Easton Press: LORDS OF THE REALM: HISTORY OF BASEBALL: JOHN HELYAR

Description: Easton Press leather edition of John Helyar's "Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball," a COLLECTOR'S edition, one of the BASEBALL HALL OF FAME series, published in 1998. Bound in green leather, the book has decorative paper end leaves, satin book marker, hubbed spine, acid-free paper, Symth-sewn binding, gold gilding on three edges---in near FINE condition---opened from SHRINK WRAP for photos; however the upper two corners have been lightyly tipped---mentioned for accuracy! John Helyar, who was born in 1951, attended the Boston University. Helyar said: "When my father took me to my first baseball game at Fenway Park in 1960, Ted Williams got a double; I was hooked." Before it was ever a business it was a game. In the 1840s when teams from New York crossed the Hudson Riber and played a game called "base," the game was on. It grew in the 1850s and 1860s but remained a gentleman's sport. In 1871, the first league was formed of teams who played for pay. It wasn't a stable business but it was well on its way to becoming a national pastime." The first recorded salary cap came in 1889. The owners set top pay at $2500.00. The lowest classified players would have to sweep up the ballpark ot take tickets. Baseball boomed in the early 1900s. Baseball struggled through the Great Depression like every other industry. When JOE DIMAGGIO held out in 1938, after his first big season, for $40,000, the press scalded him for not accepting the proffered $25,000. "Why, $25,000 is enough to make him financially independent for the rest of his life." Helyar says that "television changed everything. TV money had become the Lords' lifeblood, the great equalizer in the baseball economy." Baseball has always inspired rhapsodic elegies of the glory of man and golden moments of wonderful times. In this fascinating, colorful chronicle---based on hundreds of interviews and years of research and writing, Helyar brings to vivid life the extraordinary people and dramatic events that shaped America's favorite pastime, from the dead-ball days at the turn of the century through the great strike of 1994. Helyar chronicles zealous Judge Landis banishing eight players, including SHOELESS JOE JACKSON, after the infamous "Black Sox" scandal; the flamboyant A's owner CHARLIE FINLEY wheel and deal his star players, VIDA BLUE and ROLLIE FINGERS, like a deck of cards; the hysterical bidding war of coveted free agent CATFISH HUNTER; the chain-smoking romantic, A. Bartlett Giamatti, locking horns with PETE ROSE during his gambling days of summer. The New York Times Book Review said Helyar's book was the "ultimate chronicle of the games behind the game." The Kirkus Reviews said: "A must-read for baseball fans. . .reads like a suspense novel." In 1925, Ty Cobb said "The great trouble with baseball today is that most of the players are in the game for the money that's in it---not for the love of it, the excitement of it, the thrill of it." Bob Feller said: "Baseball was made for kids, and grown-ups only screw it up." Ted Turner said, "Gentlemen, we have the only legal monopoly in the country and we're f---cking it up." 576 pages. Helyar is a reporter for the WALL STREET JOURNAL. In 1989 he was awarded the GERALD LOEB AWARD for DISTINGUISHED BUSINESS JOURNALISM. I offer combined shipping.

Price: 84.95 USD

Location: Walnut Ridge, Arkansas

End Time: 2024-11-16T02:35:00.000Z

Shipping Cost: 8 USD