Description
Book SynopsisHugh Casey was one of the most colorful members of the iconic Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1940s, a team that took part in four great pennant races, the first National League playoff series, and two exciting World Series over the course of Casey's career. That famed team included many outsized personalities, including executives Larry MacPhail and Branch Rickey, manager Leo Durocher, and players like Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Dixie Walker, Joe Medwick, and Pete Reiser.In Hugh Casey: The Triumphs and Tragedies of a Brooklyn Dodger, Lyle Spatz details Casey's life and career, from his birth in Atlanta to his suicide in that same city thirty-seven years later. Spatz includes such moments as Casey's famous pitch that got away in Game Four of the 1941 World Series, the numerous brawls and beanball wars in which Casey was frequently involved, and the Southern-born Casey's reaction to Jackie Robinson joining the Dodgers. Spatz also reveals how Casey helped to redefine the role of the relief
Trade ReviewHugh Casey: The Triumphs and Tragedies of a Brooklyn Dodger is a prolific baseball biographer Lyle Spatz's latest effort, and it rescues another worthy subject of the author from the mists of baseball history. The book contains much game reportage but necessarily so, as Spatz uses it to characterize Casey as a prototype of the relief pitcher role known today as 'closer.' The book also portrays the big hard-drinking Southerner as a tough and fearless competitor; a well-liked restaurateur and supporter of local civic causes; and a key member of teams that led to the establishment of the 19050s Dodgers as a NL powerhouse. Even with the benefit of the subtitle, the reader is shocked and saddened by the account of the pitcher's demise, at age 37. * Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine *
Baseball author and historian Lyle Spatz presents a deeper portrait of the pitcher and the man in his latest biography, Hugh Casey: The Triumph and Tragedies of a Brooklyn Dodger.... Spatz’s talent as a researcher shines through in an extensive bibliography. * The Sports Bookie: A sports blog by Bob D’Angelo *
With meticulous and absorbing detail, master biographer Lyle Spatz has crafted a memorable portrait of a neglected Brooklyn Dodger hurler. As unfortunate as Casey’s life was off the field, Spatz has done an exemplary job of giving his career as a mound craftsman its overdue credit. -- Lee Lowenfish, author of the award-winning biography Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman and collaborator with Tom Seaver on The Art of Pitching
For the longest time, Hugh Casey’s career was marginalized to a single World Series pitch. Thanks to the research by Lyle Spatz, fans can replay Casey’s “complete game” and his bittersweet life in baseball. -- Mark Langill, team historian, Los Angeles Dodgers
Table of ContentsPhotographs Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: The Blood of the Old South Chapter 2: A Sense That Good Times Were Coming to Brooklyn Chapter 3: Brooklyn’s Best Pitcher Chapter 4: A Legitimate Pennant Contender Chapter 5: Beanballs, Spikings, and Rhubarbs Chapter 6: Casey Fuels a Feud with the Cubs Chapter 7: Building a Champion Chapter 8: Casey the Workhorse Chapter 9: National League Champions Chapter 10: A Dramatic World Series Ends a Memorable Season Chapter 11: The Pitch That Got Away Chapter 12: A Memorable Night with Ernest Hemingway Chapter 13: Becoming a Full-Time Relief Pitcher Chapter 14: You’re in the Navy Now Chapter 15: Baseball Enters a New Era Chapter 16: The Return of Peace Brings the Return of Wars with St. Louis and Chicago Chapter 17: A Restaurant Launched and a Pennant Lost Chapter 18: A History-Making Addition Chapter 19: Burt Shotton Replaces Leo Durocher Chapter 20: The Hugh Casey Theory of Relief Pitching Chapter 21: Holding Off the Cardinals Chapter 22: The Mainstay of the 1947 World Series Chapter 23: A World Series Hero and a Successful Restaurateur Chapter 24: Falling, Literally and Figuratively Chapter 25: Casey and the Dodgers Part Ways Chapter 26: The Pirates and the Yankees Chapter 27: A Pennant and a Paternity Suit Chapter 28: A Wonderful Guy Who Never Hurt Anyone—but Himself Chapter 29: Remembering Hugh Casey Notes Bibliography Index About the Author
