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Full Description
Johnny Mize was one of the greatest hitters in baseball's golden age of great hitters. Born and raised in tiny Demorest, Georgia, in the northeast Georgia mountains, Mize emerged from the heart of Dixie as a Bunyonesque slugger, a quiet but sharp-witted man from a broken home who became a professional player at seventeen, embarking on an extended tour of the expansive St. Louis Cardinals Minor League system.
Mize then spent fifteen seasons terrorizing Major League pitchers as a member of those Cardinals, the New York Giants of Mel Ott and Leo Durocher, and finally with the New York Yankees, who won a record five straight World Series with Mize as their ace in the hole-the best pinch hitter in the American League. Few hitters have combined such meticulous bat control with brute power the way Mize did. Mize was a line-drive hitter who rarely struck out and also hit for distance, to all fields, and usually for a high average. Nicknamed the Big Cat, "nobody had a better, smoother, easier swing than John," said Cardinals teammate Don Gutteridge. "It was picture perfect."
Tabbed as a can't-miss Hall of Famer, then all but forgotten, Mize spent twenty-eight years waiting for the call from Cooperstown before he was finally inducted in 1981, delighting fans with his straightforward commentary and sly sense of humor during a memorable induction speech.
From the backroads of the Minor Leagues to the sunny Caribbean, where he played alongside the best Black and Latin players as a twenty-one-year-old, and to the Major Leagues, where he became a ten-time All-Star, home run champion, and World Series hero, Mize forged a memorable trail along baseball's landscape. This is the first complete biography of the Big Cat.
Contents
Preface: Finding Johnny Mize
Prologue: Crossing the River
1. Hills of Habersham
2. High Drama in the Low Minors
3. Scenic Route in the Bushes
4. BeisbÓl with El Maestro
5. Can Mize Field This Year?
6. The Temporary Red
7. All the Way Back
8. Cardinals Rookie
9. Johnny and Jene
10. Rule of Three
11. Best Hitter in the National League
12. The Temperament of Genius
13. Goodbye, St. Louis
14. Land of the Giants
15. War Clubs
16. Agony of Defeat
17. Chasing the Babe
18. Chasing Kiner
19. Big Cat Earns His Pinstripes
20. Minor Setback, Major Recovery
21. Sitting in Casey's Lap
22. How to Hit
23. Out to Pasture
24. Going Home
Epilogue: Extra Innings
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
