Full Description
Not only was it probably the most cutthroat pennant race in baseball history, it was also a struggle to define how baseball would be played. A Game of Brawl re-creates the rowdy, season-long 1897 battle between the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Beaneaters. The Orioles had acquired a reputation as the dirtiest team in baseball. Future Hall of Famers John McGraw, Wee Willie Keeler, and "Foxy" Ned Hanlon were proven winners—but their nasty tactics met with widespread disapproval among fans. So it was that their pennant race with the comparatively saintly Beaneaters took on a decidedly moralistic air.
Bill Felber brings to life the most intensely watched team sporting event in the country's history to that time. His book captures the drama of the final week, as the race came down to a three-game series. And finally, it conveys the madness of the third and decisive game, when thirty thousand fans literally knocked down the gates and walls of a facility designed to hold ten thousand to watch the Beaneaters grind out a win and bring down baseball's first and most notorious evil empire.
Contents
List of IllustrationsForeword by Senator Edward M. KennedySources and AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Baseball's Original Evil Empire2. The Royal Rooters3. Spring Thunderbolts4. Parade of Champions5. Suspected Criminals6. Streaks of June7. Sunday Misdemeanors8. The Rise and Fall of Louis Sockalexis9. Day Job for Garroters10. Don't They Keep Warm?11. Fall in BaltimoreAfterwordAppendixNotes
