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Fifty-Nine in '84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had

In 1884, Providence Grays pitcher Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn won an astounding fifty-nine games — more than anyone in major-league history ever had before, or has since. He then went on to win all three games of baseball's first World Series.

Fifty-nine in '84 tells the dramatic story not only of that amazing feat of grit but also of big-league baseball two decades after the Civil War — a brutal, bloody sport played barehanded, the profession of uneducated, hard-drinking men who thought little of cheating outrageously or maiming an opponent to win.

It is the tale, too, of the woman Radbourn loved, Carrie Stanhope, the alluring proprietress of a boarding-house with shady overtones, a married lady who was said to have personally known every man in the National League.

Wonderfully entertaining, Fifty-nine in '84 is an indelible portrait of a legendary player and a fascinating, little-known era of the national pastime.

  • Format
  • hardcover
  • Pages
  • 384
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 978-0-06-182586-6
  • EAN
  • 9780061825866
  • Genres
  • baseball, sports, biography, history
  • Release date
  • 2010