Charlie Gehringer: A Biography of the Hall of Fame Tigers Second Baseman »

Charlie Gehringer was the best second baseman of his era. He is regarded by many as the best two-strike hitter of all time and his seemingly effortless fielding ability earned him the nickname of "The Mechanical Man." Sports writers groused that he was too quiet to be a star. Charlie replied that he didn't hit with his mouth. This work follows Gehringer's career from the day a scout spotted him on the sandlots of Michigan in 1923 to his induction into the Hall of Fame in 1949 and his life after baseball.

Introduction 1
1 "You never really leave the game" 5
2 "If that guy is a ballplayer, then so am I" 10
3 "His potential excited me" 19
4 "You can't talk your way into a batting championship" 30
5 "He leads the league in line drives right at somebody" 43
6 "What in the hell is he talking about?" 58
7 "Every time I turn around, the guy's on second base" 72
8 "May you live ten thousand years" 82
9 "The entire town was ga-ga" 91
10 "Too much time to think" 102
11 "The Michigan Mummy" 110
12 "The cry babies" 125
13 "I kept yelling 'home, home, home'" 136
14 "If my chatter bothers you too much..." 144
15 "He simplified where others dramatized" 149
16 "I didn't know who was and who wasn't" 157
17 "They won't get me in that suit again" 167
18 "The Good Lord needed a second baseman" 174 Chapter Notes 179 Bibliography 191 Index 195