Finding the Hidden Ball Trick: The Colorful History of Baseball's Oldest Ruse

by Bill Deane

Overview

Through many years of research, Bill Deane has documented 260 successful hidden-ball tricks--putting the rarity of the play roughly in the class of the no-hitter. Along the way, he has collected the often-hilarious stories of these plays and the men who pulled them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442244337
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	02/18/2015
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Bill Deane was the Senior Research Associate at the National Baseball Hall of Fame from 1986 to 1994 and was managing editor of Total Baseball. He has authored eight books, including Baseball Myths: Debating, Debunking, and Disproving Tales from the Diamond (2012), and has written more than 200 book-chapters and articles about baseball. In 1989, Deane won the SABR-Macmillan Baseball Research Award for his SABR book, Award Voting.

Table of Contents

Introduction
What is the Hidden-Ball Trick?
History of the Trick
Masters of the Trick … and Their Victims
1876-89: The Early Tricks
1890-99: Gaiety in the ’90s
1900-09: Coughlin Corner Tricks
1910-19: Ban Tries to Ban It
1920-29: A Decade Dominated by Babe Who?
1930-39: The Crow Flies High
1940-49: Pesky Holding the Ball
1950-59: Step off the Base a Minute, Will Ya?
1960-69: Stick Was Slick
1970-79: Elementary, My Dear Watson
1980-89: Happy Birthday, Kid!
1990-99: Master Matt
2000-Present: A Dying Art?
Tricks Gone Awry
Unsubstantiated Possibilities
Odds and Ends
Chronological Listing
Appendix A: Successful Executions of the Hidden Ball Trick
Appendix B: Unsubstantiated Possibilities
Bibliography
Notes
Index
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

I met Bill Deane at the Baseball Hall of Fame library in 1991, when he was the Senior Researcher there, and I've been marveling at his research expertise ever since. He's in the handful of top researchers (by that I mean dogged, tireless, and ingenious).. . .This treasure-trove of baseball tales makes for a fast, entertaining read.. . .I recommend Deane's book for many reasons: the sheer wealth of lore he excavated; the shrewd way he organized it; his compelling quest for documentation, and the sometimes glowing, sometimes grumbling accounts by generations of reporters.

Never Too Much Baseball

Baseball is full of quirky little tricks and gimmicks. The Hidden Ball Trick takes a look at the history of this dying art form.. . .It truly is an art-form to get this trick to work in today’s modern game, but it is a fun look at how it can be conducted. Rowman & Littlefield made a fun book with this one and fans should check it out.

Gregg's Baseball Bookcase

For those of you who live for the more overlooked aspects of the game, here is Bill Deane’s latest scholarly probe into baseball’s only legal deception. Enjoy!

Wes Parker

Bill Deane is a magician. Spinning out the story of baseball's most ancient sleight of hand, he draws your attention to a game, a date, a perpetrator, and a victim. Yet all the while he is weaving his way—and yours—to a unique view of the game's whole history. Devilishly ingenious, this is a gem of a book.

John Thorn

As surprising as the hidden-ball trick has been for so many unwary base runners, the rest of us get a wonderful surprise with Bill Deane’s latest gem.

Rob Neyer

Finding the Hidden-Ball Trick is an encyclopedic treatise on this most unusual of baseball plays. Not only has Bill Deane documented the more than 200 known cases of this ancient ruse, he has also provided remarkable historical context and discusses the evolution of the play over the years. Everyone interested in the subtleties of baseball will find this book informative and fun to read and it will be sure to bring new information to everyone who picks it up.

David W. Smith