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Low and inside;: A book of baseball anecdotes, oddities, and curiosities,
A book of baseball anecdotes, oddities, and curiosities.
- GenresBaseball
243 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 10, 2021
Ira L. Smith was a researcher of stories about early baseball. H. Allen Smith was a successful humorist. I don't know if they were related. In 1949 H. Allen agreed to put together a collection of the stories uncovered by Ira L. This book is a collection of baseball stories from the 1860s to the beginning of WW1. Most of them are from contemporary newspapers.
I was interested for two reasons. I just read and enjoyed H. Allen's chili book. Secondly, I watched the Baseball All Star Game. I decided to start watching the Sox games again. They were in first place and looking great. The wheels promptly came off the wagon. They got devastated by Covid-19 and they began to look horrible. After two months of my fan-ship, they are nine games out.
So I was in the mood for H. Allen plus baseball. This is a collection of odd baseball anecdotes. A player stealing third somersaults over the third baseman. The umpire calls him out for leaving the base path. An outfielder get bitten by a snake in the outfield grass and dies from the bite. There are allot of deaths. Batters are killed by pitches. Umpires are killed by bats swung by angry hitters. A scorekeeper borrows a knife to sharpen his pencil. A foul ball hits his hand, drives the knife into his heart and kills him.
Most of the stories are light hearted stories of funny and unusual baseball stories. The fields in early baseball where not the sterile places we have now. Fences broke or had gaps. Spectators wandered onto the field. The fields had hills and divets.
The umpires where characters who wanted to be noticed. We get a story about an umpire out-arguing a Vice-President of the US who challenged one of his calls.
This is a fun collection of good old time baseball stories
These
I was interested for two reasons. I just read and enjoyed H. Allen's chili book. Secondly, I watched the Baseball All Star Game. I decided to start watching the Sox games again. They were in first place and looking great. The wheels promptly came off the wagon. They got devastated by Covid-19 and they began to look horrible. After two months of my fan-ship, they are nine games out.
So I was in the mood for H. Allen plus baseball. This is a collection of odd baseball anecdotes. A player stealing third somersaults over the third baseman. The umpire calls him out for leaving the base path. An outfielder get bitten by a snake in the outfield grass and dies from the bite. There are allot of deaths. Batters are killed by pitches. Umpires are killed by bats swung by angry hitters. A scorekeeper borrows a knife to sharpen his pencil. A foul ball hits his hand, drives the knife into his heart and kills him.
Most of the stories are light hearted stories of funny and unusual baseball stories. The fields in early baseball where not the sterile places we have now. Fences broke or had gaps. Spectators wandered onto the field. The fields had hills and divets.
The umpires where characters who wanted to be noticed. We get a story about an umpire out-arguing a Vice-President of the US who challenged one of his calls.
This is a fun collection of good old time baseball stories
These
February 26, 2018
A fun book of amusing baseball anecdotes. It definitely makes a good gift for any baseball fan.
May 15, 2010
Fascinating and fun look at pre-WWI baseball through player anecdotes. Some of the stories are funny, some simply odd in today's climate.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews