Also, let me point out that it isn't a written book, per
se, but a collection of baseball writers' columns (mostly Pitt,
NY and Chicago papers) from the season.
Curtis Lyons (lyons@aztec.lib.utk.edu)
Steve Alvin (salvin@heartland.bradley.edu) wrote:
One afternoon while I was working in the stacks I was very
much surprised to come upon an old history of the Pirates. The
book is by Frederick George Lieb and entitled The Pittsburgh
Pirates (NY: Putnam, 1948). It is, imho, very much worth
tracking down or ordering through your local ILL. It covers much
of the early history of the ball club It is, as most team
historys are, looking at the Buc's though rose-colored glasses,
but it is still worth the read.
I agree (Mike Emeigh). This was my very first Bucco book, given
to me by my uncle (who also gave me an autographed baseball
signed by all of the '60 Bucs).
Putnam commissioned a series of team histories in 1948. Lieb did
some of them, and Lee Allen did a few as well. All of the ones
that I've seen are very well written.
The Lieb book covers a couple of things in some detail which I
didn't know a lot about until I read it; for example, the 1926
player mutiny against Fred Clarke, who was an assistant to Bill
McKechnie at the time, and the 1946 near strike of the players,
who actually voted by a majority to strike but didn't strike
because a 2/3 vote was needed.
Mike Emeigh
Lieb also wrote histories of
the Cardinals (1945) and the Phillies (1953), and probably more
teams, as well as Baseball As I Have Known It (1977). Neal
Traven (baseball@WORLDPATH.NET)
Dick Groat (yes, that Dick Groat), World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates;
NY, Coward-McGann, 1961.
This book was actually written in conjunction with Bill Surface,
a well-known sports writer. I used this book in high school,
along with some other sources, to write a research paper about
the 1960 Bucs. It's a good read, but it's a fairly typical
ballplayer's diary.
One anecdote from the Groat book that I recall: In his first AB
in Game 1 of the 1960 WS, Groat inadvertently gave Bill Virdon,
on first, the hit-and-run sign. Groat took the sign off, but
Virdon missed the takeoff and broke for second as Groat took the
pitch. However, neither Richardson or Kubek covered the base,
Virdon wound up on 3rd, and the Bucs got on the board early
enroute to a Game 1 victory. Who knows what might have happened
otherwise? :)
Mike Emeigh (mwe@nomos.com)
On a Clear Day They Could See Seventh Place
On the topic of various books about the Bucs, one book I found at
the Carnegie is not on the Pirates, but on the worst teams ever
(1 per decade since 1890). The '50s team was the '52 Pirates and
gives a neat account of struggling with a young team. Also, lots
of stuff on Ralph Kiner and the desires of some to trade the
team's one crowd-drawer. (attribution was lost in the shuffle;
sorry - e-mail me if you wrote this, and I will quickly give you
credit).
The Pirates by Lou Sahedi, basically a picture book of the
'79 Bucs. Sahedi also did one called Super Steelers.
Ray Skirsky (rskirsky@qualcomm.com)
Jim O'Brien has written a couple of books about the Pirates. One
is called, I believe, Maz and the 1960 Pirates, and I'm
sorry to say that the names of others escape me. I have never
read him myself, and haven't come across them in bookstores, but
people on the list have mentioned them before. I think that
Sports Books etc -- phone #, I believe, is 703-321-8660, has it
or can order it. I have a friend who received it as a X-mas
present but didn't think it was all that good; he thought it was
a rather amateurish reproduction of the events of the year as one
could have picked up simply by reprinting the newspaper accounts.
But he does seem to be a bit of a focus for Buc nostalgia writing
-- when I was in Pittsburgh last summer for the SABR convention,
O'Brien or a publicist had a stand there that was selling nothing
but O'Brien's books about the Pirates, many of them
autographed.
