Bill Nowlin

William Nowlin

In the 111-year-history of the Boston Red Sox, fans have been treated to countless firsts— the first manager of the franchise (Jimmy Collins), the first American League MVP to play for the Sox (Tris Speaker), the first 20-game winner (Bill Dineen), the first to hit 500 home runs (Ted Williams), and the first Red Sox pitcher to win the Cy Young Award (Roger Clemens). The list goes on. In Boston Red Sox Firsts, veteran Red Sox historian Bill Nowlin presents the stories behind the firsts in Red Sox history in question-and-answer format. More than a mere trivia book, Nowlin’s collection includes substantive answers to the question of “who was the first…?” on a variety of topics, many of which will surprise even seasoned fans of the Sox.

The Players, Moments, and Records That Were First in Team History

Boston Red Sox Firsts

Jorge Iber

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a long history, peppered with moments significant both to Pirates fans and Major League Baseball. While the Pirates are recognized as fielding the first all-black lineup in 1971, the 66 games in this book include one of the first matchups in the majors to involve two non-white opening hurlers (Native American and Cuban) in June 1921. We relive no-hitters, World Series-winning homers, and encounter the story of the last tripleheader ever played in major-league baseball. Some of the games are wins; some are losses. All of these essays provide readers with a sense of the totality of the Pirates' experiences: the joy, the heartbreak, and other aspects of baseball (and life) in between. This book is the work of 37 members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), including JEFF BARTO, JOHN BAUER, ROBERT E. BIONAZ, THOMAS J. BROWN JR., FREDERICK C. (RICK) BUSH, ALAN COHEN, PAUL E. DOUTRICH, DOUG FELDMANN, JEFF FINDLEY, T.S. FLYNN, GORDON J. GATTIE, TOM HAWTHORN, ROCK HOFFMAN, PAUL HOFMANN, MIKE HUBER, JORGE IBER, FRANK ITTNER, MATT KEELEAN, RUSS LAKE, BOB LEMOINE, LEN LEVIN, MARK MILLER, SETH MOLAND-KOVASH, BILL NOWLIN, RICHARD "PETE" PETERSON, STEPHEN PETERSON, RICHARD J. PUERZER, ELIZA RICHARDSON, C. PAUL ROGERS III, HARRY SCHOGER, BLAKE W. SHERRY, WAYNE STRUMPFER, JOSEPH WANCHO, BOB WEBSTER, STEVEN C. WEINER, GREGORY H. WOLF, JACK ZERBY. Contents: MAY 10, 1882: First Major-League Game in Pittsburgh APRIL 22, 1891: Opening Day 1891 OCTOBER 4, 1892: Pirates Set Wins Record OCTOBER 13, 1903: First World Series SEPT 20, 1907: Maddox First Bucs No-Hitter JUNE 29, 1909: Farewell to the Old Yard JUNE 30, 1909: Forbes Field Opening Day JULY 3, 1910: Chief Hits for the Cycle AUGUST 22, 1912: "Wagner Wields Willow," Hits for the Cycle OCTOBER 2, 1920: Only Major-League Tripleheader JUNE 30, 1921: "Chief" Yellow Horse Defeats Luque JUNE 20, 1925: Cuyler, Carey, and Co. Steamroll Brooklyn OCTOBER 15, 1925: Game 7 1925 World Series JUNE 24, 1933: Arky Vaughan Hits for the Cycle JUNE 19, 1934: Traynor as Pirates Manager APRIL 27, 1938: Vaughan Slams Cubs MAY 4, 1938: Lloyd Waner's Big Game MAY 30, 1939: Rizzo's Nine RBIs AUGUST 27, 1949: Tiny Bonham's Last Game JUNE 25, 1950: Kiner Hits for the Cycle SEPT 23, 1951: Dickson's 20th Win JUNE 6, 1952: Bucs Shave The Barber APRIL 13, 1954: Law Return from Military MAY 16, 1954: Rookie Roberts Collects 3 Hits SEPT 24, 1955: Friend Clinches ERA Title JULY 25, 1956: Clemente Grand Slams JULY 18, 1957: Arroyo's Final Victory MAY 1, 1958: Frank Has A Big Day MAY 26, 1959: Haddix Pitches 12 Perfect Innings AUGUST 6, 1960: "We Had 'em All the Way" OCTOBER 13, 1960: Mazeroski's Homer APRIL 15, 1961: Friend Bests Drysdale SEPT 21, 1963: Gene Baker: First African American Manager JULY 22, 1964: Mazeroski, Lynch, and Stargell Rout Cardinals JUNE 1, 1965: Veale's 16 Strikeouts OCTOBER 2, 1966: Matty Alou Batting Title MAY 15, 1967: Clemente Blasts 3 Homers SEPT 20, 1969: A Trophy No-Hitter: Bob Moose JUNE 12, 1970: Dock Ellis No-Hitter JUNE 28, 1970: Human Locusts Day AUGUST 14, 1971: Gib No-Hitter AUGUST 23, 1971: Best Game for Al Oliver SEPT 1, 1971: First All-Black Lineup OCTOBER 17, 1971: World Series Game 7 SEPT 30, 1972: Clemente Collects Number 3,000 in Last At-Bat APRIL 6, 1973: No Clemente in Right JUNE 13, 1973: Blass Loses Control SEPT 16, 1975: Stennett Leads Rout SEPT 25, 1976: The Tragic Death of Bob Moose OCTOBER 3, 1976: Murtaugh's Final Games OCTOBER 17, 1979: Pirates Win the Series MAY 19, 1981: Bibby's Near No-Hitter SEPT 25, 1985: Reuschel Inspires Bucs OCTOBER 13, 1992: Pirates Back Wakefield in NLCS JULY 12, 1997: Cordova, Rincon, & Smith Fireworks JULY 28, 2001: Pirates' Comeback JULY 2, 2010: Ohlendorf Wins JULY 26, 2011: A Really Bad Call SEPT 9, 2013: Pirates End the Streak OCTOBER 1, 2013: NL Wild Card Game JUNE 20, 2015: Scherzer No-Hitter OCTOBER 7, 2015: NL Wild Card Game APRIL 26, 2016: McCutchen 3 Home Runs

