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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.357092
EAN num: 9781599211114
ISBN number: 1599211114
Label: The Lyons Press
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 344
Printing Date: March 01, 2007
Publishing house: The Lyons Press
Sale Popularity Level: 304199
Studio: The Lyons Press
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
A long-overdue biography of the Hall of Famer regarded by his peers to be the best centerfielder to ever play in the Majors.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Of course everyone has heard of Willie Mays, Joe Dimaggio, Duke Snyder and the great Mickey Mantle. Did anyone ever hear of Tris Speaker???
Probably not!! His fielding exploits are on par with the Say Hey Kid. Mr. Speaker played the shallowest centerfield in MLB history!! He leads the Major Leagues in Outfield Assists!!! His batting average is better than both Dimaggio and Mantle. His lifetime hitting of doubles will probably never be broken.
Tristium Speaker was born in 1888 in Texas. His very first Major League club was the Boston Red Sox where he became a leading hitter and outfielder . While he was there he helped Boston to win 2 World Championships.
However, it was not until he was traded to Cleveland in 1916 that Mr. Speaker really became a legend. He played centerfield and later was asked to be Player-Manager of the Cleveland Indians. He directed the team in an extraordinary season in 1920 to become the World Series Champions. For you that don't know, please Google October 10, 1920.
Tris Speaker's life is well documented in this book. Please read it. You will learn that everything baseball does not reside in the Bronx!!!!
Rated by buyers 
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Tris Speaker is probably the best baseball player (excluding Negro League greats like Oscar Charleston) who has been largely forgotten by the public today. Even most casual baseball fans have at least heard of Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, and Walter Johnson, but you mention Tris Speaker in any baseball discussion, you are likely to get blank stares in return. This is a shame as Spoke (as he is called) was truly one of baseball's greatest players. Timothy Gay has written a solid biography that is equal parts the story of Spoke's life and a history of the early era of baseball. One thing I really liked about this book was that it was partly a story about Spoke as a player, but I also learned a great deal about Spoke as a person. Spoke grew up in small town Texas before the turn of the century. It is interesting that he started his professional career in Boston, which couldn't possibly have been any further from his roots. Gay makes a great deal of Speaker's antipathy toward Catholics, blacks, and everyone who would have been out of place in his Texas hometown. I think that Spoke's time in Boston was very difficult for him personally, and he was often in conflict (i.e. fisticuffs) with many of his teammates, but it ultimately made him the man that he became (eventually marrying a Catholic woman!). Spoke's best seasons were with the Red Sox (where he was a contemporary of the Bambino), but he really came into his own when he went to the Indians (guiding them to one of their two World Series pennants). I think that he always felt more comfortable in Cleveland, remaining active in that city long after his baseball days were over. Spoke's reputation was severely tarnished by his involvement in a gambling scandal. Gay discusses this at length and suggests that Spoke may have become one of the greatest managers had he not been tainted by gambling (he was effectively banished from the game after 1926). Gay ultimately indicts all the participants: the players, the management, the owners, in the sad saga of gambling during the second and third decade of the 20th century. He makes a strong case that Spoke (and even the Black Sox) paid a heavy price for the sins of many. The taint from gambling may in part explain why Spoke is not so well known today. In any case, this is a solid, if not uniquely outstanding, bio of a great player and I think will be of interest to any baseball fan regardless of how much they know (or don't know) about the deadball era. This tends toward a scholarly book (detailed, well documented), I certainly wouldn't characterize it as a light read.
Rated by buyers -
Mr. Gay has written one of the better baseball books I have ever read. Tris Speaker is a great read. The author weaves the history of the game and its relationship with Speaker. As a Red Sox fan, I've always been interested in learning more about Speaker and this book filled that void.
Great job.
Rated by buyers -
This is probably the best baseball bio I've read yet. Unlike many other bios of renowned players of the past that delve into the playing statistics of the subject, this one does it's share of that but also touches on the life of his subject outside of the game, the attitudes of the nation, city, and people of the time, and the evolvement of those attitudes during and after the course of the subject's career.
I recommend this book to anyone who may be interested in Speaker, the deadball era, or just baseball in general. Thumbs up from me.
Rated by buyers 
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There is a lot of information here, about one of baseball's greatest
ballplayers, but far too much of it is slanted toward the negative.
Reminiscent of modern attacks on Ty Cobb and others of baseball's halcyon days, this is one of those politically correct, revisionist treatments that juxtaposes modern mores on another time and another place. A good treatment of Tris Speaker would add to an appreciation of the national pastime. This book is not that treatment.
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