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Miracle in Chavez Ravine

Author: William F. McNeil

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2008-06-11

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 0786435011

After winning the 1981 World Series and raising the expectations of management and fans, the Los Angeles Dodgers followed up with six years of disappointing finishes. By the time they ended the 1987 season 17 games behind the hated Giants, general manager Fred Claire had seen enough. Over the winter Claire radically restructured the team, bringing in fiery players like outfielder Kirk Gibson, closer Jay Howell and shortstop Alfredo Griffin to spark the team out of complacency. Led by Gibson and pitcher Orel Hershiser, the upstart Dodgers outlasted Houston in a race for the NL West title and edged a star-studded Mets team in the league championship series. But their best, most dramatic moments came in the World Series, when the Dodgers shocked everyone by bashing the A's of McGwire and Canseco in five games. In the first book-length history of the 1988 Dodgers, author Bill McNeil covers the story from all angles.

Historical Dictionary of Baseball

Author: Lyle Spatz

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2012-12-21

Total Pages: 505

ISBN-13: 0810879549

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Dating back to 1869 as an organized professional sport, the game of baseball is not only the oldest professional sport in North America, but also symbolizes much more. Walt Whitman described it as “our game, the American game,” and George Will compared calling baseball “just a game” to the Grand Canyon being “just a hole.” Countless others have called baseball “the most elegant game,” and to those who have played it, it’s life. The Historical Dictionary of Baseball is primarily devoted to the major leagues it also includes entries on the minor leagues, the Negro Leagues, women’s baseball, baseball in various other countries, and other non-major league related topics. It traces baseball, in general, and these topics individually, from their beginnings up to the present. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 900 cross-referenced entries on the roles of the players on the field—batters, pitchers, fielders—as well as non-playing personnel—general managers, managers, coaches, and umpires. There are also entries for individual teams and leagues, stadiums and ballparks, the role of the draft and reserve clause, and baseball’s rules, and statistical categories. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the sport of baseball.

The Rise of Mike Tyson, Heavyweight

Author: William F. McNeil

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-09-17

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 147661802X

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Covering Mike Tyson's rise through the amateur and professional boxing ranks, this book follows the Brooklyn native from his early years as a young criminal in Brownsville to his 1988 heavyweight unification match with Michael Spinks. The book focuses on the Catskill Boxing Club--where boxing guru Cus D'Amato trained the 210-pound teenager in the finer points of the sport and developed his impregnable defense--and on his home life with D'Amato and surrogate mother Camille Ewald and the other young fighters who lived with them. Tyson's boxing education began in the unauthorized "smokers" held every week in the Bronx, matching his skills against older, more experienced fighters. He won the 1981 Amateur Heavyweight Boxing Championship in Colorado Springs at the age of 14 and repeated the amazing feat the following year. By 1985, finding no other challenging amateur competition, he was forced to join the professional ranks where, in November 1986, he became the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history. Less than two years later, he unified the crown, establishing himself as one of the most dominant heavyweight fighters the sport had ever seen.

Red Sox Roll Call

Author: William F. McNeil

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2017-02-10

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0786487046

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Since the Boston Red Sox came into existence in 1901, some of the greatest players ever to step onto a baseball diamond have filled its rosters. Starting with Cy Young, the parade of legendary players included Tris Speaker, Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz, among others. This work profiles 200 of the most memorable players to have donned Boston’s red, white and blue. Some, like Williams, enjoyed long, illustrious careers with the Red Sox. Others, like Smokey Joe Wood, shone brightly for only a brief period. Also included are journeymen who became legends as a result of one glorious World Series game, like Bernie Carbo, or players with just one memorable post-season appearance, like Dave Roberts. Together, these legends, idols, and heroes made Red Sox history and forever changed American baseball.

All-Stars for All Time

Author: William F. McNeil

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2009-01-14

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 0786452463

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This work uses practical measures to scientifically rank major league players, position by position, according to their offensive and defensive skills. The author has adjusted individual statistics for the era in which the player was active and for the "home park factor" in order to put all eligible players on a level playing field. For each position, the author has identified the top contenders for best offensive, defensive and all-around player, and provides a brief history of each of the candidates.

