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Hall of Fame careers like that of Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Pie Traynor can often be overlooked. The lack of video imagery, demonstrating the skill and style by which the player performed tends to relegate the career to historical archives. It is the diligence and hard work of biographers such as James Forr and his co-author David Proctor that allow us to fully appreciate a player’s place in history, and to provide some context by which to compare to more familiar names.
We were delighted to have a chance to speak with James on this episode of the Cover the Bases podcast, to discuss his recent book Pie Traynor: A Baseball Biography. The book was published in January of 2010 by McFarland.
It took a moment of serendipity and great timing that connected us for this discussion. While perusing the baseball card files for the daily Cards from the Diamond, this particular card jumped out. Appearing in its allocated sleeve, on a page with the rest of the All Time Greats, it was begging for a more in depth understanding of why he was chosen as the All Time third baseman. As luck or fate would have it, an email from James awaited, introducing himself and the latest edition to the baseball book library.
What better way to get an in depth account of one of the greatest players the game has ever known, than to dig into a well written biography?
There was one person in particular who did a great job of preserving and correcting the accounts of Pie’s career, and that was his wife Eve. As a way to understand the type of player Pie was, we point to an anecdote in the book about her following up a newspaper article that appeared in the Boston Globe. Globe columnist Harold Kaese made the statement that “Pie Traynor was the Brooks Robinson of another day”. Eve corrected him by phoning the paper and insisting that “Pie wasn’t the Brooks Robinson of his day. Brooks Robinson is the Pie Traynor of his day”.
Pie played his entire career for the Pittsburgh Pirates, starting with a cup of coffee in 1920 & 1921 and finally finding a permanent position starting in 1923. He proceeded to put up a very consistent career at the plate (using a 42 ounce piece of begged, borrowed or shared lumber btw), and superior defensive seasons, until perpetual shoulder injuries robbed him of the ability to make accurate throws to first. To this day, he appears in the top ten of many all time statistical categories for the Pirates. [click to continue…]
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Note: We must apologize in advance for the sound quality on this audio recording. We attempted some different phone options but had to settle on this. This conversation about the book The Imperfect Diamond is so good that we decided to release the podcast as is ….
We are happy to have a return visit by Lee Lowenfish on Cover the Bases. During our previous conversation we discussed his great biography called Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman
. On this episode, the award winning author sheds some light on the updated and revised look at baseball’s labor struggles in his book called The Imperfect Diamond: A History of Baseball’s Labor Wars. 
The book was originally released in 1980, updated in 1991 prior to the player’s strike of ’94 which canceled the World Series, and finally now with a long view look at the history of labor relations. The book is published by Bison Books.
As a way to understand the issues that were addressed in each of the editions, we break down each release of the book.
In the first edition, Lee explains that one of his great pleasures was the exposure of John Montgomery Ward and his attempts at developing the Players League. He was a great player on the Giants at the turn of the Century and was able to get many star players of the day including Connie Mack and Clark Griffith, to force a confrontation with the baseball owners (moguls as they are referred to – a great term for them). The players jumped to a league that allowed better contractual arrangements but played only one season in 1890.
The first edition carries on the challenges and injustices for the players including returning war veterans who lost their jobs on ballclubs even in the face of the Veterans Act protecting their jobs. Players such as Tony Lupien, Al Niemiec and Bob Murphy had limited recourse when they reported to their old clubs after serving their country, only to find another player had taken their place.
Finally, the book finishes up with the two pivotal decisions that paved the way for a leveling of the playing field between the owners and the players. Lee addresses the Curt Flood appeal to the Supreme Court, lost in a 5-3 decision which upheld his trade from the St Louis Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies. Curt never reported, believing that he was being treated as “a piece of property” which ended his playing career, but effectively dismantle the prevailing Reserve Clause that had appeared in 100 years of baseball contracts. This paved the way to the final chapter of the first edition, Free Agency for Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith in 1975.
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A Voice for the Braves for 33 years, Pete Van Wieren has seen the highs and lows of a franchise that transformed baseball in Atlanta. Since retiring after the 2008 season, Pete has written a book called Of Mikes and Men: A Lifetime of Braves Baseball
in which he chronicles his long career and some of the key people and events he encountered along the way. The book is published by Triumph Books.