Chuck Blahous (RStLoup@AOL.COM)
Gene "Two-Finger" Carney, who authors the bi-weekly Notes from the Shadown of Cooperstown
said this about Jim O'Brien's latest work, "We had 'em all the way" about Pirate broadcaster
Bob Prince:
"This book, subtitled Bob Prince and His Pittsburgh Pirates, was
published by its author Jim O'Brien in 1998. Jim is a prolific writer
who feasts on Pittsburgh sports (besides several books on the Pirates,
he has several on the Steelers, and others on the Penguins and Pitt.)
He is an energetic interviewer, who tracks down all the right people.
But he is a terrible editor. I forgave him much when I read Maz and the
'60 Bucs, less when I read Roberto. His book on Bob Prince was the last
straw. Prince used to drive listeners crazy with his unfocused rambling
and straying from the point. If Jim O'Brien intended We Had 'Em All the
Way to be a tribute to that style, he succeeded wildly."
Two Finger Carney (carneya6@borg.com); Notes #204, November 1999
And another fan comment on a Jim O'Brien book:
"I am currently reading the book Remembering Roberto
and wanted to share my thoughts on the book. The book starts out early on
talking about Piratefest in 1994 and what a success it was. Then, the
author Jim O'Brien interviews Vera Clemente. Mrs. Clemente talks about
a variety of subjects ranging from the accident to how her kids are
grown men now and Roberto Jr. and Luis have children of their own.
Next, we have fan's comments about Roberto. Many former
ball players (such as Willie Stargell, Manny Sanguillen, Bob Friend, and
Steve Blass) tell their stories of the times with
Clemente. The book is full of rich Pirate history, plenty of pictures and
facsimile autograghs of the older players. You can tell early on that
O'Brien wanted to make the book a success. I highly recommend it to
Pirate fans.
One last comment, not only does the book cover Clemente
as a ball player, but it shows the compassion he had for his fellow man.
Whether it was visiting children in a hospital or taking a total
stranger to dinner, it was Roberto just being himself."
James Cox (jcox1@IX.NETCOM.COM)
Morris Eckhouse, This Date in Pittsburgh Pirates' History,
NY: Stein & Day, 1986. Morris is now SABR's Executive Director.
Though he's really a Clevelander, he lived in the 'burgh for some
years.
We tried to get SABR to back a book-length work on the club as
the convention publication last year, but they wouldn't go for
it. Instead we put out a 64-page (large font) work with too
much fluff in it ('my 10 favorite games at Forbes Field').
Though it was appreciably meatier than previous convention
booklets... The knowledge base, and perhaps even the literary
talent, is in place in the Forbes Field Chapter, but the $$
isn't.
Let me put in a plug for Dennis and Jeanne DeValeria's upcoming
biography of Honus Wagner, due in April.
Neal Traven (baseball@WORLDPATH.NET)
On the subject of Pirates books -- the Bucs have to be one of
the least attended-to subjects in baseball, relative to their
outstanding history. There seems to be an endless plethora of
writings about the Yankees -- which might be understandable --
and Red Sox -- significantly less understandable -- whereas I
would assert that the Cardinals, and certainly to a large extent
the Bucs, have one of the most fascinating histories of all the
baseball teams. There is a series of books on the memorabilia of
various teams, for example, and they've done a Yankees volume, a
Red Sox volume, a Giants volume, a Cubs volume -- and I can't
remember which else -- no sign of a Bucs' volume yet.
The folks on this list already know about O'Brien's Bucs
books, including his book about Maz and the 1960 Bucs. I haven't
read those, but I have read Greg Spalding's book on the 1971
Bucs, called something like Sailing the Three Rivers: The
Voyage of the 1971 Bucs. I can't really recommend it,
although Spalding made a nice effort from a fan's perspective.
It's riddled with typos and less-than-stellar grammar and
diction.
The best thing I think I've ever read about any Bucs
topic is probably Roger Angell's short piece, "Gone for Good,"
which appears in the compilation entitled, I believe, "Five
Seasons." His other volume, "Late Innings," I believe, contains
a close-up of the 1979 postseason.
