Ty Cobb: A Biography
Greenwood Press (2004)
by Dan Holmes
When the National Baseball Hall of Fame inducted its first class of players in 1936, Ty Cobb received more votes than any other player–even more than did fellow inductee Babe Ruth. Cobb, known as the “Georgia Peach,” was universally recognized as the best player from the “dead ball” era. He also had the reputation of being its most ferocious player. His fierce determination to succeed helped Cobb equal or surpass more offensive records than any other player, and his career average of .367 is still the highest of all time. Cobb’s unyielding and often ferocious work ethic, though, made him many enemies, and his occasional episodes of violence marked an otherwise impeccable career. Baseball author Dan Holmes offers a fresh and fair-handed look at the life of baseball’s first true superstar. It has been said that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in professional sports. “Baseball’s All-Time Greatest Hitters” presents biographies on Greenwood’s selection for the 12 best hitters in Major League history, written by some of today’s best baseball authors. These books present straightforward stories in accessible language for the high school researcher and the general reader alike. Each volume includes a timeline, bibliography, and index. In addition, each volume includes a “Making of a Legend” chapter that focuses on the evolution of the player’s fame and (in some cases) infamy.
Review:
“A fresh and fair-handed look at the life of baseball’s premier, violence-prone batsman.” — Foreword This Week
Deadball Stars of the American League
Society for American Baseball Research (2006)
by SABR
Three years after the release of the first volume of the series, Deadball Stars of the National League, the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and Potomac Books are publishing its companion volume. Return to the period when inside baseball meant a game of bunting, stealing, and using a sodden, tobacco-stained ball few players could hit out of the oddly configured urban ballparks of another age. Where the initial volume introduced readers to one of the most colorful and important periods in baseball history, this volume explores the lives and performances of the stars, regulars, and major figures in the upstart junior circuit.
Guided by expert contributors from SABR, fans will learn about the eight teams that banded together to challenge the National League and become the second major league. Readers will learn about the great team that Connie Mack built in Philadelphia and about the famed outfield duo of Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford in Detroit. They will also read the stories of the players who won the World Series in Chicago in 1917 before they became infamous as the Black Sox in the 1919 Series. Lavishly illustrated, Deadball Stars of the American League features more than 200 photographs and the autographs of all of the players profiled. It is a unique resource for a defining era of baseball history.
Dan Holmes, author of Ty Cobb: A Biography, penned the chapters on Ed Killian, Braggo Roth, and Germany Schaefer.
Sock It To ‘Em Tigers: The Incredible Story of the 1968 Detroit Tigers
Potomac Books (2008)
by Mayo Smith Society
In 1968, the Year of the Pitcher, the sock-it-to-em Detroit Tigers were far and away the American League leader in home runs and in thrilling come-from-behind wins. Not only did they master the American League, but with the daring switch of outfielder Mickey Stanley to shortstop for the Fall Classic the Tigers came back from a three games to one deficit in the World Series to defeat the heavily favored St. Louis Cardinals and their Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson in Game 7, becoming only the third team in World Series history to trail three games to one and come back to win.
Sock it to Em Tigers: The Incredible Story of the 1968 Detroit Tigers celebrates this legendary team like no book ever has, complete with many photos and artifacts from the time. A project of the Detroit chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research, this volume gathers the collective efforts of more than sixty SABR members and friends of the non-profit research society and features profiles of every player, coach, broadcaster, and front-office member connected to that great Tigers squad. Included are Hall of Famers Al Kaline and Eddie Mathews, thirty-one-game winner Denny McLain, World Series Most Valuable Player Mickey Lolich, and beloved broadcasters Ernie Harwell and George Kell, plus Norm Cash, Bill Freehan, Willie Horton, Gates Brown, Jim Northrup, and Dick McAuliffe, the longtime core of a Tigers team that played hard on the fieldand sometimes off. Forty years later, that team is still the most beloved in Tiger history.
Dan Holmes, former web manager for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, author, and a Detroit Tiger historian, wrote the chapters on Willie Horton, Mickey Lolich, and Jon Warden.
