Catcher

How the Man Behind the Plate Became an American Folk Hero

By: Peter Morris

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Paperback | 16 September 2010

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400 Pages

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22.5 x 14.7 x 2.8

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Today''s baseball catcher stolidly goes about his duty without attracting much attention. But it wasn''t always that way, as Peter Morris shows in this lively and original study. In baseball''s early days, catchers stood a safe distance back of the batter without protective gear. Then the introduction of the curveball in the 1870s led them to move up directly behind home plate, even though they still wore no gloves or other protection. Extraordinary courage became the catcher''s most notable requirement, but the new positioning also demanded that the catcher have lightning-fast reflexes, great hands, and a throwing arm with the power of a cannon. With so great a range of required skills, a special mystique came to surround the position, and it began to seem that a good catcher could single-handedly make the difference between a winning and losing team.

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[Morris] gives us a sense of how changes on the baseball field reflected changes in America.

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Non-Fiction Sports & Recreation Ball Games Baseball History Regional & National History History of the Americas

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: A Generation in Search of a Hero	p. 3
In the Beginning	p. 27
The Catcher as Tough Guy	p. 35
The Catcher as Indispensable	p. 59
The Catcher as One in a Million	p. 69
The Catcher as the Man in Disguise	p. 87
The Breaking Point	p. 105
Protecting the Catcher's Face (But Bruising His Ego)	p. 114
"A Lot of Fools in the Crowd Laugh at Him"	p. 135
The Thinking-Man Catcher	p. 158
The Catcher as Desperado	p. 172
Harry Decker, the "Don Juan of Shaven Head"	p. 189
The 1890s: "An Era When Most of the Catchers Were Pot-Bellied and Couldn't Get Out of Their Own Way"	p. 208
"The Last of the Old Guard of Ball Players"	p. 229
A New Pitch and a New Crisis	p. 237
An Enduring New Model	p. 249
The Catcher's Legacy	p. 278
Afterword: The Man the Hall of Fame Forgot	p. 285
Appendices	p. 291
Notes	p. 295
Selected Bibliography	p. 363
Index	p. 371
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Catcher

How the Man Behind the Plate Became an American Folk Hero

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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