Reviews

" Satch, Dizzy & Rapid Robert is a delightful look inside forgotten chapters of baseball lore and legend. Thanks to Tim Gay, these classic barnstorming contests finally get attention they so richly deserve." --TIM WENDEL, author of CASTRO'S CURVEBALL and HIGH HEAT: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE FASTBALL AND THE IMPROBABLE SEARCH FOR THE FASTEST PITCHER OF ALL TIME

" Tim Gay's latest baseball book bubbles with fresh material, rollicking good characters, and sociological insight. It is a wonder of research and a joy to read." --DAVID MARANISS, author of CLEMENTE and ROME 1960

"Jackie Robinson integrated the major leagues in 1947, but off-season "barnstorming" games by pro players were integrated before World War II. The larger-than-life Satchel Paige and Dizzy Dean played, one black, one white, both possessed of unequaled skill, panache, and an innate sense of marketing. Imagine a country fighting economic upheaval and starved for heroes and entertainment. Add the precocious Bob Feller, whose fastball was measured at better than 104 miles per hour, and you have a new classic baseball book. Gay ("Tris Speaker") shows these men bringing integrated competition to baseball fans far from big league stadiums, from Cuba to the Pacific coast. With events that defy the imagination. Highly recommended." -- LIBRARY JOURNAL

"Read Tim Gay's new book to learn how baseball's color bar was being toppled long before the world heard of Jackie Robinson or Branch Rickey. Read it to celebrate three of the most dazzling pitchers on the planet. Read it because Gay is a terrific reporter and writer and this is an irresistible read." --LARRY TYE, author of SATCHEL: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AN AMERICAN LEGEND

"T im Gay has put on his detective cap again as he did in his earlier book on Tris Speaker. This time he trains his magnifying glass on a largely unknown corner of baseball history--the world of barnstorming and the three heroes who left their marks on it, a subject that has never been fully explored. . . . Gay successfully separates fact from fiction, clearing a path for both future scholars and today's fans to follow and enjoy." --JOHN HOLWAY, author of THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BASEBALL'S NEGRO LEAGUES

"T im Gay takes us inside the world of interracial barnstorming at a time when baseball, like the rest of America, was riven by race. This is an intriguing account of larger-than-life ballplayers like Satchel Paige and Dizzy Dean, as well as a revealing portrait of baseball at its worst, when Jim Crow ruled, and its best, when it offered this nation a shared racial terrain. Well-researched and fluidly told, this is baseball history worth reading." --ROB RUCK, author of THE TROPIC OF BASEBALL: BASEBALL IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC