The Rollie Fingers Baseball Bible: Lists and Lore, Stories and Stats, Vol. 2 »

The second in a series of baseball books, The Rollie Fingers Baseball Bible gives readers quick stories and stats as well as both nostalgic and cutting-edge information. Rollie Fingers isn’t just another relief pitcher; he is one of only two relief pitchers in history to have won a Cy Young Award, a league Most Valuable Player Award, and to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. It follows, then, that The Rollie Fingers Baseball Bible isn’t just another book on baseball. Reading more like Schott’s Miscellany or the Uncle John’s series than the typical stat-filled snoozer, its hilarious stories, trivia, lists, sidebars, and statistics are presented in a format that’s as inventive and engaging as Fingers himself.

1 A Century of Baseball Icons 2

2 The Derek Jeter Dossier 4

3 The Decade of the 2000s 11

4 Cap and Nap 36

5 Ten Cent Beer 44

6 Little Known Facts About Joe Torre 49

7 The Great Dominican Pipeline 52

8 The Andre Dawson Dossier 56

9 A Side Effect of World War II 64

10 Name That Player 69

11 The Great White Hunter 70

12 The Braves' New World (1991-2005) 74

13 The Cathedrals-New and Old 83

14 Previously Known As 88

15 Evolution of the Strikeout Artists 90

16 Cecil Cooper and Phil Garner: A Shared Life 92

17 The Great Depression of 1987 94

18 Gone But Not Forgotten 98

19 The Little Injuns That Could 109

20 The Bird Fidrych 113

21 The Top Home Run Surges in History 119

22 The Silly Billy Goat Curse 122

23 The Longest Droughts 127

24 Hammerin' Hank and the Say Hey Kid: The Coincidences 129

25 Thinking Outside the Box Score 131

26 The Baltimore Setback 133

27 The All Dead-Ball Era Team 136

28 Never Been Kissed 139

29 The Most Valuable Player of the 1970s 140

30 A Life in Retrospect Kenny Rogers 144

31 Willie Mays and Me 149

32 The Top AAA Cities 152

33 La Russa and Leyland 156

34 A Most Unusual interview with Rollie Fingers 164

35 The Prolific Stealers-Decade by Decade 183

36 The Forrest Gump Award 186

37 The Secret Strategy of Casey Stengel 190

38 Crabs and Croixs 195

39 An Odd but Modest Proposal 199

40 Baseball from 1901 to 1920 206

41 The Tom Seaver Dossier 222

42 Shoulders Jackie Robinson Stood Upon 232

43 The Best Bet Middlers 237

44 Perspective 242

45 Have Morgan Will Travel 243

46 The Kids Not in the Hall 249

47 The Cincinnati Reds (1970-1979) 252

48 The All-Dominican Team 263

49 Modern Ruins 265

50 Cy Young and Roy Oswalt: Eleven Degrees of Separation 268

51 The Designated Chapter 270

Appendix 273

A Ten Things that Have Delayed Baseball Games

B Famous Indians

C Some of the Most Unusual Forfeits in History

D Answer to Chapter 10

Acknowledgments 277