Category: Biographies

Babe Ruth's own book of baseball

PAGE The Baltimore River front—Street corner baseball—Days at St. Mary’s—The first contract—A word of advice from Brother Gilbert—The big leagues at last—The climb upward—Aid from team-mates—A $70,000 contract—Looking back 3

Chapters

1. CHAPTER I

PAGE The Baltimore River front—Street corner baseball—Days at St. Mary’s—The first contract—A word of advice from Brother Gilbert—The big leagues at last—The climb upward—Aid fr...

2. CHAPTER II

Baseball like a battle—Two big divisions, offense and defense—What they are—Old-fashioned defensive play—The shift to modern offensive baseball—Great defensive teams of history—...

3. CHAPTER III

Pitching the keynote of defense—The pitcher’s job—Why young pitchers fail—Control as a pitching factor—How to obtain control—Alexander the old master—Shocker gets by on “nothing...

4. CHAPTER IV

Studying the batter—Shocker a marvel—His system—Pennock’s style of pitching—His pitching rule—Hoyt weighs in with advice—Pitching to weakness and strength—Playing the comers—Mix...

5. CHAPTER V

The pitching motion—How Zahniser betrayed his curve ball—Ruth’s tongue gets him into trouble—Sherry Smith catches runners off first base—♦Hinkey Haines’ experience—Slow ball pit...

6. CHAPTER VI

What makes the curve balls curve—The fast ball—The “hook”—Freak deliveries—The spit ball—The screw ball—Its purpose—The knuckle ball—Rommel and Pipgras use it best—Curve ball pi...

7. CHAPTER VII

The infield—The greatest play of the 1927 world series—Joe Dugan pulled it—Lazzeri spikes Pirate guns—Great second base combinations—The double play—The snap throw to base—Great...

8. CHAPTER VIII

Playing the outfield—The kid idea—Stars who have scintillated in the outfield—Great outfielders of all time—Their methods of play—What the outfielder needs—What he must look out...

9. CHAPTER IX

The catcher—His importance in the game—Directing the play—Famous batteries of other days—How the catcher can make or break a pitcher—Handling high fouls the catcher’s toughest j...

10. CHAPTER X

Team play—What it is—What it means—Signs and how they operate—The pitch-out—Backing up the throw—The cut-off play—How it was invented—The coaches, and their duties—Miller Huggin...

11. CHAPTER XI

Cobb is game’s greatest natural hitter—Is master of style—A few Cobb yarns—Swing hitters and choke hitters—Importance and weakness of each style—Gehrig’s hitting style—What make...

12. CHAPTER XII

Hitting style—Naturalness at the plate—Simmons’ freak batting stance—Joey Sewell has ideal stance—The Ruthian swing—How it develops power—Selecting the proper bat—Timing an impo...

13. CHAPTER XIII

Hits are valuable only in so far as they score runs—Levsen pitches two hit game and loses—Real test of hitting is ability to smack ball when hits mean runs—The danger of “tighte...

14. CHAPTER XIV

Waiting ’em out!—Frank Chance puts one over—Jamieson smacks the first one—Not always easy to wait—Trying to outguess the pitcher—The intentional pass—Putting on the hit and run...

15. CHAPTER XV

The batting order—The kid idea—Getting the most out of hitting strength—The lead-off man—Combs and Waner are good—No reason why pitchers shouldn’t be good hitters—A few examples...

16. CHAPTER XVI

Team work counts—The hit and run, and when to use it—The squeeze play—Urban Shocker puts it over great—A bit of advice on base running—Great base runners the game has seen—Schan...

17. CHAPTER XVII

Huggins a psychologist—How he put it over on the Pirates in the world series—Baseball superstitions—McGraw turns one to advantage and wins an important series—College men in bas...

18. CHAPTER XVIII

The men who play—What they are like off the field—Mere human beings like other people—The road trips—Days in the hotels—Fads and fancies—Koenig an expert pianist—Hoyt a great re...

19. CHAPTER XIX

How the average fan looks on professional baseball—It is a business but a short lived one—Why publicity hurts sometimes—Keeping a physical edge—The value of training—What it tak...

