{"title":"Lyle Spatz","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"1921-book-lyle-spatz-9780803239999","title":"1921","description":"At the dawn of the roaring twenties, baseball was struggling to overcome two of its darkest moments: the death of a player during a game and the revelations of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. At this critical juncture for baseball, the two teams that emerged to fight for the future of the game were also battling for the hearts and minds of New Yorkers as the city dramatically rose to the pinnacle of the baseball world. 1921 tells the story of a season that pitted the New York Yankees against their Polo Grounds landlords and hated rivals, John McGraw’s Giants, in the first all–New York City World Series. Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg re-create the drama that featured the charismatic Babe Ruth in his assault on baseball records in the face of McGraw’s disdain for the American League and the Ruth-led slugging style. Their work evokes the early 1920s with the words of renowned sportswriters such as Damon Runyon, Grantland Rice, and Heywood Broun, and with more than fifty photographs, offering a vivid picture of the colorful characters, the crosstown rivalry, and the incomparable performances of this classic season.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49931512152337,"sku":"CIN0803239998G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007255544081,"sku":"NIN9780803239999","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51324682273041,"sku":"CIN0803239998VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0803239998.jpg?v=1761388273"},{"product_id":"bad-bill-dahlen-book-lyle-spatz-9780786419784","title":"Bad Bill Dahlen","description":"He was often nonchalant and unfocused, showing up minutes before a game. He was rumored to get himself ejected so he could get to the racetrack. He was feisty, and abusive towards umpires even by today's standards. And he's among the best shortstops ever to play the game. \"Bad Bill\" Dahlen retired having played in more games than anyone in major league history; he was in the top ten for walks, extra base hits, RBI's and stolen bases; and he led all shortstops in games, assists, putouts and double plays. He starred in both the 19th century and the deadball era, and managed as well. He's a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame, right? Wrong. Player after player with lower career ratings has been admitted, yet Dahlen has been ignored. Maybe time has clouded memories of the brilliance of this offensive dynamo and master of his position--but how much longer can it be before Bad Bill Dahlen takes his rightful place in Cooperstown?     This examination of Bill Dahlen's career as a player and manager highlights his strengths and weaknesses, personal and professional. Chronicling his achievements and placing him in context with the greats of all time, it makes a strong case that Bill Dahlen is a Hall of Fame shortstop, head and shoulders above many inductees. Seventeen chapters and 49 photographs trace his career; appendices compare his numbers to his Hall of Fame contemporaries, Hall of Fame shortstops, and list his lifetime batting and fielding statistics. Notes, a bibliography and an index are included.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50365787373841,"sku":"CIN0786419784G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50365793173777,"sku":"CIN0786419784VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52483563258129,"sku":"NLS9780786419784","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0786419784.jpg?v=1751170014"},{"product_id":"sabr-baseball-list-record-book-book-lyle-spatz-9781416532453","title":"The SABR Baseball List \u0026 Record Book","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50373287018769,"sku":"CIN1416532455G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51803892580625,"sku":"CIN1416532455VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1416532455.jpg?v=1750921954"},{"product_id":"hugh-casey-book-lyle-spatz-9781442277595","title":"Hugh Casey","description":"Hugh Casey was one of the most colorful members of the iconic Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1940s, a team that took part in four great pennant races, the first National League playoff series, and two exciting World Series over the course of Casey’s career. That famed team included many outsized personalities, including executives Larry MacPhail and Branch Rickey, manager Leo Durocher, and players like Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Dixie Walker, Joe Medwick, and Pete Reiser.  In Hugh Casey: The Triumphs and Tragedies of a Brooklyn Dodger, Lyle Spatz details Casey’s life and career, from his birth in Atlanta to his suicide in that same city thirty-seven years later. Spatz includes such moments as Casey’s famous “pitch that got away” in Game Four of the 1941 World Series, the numerous brawls and beanball wars in which Casey was frequently involved, and the Southern-born Casey’s reaction to Jackie Robinson joining the Dodgers. Spatz also reveals how Casey helped to redefine the role of the relief pitcher, twice leading the National League in saves and twice finishing second—if saves had been an official statistic during his lifetime.  While this book focuses on Casey’s baseball career in Brooklyn, Spatz also covers Casey’s often-tragic personal life. He not only ran into trouble with the IRS, he also got into a fistfight with Ernest Hemingway and was charged in a paternity suit that was decided against him. Featuring personal interviews with Casey’s son and with former teammate Carl Erskine, this book will fascinate and inform fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers and baseball historians alike.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50376824717585,"sku":"CIN1442277599G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52455489503505,"sku":"NLS9781442277595","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52511078940945,"sku":"CIN1442277599VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1442277599.jpg?v=1756101455"},{"product_id":"team-that-forever-changed-baseball-and-america-book-lyle-spatz-9780803239920","title":"The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America","description":"Of all the teams in the annals of baseball, only a select few can lay claim to historic significance. One of those teams is the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, the first racially integrated Major League team of the twentieth century. The addition of Jackie Robinson to its roster changed not only baseball but also the nation. Yet Robinson was just one member of that memorable club, which included Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese, Pete Reiser, Duke Snider, Eddie Stanky, Arky Vaughan, and Dixie Walker. Also present was a quartet of baseball’s most unforgettable characters: co-owners Branch Rickey and Walter O’Malley, suspended manager Leo Durocher, and radio announcer Red Barber.  This book is the first to offer biographies of everyone on that incomparable team as well as accounts of the moments and events that marked the Dodgers’ 1947 season: Commissioner Happy Chandler suspending Durocher, Rickey luring his old friend Burt Shotton out of retirement to replace Durocher, and brilliant outfielder Reiser being sidelined after running into a fence. 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Comeback Pitchers is the inspirational story of these two great pitchers with intertwining careers who were repeatedly considered washed up and too old but kept defying the odds and thrilling fans long after most pitchers would have retired.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51079460192529,"sku":"CIN1496222024VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51332388520209,"sku":"CIN1496222024G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1496222024.jpg?v=1763475430"},{"product_id":"new-york-yankees-openers-book-lyle-spatz-9781476667652","title":"New York Yankees Openers","description":"The New York Yankees are baseball's most storied team. They first played at Hilltop Park, then moved to the Polo Grounds, then Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, back to the renovated Yankee Stadium, and now in the new Yankee Stadium.     They also frequently opened the season in Boston's historic Fenway Park, fondly remembered Shibe Park in Philadelphia, Griffith Stadium in Washington, and all around the expanded leagues after 1961.     This book details every opening-day celebration and game from 1903 to 2017, while noting how each was affected by war, the economy, political and social protest and population shifts. 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