List Books » Fifty-nine in '84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had
Authors: Edward Achorn
ISBN-13: 9780061825866, ISBN-10: 0061825867
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: March 2010
Edition: (Non-applicable)
In 1884, Providence Grays pitcher Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn won an astounding fifty-nine gamesmore 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 Wara 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.
…an astonishing book about 19th-century baseball…Fifty-nine in '84 is a romantic book, equal parts heroic quest, tragic tale and doomed love story.