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Summary
Summary
From an award-winning graphic artist and baseball historian comes a strikingly original illustrated history of baseball's forgotten heroes, including stars of the Negro Leagues, barnstorming teams, semi-pro leagues, foreign leagues, and famous players like Shoeless Joe Jackson, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, and Joe DiMaggio before they achieved notoriety.
From a young age, Gary Cieradkowski had a passion for baseball's unheralded heroes. Inspired by his father and their shared love of the sport, Cieradkowski began creating "outsider" baseball cards, as a way to tell the little-known stories of baseball's many unsung heroes--alongside some of baseball's greatest players before they were famous. The League of Outsider Baseball is a tribute to all of those who've played the game, known and unknown.
Shining a light into the dark corners of baseball history--from Mickey Mantle's minor league days to Negro League greats like Josh Gibson and Leon Day; to people that most never knew played the game, such as Frank Sinatra, who had his own ball club in 1940s Hollywood; bank robber John Dillinger, who was a promising shortstop and took time out between robberies to attend Cubs games; and even a few US presidents--this book is a rich, visual tribute to America's pastime.
Meticulously researched, beautifully illustrated using a unique, vintage baseball-card-style, and filled with a colorful and rich cast of characters, this book is a prized collector's item and will be cherished by fans of all ages.
Author Notes
Gary Joseph Cieradkowski is the artist and writer behind The Infinite Baseball Card Set blog. An award winning graphic artist and illustrator, chances are you have visited or bought something he designed: Bicycle Playing Cards, the music department of Barnes & Noble, the Folgers Coffee can, and the graphics for Oriole Park at Camden Yards, still regarded as the best designed ballpark in the Majors. Growing up a New York Mets fan in the 1970s, Gary learned to live with pain and disappointment until he married his beautiful wife Andrea. The two live happily in Northern Kentucky, unless they discuss the merits of the designated hitter rule.
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
In his first book, artist and writer Cieradkowski combines a passion for the sport (nurtured by his late father, who he says inspired this project) with his credentials as a graphic designer, where his credits include the graphics at the Baltimore Orioles' Camden Yards.This book represents a natural progression from the author's Infinite Baseball Card Set blog, where he continues to design cards for players who never had them (as well as some who have)not the bubble-gum cards of the modern era but "the beautiful old tobacco cards that were manufactured at the turn of the century." Such illustrationsand others, some full pageaccompany anecdotal remembrances of the famous (at early stages of their careers), the infamous (the Black Sox and more violent criminals), the little known and those better known for other achievements. If you want a baseball card illustration of Eisenhower, Castro and Sinatra, this is your book. Prodigious research informs both the art and the text, though much within the latter will be familiar to those who have read the same baseball books the artist has. But even the well-known career of Pete Reiser, "the stuff of tragic legend," merits celebrating again, while the tales of radicals who immigrated to Russia and brought baseball with them or the hurlers who used their strong arms with hand grenades (American and Japanese alike) will be fresh for all but the most ardent baseball historians. Pretty much every country where there is baseball has its own Babe Ruth, and they're all represented here (as is Ruth). While newer generations of baseball fanatics have become more numbers oriented, the author is an old-school throwback who highlights the players in terms of their personalities. He effectively evokes a golden era of what was once the national pastime. Baseball fanatics will love this illumination of the sport's colorful past. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Award-winning graphic artist and baseball fan Cieradkowski (The Infinite Baseball Card Set) has crafted a well-written and highly entertaining homage to known and unknown baseball players. In clear, detail-oriented language, he shares a short and enthralling history for each player, from Sandy Koufax to John Dillinger, who has touched his heart. Inspired by his father and their shared love of baseball, the author began to illustrate baseball cards as a way to tell the little-known stories of famous and not-so-famous baseball players. Unexpected historical gems adorn the pages of Cieradkowski's cleverly illustrated work, such as revelations that Fidel Castro pitched two innings for Los Barbudos (the Bearded Ones) and how Dwight Eisenhower played under the name "Wilson" for a minor league team in Kansas City. An engaging read to flip thorough idly or spend a whole day perusing. VERDICT This title is a great addition for any sports enthusiast looking for literature on baseball history but is also recommended for anyone who is remotely interested in baseball and is on the lookout for engrossing facts about the pastime.-Gus Palas, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zuirch, IL (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
The League of Outsider Baseball CHAPTER 1 THE BUSH LEAGUERS Everyone starts somewhere. Since the earliest days of organized baseball there has been a hierarchy of leagues, organized by their level of talent, all leading up to the major leagues. Today there is a very rigid and regulated system and each big league club has an allotted number of teams at each level that they can have control over. Up until the 1950s this was not the norm. Some teams like the Cardinals and Dodgers had vast farm systems with outposts in almost every state. There was even a saying that went something like "it ain't a town unless it's got a Cardinals farm team in it." These forgotten little towns and the teams that once played there are where the term bush league comes from, meaning far away from the bright lights of the major league cities. While the Cardinals and Dodgers had a continuous flow of new talent to fill their rosters, other teams were shortsighted or too cash-poor to have much of a farm system. The St. Louis Browns and Washington Senators fell into this category and their inability to develop fresh talent reflected in the two trading the position of last place in the American League year after year. It's always staggering to think that of the millions of players who pass through the ranks of the minor leagues, only a select few make it all the way to the big leagues. Take, for example, the year 1930: The National and American Leagues both consisted of eight teams each with 25 players on the roster. That's just 400 jobs available at the top level of the game. Now consider that every summer day in 1930 an estimated 4,000 players were playing their hearts out on 160 minor league teams, trying to make the big leagues. For every Hank Greenberg making a name for himself that year there were thousands of guys named Buckshot May and Pinky Pittenger toiling in obscurity for teams like the Des Moines Demons and Jersey City Skeeters. Everyone starts somewhere, and this chapter will show you how a few rose up from the anonymous thousands to become legends of the game. Excerpted from The League of Outsider Baseball: An Illustrated History of Baseball's Forgotten Heroes by Gary Cieradkowski 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.