I would also recommend Out of Left Field, which
is ostensibly about Willie Stargell and the 1973 season. It's
not the finest composition ever put together, but it is
illuminating in that the author basically took down verbatim the
comments made by various Bucs in various situations -- as a
result, it's a documentary of a unique time in Buc and baseball
history -- the early 1970s, when the drug explosion in baseball
was really gaining force, especially in the Pirates' locker room,
and when teams like the Bucs had become more fully comfortable
with fielding fully integrated lineups, but the players
themselves had to work through a lot of social tensions since the
attitudes of all fans and management had not fully caught up to
the new reality. And this season is particularly interesting
because it occurs in the wake of Roberto's death, and in the
midst of Blass's collapse, the one early 1970s season in which
the Pirates weren't great, and Willie Stargell had to evolve in a
terrible hurry from young slugger into seasoned team leader.
Plus, anything which puts a microphone in front of Dock Ellis is
always entertaining. Note: Willie Stargell described the book
as "filled with horror stories about players and their personal
lives."
Chuck added this note about Out of Left Field at a later
date:
I would like to recommend another very different book -- Out
of Left Field. It also concentrates on Stargell, specifically
the 1973 season. It is mostly a set of recorded interviews and
conversations with members of the 1973 Pirates - that difficult
transition year after Clemente died, when Blass lost it
completely, and the Bucs seemed to be falling apart. Stargell
had always been considered the young brash slugger, not the team
leader as was Clemente, but in that 1973 season, the Bucs needed
someone to grow substantially as a team leader to replace
Clemente, which Stargell did, much to the benefit of the team in
the later 1970s.
The book is intriguing to me because it reflects a mindset
particular to that time. There is ample discussion of things
like drugs and promiscuous sex, but the book seems to revel in
this, in keeping with the feeling of the times, the late 1960s
and early 1970s, that these things should be brought
unembarrassedly out into the open. Given societal changes after
the book, the drug activity of guys like Dock Ellis and others,
and the effect it had on the Pirates, doesn't seem nearly so
cute. But there's a strange naivete to the on-the-spot reporting
about this that would have been difficult to generate in a book
written much later and looking backward.
BTW, there is a book called Dock Ellis and the country
of baseball, which I haven't read, but there is a section in
Fathers Playing Catch with Sons that focuses on Ellis, and it's
good reading too.
Chuck Blahous (RStLoup@AOL.COM)
Another reader wrote:
The Dock Ellis biography was published in 1976 and
is called "Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball"
by Donald Hall. Hall had written an earlier book
(he was part of a civilian group that went to
spring training with the Pirates) and got to know
Ellis. It's a welldone book but long out of print.
I just came across an ad for a book I thought some of you might be
interested in. I haven't read it and doubt I'll have time to in the
forseeable future, so this isn't a recommendation just an announcement:
Honus Wagner: The Life of Baseball's "Flying Dutchman";
Arthur D. Hittner, McFarland & Company Publishers, 1996.
The price listed in the catalog I have is $35. It can be ordered by
calling 1-800-253-2187.
Hittner is a Boston sports lawyer by trade and owns a minor league team.
Curtis Lyons (lyons@aztec.lib.utk.edu)
APBA is a type of baseball `game'. Originally, it was
(well, actually it still is) a card and dice game where each player,
(like Bonds, or Clemente) is rated, and by rolling dice, you determine
if the player gets a hit or not. About 10 years ago, a computer
version of the game came out and two years ago an improved
Windows version came out. One of the advantage of the Windows
version is that it has a whole series of classic ballparks that
you can use for a backdrop while you play the game and a very nice
Forbes Field is included. I wish they would come out with a screen
saver version!
Steve Alvin (salvin@heartland.bradley.edu)
I have two small but fairly interesting Bucs publications. One is
Pittsburgh Baseball thru the Years by Rosey Rowswell. It's an 80
page paperback sponsored by Fort Pitt Brewing with 40 pages of
narritive on Bucs history and the rest a year by year roster
1900-1951.
