Fifty-nine in '84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had

by Edward Achorn

Overview

"First-class narrative history that can stand with everything Steven Ambrose wrote. . . . Achorn's description of the utter insanity that was barehanded baseball is vivid and alive." —Boston Globe

“A beautifully written, meticulously researched story about a bygone baseball era that even die-hard fans will find foreign, and about a pitcher who might have been the greatest of all time.” — Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer prize-winning historian

In 1884 Providence Grays pitcher Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn won an astounding fifty-nine games—more than anyone in major-league history ever had before, or has since. He then went on to win all three games of baseball's first World Series.

Fifty-nine in '84 tells the dramatic story not only of that amazing feat of grit but also of big-league baseball two decades after the Civil War—a brutal, bloody sport played barehanded, the profession of uneducated, hard-drinking men who thought little of cheating outrageously or maiming an opponent to win.

Wonderfully entertaining, Fifty-nine in '84 is an indelible portrait of a legendary player and a fascinating, little-known era of the national pastime.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061825873
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/22/2011
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Edward Achorn, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for distinguished commentary, is the deputy editorial pages editor of the Providence Journal.

Table of Contents

Preface xiii

Prologue: Old Hoss Is Ready 1

1 The Importance of Grit 7

2 I Am a Pitcher 16

3 Raging, Tearing, Booming 29

4 Lucky Man 46

5 Treasure from the Gold Country 60

6 Brimstone and Treacle 73

7 Pneumonia Weather 88

8 She's Yours, Rad 102

9 Red Fire 118

10 A Working Girl 136

11 An Ugly Disposition 149

12 Rendezvous of the Wayward 168

13 Crackup 179

14 Drunk Enough to Be Stupid 193

15 The Severe Wrenching 208

16 Inward Laughs 230

17 A Promise Kept 251

18 The Best on Earth 262

Epilogue: Called Out by the Inexorable Umpire 281

Acknowledgments 303

Appendix 305

Sources and Notes 319

Index 357

What People are Saying About This

Cait Murphy

Beautifully written and impeccably researched, Pure Grit is the best book out there on 19th-century baseball. Old Hoss Radbourn would be pleased that he is finally getting his due—and angry that it took so long.

Joseph J. Ellis

“This is a beautifully written, meticulously researched story about a bygone baseball era that even die-hard fans will find foreign, and about a pitcher who might have been the greatest of all time.”

Editorial Reviews

"First-class narrative history that can stand with everything Steven Ambrose wrote. . . . Achorn's description of the utter insanity that was barehanded baseball is vivid and alive." — Boston Globe

“All fans of baseball, all fans of a good story, will love this book. With clear and colorful prose, Edward Achorn has told the marvelous suspense-filled story of Charles Radbourn’s 1884 season as a baseball pitcher. In the process Achorn has recreated not just the rough and tough baseball world of “Old Hoss” Radbourn, perhaps the greatest pitcher who ever lived, but also the raucous society and the money-mad culture that sustained the wild and wooly and rapidly developing game of nineteenth-century baseball. Once you’ve read this book, you won’t forget it.” — Professor Gordon Wood, Pulitzer and Bancroft Prize Winner, Department of History, Brown University

"Beautifully written and impeccably researched. . . the best book out there on 19th-century baseball. Old Hoss Radbourn would be pleased that he is finally getting his due—and angry that it took so long." — Cait Murphy, author of CRAZY '08

“This is a beautifully written, meticulously researched story about a bygone baseball era that even die-hard fans will find foreign, and about a pitcher who might have been the greatest of all time.” — Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer prize-winning historian

“Baseball historians and anyone interested in the give and take of everyday life in America in the tumultuous twenty or thirty years after the Civil War will be fascinated by the extraordinary detail unearthed by Edward Achorn for his monumental biography of Charley (Old Hoss) Radbourne, who for at least a few years was probably the greatest pitcher every to play professional baseball, and who for all his life was a truculent, fiercely independent character.” — Robert W. Creamer, author of Babe: The Legend Comes to Life and Stengel: His Life and Times