66 Significant Episodes in the History of the Pittsburgh Pirates

Moments of Joy and Heartbreak

Cecilia Tan

Mark Armour

John Thorn

Jacob Pomrenke

Scott Bush

Leslie Heaphy

SABR 50 at 50 celebrates and highlights the Society for American Baseball Research’s wide-ranging contributions to baseball history. Established in 1971 in Cooperstown, New York, SABR has sought to foster and disseminate the research of baseball—with groundbreaking work from statisticians, historians, and independent researchers—and has published dozens of articles with far-reaching and long-lasting impact on the game. Among its current membership are many Major and Minor League Baseball officials, broadcasters, and writers as well as numerous former players. The diversity of SABR members’ interests is reflected in this fiftieth-anniversary volume—from baseball and the arts to statistical analysis to the Deadball Era to women in baseball. SABR 50 at 50 includes the most important and influential research published by members across a multitude of topics, including the sabermetric work of Dick Cramer, Pete Palmer, and Bill James, along with Jerry Malloy on the Negro Leagues, Keith Olbermann on why the shortstop position is number 6, John Thorn and Jules Tygiel on the untold story behind Jackie Robinson’s signing with the Dodgers, and Gai Berlage on the Colorado Silver Bullets women’s team in the 1990s. To provide history and context, each notable research article is accompanied by a short introduction. As SABR celebrates fifty years this collection gathers the organization’s most notable research and baseball history for the serious baseball reader.

