Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball

Connie Mack (1862–1956) was the Grand Old Man of baseball and one of the game’s first true celebrities. This book, spanning the first fifty-two years of Mack’s life, through 1914, covers his experiences as player, manager, and club owner and will stand as the definitive biography of baseball’s most legendary and beloved figure. 
 
Norman L. Macht chronicles Mack’s little-known beginnings. He tells how Mack, a school dropout at fourteen, created strategies for winning baseball and principles for managing men long before there were notions of defining such subjects. And he details how Mack, a key figure in the launching of the American League in 1901, won six of the league’s first fourteen pennants while serving as manager, treasurer, general manager, traveling secretary, and public relations and scouting director (all at the same time) for the Philadelphia Athletics.
 
This book brings to life the unruly origins of baseball as a sport and a business. It also provides the first complete and accurate picture of a character who was larger than life and yet little known: the tricky, rule-bending catcher; the peppery field leader and fan favorite; the hot-tempered young manager. Illustrated with family photographs never before published, it affords unique insight into a colorful personality who helped shape baseball as we know it today.
"1102485852"
Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball

Connie Mack (1862–1956) was the Grand Old Man of baseball and one of the game’s first true celebrities. This book, spanning the first fifty-two years of Mack’s life, through 1914, covers his experiences as player, manager, and club owner and will stand as the definitive biography of baseball’s most legendary and beloved figure. 
 
Norman L. Macht chronicles Mack’s little-known beginnings. He tells how Mack, a school dropout at fourteen, created strategies for winning baseball and principles for managing men long before there were notions of defining such subjects. And he details how Mack, a key figure in the launching of the American League in 1901, won six of the league’s first fourteen pennants while serving as manager, treasurer, general manager, traveling secretary, and public relations and scouting director (all at the same time) for the Philadelphia Athletics.
 
This book brings to life the unruly origins of baseball as a sport and a business. It also provides the first complete and accurate picture of a character who was larger than life and yet little known: the tricky, rule-bending catcher; the peppery field leader and fan favorite; the hot-tempered young manager. Illustrated with family photographs never before published, it affords unique insight into a colorful personality who helped shape baseball as we know it today.
29.99 In Stock
Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball

Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball

by Norman L Macht
Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball

Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball

by Norman L Macht

eBook

$29.99  $39.95 Save 25% Current price is $29.99, Original price is $39.95. You Save 25%.

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview


Connie Mack (1862–1956) was the Grand Old Man of baseball and one of the game’s first true celebrities. This book, spanning the first fifty-two years of Mack’s life, through 1914, covers his experiences as player, manager, and club owner and will stand as the definitive biography of baseball’s most legendary and beloved figure. 
 
Norman L. Macht chronicles Mack’s little-known beginnings. He tells how Mack, a school dropout at fourteen, created strategies for winning baseball and principles for managing men long before there were notions of defining such subjects. And he details how Mack, a key figure in the launching of the American League in 1901, won six of the league’s first fourteen pennants while serving as manager, treasurer, general manager, traveling secretary, and public relations and scouting director (all at the same time) for the Philadelphia Athletics.
 
This book brings to life the unruly origins of baseball as a sport and a business. It also provides the first complete and accurate picture of a character who was larger than life and yet little known: the tricky, rule-bending catcher; the peppery field leader and fan favorite; the hot-tempered young manager. Illustrated with family photographs never before published, it affords unique insight into a colorful personality who helped shape baseball as we know it today.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780803209909
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Publication date: 09/01/2007
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 3 MB

About the Author


Norman L. Macht is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and the author of more than thirty books, including biographies of Rowdy Richard (with Dick Bartell) and Rex Barney's Thank Youuuu (with Rex Barney).

Table of Contents


Foreword     ix
Preface     xi
Acknowledgments     xv
Introduction     1
Growing up in East Brookfield     7
The Young Catcher     18
A Rookie in Meriden     29
The Bones Battery     39
From Hartford to Washington     44
Life in the Big Leagues     52
Mr. and Mrs. Connie Mack     60
Jumping with the Brotherhood     67
The Players' League     73
Uncertainties of Life and Baseball     84
Connie Mack, Manager     95
The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Mack     108
Fired     120
Milwaukee     131
Working the System     146
Learning How to Handle Men     159
Marching behind Ban Johnson     166
Launching the New American League     184
The City of Brotherly Love and "Uncle Ben" Shibe     194
Columbia Park and the "Athaletics"     204
Raiding the National League     209
The Bullfrogs     220
The Uniqueness of Napoleon Lajoie     227
Winning the Battle of Philadelphia     232
A Staggering Blow     259
Schreckand the Rube and the White Elephant     270
Connie Mack's First Pennant     282
Signing a Treaty     302
The Profits of Peace     308
The Macks of Philadelphia     325
The First "Official" World Series     336
Rebuilding Begins     359
"We Wuz Robbed"     378
Connie Mack's Baseball School     406
Shibe Park     421
Connie's Kids Graduate     434
World Champions     462
Mr. and Mrs. Connie Mack-Part II     492
The {dollar}100,000 Infield     498
The Home Run Baker World Series     517
Coasting Down to Third Place     545
Speaking of Money     564
Captain Hook     573
The Second Beating of John McGraw     586
Another Baseball War     603
The Athletics Win Another Pennant - Ho Hum     614
Swept     630
The End of the Beginning     649
Epilogue     673
Sources     675
Index     677
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews