Other books by David L. Fleitz:

More Ghosts in the Gallery (McFarland, 2007) contains 16 more fascinating biographies of little-known Hall of Famers.

Louis Sockelexis: The First Cleveland Indian (McFarland, 2002) tells the interesting and tragic story of the first Native American in major league baseball, and the first minority player of any kind in the National League.

Shoeless: The Life and Times of Joe Jackson (McFarland, 2001) tells the true story of the legendary character from Eight Men Out and Field of Dreams.  Shoeless was selected as the first winner of the OSBY (Outstanding Sports Book of the Year) Award by the Hickory (NC) Sports Commission and the Hickory Public Library. 

Cap Anson: The Grand Old Man of Baseball (McFarland, 2005) is the first full-length biography of 19th century baseball's greatest player and manager in more than 100 years.

Comments? Send e-mail to dfleitz1@woh.rr.com, but take the 1 out of the address before sending.  Spam artists scour web pages like this one for e-mail addresses, and the 1 in the address makes it unusable for them.

Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown: Sixteen Forgotten Members of the Hall of Fame

by David L. Fleitz

There are many players in the Baseball Hall of Fame who are in no way famous, and Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown reveals the stories behind men such as:

Candy Cummings, inventor of the curve ball;

Roger Connor, who held the home run record before Babe Ruth;

Jack Chesbro, who introduced the spitball to the major leagues;

Sensational Negro Leagues shortstop Willie Wells;

300-game winning pitchers Kid Nichols and John Clarkson;

Bid McPhee, who played second base without a glove;

Eppa Rixey, who gave up a career in chemistry to play ball;

and many others.  All 16 of these long-forgotten greats come to life in a narrative that details not only their life stories, but how such apparently unknown men managed to gain election to the Hall.  The SABR publication The Inside Game states that author David Fleitz "bashes another triple off the wall with Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown." 

About the Book:

This book contains biographical and statistical information on 16 previously overlooked Hall of Famers, including Morgan G. Bulkeley, Candy Cummings, Roger Bresnahan, Jack Chesbro, Jesse Burkett, Kid Nichols, Bobby Wallace, John Clarkson, Elmer Flick, Eppa Rixey, Jake Beckley, Roger Connor, Vic Willis, Willie Wells, Frank Selee, and Bid McPhee. These men, selections of the oft-criticized Veterans Committee, all enjoyed remarkable careers—and were themselves remarkable stories, as the author discovered.

All these players have been the subjects of short biographical sketches in the past, but SABR member David Fleitz tells their stories with an unprecedented level of detail.  He brings these men to life from the dusty back pages of countless books and newspapers, and uses their own words to reveal the men behind the plaques on the wall at Cooperstown.

The book is published by McFarland and Company of Jefferson, North Carolina, a recognized industry leader in works on baseball history.

 
The reviewers speak:

“Fleitz bashes another triple off the wall...clear, elegant, and entertaining biographies...striking...well-researched...a real gem...well-written, well edited”—The Inside Game

“Remarkable stories”—Sports Collectors Digest.

"The bad news is that there are more than 16 [players] that Mr. Fleitz could write about. How about a Volume 2 and Volume 3?" - William Bourne, amazon.com

About the Author:

David Fleitz is a resident of Bowling Green, Ohio and is employed as a software developer and systems designer.  David, a member of SABR (Society of American Baseball Research) since 2000,  is the award-winning author of Shoeless: The Life and Times of Joe Jackson (McFarland, 2001), which was named as the best baseball biography of the year by Rob Neyer of ESPN.com.  His next book was Louis Sockalexis: The First Cleveland Indian (McFarland, 2002), which was a finalist for the Seymour Medal, an annual award for the best baseball book published that year.  His third book, Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown, was published by McFarland in early 2004, and his fourth, Cap Anson: The Grand Old Man of Baseball, appeared in 2005.  His latest, published in 2007, is More Ghosts in the Gallery, a much-requested sequel to Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown.

David is also a baseball trivia expert, winning the annual competition at the national SABR convention in Seattle in 2006 and in St. Louis in 2007 after taking second place in Toronto in 2005.  He has authored articles for SABR's Baseball Research Journal and The National Pastime, and his work appears in two recent compilations, Deadball Stars of the National League (Brassey's, 2005) and Deadball Stars of the American League (Potomac Books, 2007).

How to order:

There are three ways to order Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown.

or, call McFarland toll-free at 1-800-253-2187.