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Full Description
Ron Luciano was a college football star, baseball umpire, TV broadcaster, and best-selling author. He barged through the world with an outsized personality, entertaining many, offending a few, and hiding behind a cheerful and outrageous persona until life somehow proved unbearable. Everyone knew him, but nobody really did.
Once an All-American tackle at Syracuse University, Luciano turned to umpiring after an injury derailed his professional football career, and he quickly moved up the Minor League ladder to reach the Majors in 1969. As a big, likable loser-Oliver Hardy in blue-he became a fan favorite in the American League, "shooting" runners with his forefinger, conducting a legendary feud with Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver, and entertaining writers with outlandish baseball stories-some of which were even true. Even as he added years to his umpiring career and was considered among the game's best, some players and managers thought his showmanship detracted from his abilities. He later became a baseball color analyst on national TV before coauthoring a series of rollicking best-selling sports books. Away from the game, he loved Shakespeare and birdwatching. But his upbeat public face was at odds with his private struggle with depression. His suicide at age fifty-seven shocked and puzzled friends, fans, and readers alike.
In Big Loosh Jim Leeke recounts Luciano's unlikely career, detailing his life as athlete, arbiter, sportscaster, writer, and mythmaker while separating fact from fiction amid the fanciful stories he loved to spin. As a friend said of Luciano, "If you didn't like this man, you didn't like people."
Contents
Chapter 1. All-Star
Chapter 2. Tiger
Chapter 3. Orangeman
Chapter 4. Lion
Chapter 5. Arbiter
Chapter 6: Gunfighter
Chapter 7: Showman
Chapter 8: Windmill
Chapter 9: Nemesis
Chapter 10: Huckleberry
Chapter 11: Organizer
Chapter 12: Analyst
Chapter 13: Author
Chapter 14: Homebody
Chapter 15: Yorick
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