Black Baseball Out of Season

Author: William F. McNeil

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2015-05-07

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 1476600627

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Negro League ballplayers, earning paychecks comparable to those of blue-collar workers, needed an off-season source of income to make ends meet. Many of them found the answer in baseball, by joining racially integrated barnstorming teams that toured the country after the regular season ended, or by playing in the organized winter leagues that operated in Florida, California, and several Caribbean and Central and South American countries. This history recounts the experiences of American black ballplayers outside of the Negro Leagues--often in places where a lack of prejudice contrasted sharply with conditions at home. Tracing the development of the game in each location and the unique character of each winter league, it details the contributions of the Negro League players and collects their statistics in each of the winter leagues.

Chávez Ravine: 1949

Author: Don Normark

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Published: 2003-03

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 9780811840576

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The past fifty years have not erased the memories of Los Desterrados, the uprooted descendants of Chavez Ravine. After extensive research, Don Normark has tracked them down in order to share his old photographs and to record their poignant reactions. He has captured the images, the stories, and the bittersweet memories of Los Desterrados in this book."--Jacket.

Daybreak at Chavez Ravine

Author: Erik Sherman

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2023-05

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 1496236378

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Fernando Valenzuela was only twenty years old when Tom Lasorda chose him as the Dodgers’ opening-day starting pitcher in 1981. Born in the remote Mexican town of Etchohuaquila, the left-hander had moved to the United States less than two years before. He became an instant icon, and his superlative rookie season produced Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards—and a World Series victory over the Yankees. Forty years later, there hasn’t been a player since who created as many Dodgers fans. After the Dodgers’ move to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in the late 1950s, relations were badly strained between the organization and the Latin world. Mexican Americans had been evicted from their homes in Chavez Ravine, Los Angeles—some forcibly—for well below market value so the city could sell the land to team owner Walter O’Malley for a new stadium. For a generation of working-class Mexican Americans, the Dodgers became a source of great anguish over the next two decades. However, that bitterness toward the Dodgers vanished during the 1981 season when Valenzuela attracted the fan base the Dodgers had tried in vain to reach for years. El Toro, as he was called, captured the imagination of the baseball world. A hero in Mexico, a legend in Los Angeles, and a phenomenon throughout the United States, Valenzuela did more to change that tense political environment than anyone in the history of baseball. A new fan base flooded Dodger Stadium and ballparks around the United States whenever Valenzuela pitched in a phenomenon that quickly became known as Fernandomania, which continued throughout a Dodger career that included six straight All-Star game appearances. Daybreak at Chavez Ravine retells Valenzuela’s arrival and permanent influence on Dodgers history while bringing redemption to the organization’s controversial beginnings in LA. Through new interviews with players, coaches, broadcasters, and media, Erik Sherman reveals a new side of this intensely private man and brings fresh insight to the ways he transformed the Dodgers and started a phenomenon that radically altered the country’s cultural and sporting landscape.

The Dodgers Encyclopedia

Author: William McNeil

Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC

Published: 2000-09-25

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 9781582613161

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The Dodgers Encyclopedia is the definitive book on Los Angeles and Brooklyn Dodgers baseball. It traces the history of one of Major League Baseball's most successful organizations, from the misty beginnings of its predecessors in rural Brooklyn more than 140 years ago, through their formative years in the major leagues, as a member of the American Association from 1884 through 1889, to a full-fledged representative of the National League since 1890. It covers the exciting and oftenzany years in Brooklyn through 1957, as well as a long and successful sojourn in Southern California during the last half of the 20th century.

The Original Edison Field

Author: Homer Wallop

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2012-11

Total Pages: 89

ISBN-13: 1475962843

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The baseball season of 1951 doesn't arrive soon enough for young Jimmy Fletcher, and the perfect refuge for this 10-yearold boy during that enchanted summer in the fictional town of Marshfield is transformed into The Original Edison Field. That's where his dream of playing for the New York Yankees takes root. Unexpectedly, his quest ends all too soon. Years later, he becomes a successful journalist in a small town, but his life is unfulfilled. Then, a magical moment occurs: The daughter he never saw grow up reappears in his life. She has holes in her heart that need to be filled, just as Jimmy does. The improbable circumstances soon take another unexpected twist. He rediscovers his ability to pitch and an unlikely fantasy comes true. Moments before the final game of the 1993 season, Jimmy and his daughter run into a legendary player who instantly takes Jimmy back to 1951.