Baseball Heaven

Up Close and Personal, What It Was Really Like in the Major Leagues

Peter Golenbock

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN:
  9781538181836
• Edition: 1

"With its personal feel and near-mystical quality, this highly recommended work will mesmerize baseball lovers and casual fans." Library Journal, Starred Review
A behind-the-scenes look at baseball history, as told through timeless interviews with major leaguers
For fifty years, bestselling author Peter Golenbock has been interviewing some of the most fascinating figures in baseball. Their conversations are a journey back in time to the days of Ruth and Gehrig, Gehringer and Greenberg, Robinson and Reese, and Howard and Mantle, as they reflect on the sport's greatest moments and biggest issues.
In Baseball Heaven, Golenbock brings together for the first time the most historic and captivating of these conversations. The stories range from Elden Auker remembering the day Lou Gehrig told him he was sick to Albert Happy Chandler reflecting on his decision to allow Jackie Robinson into the big leagues, from Ralph Branca discussing the home run he gave up that cost the Dodgers the pennant to Del Webb talking about why he hired Casey Stengel and why he fired him.
Baseball Heaven is baseball history at its very best. It pulls back the curtain on the major leagues to reveal inside stories, intimate reminiscences, and the friendships and rivalries that make baseball America's Game.

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Elden Auker: “I’d Like to See You Throw Directly Underhand”
• 2 Elden Auker: Ole Diz, Mickey Cochrane, and Hammering Hank
• 3 Elden Auker: Joe Cronin Drives Him Crazy
• 4 Johnny Pesky: Pesky Holds the Ball
• 5 Albert “Happy” Chandler: “I Will Allow Jackie Robinson to Play for Brooklyn”
• 6 Del Webb: “Would You Be Interested in Buying the Yankees?”
• 7 Del Webb: Stengel and Weiss and Victory
• 8 Ralph Branca: The Ace of the Staff
• 9 Ralph Branca: The Shot Heard round the World
• 10 Bobby Thomson: The Shot Heard round the World
• 11 Donald Hall: My Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers
• 12 Elston Howard: For the Yankees, the First
• 13 Hot Rod Kanehl: Casey’s Pet
• 14 Rod Kanehl: I Was an Original Met
• 15 Dock Ellis: A Life on the Edge
• 16 Dock Ellis: Cocaine and Yankee Turbulence
• 17 Gary Carter: The Missing Ingredient
• 18 Gary Carter: The Ball Goes through Buckner’s Legs