Pete Reiser: The Rough-and-Tumble Career of the Perfect BallplayerIn 1941, his first full season, Pete Reiser became the youngest batting champion in history, winning the NL title with a .343 average, and led the league in runs, doubles, triples, total bases, and slugging average. By July of 1942, the popular Brooklyn outfielder was flirting with .400 and was easily baseball's fastest rising star. But a jarring collision with the outfield wall in St. Louis sent his season into a tailspin. After spending the next three years in the Army, he would come back to lead the league in stolen bases, battling dizziness and headaches throughout the season. Ten more collisions with the outfield wall--each adding a shoulder separation, muscle tear, fracture, contusion, or concussion to his long list of injuries--would make him a frequent visitor to the disabled list and keep Reiser from ever again playing a full season. This biography provides the full story on Reiser, with special emphasis given to the highlights of Reiser's playing days and the factors that kept him from fulfilling his enormous potential. In addition, the author discusses the broader situation of major league baseball, including Jackie Robinson's entrance on the National League scene, league-jumping and the subsequent blackballing of players, and the conditions under which big leaguers of the era lived, worked, and played. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 5 | |
| 13 | |
A Pistol Is Fired | 22 |
Hidden Away | 36 |
Dem Not Such Bums | 40 |
Finally | 49 |
A New Shopping Spree | 58 |
The Gold Dust Twins | 99 |
A Season to Remember | 109 |
Nice Guys Finish Last | 119 |
Men of War | 130 |
The Men Come Home | 137 |
Home Is for the Stealing | 146 |
The Natural | 165 |
End Game | 184 |
Coming Into His Own | 62 |
Rookie of the Year | 68 |
Down to the Wire | 83 |
Three Strikes and Yer | 91 |
Aftermath | 201 |
Bibliography | 221 |
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Pete Reiser: The Rough-and-Tumble Career of the Perfect Ballplayer Sidney Jacobson Limited preview - 2004 |
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All-Star American League Babe ballclub ballplayer baseball baseball's batter batting average beat Billy Herman Branch Rickey Braves Brooklyn Dodgers Camilli Cardinals Cards Casey catcher center field club coach Cubs days later DiMaggio Dixie Walker Dodgers Dodgers Donald Honig double doubleheader Durocher's Ebbets Field Elmira fans farm system fielder finally fly ball Furillo Giants going Golenbock half games Hall of Fame Heinz Higbe hitter home run ibid infield injury Jackie Robinson Joe Medwick Johnny July knocked Larry MacPhail lead League team Leo Durocher lineup Louis major league Mickey Owen National League never once outfield Pee Wee Reese pennant race Pete Reiser Phillies Pirates Pistol Pete Reiser pitcher pitching plate play players Reds reported Rick Tuber scored season second baseman shortstop Shotton spring training star steal streak team's third base third baseman throw told took Tribune triple World Series wrote Yankees York Herald-Tribune
Popular passages
Page 72 - I was lying in bed with my uniform on," he told me once, "and I couldn't figure it out. The room was dark, with just a little night light, and then I saw a mirror and I walked over to it and lit the light and I had a black eye and a black streak down the side of my nose. I said to myself: 'What happened to me?' Then I remembered. "I took a shower and walked around the room, and the next morning the doctor came in. He looked me over, and he said: 'We'll keep you here for five or six more days under...
Page 195 - ... Stoneham, president of the San Francisco Giants, "they think Duke Snider is the best center fielder they ever had. They forget Pete Reiser. The Yankees think Mickey Mantle is something new. They forget Reiser, too." Maybe Pete Reiser was the purest ballplayer of all time. I don't know. There is no exact way of measuring such a thing, but when a man of incomparable skills, with full knowledge of what he is doing, destroys those skills and puts his life on the line in the pursuit of his endeavor...
Page 69 - Any manager in the National League," Arthur Patterson wrote one day in the New York Herald Tribune, "would give up his best man to obtain Pete Reiser. On every bench they're talking about him. Rival players watch him take his cuts during batting practice, announce when he's going to make a throw to the plate or third base during outfield drill. They just whistle their amazement when he scoots down the first base line on an infield dribbler or a wellplaced bunt.
Page 124 - you're the greatest young ballplayer I've ever seen, but there is one thing you must remember. Now that you're a professional ballplayer you're in show business. You will perform on the biggest stage in the world, the baseball diamond. Like the actors on Broadway, you'll be expected to put on a great performance every day, no matter how you feel, no matter whether it's too hot or too cold. Never forget that.
Page viii - public library" is the unique collection of the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street; to another, it is the miscellany of donated books in an upstairs room of the local village hall.
Page 133 - I'm sittin' on a bench with the other guys who've been rejected," he was telling me, "and a captain comes in and says: 'Which one of you is Reiser?' I stood up and I said: "I am.' In front of everybody he said: 'So you're trying to pull a fast one, are you? At a time like this, with a war going on, you came in here under a false name. What do you mean, giving your name as Harold Patrick Reiser? Your name's Pete Reiser, and you're the ballplayer, aren't you?
Page 63 - Out in Los Angeles," says Garry Schumacher, who was a New York baseball writer for 30 years and is now assistant to Horace Stoneham, president of the San Francisco Giants, "they think Duke Snider is the best center fielder they ever had. They forget Pete Reiser, The Yankees think Mickey Mantle is something new. They forget Reiser, too." Maybe Pete Reiser was the purest ballplayer of all time. I don't know. There is no exact way of measuring such a thing, but when a man of incomparable skills, with...
Page 4 - Without heroes we're all plain people and don't know how far we can go.
Page 180 - You're lucky," the doctor told him. "If it had moved just a little more you'd have been gone." Pete was unable to hold even a pencil. He had double vision and, when he tried to take a single step, he became dizzy. He stayed for three weeks and then went home for almost a month. "It was August," he says, "and Brooklyn was fightin
Page 53 - Hi, Larry," as I went into the dugout. I gave Hilda's note to Leo and sat down. Next thing I know he's getting somebody hot in the bullpen; I think it was Casey. Meanwhile, Wyatt's pitching a hell of a ball game for us. In the next inning the first guy hits the ball pretty good and goes out. The next guy gets a base hit. Here comes Leo. He takes Wyatt out and brings in Casey. Casey got rocked a few times, and we just did win the game, just did win it.