Half-Game Pennant of 1908

Charles C. Alexander, Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus, Ohio University, has written 14 books, the last eight of which have dealt with American baseball history. He lives in Hamilton, Ohio.

“The book reanimates many of the central characters of the Dead Ball Era, and paints a tableau of American life in the first decade of the twentieth century...a thorough recounting of the season...a welcome addition to the literature of baseball’s Dead Ball Era. Not only does the book fill a gap in the literature by focusing on the overlooked American League pennant race, but the book leaves the reader with a vivid impression of the players who partook in the race, and of the times in which they lived”—The Inside Game (SABR Deadball Era Committee Newsletter); “I love this book. The Half-Game Pennant of 1908 is half of my favorite year in baseball...the half you may have thought you knew, but didn’t. Charles C. Alexander knows the era as no one else does, making you suspect that he personally chatted with all the ancient mound heroes: Ed Walsh, Addie Joss, Rube Waddell, old Cy Young, young Walter Johnson. He tosses off anecdotes and commentary with the casual mastery that has marked his long, splendid career.”—John Thorn, official historian, Major League Baseball; “Distinguished historian Charles Alexander delightfully brings to life one of baseball’s most underappreciated great pennant races and the accompanying collection of fascinating characters.”—Dan Levitt, author, In Pursuit of Pennants.

• Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction: “Slobber tobacco juice all over a nice, new white baseball”One. “Nothing to the championship in the American League except the St. Louis club”Two. “Tie a rope to him”Three. “A high art exhibition yesterday with wet and dry goods”Four. “Trying to make an umpire out of a boneless codfish”Five. “Lucky to get safely to his hotel”Six. “That game meant more to me than any game I ever saw”Afterword: “That one game would have been enough”Chapter NotesBibliographyIndex