The Glory Of Their Times
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The Glory Of Their Times
''The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It'' is a 1966 book, edited by Lawrence Ritter, telling the stories of early 20th century baseball. It is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest books ever written about baseball. Preparation Ritter got the idea for the book in 1961 upon the death of Ty Cobb, who had been widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the game's history. He was also influenced by the works of John and Alan Lomax, who traveled the country in the 1930s and 1940s with tape recorders seeking out old and almost forgotten American folk songs. Ritter realized that those who played baseball in the early years of the 20th century were now old men, and he resolved to interview as many of them as he could in order to record their memories. Ritter travelled 75,000 miles to interview his subjects, sitting for hours listening to them tell their tales into his tape recorder. The book retells their stories in the f ...
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Lawrence Ritter
Lawrence Stanley Ritter (May 23, 1922 – February 15, 2004) was an American writer whose specialties were economics and baseball. Ritter was a professor of economics and finance, and chairman of the Department of Finance at the Graduate School of Business Administration of New York University. He also edited ''The Journal of Finance'' from 1964 to 1966.J. Suter. ''TAPPING THE KEG''. Cumberland Evening Times. September 30, 1966. pp. 13 & 15 In 1970, Ritter served as president of the American Finance Association. He died at age 81 in New York City. His book, ''Principles of Money, Banking, and Financial Markets,'' coauthored with William L. Silber and Gregory F. Udell, has gone through twelve editions and has been a standard college text since it was first published in 1974. Ritter is best known for writing one of the most famous sports books of all time, ''The Glory of Their Times'' (1966, updated 1984). He collaborated with another baseball historian, Donald Honig, on ''The Im ...
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Babe Herman
Floyd Caves "Babe" Herman (June 26, 1903 – November 27, 1987) was an American professional baseball player and scout. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right fielder between and , most prominently as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers who were known as the Robins at that time. After his most productive years with the Robins, he ended his playing career playing for the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates and the Detroit Tigers. Herman was one of the most impressive power hitters of the late 1920s and early 1930s, accumulating a career batting average of .324 and a number of Dodger franchise season records still in effect. At the time of his retirement in 1945, his .532 career slugging percentage ranked fourth among National League (NL) hitters with at least 5,000 at bats. His .393 batting average, .678 slugging percentage, 241 hits and 416 total bases produced during the season remain Dodgers franchise records, with his 143 runs being the post-1900 t ...
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Specs Toporcer
George Toporcer (born ''Toporczer''; February 9, 1899 – May 17, 1989) was a professional baseball player and executive. He served primarily as a utility infielder during his eight seasons in Major League Baseball, playing for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1921 through 1928. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed and was listed as tall and . Toporcer is widely considered as the first major league baseball position player to wear eyeglasses on the playing field. The distinction gained Toporcer his nickname, "Specs". Early life From an early age, like most children at the time, George Toporczer was obsessed with baseball. In an interview, he admitted that for the last seventy five years scarce a day had gone by that he had not contemplated the sport. He stated that in spite of his obsession he was always picked last during childhood games because of his slight build and glasses. He went to school and became friends with actor Jimmy Cagney, staying in touch into the later por ...
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Fred Snodgrass
Frederick Carlisle Snodgrass (October 19, 1887 – April 5, 1974) was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball from to . He is best known for dropping a key fly ball in the 1912 World Series. New York Giants Early years Snodgrass was originally a catcher when he joined the New York Giants in 1908 at twenty years old. He made his major league debut on June 4, and collected his first major league hit and run batted in off the St. Louis Cardinals' Slim Sallee. With Hall of Famer Roger Bresnahan manning catching duties for manager John McGraw, Snodgrass saw very little action. On December 12, 1908, the Giants traded Bresnahan to the St. Louis Cardinals for Red Murray, Bugs Raymond and Admiral Schlei. Snodgrass appeared in his first two games of behind the plate (hitting his first career home run off Jake Boultes in his second game), but Schlei and rookie Chief Meyers would share catching duties in , with Snodgrass shifting to the outfield. Snodgrass began to emer ...
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Edd Roush
Edd J. Roush (May 8, 1893 – March 21, 1988) was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a center fielder from 1913 to 1931, most prominently as a member of the Cincinnati Reds where he was a two-time National League (NL) batting champion and led the team to the 1919 World Series championship. He also played for the New York Giants, Chicago White Sox as well as the Newark Peppers and the Indianapolis Hoosiers of the Federal League. Roush accumulated a .323 batting average over his 18-year playing career and, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. Early life Roush was born in Oakland City, Indiana, on May 8, 1893, to parents Laura and William Roush. Stinson, Mitchell, pp. 20 A twin, he and his brother Fred (not short for Edward or Frederick, respectively) each shared a middle initial of J, which was not short for any name. A son of a dairy farmer he worked on the farm throughout childhood. He grew up left-hande ...
