Full Description
For more than a century Johnny Evers has been conjoined with Chicago Cubs teammates Frank Chance and Joe Tinker, thanks to eight lines of verse by a New York columnist. Caricatured as a scrawny, sour man who couldn't hit and who owed his fame to that poem, in truth he was the heartbeat of one of the greatest teams of the 20th century and the fiercest competitor this side of Ty Cobb.
Evers was at the center of one of baseball's greatest controversies, a chance event that sealed his stardom and stole a pennant from John McGraw and the New York Giants in 1908. Six years later, following reversals and tragedies that resulted in a nervous breakdown, he made a comeback with the Boston Braves and led that team to the most improbable of championships.
Spanning the time from his birth in Troy, New York, to his death less than a year after his election to the Hall of Fame, this is the biography of a man who literally wrote the book about playing second base.
Contents
Table of Contents
Preface
One. The Kid from the Collar City
Two. Rookie
Three. Foraging for Wins in the Land of the Giants
Four. The Best Team in Baseball, But Not Necessarily in Chicago
Five. World Champions
Six. Merkle
Seven. A Sad Lexicon
Eight. Comeback
Nine. Managing the Cubs with Neither a Tinker Nor a Chance
Ten. The Miracle Braves
Eleven. Too Much Electricity
Twelve. When Johnny Comes Marching Home
Thirteen. The Human Dynamo That Needs a Minder
Fourteen. Albany, Alabama Pitts and One Last Reunion
Fifteen. Which Is As It Should Be
Notes
Bibliography
Index
