Mitts: A Celebration of the Art of Fielding
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- Synopsis
- Willie Mays's impossible over-the-head catch of Vic Wertz's bid for a game-winning home run in the 1954 World Series . . . Joe DiMaggio's effortless veto of Hank Greenberg's 450-foot shot at Yankee Stadium in 1939 . . . Joe Rudi's ninth-inning climb up the left-field wall at Cincinnati in the 1972 Series to rob Denis Menke of a game-winning triple . . . Brooks Robinson's diving, scrambling stops against Cincinnati in the 1970 World Series . . . Graig Nettles's defying gravity in the 1978 World Series as he robbed the Dodgers of at least five runs in game three . . . Sam Rice's swan dive into the Washington bleachers in 1925 to rob Earl Smith of a game-winning homer . . . There is almost nothing in baseball more exciting than a great fielding play-a climb up the outfield wall, a diving catch, an acrobatic stop, a clutch throw. Still, through most of the history of baseball, players and fans alike tended to be less than "enthusiastic about glove work. Frenchy Bordagaray, free spirit and sometime Brooklyn Dodger outfielder, was chasing a long fly ball one afternoon when his cap blew off. If you don't think priorities have shifted in the last half century, note that Frenchy first went back to retrieve his cap and then continued after the ball. When Jake Beckley, a left-handed first baseman, cocked his arm, turn-of-the-century fans sitting behind third base ducked. So did the fans behind first. Jack Chapman, one of the few outfielders in the mid-nineteenth century who could consistently catch fly balls, was hailed in sporting journals as "Death to Flying Things." Yes, fans screamed with delight whenever an outfielder succeeded in catching a high fly. Despite the claims of old-timers and their general criticism of today's super-athlete, the player of today is bigger, smarter, faster, stronger, better nourished, and better instructed than his counterpart of fifty years ago. The player of yesteryear would be blown away in today's high-powered game, and nowhere is the disparity more pronounced than in fielding and defensive strategy. A position-by-position look at the best and the worst, Mitts is a baseball fan's tribute to what has traditionally been the most neglected aspect of the game-defense. Rich in the lore of fielding gems, Mitts is a celebration of baseball's newest glamour figures-the men with the gold gloves.
- Copyright:
- 1985
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Excellent
- Book Size:
- 240 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9780688044893
- Publisher:
- N/A
- Date of Addition:
- 09/10/08
- Copyrighted By:
- William Curran
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- Nonfiction, Sports
- Submitted By:
- Garyp
- Proofread By:
- mary stephens
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.