"Make room, Satchel and Cy, Walter, Grover and Roger. In a game where winning is everything, Old Hoss Radbourn did more of it than any of you in that magical season of 1884. But don’t believe me. Travel back there with Ed Achorn, who makes Old Hoss’ case for greatness in a book that passionately evokes a forgotten era and convincingly rewrites our list of the most accomplished pitchers ever." — Larry Tye, author of Satchel

From the Publisher

All fans of baseball, all fans of a good story, will love this book. With clear and colorful prose, Edward Achorn has told the marvelous suspense-filled story of Charles Radbourn’s 1884 season as a baseball pitcher. In the process Achorn has recreated not just the rough and tough baseball world of “Old Hoss” Radbourn, perhaps the greatest pitcher who ever lived, but also the raucous society and the money-mad culture that sustained the wild and wooly and rapidly developing game of nineteenth-century baseball. Once you’ve read this book, you won’t forget it.

Professor Gordon Wood

"First-class narrative history that can stand with everything Steven Ambrose wrote. . . . Achorn's description of the utter insanity that was barehanded baseball is vivid and alive."

Boston Globe

"Beautifully written and impeccably researched. . . the best book out there on 19th-century baseball. Old Hoss Radbourn would be pleased that he is finally getting his due—and angry that it took so long."

Cait Murphy

"Make room, Satchel and Cy, Walter, Grover and Roger. In a game where winning is everything, Old Hoss Radbourn did more of it than any of you in that magical season of 1884. But don’t believe me. Travel back there with Ed Achorn, who makes Old Hoss’ case for greatness in a book that passionately evokes a forgotten era and convincingly rewrites our list of the most accomplished pitchers ever."

Larry Tye

This is a beautifully written, meticulously researched story about a bygone baseball era that even die-hard fans will find foreign, and about a pitcher who might have been the greatest of all time.

Joseph J. Ellis

Baseball historians and anyone interested in the give and take of everyday life in America in the tumultuous twenty or thirty years after the Civil War will be fascinated by the extraordinary detail unearthed by Edward Achorn for his monumental biography of Charley (Old Hoss) Radbourne, who for at least a few years was probably the greatest pitcher every to play professional baseball, and who for all his life was a truculent, fiercely independent character.

Robert W. Creamer

…an astonishing book about 19th-century baseball…Fifty-nine in '84 is a romantic book, equal parts heroic quest, tragic tale and doomed love story.
—The Washington Post

Sean Callahan

A loving reanimation of the 1884 baseball season, during which Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn won 59 games and hurled his team into the first World Series. As Providence Journal deputy editorial page editor Achorn dutifully notes, 1880s baseball, flourishing before motion pictures and audio recordings, is a game both familiar and surpassingly alien. Preserved in sometimes skimpy, and always biased, newspaper accounts, the achievement of Radbourn, the Providence Grays' ace pitcher, is indeed astonishing. Well before the introduction of relief pitchers, the starters were expected to play the entire game and to pitch often, sometimes on consecutive days-and sometimes even both ends of a doubleheader, as Radbourn did on Memorial Day, winning both. He won the next day, too. Achorn digs into Radbourn's Illinois background and follows his ancestors back to England. Little Charles learned to love hunting, purebred dogs, baseball and later on, Carrie Stanhope, the legendary woman who ran a Providence boarding house and eventually married Radbourn. The author charts Radbourn's swift rise in an era when pitchers flamed out quickly because of arm injuries; Radbourn and his colleagues lived with continuous pain. Achorn pauses occasionally to portray the pitcher's rivals and teammates and to identify the differences in yesteryear's game. The fielders used only their bare hands-even catchers had but minimal protection; foul balls were not strikes; a single umpire, often corrupt, called each game. The author also supplies needed cultural history-e.g., the train ride from the East Coast to Chicago took three days; Buffalo Bill arrived in Providence that same season. An unabashed fan, Achorn occasionallydrifts into excess and cliche (catchers needed "dauntless courage"; the Chicago team "ate weaker clubs for breakfast"), but he capably delivers an entertaining story. A thoroughly researched panegyric to a man and an era. Agent: David Miller/The Garamond Agency

Kirkus Reviews