In an era when television and professional sports are synonymous, baseball remains not only a sport to watch, but a sport to read about and study. Avid baseball fans linger over box scores, grumble through opinionated columns, and cheer-rousing headlines. Over the last hundred years baseball has generated more ink than any other sport. It is not only the favorite pastime of American sports fans, but also a considerable passion for American sports writers. If television is what brings the game into our living rooms, then it is the writers who bring the game to our hearts and minds.
The Phillies Reader offers selections from some of the best writers to ever write about the woes and triumphs of the Philadelphia Phillies and their hard-ball fans. This collection covers over a century of the team's history, from the time Ed Delahanty hit a remarkable four home runs in a game, to the 1993 against-all-odds run at the World Championship. The Phillies Reader not only documents the franchise but presents a history of the journalism that sometimes supported it, and other times sought to bring it down.
The stories include the athletic achievements of such legendary Phillies as Chuck Klein, Richie Ashburn, Dick Allen, Mike Schmidt; the political turmoil surrounding the "ok" from manager Ben Chapman to "ride" Jackie Robinson about the color of his skin; the bizarre shooting of Eddie Waitkus; the heroics of the Whiz Kids; the heartbreak of '64; and the occasional triumphs and frequent travails of controversial managers Gene Mauch, Frank Lucchesi, and Danny Ozark.
From Red Smith to James Michener, The Phillies Reader presents for the first time an archive of Phillies literature that reveals what it is that makes legends. Author note:
Richard Orodenker teaches English and American studies at Penn State University, Ogontz. He is author of The Writer's Game: Baseball Writing in America.