THE LORDS OF BASEBALL

by Harold Parrott ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 4, 1976

A bright and breezy close-up of assorted baseball owners and their shenanigans, as recorded by a former sportswriter turned Dodger road secretary and San Diego Padre ticket manager. Parrott began his career beside Nunnally Johnson on the Brooklyn Eagle sports desk back in the days of Babe Herman and Van Lingle Mungo. The Daffy Dodgers floundered haplessly throughout the Thirties as the ""unpredictable"" Larry MacPhail ran the club with reckless abandon. His successor, Branch ""the Mahatma"" Rickey, succeeded in revitalizing the Dodger farm system as well as adding color to the game in the form of Jackie Robinson (""the black Ty Cobb""). You may be surprised to find the organization's current boss, Walter O'Malley, caricatured as a ""devious"" skinflint who ""kidnapped"" the team and deposited it on the freeways of LA. And did you know that manager Walter Alston came close to being fired twice in the past 24 years--he was nearly replaced during the '74 pennant stretch by none other than Leo Durocher. The inside story with a good deal of oomph.

Pub Date: June 4, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Praeger

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION