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Summary
Summary
Lost in the annals of boxing is the sport's true Cinderella story. James J. Braddock, dubbed "Cinderella Man" by Damon Runyon, was a once promising light heavyweight for whom a string of losses in the ring and a broken right hand happened to coincide with the Great Crash of 1929. With one good hand, Braddock was forced to labor on the docks of Hoboken. Only his manager, Joe Gould, still believed in him, finding fights for Braddock to help feed his wife and children. The diminutive, loquacious Jew and the burly, quiet Irishman made one of boxing's oddest couples, but together they staged the greatest comeback in fighting history. In twelve months Braddock went from the relief rolls to face heavyweight champion Max Baer, the Livermore Butcher Boy, renowned for having allegedly killed two men in the ring. A charismatic, natural talent and in every way Braddock's foil, Baer was a towering opponent, a Jew from the West Coast who was famously brash and made great copy both in and out ofthe ring. A ten-to-one underdog, Braddock carried the hopes and dreams of the working class on his shoulders. And when boxing was the biggest sport in the world, when the heavyweight champion was the biggest star in the world, his unlikely upset made Braddock the most popular champion boxing had ever seen.
Against the gritty backdrop of the Depression, Cinderella Man brings this dramatic all-American story to life, evoking a time when the sport of boxing resonated with a country trying desperately to get back on its feet. Schaap paints a vivid picture of the fight world in its golden age, populated by men of every class and ethnic background and covered voluminously by writers who elevated sports writing to art. Rich in anecdote and color, steeped in history, and full of human interest, Cinderellla Man is a classic David and Goliath tale that transcends the sport.
Author Notes
Jeremy Schaap is the author of the New York Times bestseller Cinderella Man . An ESPN anchor and national correspondent, his work has been published in Sports Illustrated , ESPN the Magazine , Time , Parade , TV Guide , and the New York Times . He has also appeared on ABC's World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News. He is the son of the award-winning journalist Dick Schaap.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In retelling the story of a near-impossible sports comeback in 1935, Schaap intricately chronicles the history of boxing during the Depression. Jimmy Braddock, an Irish-American heavyweight who began his career as a light heavyweight, was determined to win the title until a series of jinxes hit: the stock market crashed, he broke his dominant hand and a succession of losses crushed his spirit. Schaap, host of ESPN's Outside the Lines, goes into captivating detail on the brawny, reserved Braddock, who, at his lowest moments, was reduced to living off government relief and doing grueling work on the Hoboken, N.J., docks. But the story is as much about Max Baer, the lovably clownish and handsome heavyweight Braddock defeated as a 10-to-one underdog. The account is inspiring: no one ever thought Braddock would come back, especially against Baer, who'd previously killed two men in the ring. Braddock succeeded with the help of his manager, the short, fast-talking Joe Gould; the two were "the sport's favorite odd couple." Boxing enthusiasts will be more than satisfied by Schaap's meticulous account, which includes round-by-round details of the fight, as well as profiles of other fighters of the era. Not overly emotional, the story hits a nerve at just the right moments and features many of the same elements that made Seabiscuit a hit. Photos. Agent, Scott Waxman. (May) FYI: Ron Howard's film of the same name, starring Russell Crowe as Braddock and Ren?e Zellweger as his wife, opens June 3. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Just a few months removed from receiving welfare to supplement his income as a dockworker, a small, slow, washed-up fighter became heavyweight champion of the world. James J. Cinderella Man Braddock's life makes a heck of a story, but there hasn't been a biography of him in decades. Schaap, an ESPN veteran, portrays Braddock as a man of his time. After a promising start in the late 1920s, Braddock--a lovable family man with three kids--ended up as broke and beaten as the country. But with the help of a fast-talking manager whose passion for the sport was equaled only by Braddock's own, the fighter managed to emerge from his Great Depression to make an improbable run at the title, culminating in the defeat of the gargantuan Max Baer in 1935. Like a SportsCenter puff piece, Schaap's account can get repetitive and doesn't always delve deep. But the fights here are crisply drawn, and Braddock's upsets have that Hoosiers thrill factor. Plus, it's refreshing to find a boxing story where the right guy wins, nobody cheats, and most everyone lives happily ever after. --John Green Copyright 2005 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Long before the fictional Rocky, there was James J. Braddock, who rose from the ashes to become a hero of the downtrodden masses of the Great Depression A frequent loser, Braddock was generally discounted as merely an opponent to others on their way up, but he stayed the course to get his title shot and, despite being a huge underdog, won. Schaap, best known as an ESPN anchor/correspondent, brings to life both Braddock and Max Baer, the man he upset in 1935 for the heavyweight title. The two were a study in contrasts, with Braddock the stoic plodder and Baer the Ali-like clown prince, but both men had their demons. Braddock had been a promising light-heavyweight until an embarrassing loss in a title fight, a fragile right hand, and the relative absence of a left hand of any consequence relegated him to relief roles and, apparently, boxing oblivion, while Baer carried with him the memory of one man he pounded to death in the ring and another who died in the next fight after being pummeled by Baer. Schaap skillfully steers the men on their collision course toward a meeting that could have been conceived in Hollywood. This is good history and good drama and will be a valuable addition to all public library boxing collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/05.]-Jim Burns, Jacksonville P.L., FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
1 CORN AND HASHQueens, New York: June 14, 1934 On the night of June 14, 1934, James J. Braddock walked into the Madison Square Garden Bowl, an enormous outdoor arena in Queens, New York. His pockets were empty. A week earlier he had turned twenty-nine. He was a father of three, a washed-up fighter, and a part-time longshoreman. As feared as his right hand had once been - he was among the most powerful punchers in the light heavyweight division in the late 1920s - he was equally adept at taking a punch. In eighty pro fights, only one opponent had ever knocked him out, and that was a technical knockout. He had never been counted out. Beyond the ring, his toughest opponent had clearly been the Depression - which nearly knocked him out. But here he was, getting back into the fight game after nine months of inactivity. By 1934, Braddock had outgrown the light heavyweight divisions 175-pound weight limit and was fighting as a heavyweight, at about 180 pounds. He was six feet, two inches tall, with a head of thick, curly black hair. Ruggedly handsome, he looked every bit as Irish as his name, and he wore a shamrock on his trunks and was sometimes known as Irish Jim Braddock. He didnt talk much, but when he did the words were delivered from the side of his mouth in a thick, blue-collar Jersey accent. His smile was always described as crooked. His parents, Joseph and Elizabeth OToole Braddock, had been born in England and immigrated to the United States in 1889, but they were both much more Irish than English or American, though there is no evidence that either ever set foot on Irish soil. They were raised in impoverished Irish enclaves in and around Manchester, where the Braddocks and the OTooles clung to their Irishness - mostly because the English never let them forget where they came from. Forty-five years after Joseph Braddock escaped from the poverty and prejudices of northern England and made his way to America, his son James was struggling to clothe and feed his burgeoning family. He owed money to his landlord, the milkman, the gas and electric company, and his manager, to name just a few of his creditors. In the bitter winter of 1933- 1934, he had trudged through the streets of North Bergen, New Jersey, in shoes that were falling apart. Most of the time he was hungry. Braddocks decline as a boxer exactly paralleled the nations descent into the Depression. After fighting for the light heavyweight championship in the summer of 1929, Braddock met defeat after defeat, first in big arenas, at the hands of top competitors, and then, gradually, at the hands of boxers only a couple of notches above club fighters - tomato cans and ham n eggers, the dregs of the heavyweight division. He had lost sixteen out of twenty-six fights since the day the market crashed in 1929. Finally, on September 25, 1933, he broke his right hand, his only real weapon, on the jaw of a twenty-year-old heavyweight named Abe Feldman. The hand had be Excerpted from Cinderella Man: James J. Braddock, Max Baer, and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History by Jeremy Schaap All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Table of Contents
Preface | p. viii |
1 Corn and Hash | p. 1 |
2 The Battle of Nurge's Field | p. 17 |
3 The Meat Inspector | p. 37 |
4 The Livermore Butcher Boy | p. 47 |
5 Spooked by the Phantom | p. 65 |
6 The Great White Way | p. 93 |
7 The Crash and the Jinx | p. 105 |
8 The Lord of the Jungle | p. 134 |
9 Star of David | p. 144 |
10 On the Waterfront | p. 158 |
11 Last One Up's a Sissy | p. 166 |
12 Another Upset | p. 187 |
13 King Max | p. 195 |
14 A Shot at Lasky | p. 201 |
15 The People's Choice | p. 206 |
16 Homicide Hall | p. 221 |
17 A Stout Heart | p. 245 |
Epilogue | p. 267 |
Appendix A The Heavyweight Championship | p. 279 |
Appendix B James J. Braddock's Ring Record | p. 281 |
Appendix C Max Baer's Ring Record | p. 284 |
Notes | p. 287 |
Acknowledgments | p. 305 |
Index | p. 309 |