Full Description
Much has been written about the legendary players and managers of baseball's Deadball Era (1901-1919). Far less attention has been given to the club owners, like Charles Ebbets. In 1898, after a 15 year apprenticeship, he became president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, taking over a chronic second division team in poor financial condition. Over the next 25 years, he organized four pennant-winning clubs and developed one of the most profitable franchises in the game--while building two state-of-the-art ballparks in Brooklyn.
Ebbets was also an effective steward of the national pastime, working tirelessly on innovations that would help all teams, not just his own. Despite his success, his personal weaknesses ultimately undermined much of what he had so painstakingly built.
This first full length biography provides an in-depth view of his life and career, filling a critical gap in the history of the Deadball Era and the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Contents
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
I. "Where I learnt the first rudiments of baseball"
II. "The greatest mistake of our life"
III. "I have put every dollar I own into the club"
IV. "It is the fair name of the Brooklyn club at stake"
V. "Sooner than give into Freedman I would lose every dollar I have invested in the game"
VI. "Sabbatarians who wanted to regulate the morals of everyone"
VII. "I know we get robbed, I know it"
VIII. "We gentlemen are the guardians of this great national game"
IX. "A very important piece of news"
X. "An outside organization antagonistic to us coming into Brooklyn"
XI. "A wide smile on his face and giving the glad hand to all comers"
XII. "A man who can do that has more than twenty-five cents in his pocket"
XIII. "1920 will be the most wonderful season in the history of our great National game"
XIV. "Tell the fans that I am in baseball until I die"
XV. "The good squire of Flatbush"
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
