Doug Feldmann – författare

At the core of the educational transformation of American rural schools in the early 1900s, there was the re-examination of the rural school curriculum, preceded by the landmark meeting of the Committee of Ten in 1893. Until 1900, formal education in most rural areas was seen by many as an unneeded luxury, not necessary for the manual labor of the farm, mill, mine, or other primary employment sources of a given locale. Curriculum and the American Rural School traces the origins of American school curriculum, and subsequently contextualizes it within the history of rural school curriculum in the United States since the mid-1800s. Doug Feldmann examines modern issues pertinent to the rural school curriculum in light of this history, and the actual solutions to these issues that rural schools have discovered. Feldmann examines curriculum— in all of its procedural and documentary forms— in a real-life, contemporary rural school study, whereby the history and theory of this discipline is revealed in a true-to-life form.

Led by the colorful pitcher Dizzy Dean, the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals personified Depression-era America. The players were underpaid, wore uniforms that were almost always torn and dirty, and had wandered into professional baseball from small towns in the Midwest where other jobs were scarce. Despite their lack of resources, however, and despite coming off two mediocre seasons, the Cardinals emerged triumphant in '34, winning the pennant by two games over the Giants and the World Series in seven games over the Tigers.The book chronicles that championship team which came to be known in baseball lore as the famous "Gas House Gang." This work brings to life the legendary exploits of player manager Frankie Frisch and the Dean brothers--Dizzy and Paul--who combined for 49 wins that season. The era, the team, the season, and the Series are all fully covered.

For the St. Louis Cardinals and their fans, there was a great deal of uncertainty going into the 1985 season. Only three years before, the Cards had won the World Series, but were predicted to finish last in the National League East Division by every major publication. Manager Whitey Herzog was expected to rebuild his team, drug abuse had cast a lingering shadow over the game, and a players' strike threatened to halt play.The situation looked bleak for St. Louis but the season turned out to be nothing like the predictions. The Cards found themselves in a battle for the pennant. From beginning to end, that magical season is chronicled here. The book recaps the 1982 championship season and provides background information on Whitey Herzog and Gussie Busch's building of the early 1980s Cards, Busch Stadium and its characteristics particular to base running, and players of the era, including Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee and pitchers Bob Forsch and Joaquin Andujar. It then goes in-depth to discuss the Cards' 1985 spring training and season and the World Series.

With the recent success of the Gas House Gang as backdrop, the National League prepared for the 1935 season. The United States was still in the Great Depression, but executives in baseball predicted a financial comeback during the year, and Chicago's "windy" politicians demanded a pennant-contending ballclub. Yes, there was a time when the Cubs were expected to win.This book chronicles the Cubs' 1935 season and the many on- and off-field events that impacted the game for years to come: Fans who had once turned to baseball for heroes and men of character now laughed at players' uncouth antics and fun-loving carousing reported in the morning newspapers; Babe Ruth debuted in the National League with the Boston Braves, and retired soon after; the first major league night game was played in Cincinnati; the chewing gum king Phil Wrigley was the first to broadcast all of his team's games on the radio; and the Cubs won 21 games in a row in September to take the pennant--the last Cubs team to win 100 games in a season.

In 1953, August A. Busch purchased the St. Louis Cardinals for nearly four million dollars. His dream included not only the best players money could buy but a brand new Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis. The early sixties found Busch working on both, and by May 1966, when the new Busch Stadium was opened, the St. Louis Cardinals were on the cusp of greatness. A world championship would follow in 1967, and in 1968 the Cardinals battled the Tigers in a classic seven-game series, narrowly losing their bid for back-to-back titles.This volume looks back at the outstanding Cardinal teams of the 1967 and 1968 seasons. Beginning with the ownership shift in the early 1950s, it examines the events leading up to the opening of the new stadium and tracks the various player trades, policy changes and inside dealings of baseball that produced one of the era's great teams. The effects of Branch Rickey's farm system on both the franchise's success and the sport of baseball are discussed, as are the rumblings of labor trouble that would directly involve one of the Cardinals' own. An appendix contains detailed statistics from the 1967 and 1968 seasons. An index and period photographs are also included.

