Full Description
Babe Ruth, in his first season with the Yankees in 1920, was on pace to break the single-season home run record. In August Indians shortstop Ray Chapman was beaned by a pitch thrown by the Yankees' Carl Mays during a game in New York and died the next day. In September a grand jury convened in Chicago, and four White Sox players were called to testify about fixing the 1919 World Series. Focusing on the Cleveland Indians, the Chicago White Sox, and the New York Yankees, this book takes us back to a pivotal season when baseball was shaken by tragedy and scandal and when power shifted irretrievably from the teams' owners to a single commissioner. The struggle for the soul of baseball, both on the field and off, is the story of how the entire American League structure changed. Following the fortunes of baseball's stars of 1920, Under Pallor, Under Shadow shows us how a unique opportunity for reform was squandered and how the result was the transfer of authority from one powerful dictator (Ban Johnson) to another (Judge K. M. Landis). The first book to tie together the disparate elements of the 1920 pennant race, Under Pallor, Under Shadow shows us America's pastime at a critical moment in the nation's cultural history.
Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Ralph Young's Big Moment
2. A Babe in the City
3. Winter of Their Discontent
4. The Honeymoon
5. Reactive Revolutionary
6. The Record
7. The Last Three Weeks of Innocence and Purity in the History of Baseball
8. Under Pallor
9. Under Shadow
10. A Chigger in Conspiracy with Gamblers
11. A Phosphate at the Edelweiss
12. Eddie Chews, Chicago Stews
13. Losers Laugh, Winners Cry
14. Aftermath
15. Damon and Ring at the Series
Notes
Index