The Society for American Baseball Research’s Fifty Most Essential Contributions to the Game

SABR 50 at 50

The Society for American Baseball Research's Fifty Most Essential Contributions to the Game

Steve Johnson

Leonard Levin

Joseph Wancho

Rick Huhn

The 1954 Cleveland Indians were one of the most remarkable baseball teams of all time. Their record for most wins (111) fell only when the baseball schedule expanded, and their winning percentage, an astounding .721, is still unsurpassed in the American League. Though the season ended with a heartbreaking loss to the New York Giants in the World Series, the 1954 team remains a favorite among Cleveland fans and beyond. Pitching to the Pennant commemorates the ’54 Indians with a biographical sketch of the entire team, from the “Big Three” pitching staff (Mike Garcia and future Hall of Famers Bob Lemon and Early Wynn), through notable players such as Bobby Avila, Bob Feller, Larry Doby, and Al Rosen, to manager Al Lopez, his coaches, and the Indians’ broadcast team. There are also stories about Cleveland Stadium and the 1954 All-Star Game (which the team hosted), as well as a season timeline and a firsthand account of Game One of the World Series at the Polo Grounds. Pitching to the Pennant features the superb writing and research of members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), making this book a must for all Indians fans and baseball aficionados.

The 1954 Cleveland Indians

Pitching to the Pennant

The first biography ever written about Boston Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky chronicles his nearly eight decades in the game, from his tenure as a "clubhouse kid" through his career as a major league shortstop to his roles as coach and talent scout.

The Johnny Pesky Story

Mr. Red Sox

Jim Prime

Learn about the 2018 World Series-winning Red Sox outfield! Andrew Benintendi, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Mookie Betts, three superb outfielders who are known collectively as the "Killer B's," have set Major League Baseball abuzz. Most notably, they made up the Red Sox World Series-winning outfield in 2018, a season in which Betts was voted the American League MVP and received a Gold Glove, Bradley earned ALCS MVP accolades and also a Gold Glove, and Benintendi featured one of the smoothest swings since Ted Williams to complement his defensive prowess. In The Boston Red Sox Killer B's, veteran authors Jim Prime and Bill Nowlin team up once again to cover the young careers of all three players, with special emphasis on the 2018 season. Along the way, Prime and Nowlin incorporate on- and off-field stories and interviews with teammates to offer fans a better understanding of how this trio has transformed into New England folk heroes and how they have developed a chemistry unmatched by any other outfield around the league. This book serves as the perfect gift for any Red Sox fan!

Baseball’s Best Outfield

The Boston Red Sox Killer B's

A volume of more than seventy biographies of players and managers on the Boston Braves and Boston Red Sox teams of 1948 traces how they nearly played each other for the world championship, in an account that is complemented by a Diamond Mind simulation of a Braves and Red Sox Streetcar Series. Original.

Boston's (almost) Perfect Baseball Summer of 1948

Spahn, Sain, and Teddy Ballgame

Teddy Ballgame: A Tribute to Ted Williams is filled to the brim with wonderful photos and stories about the man who reigns today as the elder statesman of baseball. Agreed by most to be the greatest pure hitter in the history of the game, Teddy Ballgame is a lot more. He's a military hero as well, having served in two wars and having flown combat missions with John Glenn as a United States Marine Corps jet fighter pilot. As a celebrity, he has lent his name to numerable charitable efforts and his half-century of service in the cause of fighting children's cancer represents the longest association of any sports figure with a charitable cause. Among baseball fans, no one who watched the 1999 All Star Game will ever forget the moment when all the great Hall of Famers from the game's past broke ranks on the field at Fenway Park and flocked around Ted once he was brought to the mound. It was a spontaneous show of love and admiration for Teddy Ballgame. This book isn't just for Red Sox fans, it's for baseball fans of all ages and allegiances.

The Pursuit of Perfection

Ted Williams

Baseball's Best Outfield

Todd Anton

More than any other sport, professional football contributed fighting men to the battles of World War II, and the 22 or so players or former players that lost their lives are among the riveting stories told in this tribute to football's war heroes that spans many decades and military conflicts. The National Football League counts three Congressional Medal of Honor recipients among its honors, along with numerous Silver Stars, Distinguished Flying Crosses, and Purple Hearts. When Football Went to War offers a ground-breaking look at football—college and professional football alike—and many of the wartime heroes who came off the field of play to fight for their country. Detailed biographies of those who gave their lives are supplemented by many other stories of wartime heroism, from World War I through to Pat Tillman's tragic death in the Global War on Terrorism. Football has become the most popular sport in America and this heartfelt book honors the many sacrifices of NFL athletes over the years in service of their country.

