This biography traces the hard life and colorful career of "Iron Man" McGinnity from his childhood working the coalfields of Illinois to his death in 1929. McGinnity may have been the most durable hurler in the history of the sport, often pitching both games of a doubleheader. He averaged more wins per season in his 10-year major league career than any pitcher in history, and continued to pitch for two more decades in the minor leagues before retiring at 54.

The final chapter of Frank Graham’s dynamic history of the New York Giants is entitled “With One Swipe of His Bat.” For sheer drama and a colossal slice of baseball legend, the core of that chapter cannot be topped—Bobby Thomson’s “shot heard ’round the world,” the three-run homer in the 1951 playoff series that determined that the Giants—not the Dodgers—would win the pennant. Graham, of course, starts at the beginning, 1883, the year the Giants were born. With characteristic panache, Graham tells us how it was: “This was New York in the elegant eighties and these were the Giants, fashioned in elegance, playing on the Polo Grounds. . . . It was the New York of the brownstone house and the gaslit streets, of the top hat and the hansom cab, of oysters and champagne and perfecto cigars, of [actress] Ada Rehan and Oscar Wilde and the young John L. Sullivan. It also was the New York of the Tenderloin and the Bowery.” One of fifteen team histories commissioned by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in the 1940s and 1950s, The New York Giants was first published in 1952. Some of the most colorful characters in the game pass through these pages as well as some of baseball’s brightest legends, many of whom appear in the book’s twenty-three photographs. Hall of Famers Christy Mathewson, Mel Ott, Frankie Frisch, Carl Hubbell, and Bill Terry star among the headliners in the illustrious history of the Giants. Other Hall of Famers include John McGraw, “Beauty” Dave Bancroft, “Iron Man” Joe McGinnity, Leo Durocher, Buck Ewing, Amos Rusie, John Montgomery Ward, and Ross Youngs. In his foreword, Ray Robinson gives his impression of Frank Graham: “I had been reading Graham’s warm ‘conversation pieces’ for some years, first in the New York Sun, then in the Journal-American, but I had no idea how kind and modest he was. The columnist Red Smith, Graham’s good friend, once referred to him as ‘a digger for truth, a reporter of facts . . . with an incredibly accurate ear and an implausibly retentive memory.’ To Smith, Graham was the finest sports columnist of his time.”

The author describes some of the more outrageous and bizarre antics by baseball players, coaches, managers, and umpires including Casey Stengel, Yogi Berra, Dizzy Dean, and Lou Piniella.

Photographs and essays help chronicle one hundred years of history for the New York Yankees professional baseball team, profiling key players, coaches, and moments in the team's history.

Presents historical photographs and original essays on Hall of Fame players by nine of the country's finest baseball writers.

"Former minor-league baseball player Byron Bennett has a deep and spiritual connection to the game of baseball and its history. He sees things in a way others cannot and believes in things others would not. He thinks the old men working the menial jobs in the dienrs, dives, and graveyards he frequents are not what they seem. They try to fit in, go unnoticed, but Byron suspects thay are not your typical second-career workign stiffs"--Page 4 of cover.

“The Emerald Diamond is a must read. It is a remarkable story about the achievements of the Irish throughout the history of baseball in America.” -Jay P. Dolan New York Times bestselling sportswriter Charley Rosen, author of The Bullpen Diaries and More than Just a Game, delivers a one-of-a-kind instant classic perfect “for anyone who is Irish and loves baseball.” The history of the Irish in baseball is much richer than anyone realizes. From early discrimination to later domination, from Mike Kelly, a society star in the 1880s, to the managerial fame of Connie Mack (né McGillicuddy), early Irish players and managers helped shape the game of baseball in every way. From the first curveball to the first players' unions, Irishmen took America's national pastime and made it their own, turning it into the glorious game we know today, as more recent players have kept alive the Irish tradition of setting records. A wild, fun, fact-filled celebration of the Irish in baseball, The Emerald Diamond intersperses interviews with current players with tales of such players as Dan Brouthers, who at 6'2" and well over 200 pounds, was the game's home-run king until Babe Ruth came along; and includes lively anecdotes about such colorfully nicknamed ballplayers. Just a few of the great Irish athletes featured as well are Mickey Cochrane (for whom Mickey Mantle was named); Charles Comiskey; Ed Walsh, the last pitcher to win 40 games in a single season; and Ed Delahanty, whose prodigious life and mysterious death continue to be a source of intrigue. With decade-by-decade profiles of exciting Irish figures on the field and off, The Emerald Diamond also offers important discussion on cultural and political themes relevant to their times.