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Bob O'Farrell
Robert Arthur O'Farrell (October 19, 1896 – February 20, 1988) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher for 21 seasons with the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Giants. O'Farrell also played for the Cincinnati Reds, albeit briefly. He was considered one of the greatest defensive catchers of his generation. Baseball career O'Farrell was born in Waukegan, Illinois where he grew up a Chicago White Sox fan. He signed with the Cubs in 1915 after playing an exhibition game for his local semi-professional team. His first manager was former catcher, Roger Bresnahan, who helped O'Farrell develop his catching skills. After a season on the bench, O'Farrell was sent to Three-I League where he spent two years before returning to the Cubs for the 1918 season. He served as backup catcher working behind Bill Killefer as the Cubs went on to claim the National League pennant before losing to the Boston Red Sox ...
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Lefty O'Doul
Francis Joseph "Lefty" O'Doul (March 4, 1897 – December 7, 1969) was an American Major League Baseball player who went on to become an extraordinarily successful manager in the minor leagues. He was also a vital figure in the establishment of professional baseball in Japan. Career Player Born in San Francisco, California, in the Bayview neighborhood, O'Doul began his professional career as a left-handed pitcher with the minor-league San Francisco Seals of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. He had some major-league success with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox from to as a reliever. He pitched for the Red Sox in one notable game at Cleveland on July 7, 1923, that would go down in the record books. Relieving for starter Curt Fullerton, O'Doul gave up 16 runs over 3 innings of relief, with 14 of those runs coming in the 6th inning alone. Although errors committed by Red Sox fielders meant that only 3 of the 16 runs were earned, O'Doul set the major league record f ...
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Chief Meyers
John Tortes "Chief" Meyers (July 29, 1880 – July 25, 1971) was a Major League Baseball catcher for the New York Giants (NL), New York Giants, Boston Braves (baseball), Boston Braves, and Brooklyn Robins from 1909 to 1917. He played on the early Giants teams under manager John McGraw and was the primary catcher for Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson. Meyers hit over .300 for three straight years as the Giants won three straight National League pennants from 1911 to 1913. Overall, he played in four World Series – the 1911, 1912, and 1913 Series with the Giants, as well as the 1916 Series with the Robins. Meyers was a Native American from the Cahuilla culture of California, and he was educated at Dartmouth College. Early years Meyers was born to John Meyer and Felicite Meyer, a Cahuilla Indian, in Riverside, California. At the age of seven, his father died; John Meyers continued to live in Riverside, and attended Riverside Polytechnic High School, Riverside High School. Meyers was pl ...
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Rube Marquard
Richard William "Rube" Marquard (October 9, 1886 – June 1, 1980) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball in the 1910s and early 1920s. He achieved his greatest success with the New York Giants. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971. Early life Rube Marquard was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to German immigrant Fred Marquard and Lena Heiser Marquard. Marquard claimed an 1889 year of birth, but 1900 census data and a birth certificate show an 1886 year of birth. Lena Marquard died of an abdominal infection in 1899, and Rube's grandmother took responsibility for raising him. Marquard quit school after the fifth grade; biographer Larry Mansch writes that he "simply refused to attend any longer." Newspaper reports first mentioned Marquard in 1905, when he played with an amateur team in Cleveland. Though pitching for a poor team that had a 1–15 win–loss record at one point, Marquard attracted attention as a top pitcher. He broke a City League re ...
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Hans Lobert
John Bernard "Hans" Lobert (October 18, 1881 – September 14, 1968) was an American third baseman, shortstop, coach, manager and scout in Major League Baseball. Lobert was immortalized in the 1966 Lawrence Ritter book ''The Glory of Their Times''. Early life Lobert was born in Wilmington, Delaware. He was the son of a cabinet maker. Lobert was one of 6 children including brothers Frank and Ollie who also became professional baseball players. The family eventually moved to Williamsport, Pennsylvania after his baseball career began. He attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Playing career Barney Dreyfuss, owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, invited Lobert to try out for his team in September 1903. He started his professional baseball career at the age of 21 that same month. Like shortstop Honus Wagner, a teammate as well as a neighbor of Lobert's when he first came to the major leagues, the German-American Lobert earned the nickname "Hans" as a familiar form ...
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Tommy Leach
Thomas Andrew Leach (November 4, 1877 – September 29, 1969) was a professional baseball outfielder and third baseman. He played in Major League Baseball from 1898 through 1918 for the Louisville Colonels, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds. Leach led the National League in home runs in 1902 with six, and played in the first modern World Series in 1903 with the Pirates, hitting four triples to set a record that still stands. He played alongside legendary ballplayers such as Honus Wagner and Mordecai Brown. Leach began his career primarily as an infielder including playing shortstop, second base and, mostly, third base. Later, to take advantage of his speed, Leach played mostly outfield. Leach is also famous for being interviewed for Lawrence Ritter's 1966 book ''The Glory of Their Times''. Pittsburgh years Leach was well known for his small stature and was nicknamed "Wee Tommy". In 1902, while with the Pirates, he led the National League in home runs with a ...
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Willie Kamm
William Edward Kamm (February 2, 1900 – December 21, 1988) was an American professional baseball player. He played as a third baseman in Major League Baseball from to . Kamm played most of his career for the Chicago White Sox before finishing his playing days with the Cleveland Indians. He was the dominant defensive third baseman in the American League for most of his career.''In Kamm's Day - And Now'', by Jack McDonald, Baseball Digest, March 1966, Vol. 25, No. 2


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