Motor City Champs

Scott Ferkovich, a member of SABR, writes about the national pastime from his home near Detroit.

“This book serves as an excellent introduction to the business and financial aspects of professional baseball teams in the 1930s, offering examples from several franchises to illustrate the constraints placed on teams as a result of the Depression.... An engaging and informative read.... recommended”—Choice; “Ferkovich mixes game recaps with background and current event information masterfully so that the pace of the book never lags nor overwhelms the reader with in-game detail.... [He] also captures the degree to which the Tigers' Series win was an important, uplifting triumph for the entire city of Detroit. A satisfying tale well told.”—Spitball; “Relying on primary-source material, including many seldom-seen photographs, Ferkovich’s book smoothly takes the reader through the peaks and valleys of each season without bogging down with overuse of statistics and play-by-play accounts.”—Michigan Historical Review; “Few teams in baseball history offer as rousing a story and as colorful a cast of characters as the 1934-35 Detroit Tigers, and Scott Ferkovich brings them alive as if he’d watched it all himself from the Navin Field bleachers. Don’t miss Motor City Champs!”—Mike Shannon, Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine; “With his usual precision, Scott Ferkovich captures a great player and a significant team with writing that is abundant in clarity and grace. Any lover of baseball history will greatly enjoy, learn, and benefit from Motor City Champs.”—Stew Thornley, author of Land of the Giants: New York’s Polo Grounds; “In the mid-1930s, during the dark days of the Great Depression, Mickey Cochrane and his colorful Tigers thrilled the baseball world and gave hope to a struggling city. Author Scott Ferkovich re-creates the time and team in Motor City Champs, a fitting celebration to a lost era. Tigers fans will love it.”—Tom Stanton, author of Terror in the City of Champions and Ty and The Babe; “This is one to savor. You will learn a lot about Cochrane, about the Tigers, about Detroit—and about the grand ol’ game we all love. Quality work, Scott.”—Tom Gage, J.G. Taylor Spink Award recipient; “Relying on mounds of primary source material, Ferkovich sets his story against the backdrop of a city ravaged by the Great Depression and shows how the Tigers provided needed hope during one of the bleakest times in American history.”—Bruce Markusen, Seymour Medal-winning historian; “The 1934–35 Tigers have for decades been an underappreciated part of Detroit’s sports history, taking a back seat to the 1945, 1968, and 1984 world championship teams. No longer: Scott Ferkovich gives these two pennant winners the serious treatment they deserve.”—Gary Gillette, co-editor of Detroit Tigers 1984: What a Start! What a Finish!; “The G-Men – Gehringer, Goslin and Greenberg—circle the bases again in Scott Ferkovich’s vivid retelling of that glorious era when Detroit became a city of champions.”—Tim Wendel, author of Castro’s Curveball and Summer of ‘68; “Rejoice! Scott Ferkovich has painted us a lovely portrait of the Tigers of the Great Depression!”—Charles Leerhsen, author of Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty; “Scott Ferkovich has given us a beautifully-written tale of the Depression-era champion Tigers that’s an ode not only to Detroit but to the national spirit. No one will put this book down without a newfound abiding respect for Black Mike and the G-Men, and what they accomplished to lift spirits in the tenor of those times.”—Bob McGee, author, The Greatest Ballpark Ever: Ebbets Field and the Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPrefaceA Note on Statistics and QuotationsOne. “Detroit is not my lucky town”Two. City on the StraitThree. “The tumult and the shouting start”Four. One Hot GooseFive. “Get that fellow out of my sight in a hurry”Six. “They’ll never see another game like it”Seven. Winning StreakEight. Schoolboy and the History BooksNine. “A phenomena, bordering on the miraculous”Ten. Heartbreak and GarbageEleven. “You can’t keep a gang like that down”Twelve. Hammerin’ Hank Sets the PaceThirteen. “Pulling game after game out of the fire”Fourteen. The Cubs Blow InFifteen. “The most obscene language I ever had to take from anybody”Sixteen. “This mad, delirious city”EpilogueChapter NotesBibliographyIndex