statistics and the great players responsible for them to capture the rich history of this storied and celebrated franchise.

After talks with baseball's owners broke down in the fall of 1889, some of the greatest players of the day jumped their contracts and declared open revolt against the American Association and National League. Tired of life under the hated reserve clause, which bound players to their teams and left them with no bargaining power, John Montgomery Ward and some 140 others set out to form a rival major league. The Players League would last only a season and end quite badly for both the players and the American Association, which folded a year later; but as a representation of the first major battle between the players and owners, the league occupies an important place in baseball history. This remarkably comprehensive book opens with an historical introduction to the league, including detailed information about its origins and failure. A biographical dictionary follows, with entries for every player in the league's brief tenure and additional profiles of prominent players who chose not to dignify the revolt with their participation. Profiles of the teams are also included.

When Bill James published his original Historical Baseball Abstract in 1985, he produced an immediate classic, hailed by the Chicago Tribune as the “holy book of baseball.” Now, baseball's beloved “Sultan of Stats” (The Boston Globe) is back with a fully revised and updated edition for the new millennium. Like the original, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is really several books in one. The Game provides a century's worth of American baseball history, told one decade at a time, with energetic facts and figures about How, Where, and by Whom the game was played. In The Players, you'll find listings of the top 100 players at each position in the major leagues, along with James's signature stats-based ratings method called “Win Shares,” a way of quantifying individual performance and calculating the offensive and defensive contributions of catchers, pitchers, infielders, and outfielders. And there's more: the Reference section covers Win Shares for each season and each player, and even offers a Win Share team comparison. A must-have for baseball fans and historians alike, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is as essential, entertaining, and enlightening as the sport itself.