- 296 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
Johnny Mize was one of the greatest hitters in baseball’s golden age of great hitters. Born and raised in tiny Demorest, Georgia, in the northeast Georgia mountains, Mize emerged from the heart of Dixie as a Bunyonesque slugger, a quiet but sharp-witted man from a broken home who became a professional player at seventeen, embarking on an extended tour of the expansive St. Louis Cardinals Minor League system.
Mize then spent fifteen seasons terrorizing Major League pitchers as a member of those Cardinals, the New York Giants of Mel Ott and Leo Durocher, and finally with the New York Yankees, who won a record five straight World Series with Mize as their ace in the hole—the best pinch hitter in the American League. Few hitters have combined such meticulous bat control with brute power the way Mize did. Mize was a line-drive hitter who rarely struck out and also hit for distance, to all fields, and usually for a high average. Nicknamed the Big Cat, “nobody had a better, smoother, easier swing than John,” said Cardinals teammate Don Gutteridge. “It was picture perfect.”
Tabbed as a can’t-miss Hall of Famer, then all but forgotten, Mize spent twenty-eight years waiting for the call from Cooperstown before he was finally inducted in 1981, delighting fans with his straightforward commentary and sly sense of humor during a memorable induction speech.
From the backroads of the Minor Leagues to the sunny Caribbean, where he played alongside the best Black and Latin players as a twenty-one-year-old, and to the Major Leagues, where he became a ten-time All-Star, home run champion, and World Series hero, Mize forged a memorable trail along baseball’s landscape. This is the first complete biography of the Big Cat.
Mize then spent fifteen seasons terrorizing Major League pitchers as a member of those Cardinals, the New York Giants of Mel Ott and Leo Durocher, and finally with the New York Yankees, who won a record five straight World Series with Mize as their ace in the hole—the best pinch hitter in the American League. Few hitters have combined such meticulous bat control with brute power the way Mize did. Mize was a line-drive hitter who rarely struck out and also hit for distance, to all fields, and usually for a high average. Nicknamed the Big Cat, “nobody had a better, smoother, easier swing than John,” said Cardinals teammate Don Gutteridge. “It was picture perfect.”
Tabbed as a can’t-miss Hall of Famer, then all but forgotten, Mize spent twenty-eight years waiting for the call from Cooperstown before he was finally inducted in 1981, delighting fans with his straightforward commentary and sly sense of humor during a memorable induction speech.
From the backroads of the Minor Leagues to the sunny Caribbean, where he played alongside the best Black and Latin players as a twenty-one-year-old, and to the Major Leagues, where he became a ten-time All-Star, home run champion, and World Series hero, Mize forged a memorable trail along baseball’s landscape. This is the first complete biography of the Big Cat.
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Yes, you can access Big Cat by Jerry Grillo in PDF and/or ePUB format. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Publisher
University of Nebraska PressYear
2024Print ISBN
9781496235442eBook ISBN
9781496239716Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Prologue
- 1. Hills of Habersham
- 2. High Drama in the Low Minors
- 3. Scenic Route in the Bushes
- 4. Beisból with El Maestro
- 5. Can Mize Field This Year?
- 6. The Temporary Red
- 7. All the Way Back
- 8. Cardinals Rookie
- 9. Johnny and Jene
- 10. Rule of Three
- 11. Best Hitter in the National League
- 12. The Temperament of Genius
- 13. Goodbye, St. Louis
- 14. Land of the Giants
- 15. War Clubs
- 16. Agony of Defeat
- 17. Chasing the Babe
- 18. Chasing Kiner
- 19. Big Cat Earns His Pinstripes
- 20. Minor Setback, Major Recovery
- 21. Sitting in Casey’s Lap
- 22. How to Hit
- 23. Out to Pasture
- 24. Going Home
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- About Jerry Grillo
- Illustrations