Catcher

How the Man Behind the Plate Became an American Folk Hero

By: Peter Morris

Write A Review

Paperback | 16 September 2010

At a Glance

Paperback
400 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.5 x 14.7 x 2.8

Paperback

$29.99

or 4 interest-free payments of $7.50 with

Ships in 3 to 5 business days

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.

Industry Reviews

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

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

Orders over $79.00 qualify for free shipping.

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.

Defective items

If there is a problem with any of the items received for your order then the Booktopia Customer Care team is ready to assist you.

For more info please visit our Help Centre.

You Can Find This Book In

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

More in History of the Americas

The Fourth Turning

An American Prophecy: What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny

107 Days

The Shortest History of the United States of America

Hillbilly Elegy

The Internationally Bestselling Memoir from Trump's Future Vice-President of the United States

The Jakarta Method

Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World

The World of The Great Gatsby - Puzzle by Adam Simpson

1000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

Dragon on Centre Street

New York vs. Donald J. Trump

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

An Indian History of the American West

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas : A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

Harper Perennial Modern Classics

Open Veins of Latin America

Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

Empire of the Summer Moon

Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

Covert Regime Change

America's Secret Cold War

Save Our Souls

The True Story of a Castaway Family, Treachery, and Murder

The Witches

Salem, 1692

The Fugitive Blacksmith And Other Essential Writings By James Wc Pennington

Oxford New Histories of Philosophy

A Companion to Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter

Wiley Blackwell Companions to American History

Betes Noires

Sorcery As History in the Haitian-Dominican Borderlands

Documenting Fashion

Dress and Visual Culture in 1920s and 1930s America

Documenting Fashion

Dress and Visual Culture in 1920s and 1930s America

A Concise History Of American Law

Protests Beyond the Plaza

Everyday Spaces, Urban Morphologies, and Strategies

Protests Beyond the Plaza

Everyday Spaces, Urban Morphologies, and Strategies

Immigration

How the Past Shapes the Present

Immigration

How the Past Shapes the Present

This product is categorised by