List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Butchertown
2. He Can Be Just as Great a Ballplayer as He Cares
3. This Fellow Frank O’Doul Is a Sure Frank Merriwell
4. He Always Could Play Ball, Now He Gets It Earnestly
5. I Feel as Though I Am Going to Have a Great Year
6. The Fellow Has Plenty on the Personality Ball
7. Banzai O’Doul
8. Baseball’s Greatest Hitting Instructor
9. Manager for Life
10. It Is Epidemic
11. In Fact, We Are Major League!
12. There Are No Trick Plays, No Short Cuts
13. I’d Rather Be a Bad Winner
14. The San Francisco Giants
15. A Big, Big, Big, Big Thing
16. He Was Here at a Good Time
Epilogue: Lefty's Story Continues
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Dennis Snelling has been a senior writer for Helmar Baseball History and Art magazine and a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and the Pacific Coast League Historical Society. He is the author of The Greatest Minor League: A History of the Pacific Coast League, 1903–1957 and Johnny Evers: A Baseball Life.
"Dennis Snelling's compelling biography, Lefty O'Doul . . .
tells of the pitcher who, after a sore arm, became one of
baseball's greatest hitters and hitting coaches before helping to
establish the game in Japan."—Daniel M. Gold, New York Times
"Engrossing, scrupulously-researched."—Paul Hagen, MLB.com
"One of the best baseball books of the year."—Allen Barra, San
Francisco Chronicle
"An excellent portrait of a thoughtful and generous man with a
scientific approach to hitting and an unbridled passion for the
game; an athlete, a pioneer, a diplomat, a teacher—and one of
baseball’s forgotten greats."—Andrew Elias, Ft. Myers Magazine
"Dennis Snelling makes the reader fall in love with the larger than
life character that was Lefty O’Doul."—Melissa Minners,
g-pop.net
"An admirable attempt to elevate O'Doul's place among baseball's
pantheon of greats."—Benjamin Hill, MiLB.com
“Perhaps the most important twentieth-century figure not enshrined
in Cooperstown, Lefty O’Doul influenced the game on both sides of
the Pacific. . . . Dennis Snelling brings Lefty to life in this
well-written and fascinating biography. Lefty O’Doul should be on
the must-read list of all serious baseball fans. A true Sayonara
home run!”—Robert K. Fitts, author of Banzai Babe Ruth, winner of
the Seymour Medal
“The life of Lefty O’Doul was filled with joy, enthusiasm, and
accomplishment, and no one has told his story better than Dennis
Snelling. This wonderful book fully describes the many facets of
Lefty’s personality.”—Dick Beverage, secretary-treasurer for the
Association of Professional Ballplayers of America and president of
the Pacific Coast League Historical Society
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