Great American Baseball Stories: Lyons Press Classics - Paperback

by Jeff Silverman (Editor)

Before multimillion-dollar salaries, luxury boxes, and player strikes became synonymous with professional sports, there existed the belief in playing simply "for the love of the game." Nothing captures that spirit better than these twenty classic pieces about America's favorite pastime.

Collected here are the writings of Ring Lardner, Zane Grey, the Giants' immortal Christy Mathewson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Finley Peter Dunne (who for a time was America's most popular humorist after Mark Twain), Burt Standish (creator of that all-American hero, Frank Merriwell), and many more. Baseball's golden era may have long since passed, but in the pages of Great American Baseball Stories, you can still sit in the bleachers for a nickel.

Relive the golden era of baseball with timeless classics from:
Albert G. Spalding
Henry Chadwick
Ernest Lawrence Thayer
Grantland Rice
Sol White
Brig. Gen. Fredrick Funston
Zane Grey
Candy Cummings
Alfred H. Spink
Burt L. Standish
Lester Chadwick
Finley Peter Dunne
Christy Mathewson
Damon Runyon
Grover Cleveland Alexander
Gerald Beaumont
Ring Lardner
Hugh Fullerton
Ralph D. Blanpied
Charles E. Van Loan
P.G. Wodehouse

Back Jacket

From the olden days of flannel uniforms and metal spikes to those of retractable-domed stadiums and nine-figure player salaries; from the golden era of Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb to that of present-day sluggers like Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey, Jr., perhaps no single athletic pursuit has managed to capture the imagination and devotion of the sporting public as much as the game of baseball. And it is no wonder that some of our finest writers have weighed in on this rich and fascinating subject.In The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told, editor Jeff Silverman collects some of the best writings, both fact and realistic fiction, that reflect the resonant history, tradition, agony and ecstasy of what has been affectionately dubbed our national pastime.With contributions from: John Updike, Gay Talese, Pete Hamill, Gary Smith, Roy Blount, Jr., Red Barber, Zane Grey, Vin Scully, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and many more.

Author Biography

Jeff Silverman, a former columnist for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, has written for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and several national magazines. He is also editor of The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told, Lardner on Baseball, The Greatest Golf Stories Ever Told, Classic Golf Stories, Bernard Darwin on Golf, and The Greatest Boxing Stories Ever Told.