Everything Happens in Chillicothe by Mike Shannon

Everything Happens in Chillicothe by Mike Shannon

One thing about Max was that he was about as well-adjusted to his disability, if you want to call it that, as anyone could be... He even used his eye once to shut up an obnoxious high school coach. After he'd heard all the complaining he wanted to hear, Max took his eye out of the socket and handed it to the stunned coach, saying, 'You want to umpire this game? Here, be my guest.'" Everything Happens in Chillicothe is an authentic, behind-the-scenes look at the lowest rung of professional baseball, and a biography of Max McLeary, the one-eyed umpire and a most intriguing individual. Author Mike Shannon spent the 2000 Frontier League season attending games with McLeary and gives his account of the season here. The book speaks volumes about umpiring as a profession, relationships (particularly between Max and his estranged son, a minor league player; between Max and his long-suffering wife Patty; and between Max and his umpiring partner Jim Schaly), life in small-town America, and the various people connected with the Chillicothe Paints and other teams in the Frontier League. Many humorous and poignant stories, are told here for the first time, by McLeary, Schaly, and others.

“poignant, utterly entertaining..makes fans remember that the game is supposed to be fun”—Booklist; “a most unusual and engaging subject...all true, but it reads like whimsical novel”—USA Today Sports Weekly; “Mike Shannon is a name well known to serious baseball fans...humorous”—Sports Collectors Digest; “the pace of the book matched perfectly the leisurely pace of a summer evening ball game...Mike can just flat-out write...engaging...it’s a story worth telling, and Mike Shannon tells it well”—Spitball; “everybody has a favorite story about McLeary. Nobody adheres to the mantra about keeping the game fun quite like this umpire, who is so well known that he’s on a first-name basis with fans”—Cincinnati Enquirer.

Mike Shannon is the co-founder and current Editor-in-Chief of Spitball, the Literary Baseball Magazine, now in its 34th year of publication. He is the author of sixteen baseball books, including Diamond Classics: Essays on 100 of the Best Baseball Books Ever Published; Baseball: the Writers' Game; Tales From The Dugout: The Greatest True Baseball Stories Ever Told; Tales From The Ballpark: More of the Greatest True Baseball Stories Ever Told; Riverfront Stadium: Home of the Big Red Machine; Everything Happens in Chillicothe: A Summer in the Frontier League with Max McLeary, the One-Eyed Umpire; More Tales from the Dugout; and Willie Mays: Art in the Outfield. Shannon was given the 2009 Tony Salin Memorial Award by The Baseball Reliquary. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife, the former Kathy Dermody, and their five children: Meg, Casey, Mickey, Babe, and Nolan Ryan.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780786416943
ISBN 10	0786416947
Title	Everything Happens in Chillicothe
Author	Mike Shannon
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Mcfarland
Year published	2003-12-19
Number of pages	416
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.