|
Most recent articles:
You may also want to see the following:
Comments? Send e-mail to dlfleitz99@wcnet.org, but take the 99 out of the address before sending. Spam artists scour web pages like this one for e-mail addresses, and the 99 in the address makes it unusable for them.
|
David Fleitz's Baseball Page The 38th annual SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) convention was held in Cleveland from June 26-29, and I won the individual trivia championship for the third year in a row. Details to follow. I won my second consecutive trivia contest at the 2007 SABR convention in St. Louis, and you can read all about it under "Most recent articles" on the left side of this page. We have a recent addition to the list of 100-year-old ballplayers. Bill Werber, who played for the Yankees and Red Sox and also started at third base for the pennant-winning Cincinnati Reds of 1939 and 1940, turned 100 on June 20, 2008. He is now the 14th centenarian ballplayer, as explained in the article on the left side of this page. I wrote the chapter on Eddie Mathews in the new book from Maple Street Press, Sock It To 'Em, Tigers! The Incredible Story of the 1968 Detroit Tigers. You can find it at bookstores, especially in the Detroit area, or order it from Potomac Press by clicking on the link above. I was recently interviewed about Cap Anson by a reporter from Major League Baseball's web site, mlb.com. Click here to see the resulting story. I have now completed seven biographies for the SABR BioProject web site. Click on the name to see:
More articles: Here is a link to a joint review of the three Louis Sockalexis biographies (including my own) that were published in 2002-03. The review appears at SABR's 19th Century committee website; click under "Business" where the newsletter labeled #2004:2 (new, July 2005) is listed. The review is on page 12. The 2006 issue of the SABR publication The Baseball Research Journal carries an article that I wrote three years ago. Titled The Honor Rolls of Baseball, it summarizes a presentation I made at the SABR convention in Boston in 2002. Click here to see a press release that SABR issued about my article.
My previous books (click on the titles for more information): More Ghosts in the Gallery: Another Sixteen Little-Known Greats at Cooperstown (McFarland, 2007) My fifth book tells the stories of 16 more obscure Hall of Fame players, from 1860s-era star George Wright to 1940s shortstop Arky Vaughan, along with several more outstanding performers from the 19th century, the Deadball Era, and the pre-integration Negro Leagues. The player on the cover is the legendary Smokey Joe Williams, a fastball-throwing Texan who most fans have never heard of, but who may well have been the greatest pitcher of all time. It's a worthy sequel to Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown. Cap Anson, the Grand Old Man of Baseball (McFarland, 2005) Adrian (Cap) Anson was the first superstar of baseball. Still a teenager when he began his career in 1871, he played for the fabled Chicago White Stockings from 1876 to 1897, winning four batting titles and being the first player to amass 3,000 hits. He also managed the team to five pennants and played a regrettable role in drawing the color line that lasted until 1947. Loud, brash, and uncompromising, Cap Anson was a giant in his time, but Cap Anson, The Grand Old Man of Baseball is the first full-length treatment of Anson since the player's own autobiography, which was published 105 years ago. Elysian Fields Quarterly calls the book "a worthy successor to his fine biographies of Shoeless Joe Jackson and Louis Sockalexis.” Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown (McFarland, 2004) There are many players in the Baseball Hall of Fame who are in no way famous, and this book reveals the stories behind 16 of those little-known men. These long-forgotten greats come to life in a narrative that details not only their life stories, but how such unknown men managed to gain election to the Hall. The SABR publication The Inside Game states that the author "bashes another triple off the wall with Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown." Louis Sockalexis: The First Cleveland Indian (McFarland, 2002) A finalist for the 2002 Seymour Medal, this is the first full-length biography of Louis Sockalexis, a Penobscot from Maine who became the first Native American to play major league ball. His career and life ended tragically, but he made such an impression on all who saw him that the Cleveland club was called the "Indians" while he played for them. In 1915, two years after the death of Sockalexis, the team adopted the "Indians" name permanently. Shoeless: The Life and Times of Joe Jackson (McFarland, 2001) Shoeless is the award-winning biography of one of baseball's most colorful and tragic figures, the man made famous by the movie "Field of Dreams." Shoeless reveals the fascinating true story behind the player whose career was destroyed by his ill-advised participation in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Rob Neyer of ESPN.com named Shoeless the "best baseball biography of 2001." Books to which I contributed: Deadball Stars of the National League (SABR, 2004) This work contains 140 biographies on all the National League's starting players of the Deadball (1901-1919) Era. I wrote the chapter on former Pirates and Reds first baseman Jake Beckley, whom I profiled in my Ghosts in the Gallery book. Deadball Stars of the American League (SABR, 2007) This companion volume to the preceding book contains 140 biographies on all the American League's starting players of the Deadball Era. I wrote three chapters, on Shoeless Joe Jackson and two St. Louis Browns mainstays, pitcher Jack Powell and manager Jimmy McAleer. Sock It To 'Em, Tigers! The Incredible Story of the 1968 Detroit Tigers (Maple Street Press, 2008) This book has biographies of all playing, managing, coaching, front-office, and other personnel on the world champion 1968 Detroit Tigers. I wrote the chapter on Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews. Click here for pictures of Shoeless Joe Jackson.
|
