The Wizard of Waxahachie: Paul Richards and the End of Baseball as We Knew it (Sport in American Life) - Hardcover

Corbett, Warren

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0870745565 ISBN 13: 9780870745560

Publisher: Southern Methodist University Press,U.S., 2009

Synopsis

The Wizard of Waxahachie One of the most influential--and controversial--figures in baseball of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, Paul Richards was a player, manager, and general manager, a participant in many of the historic changes that marked "the end of baseball as we knew it." Richards managed the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles--laying the foundation for the Orioles' championship clubs of the 1960s and 1970s--and built the expansion Houston team from scratch. Best known for inventing the giant mitt for knuckleball catchers, Richards was also the first manager to track on-base percentage and the first to monitor pitch counts. He constantly experimented with tactics and strateg...

About this title

Review:

"A fine biography, impressively researched and well written. Corbett captures the full Paul Richards - a true Texan, a complicated, flawed man who was something of a baseball genius, A major figure in American baseball history, Richards is in danger of being forgotten, and he shouldn't be. Corbett's biography keeps his achievements alive for new generations of baseball fans." - Charles C. Alexander, author of Spoke: A Biography of Tris Speaker "Paul Richards taught me more baseball than any manager I ever played for. He was a leader and was my mentor on the field and in the front office. I looked up to him and believed in him and my faith was always rewarded. Corbett gives Paul his due at long last." - Eddie Robinson, four-time American League All-Star, former general manager of the Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers "A remarkably thorough and well-researched study of a significant figure in baseball history." - Judith Testa, author of Sal Maglie: Baseball's Demon Barber "A fascinating study of one of baseball's most fascinating figures. This well-researched story of Paul Richards's sixty years as a genius of the game provides true insight into a remarkable player, manager, and executive who shaped an exciting era of the sport's history." - Ernie Harwell, winner of the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting"

About the Author:

WARREN CORBETT was briefly a minor league baseball broadcaster before turning to news reporting. A past winner of the Aviation/Space Writers Association award, he is a contributor to the Society for American Baseball Research's Biography Project at http://bioproj.sabr.org and editor of a trade publication in Washington, D. C.

About this edition

• Publisher: Southern Methodist University Press,U.S.
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0870745565
• ISBN 13: 9780870745560
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352