20. CHAPTER XX

Some baseball laughs—The “battles” with the umpire—Tommy Connolly puts over a fast one on Bob Veach—Joe Dugan’s comeback at Jack Scott in the world series—Bozeman Bulger’s color...

21. CHAPTER I

The Baltimore River front—Street corner baseball—Days at St. Mary’s—The first contract—A word of advice from Brother Gilbert—The big leagues at last—The climb upward—Aid from te...

22. CHAPTER II

Baseball like a battle—Two big divisions, offense and defense—What they are—Old-fashioned defensive play—The shift to modern offensive baseball—Great defensive teams of history—...

23. CHAPTER III

Pitching the keynote of defense—The pitcher’s job—Why young pitchers fail—Control as a pitching factor—How to obtain control—Alexander the old master—Shocker gets by on “nothing...

24. CHAPTER IV

Studying the batter—Shocker a marvel—His system—Pennock’s style of pitching—His pitching rule—Hoyt weighs in with advice—Pitching to weakness and strength—Playing the comers—Mix...

25. CHAPTER V

The pitching motion—How Zahniser betrayed his curve ball—Ruth’s tongue gets him into trouble—Sherry Smith catches runners off first base—Hinkey Haines’ experience—Slow ball pitc...

26. CHAPTER VI

What makes the curve balls curve—The fast ball—The “hook”—Freak deliveries—The spit ball—The screw ball—Its purpose—The knuckle ball—Rommel and Pipgras use it best—Curve ball pi...

27. CHAPTER VII

The infield—The greatest play of the 1927 world series—Joe Dugan pulled it—Lazzeri spikes Pirates’ guns—Great second base combinations—The double play—The snap throw to base—Gre...

28. CHAPTER VIII

Playing the outfield—The kid idea—Stars who have scintillated in the outfield—Great outfielders of all time—Their methods of play—What the outfielder needs—What he must look out...

29. CHAPTER IX

The catcher—His importance in the game—Directing the play—Famous batteries of other days—How the catcher can make or break a pitcher—Handling high fouls the catcher’s toughest j...

30. CHAPTER X

Team play—What it is—What it means—Signs and how they operate—The pitch-out—Backing up the throw—The cut-off play—How it was invented—The coaches, and their duties—Miller Huggin...

31. CHAPTER XI

Cobb is game’s greatest natural hitter—Is master of style—A few Cobb yarns—Swing hitters and choke hitters—Importance and weakness of each style—Gehrig’s hitting style—What make...

32. CHAPTER XII

Hitting style—Naturalness at the plate—Simmons’ freak batting stance—Joey Sewell has ideal stance—The Ruthian swing—How it develops power—Selecting the proper bat—Timing an impo...

33. CHAPTER XIII

Hits are valuable only in so far as they score runs—Levsen pitches two hit game and loses—Real test of hitting is ability to smack ball when hits mean runs—The danger of “tighte...

34. CHAPTER XIV

Waiting ’em out!—Frank Chance puts one over—Jamieson smacks the first one—Not always easy to wait—Trying to outguess the pitcher—The intentional pass—Putting on the hit and run...

35. CHAPTER XV

The batting order—The kid idea—Getting the most out of hitting strength—The lead-off man—Combs and Waner are good—No reason why pitchers shouldn’t be good hitters—A few examples...

36. CHAPTER XVI

Team work counts—The hit and run, and when to use it— The squeeze play—Urban Shocker puts it over great—A bit of advice on base running—Great base runners the game has seen—Scha...

37. CHAPTER XVII

Huggins a psychologist—How he put it over on the Pirates in the world series—Baseball superstitions—McGraw turns one to advantage and wins an important series—College men in bas...

38. CHAPTER XVIII

The men who play—What they are like off the field—Mere human beings like other people—The road trips—Days in the hotels—Fads and fancies—Koenig an expert pianist—Hoyt a great re...

39. CHAPTER XIX

How the average fan looks on professional baseball—It is a business but a short lived one—Why publicity hurts sometimes—Keeping a physical edge—The value of training—What it tak...

40. CHAPTER XX

Some baseball laughs—The “battles” with the umpire—Tommy Connolly puts over a fast one on Bob Veach—Joe Dugan’s comeback at Jack Scott in the world series—Bozeman Bulger’s color...