We have been listening to Pete since the early days of the TBS SuperStation and he has greatly influenced us with his insights, wisdom and ability to educate through his undaunted research and preparation. We are appreciative that Pete was willing to spend some time on Cover the Bases.
Right off the bat in the book, we find out that Pete was destined to be a baseball announcer. He played the game as a young man growing up near Rochester New York, and attended numerous Rochester Red Wings games, at the time an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. He would watch the broadcasters climb the tiny staircase to the top of the stadium and knew that it was for him.
No one can deny that he had the skill and talent to ascend to the level of one of the most cherished announcers in the game.
As a way to present some of the important aspects of the book, we discuss a few key individuals who had major roles in the 33 years that Pete was in Atlanta.
After some minor league stints, he was snapped up by Ted Turner as part of the broadcast team with Ernie Johnson and Skip Caray back in 1975. He was also tapped to do some additional duties in those days, including Hawks basketball and even Traveling Secretary for the Braves. Pete considers Ted Turner to be one of the easiest people to work for, as his style was to give you a job (or two) and then get out of the way.
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Baseball Codes and unwritten rules have been a part of the game since pitchers and batters started dueling. On this episode of Cover the Bases, we welcome author Jason Turbow to discuss his immensely popular new book The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime
. The book is published by Pantheon Books and has been receiving critical acclaim from a wide array of media outlets.
We joke with Jason about his impeccable timing, releasing a book about unwritten rules, just prior to an on the field incident occurring with New York Yankees star Alex Rodriquez taking a detour across the mound of Oakland A’s pitcher Dallas Braden. Braden’s reaction and the subsequent controversy called attention to the Baseball Codes that Jason and his co-author Michael Duca detail in the book. One of the common responses about ARod’s act is that it is an unknown code. Jason counters that argument by stating that during his book research, many had discussed the responsibility of a player to stay off the mound.
The genesis of the book came from a laminated sheet of unwritten rules that Jason and Micheal posted during their own brainstorming session. They next set out to get some confirmation of the codes by talking to players, managers and coaches while collecting anecdotal stories to demonstrate when they have appeared in practice. Jason discovered at first that the more open responses came from those who are now out of the game, since they would not have to face any possible retaliation if they spoke out of turn. Later in the research they were able to get some current players to help fill out the pages.
Respect teammates, respect opponents, and respect the game are the three tenets that form the basis of all of these unwritten rules. Simultaneously, Jason points out that these codes work as “release valves” for any bad blood that has built up over a period of time. When the situation occurs where one of these tenets has believed to have been disregarded, players will make sure to enforce the code in their own way. When the ability for retribution gets taken away, whether from equipment or umpire warnings, that build up can accumulate to even greater levels.
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On this edition of the Cover the Bases podcast, we dive into a book that goes back further than any other topic we have discussed to date. We are so happy to present a conversation with author Ed Achorn, the Deputy Editorial Page Editor for the Providence Journal. His first baseball book, Fifty-Nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had
is about a Hall of Fame player, and life in general in the mid to late 19th Century.
It appears that Ed Achorn was destined to write a book about Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn since his days as a young boy, sneaking off with his dad’s copy of The Baseball Encyclopedia
, studying the statistics within the covers, and wondering what it must have been like for a player to make 73 starts in a single season. Upon moving to Providence, where Radbourn had his Greatest Season in 1884, and after receiving a gift of a painting of Old Hoss, Ed knew he would have to pursue documenting this character’s achievements.
Ed faced many challenges while researching this book, most notably the lack of modern reference materials to extract the story from. He had to turn to original source, historical documents to provide the details he meticulously compiled. He was fortunate to have the archives of The Providence Journal and the Rhode Island Historical Society, among others to pour over. Ed makes the point that the sportswriting of the era was very entertaining to read, once he learned the language. He needed to be able to translate some of the colloquialisms for his readers in order to tell the story. He enjoyed the barbs passed back and forth among the National League city newspapers.
The grand discovery for Ed was that baseball, although not using modern equipment, was still at its essence the same in 1884 as it is today. Pitchers used a repertoire to come after a hitter’s weakness, batters studied pitching tendencies and made adjustments according to situations….. And the glory of a great pennant race always stirred the enthusiasm of the fans.
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