The era of free agency in Major League Baseball ensured that it would be difficult to keep star teams together year after year. The 1976 Cincinnati Reds were one of the last to be considered a dynasty, and this book documents the season of one of the greatest teams in baseball history. During the pursuit of a second-straight world championship in 1976, the 'Big Red Machine' was fueled by all-time hits leader Pete Rose, slugger George Foster, and all-stars Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan, as well as a balanced pitching staff that had seven players notching double-digit win totals. The 102-win regular season ended with ""World Series"" sweep of the New York Yankees.

Civil unrest at home, war abroad, and political uncertainty gripped the nation as the 1970s approached. In the summer of 1969, as a tumultuous decade of American history neared its end, Major League Baseball presented sports fans with a thrilling distraction: a pennant race that pitted the Chicago Cubs, those much-loved perennial also-rans, against the defending National League champs, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the upstart New York Mets. Miracle Collapse is the story of how one of the most talented Cubs teams ever to take the field—with Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, and ace pitcher Ferguson Jenkins among their ranks and led by the irascible manager Leo Durocher—raced to an early division lead and a seemingly certain pennant, only to unravel spectacularly at the season's end. A time capsule in which baseball lore jockeys with history, Doug Feldmann's book draws readers into the lives of these legendary Cubs players and their fierce bond with the city of Chicago. During this magical summer of baseball peaks and valleys, life goes on: Durocher "disappears" for a few days before his wedding; players leave the team midseason for National Guard duty; play is interrupted to announce man's landing on the moon. It is against this backdrop that Miracle Collapse captures a baseball season for all time.

As Lou Brock was chasing 3000 career hits late in the 1979 season--his last after 18 years in the majors--the St. Louis Cardinals were looking for a new identity. Brock's departure represented the final link to the team's glory years of the 1960s, and a parade of new players now came in from the minor leagues. With the Cardinals mired in last place by the following June, owner August A. Busch, Jr., hired Whitey Herzog as field manager, and shortly handed him the general manager's position, too.Herzog was given free rein to rebuild the club in order to embrace the new running game trend in the majors. With an aggressive style of play and an unconventional approach to personnel moves, he catapulted the Cardinals back into prominence and defined a new age of baseball in St. Louis.

Despite being picked to finish dead last in the National League’s Eastern Division, the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals astounded the sports world by winning 101 regular-season games, capturing the pennant, and playing in the World Series. With expectations greatly elevated going forward, manager Whitey Herzog and his team subsequently endured a rash of injuries and poor performances from key players that sent the 1986 season into a tailspin. The veteran skipper had never seen the likes of it before in his professional baseball career, and he even considered tendering his resignation midyear to team owner August A. Busch Jr. Herzog was uncertain which version of the ball club would surface entering 1987, as their clash for divisional honors with the New York Mets was rekindled once again.Though observers at the start of the 1987 season once again gave them no chance to win their division, the Cardinals chased victory. Herzog’s style of play, nicknamed “Whiteyball,” terrorized opponents with its daring baserunning led by Vince Coleman and Ozzie Smith. Veteran players and newcomers, including Jack Clark and Tony PeÑa, returned the Cardinals to contention.One More for the White Rat features contemporary interviews with members of the 1987 Cardinals and compelling stories and colorful insights into that incredible summer. Veteran Cardinals author Doug Feldmann takes the reader inside the St. Louis locker room and onto the field for the daily struggles and triumphs that made the 1987 baseball season unlike any other.

Whether in football or in the law, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Robert Thomas has always had the "best view from the bench."Bob Thomas got his start in football at the University of Notre Dame, kicking for the famed "Fighting Irish" in the early 1970s. Claimed off waivers by the Chicago Bears in 1975, Thomas helped to take the franchise from their darkest days to their brightest. Yet, on the cusp of the team's greatest moment, he was struck with a shocking blow that challenged his fortitude.In this dramatic retelling of Bob Thomas's fascinating life, renowned sports writer Doug Feldmann shows how neither football nor the law was part of Thomas's dreams while growing up the son of Italian immigrants in Rochester, New York, in the 1960s. Chasing excellence on both the gridiron and in the courtroom, however, would require resilience in ways he could not have imagined.As A View from Two Benches shows us, Bob Thomas reached the top of two separate and distinct professions, guided by a bedrock of faith that has impacted his decisions and actions as both a football player and a judge, helping him navigate the peaks and valleys of life. As Doug Feldmann reveals, Bob Thomas has always stayed true to the values he learned in his earliest days.Doug Feldmann's rich biography of an accomplished kicker and a proud justice of the law shows us that determination and resilience go a long way to a successful and impactful life.