Bøker av William J. Ryczek

At the end of the 1883 baseball season, things looked rosy - attendance had skyrocketed and the National League and American Association were at peace. A year later the sport was in disarray. This book tells the story of the momentous yet overshadowed 1884 season.

Dick Stuart began as a minor league first baseman, notable for his outsized ego and terrible fielding. In 1958, he came up to the majors in Pittsburgh and played some fine seasons with the Pirates, and later the Boston Red Sox. His great hitting ability, quick wit and love for the limelight made him one of the most interesting players of his era.

The 1960s were one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. Perceptions of race, gender and age changed dramatically. Newspapers were the primary source of information at the time. This book examines newspaper articles from 1959 to 1973 with contextual information on preceding events and outcomes.

Major League Baseball was in crisis in 1968. The commissioner was inept, professional football was challenging the sport's popularity and the game on the field was boring, with pitchers dominating hitters in a succession of dull, low-scoring games. The major league expanded for the 1969 season but the muddled process by which new franchises were selected highlighted the ineffective management of the sport. This book describes how baseball reached its nadir in the late 1960s and how it survived and began its slow comeback. The lack of offense in the game is examined, taking in the great pitching performances of Denny McLain, Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale and others. Colorful characters like Charley Finley and Ken Harrelson are covered, along with the effects that dramatic changes in American society and the war in Vietnam had on the game.

It was a novel experiment as baseball's leading men formed the National Association, bringing order to the hodgepodge of professional and amateur clubs that made up the sport up to 1870. Now in its second edition, this book covers all the action - both on and off the field - of the NA's early years, providing the definitive history of the first professional sports league in the US.

Based on interviews with more than one hundred former players, and extensive media research, this book traces the history of the New York Mets from their infamous first sea-son - they finished at 40-100, 60.5 games back - through the miraculous championship season of 1969.

Features a history of the New York Yankees over the years which saw them at the top of the American League and at the bottom. Based upon interviews with former players, this book covers the major stories of the period. It describes the seventh games of the 1960 and 1962 World Series, replete with the remembrances of the participants.

Describes the evolution of baseball from early bat and ball games to its growth and acceptance in different regions of the country. This title focuses on The New York clubs (the Atlantics, Excelsiors and Mutuals), serving as examples of how the sport became more sophisticated and popular.

Covers the turbulent history and eventual crash landing of the team (New York Titans) that would become the New York Jets. This book explores the league's constant feuds with the Titans' underfunded and overbearing owner, Harry Wismer.

This narrative history of minor league football teams in Connecticut in the 1960s and 1970s is based on extensive newspaper and periodical research and interviews with nearly 70 former players, broadcasters and journalists. Only a few players--like Marv Hubbard, Lou Piccone and Bob Tucker--made it to the NFL, but many more played for as little as $25 per game in their quest to make it big or just have fun. Wealthy men like Pete Savin and Frank D'Addario owned teams in Hartford and Bridgeport. In the days before cable television saturated the media with live sports, small town fans turned out to support their local heroes, often men who worked on construction crews during the week and stopped by the diner Sunday morning to talk football. Now in their 60s, 70s and 80s, these men share their stories of a simpler era; the good times, like the Hartford Knights' 1968 ACFL championship season, and the long bus rides and missed paydays that were as much a part of minor league ball as first downs and interceptions.