The other book is a magazine size photo collection called Forbes
Field 60th Birthday-Pittsburgh Pirates Picture Album. No real
narrative, except the first two pages, but great B&W photos of the
construction of Forbes Field, Greenberg Gardens, the first night game
at Forbes, and exterior shots, along with photos of Pirates both big
name (Maz, Roberto, Honus) and small (Cy Benton? - who's he?). It also has over
20 team photos. The book will drive you crazy because there is NO
organization at all to the photos.Still, it is neat to look at.
Rich Albright (rka2@annap.infi.net)
Burtt, Richard L. The Pittsburgh Pirates: A Pictorial History: A Century
Old Baseball Tradition. Jordan & Company, Publishers Inc. 1977.
The book lists the address for Jordan & Company as 1213 Laskin Road, Suite
205; Virginia Beach, VA 23451, but of course a lot can change in twenty
years. More helpful could be the Library of
Congress number: 77-83258 or the ISBN number: 0-918908-02-7.
The book is 150 pages long with a whole bunch of pictures (although they're
almost all black and white). Interspersed with the text are some
"recollections and anecdotes" by former Pittsburgh Press sportswriter Les
Biederman. Also interesting is the introduction by one of the Bucs' former
part-owners, one Bing Crosby. You may have heard of him. I understand he
used to sing somewhere. :-)
Father John Hissrich (ForbzField@aol.com)
I just reviewed an 87 minute video tape entitled "Hopes and Dreams in Minor League Baseball; a season with
the Williamsport Crosscutters" by Patterson-Brandt Inc. The video chronicles the players and coaches who made up the
2000 version of the Pirates Short Season Class A affiliate in the New York-Penn League.
This presentation does a thorough job of showing you life in the minor leagues. Informal interviews with players,
coaches, wives, girlfriends, and fans help to capture the various view points of the game. A couple Pirate minor leaguers get
extra attention in this video. Switch hitting catcher Ryan Doumit, and Right handed pitcher Ben Levesque (and his wife and
3-year old son) seem to be featured, but manager Curtis Wilkerson gives a run down on about a dozen players towards the
end of the presentation.
Rainouts and roadtrips, Call-ups and demotions, community appearances and mascots all get covered in this
tour through the New York Penn League. Game action is spliced into the story, and a running commentary of the winning
and losing streaks for the team gets covered in this film. The careful viewer will also get a tour of several NY-Penn ballparks,
and admire the small-town homes that are tucked behind Williamsport's Bowman Field. Fielding drills, run down practice,
and pitching mechanics are all emphasized by the 'Cutters coaching staff and Pirate roving minor league instructors Bobby
Meacham (infield) and Marty DeMerritt (pitching).
While there are a lot of baseball lessons being taught (and learned) in Williamsport, the players are also learning
about life's lessons too. Young men from across the country and various backgrounds have to form a team in
Williamsport Pennsylvania. Ben Levesque and wife Danielle share a third floor apartment loft with two other team
mates to make ends meet. Other players are adopted by host families. Williamsport is one step up from the
Bradenton Florida rookie league, and every player seems to mention the hot afternoon games and sparse crowds in
the Rookie League. Here, in the NY-Penn League, they have to learn to deal with the cheers and jeers, and one
player's father warns the mother that some fans might not be very gracious in their comments about her "baby".
Each player has his own hopes and dreams in this presentation, but the most interesting unstated commentary
in the film is infielder Josh Hudnall pining away for his far-away fiancee and their upcoming, off-season wedding.
The wedding includes some team mates as attendants in the wedding, but while decked out in their wedding tux
threads, the players don Major League Pirate caps and pose for formal wedding photos. In their smiling eyes on
that special day, I think the hopes and dreams of a major league opportunity are best reflected.
Very few of these players will make it to the show. But when one of them does, the fans of Williamsport
(and the viewers of this video) can say they knew the player when he was in A-ball. This is an enjoyable 87-minute
trip through the NY-Penn League, that will zip by like a 1-0 pitcher's duel. Available through www.crosscutters.com
or 800-606-9642 for $19.95 plus shipping.
Is there something here you like, that needs to be changed,
or would you like to see something that is not included?
Send me ane-mail
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