When Football Went to War

As a young student in Russia, Alexander Berkman claims to have heard the bomb explode which killed Tsar Alexander II in 1881. He emigrated to America and, inspired by the Haymarket martyrs, became active in Jewish anarchist circles. When Henry Clay Frick of Carnegie Steel sent in armed Pinkertons who killed strikers at Homestead Steel, Berkman traveled to Pittsburg and shot Frick in an assassination attempt of his own, hoping to inspire a workers' revolt. He spent 14 years in prison, then rejoined his comrade Emma Goldman and was active in the free speech movement, in setting up free schools, in the beginnings of the birth control movement, and in defensing numerous activists charged by prosecutors. He and Goldman organized against military conscription during World War II and were deported to Russia, arriving shortly after the Revolution. There, as anarchists, they also ran afoul of the Communist Party authorities who were intent on consolidating political power. They had to leave Russia as well, and then to leave Germany, finally landing in exile in France. Throughout, Berkman was a skilled organizer and both edited and wrote numerous publications. His life, his work, and his ideas are explored in this book. Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman are prominent figures in any consideration of American anarchism. From roughly 1892 to 1919 they were at the forefront of the American anarchist movement and deeply involved in the international movement for yet another decade and a half. Since their deportation to Bolshevik Russia in 1919, there has been a dearth of explicitly anarchist writing and organization in the United States which earned any sizable or responsive audience. Neither Goldman nor Berkman were original political theorists of the first order, but both dealt with the great questions of political thought, and they can be said to have advanced anarchist theory in the light of the first modern socialist revolution. Although virtually inseparable as comrades in thought, action and life, there were differences of opinion between them. This book focuses specifically on Berkman.

Alexander Berkman Anarchist

A fresh look at the merciless Red Sox / Yankees rivalry, drawing on history, original interviews with players from both sides, and discussions with partisans of each team among the fans.

The Red Sox, the Yankees, and the Struggle of Good Versus Evil

Blood Feud

Ted Williams was a giant of a man, the likes of whom America may never see again. Enshrined in Cooperstown in 1966, in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Ted Williams was also the first living athlete to be honored with his own Museum - the Ted Williams Museum and Hitter's Hall of Fame.

Ted Williams in San Diego

The Kid

Lan Levin

Dan Desrochers

Maurice Bouchard

OPENING FENWAY PARK WITH STYLE: The 1912 World Champion Red Sox is the collaborative work of 27 members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). This book, which contains over 300 period photographs and illustrations, has at its core the individual biographies of every player on the team, even Douglass Smith—who appeared in just one game. There are also biographies of owner John I. Taylor and American League founder Ban Johnson. The book also contains a detailed timeline of the full calendar year, with essays on the construction of brand-new Fenway Park and its first renovation, as the team (which won the pennant by 14 games) prepared for Fenway’s first World Series. The 1912 World Series remains one of the most exciting in baseball history, extending to eight games because of a 14-inning tie game in Game Two. In Game Eight the Giants scored a tie-breaking run to take a lead in the top of the 10th inning, only to see Boston come back with two in the bottom of the 10th to win at home. Other articles in the book detail intriguing topics including a fascinating spring training, during which Sox players joined the hunt for a murderer in Hot Springs, life in Boston in 1912, and how the newspapers and telegraph reported the games in the days before radio, television, or the internet. It may surprise some to learn of the thousands of people who crowded outside the downtown offices of newspapers so they could get batter-by-batter updates on the progress of the World Series games-in-progress. There are more than a dozen books celebrating the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park, but only this one is devoted to the 1912 season itself, providing the context for the then-new park which remains home to Boston baseball a century later.

