THE DAYS OF MR. MCGRAW

John McGraw started out as the cockiest sixteen-year-old ballplayer ever to bait a pitcher and ended up as the ""little Napoleon"" of the game. He was tyrannical, he was dictatorial... he was one of the most successful Czars to field a team during his thirty years as manager of the New York Giants. In his first season he took them from the cellar to the pennant and the name of the game was murder--""Once he offered to fight everybody in the Cincinnati ballpark. Once he threw a ball at an umpire in Pittsburgh."" And the Giants dominated until Ruth knocked out the Polo Grounds. But the old Giant fan will have to sift through an overload of detail to get the story--are you sure you want to know that Lord Mountbatten consumed six ice cream cones, two bags of peanuts, and four bottles of soda pop during one crucial game? However there are interesting notes on Christy Mathewson, Connie Mack and Ty Cobb in particular and the era in general. But Douglass Wallop's Baseball (p. 429) has more bases loaded.