Fifty-Nine in '84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had - Hardcover

Achorn, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061825867 ISBN 13: 9780061825866

Publisher: Smithsonian Books, 2010

Synopsis

Fifty-Nine in '84 Achorn chronicles the career of Charles Old Hoss Radbourn, who, in 1884, had the winningest single season of any major-league baseball pitcher. "Fifty-nine in 84" also tells the tale of baseball in the 1880s--a brutal, bloody sport played barehanded.

About this title

Review:

"This is a beautifully written, meticulously researched story about a bygone baseball era that even die-hard fans will find foreign, and about a pitcher who might have been the greatest of all time."--Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer prize-winning historian and devoted Red Sox fan

This is a beautifully written, meticulously researched story about a bygone baseball era that even die-hard fans will find foreign, and about a pitcher who might have been the greatest of all time. --Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer prize-winning historian and devoted Red Sox fan"

Beautifully written and impeccably researched, Pure Grit is the best book out there on 19th-century baseball. Old Hoss Radbourn would be pleased that he is finally getting his due--and angry that it took so long.--Cait Murphy, author of CRAZY '08

From the Back Cover:

In 1884, Providence Grays pitcher Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn won an astounding fifty-nine games—more than anyone in major-league history ever had before, or has since. He then went on to win all three games of baseball's first World Series.

Fifty-nine in '84 tells the dramatic story not only of that amazing feat of grit but also of big-league baseball two decades after the Civil War—a brutal, bloody sport played barehanded, the profession of uneducated, hard-drinking men who thought little of cheating outrageously or maiming an opponent to win.

It is the tale, too, of the woman Radbourn loved, Carrie Stanhope, the alluring proprietress of a boarding-house with shady overtones, a married lady who was said to have personally known every man in the National League.

Wonderfully entertaining, Fifty-nine in '84 is an indelible portrait of a legendary player and a fascinating, little-known era of the national pastime.

About this edition

• Publisher: Smithsonian Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0061825867
• ISBN 13: 9780061825866
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 366