The 1912 Champion Red Sox

Opening Fenway Park with Style

Rounder Records was born in 1970, a "hobby that got out of control," a fledging record company more or less conceived while the Sixties were still in flower, which began on just over $1,000. Founded by three friends just out of college, the Boston-area company produced over 3,000 record albums, the most active company of the last half-century specializing in roots music and its contemporary offshoots. Rounder won 56 Grammy Awards and documented a swath of music that in many cases might otherwise never have been presented to a broader public. It's arguably a quintessentially American success story. This book focuses on the early years up to and just through when Rounder evolved to a second stage, with a generational change that has kept the label healthy and flourishing when so many other cultural enterprises from the era have folded or gone dark. It's the story of three people with no background in business who took an idea and, through hard work and passion, built up something of lasting cultural significance. Rounder Records: A Biography is less a standard history and more an idiosyncratic memoir written by one of the three Rounder founders. The book includes original photographs taken by the author or drawn from the Rounder archives.

My Fifty Years at Rounder Records

Vinyl Ventures

Len Levin

Carl Riechers

What are Major League Baseball's greatest comeback games? This book set out to collect the stories of those games, but rather than throw together an anecdotally-determined collection of games, SABR decided to see if there was an objective measure, a way to determine which was the greatest comeback game of all time, and to rank the games. Retrosheet's Tom Ruane created a master list of 630 games and ranked them mathematically in terms of how unlikely the win was, and therefore how great the comeback had been. The games in this volume are presented in rank order, from number 1 through 64. We also added the greatest postseason comeback games. These seven contests are presented in a separate section devoted to postseason games. And to make sure that every current team in MLB was represented in this volume, we treated the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants as different from the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants, and added the greatest comeback by the Colorado Rockies, Texas Rangers, and several other teams. In the end, every major-league team in represented in Baseball's Greatest Comeback Games, but the Phillies lead the list with six comeback wins in the top 64. Tied for second for most comebacks are four American League teams: the Red Sox, Indians, Tigers, and Yankees. This book was a team effort by 60 members of the Society for American Baseball Research, who researched and wrote about all 80 games presented herein.

Baseball's Greatest Comeback Games

Matthew Silverman

What do Rube Walberg, Mike Nagy, Kevin Millar, and Dustin Pedroia all have in common? They have all worn #15 for the Boston Red Sox. Since 1931, the Red Sox have issued 74 different numbers to more than 1,500 players. In this newly updated edition, Red Sox by the Numbers tells the story of every Red Sox player since ’31—from Bill Sweeney (the first Red Sox player to don #1) to J.T. Snow (#84, the highest numbered non-coach in Sox history). Each chapter also features a fascinating sidebar that reveals obscure players who wore certain numbers and also which numbers produced the most wins, home runs, and stolen bases in club history. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

A Complete Team History of the Boston Red Sox by Uniform Number

Red Sox by the Numbers

Clifton Blue Parker

Sweet ’60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates is the joint product of 44 authors and editors from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) who have pooled their efforts to create a portrait of the 1960 team which pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the last 60 years. Game Seven of the 1960 World Series between the Pirates and the Yankees swung back and forth. Heading into the bottom of the eighth inning at Forbes Field, the Yankees had outscored the Pirates, 53-21, and held a 7–4 lead in the deciding game. The Pirates hadn’t won a World Championship since 1925, while the Yanks had won 17 of them in the same stretch of time, seven of the preceding 11 years. The Pirates scored five times in the bottom of the eighth and took the lead, only to cough it up in the top of the ninth. The game was tied 9–9 in the bottom of the ninth. At 3:36, Bill Mazeroski swung at Ralph Terry’s slider. As Curt Smith writes in these pages: “There goes a long drive hit deep to left field!” said Gunner. “Going back is Yogi Berra! Going back! You can kiss it good-bye!” No smooch was ever lovelier. “How did we do it, Possum? How did we do it?” Prince said finally, din all around. Woods didn’t know—only that, “I’m looking at the wildest thing since I was on Hollywood Boulevard the night World War II ended.” David had toppled Goliath. It was a blow that awakened a generation, one that millions of people saw on television, one of TV’s first iconic World Series moments.

Bill Nowlin

Books

Your next favorite book is out there