The Spirit of St. Louis
The Spirit of St. Louis:
A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns
Read A Chapter Excerpt From This Book
The Spirit of St. Louis "Peter Golenbock has been a prolific chronicler of baseball and its most colorful teams. In this book, St. Louis' rich baseball history is vividly rendered with insight, humor and affection." --- Bob Costas, NBC Sports
In a glorious celebration of the Great American Game, and of the city that loves it so. It is a love affair that began in 1874, when a band of local boosters raised $20,000 to start a professional ballclub, and it has never waned -- from the glory days of Rogers Hornsby and Grover Cleveland Alexander through the magnificent eve of Musial to Mark McGwire's record-shattering fin de millennium. But a chronicle of the accomplished National League Cardinals, who trail only the Yankees in World Series titles, wouldn't give the complete St. Louis baseball picture. For that, you need the Browns -- once dubbed "First in shoes, first in booze, last in the American League," -- whose own color- ful exploits and personnel are stuff of sports legends.
Peter Golenbock, the best-selling author and master of the baseball oral history, has written another remarkable saga en- riched by extensive and incomparable remembrances from the scores of players, managers, and executives who lived it.
You'll hear Branch Rickey on George Sisler, Rogers Hornsby and his creation of the farm system. Hornsby on Grover Cleveland Alexander -- and Alexander on Hornsby. Dizzy Dean on -- who else? -- Dizzy Dean. Frankie Frisch, Marty Marion, Enos Slaugh- ter: so many other voices, including "The Man" himself, Stan Musial. Bing Devine, Max Lanier and Johnny Mize. Eldon Auker, Ellis Clary, Denny Galehouse and Don Gutteridge on the 1940s Browns, who finally saw some success. Bill Veeck Jr., whose greatest promotion of all was sending 3'7" Eddie Gaedel to the plate. Brooky Lawrence, the second man across the Cardinals' color line. Jim Brosnan, the first man to break the players' code of silence. Bill White, Nelson Briles, and Tim McCarver on Bob Gibson, Marvin Miller on Curt Flood. Tommy Herr, Darrell Porter and Joe McGrane on Whitey Herzog's Cardinals. Cardinal owner Bill DeWitt Jr., on the team today.
In the end, you'll find reading The Spirit of St. Louis akin to sitting around with a group of ballplayers reminiscing about the game, its greats and, naturally, The Life in one of America's most stories baseball towns.
Peter Golenbock on The Spirit of St. Louis
Writing this book was an extraordinary experience and a great thrill. In addition to having a fun time in St. Louis, doing research at the beautiful Historical Society and riding the arch to a dizzying height, I got to interview a fascinating group of sports figures I had heard about for years but never got to meet: Fred Saigh, now 90, the owner of the Cards before he was forced to sell to Gussie Busch; Gene Karst, now 90, the first PR director of any sports team and a confident of Branch Rickey; Al Fleinshman, now 90, right-hand man to Gussie Busch; 90-year old Eldon Auker, submarine pitcher for the St. Louis Browns; 84-year- old Brown Ellis Clary, 83-year-old Cards star shortstop Marty Marion, 85-year-old Max Lanier, who jumped to Mexico and has been blackballed by major league baseball to this day; 87-year-old Don Gutteridge, who played for both the Cards and the Browns; and finally 80-year-old Stan Musial, the Grand Old Man of the heart- land, as heroic a figure as ever strode up to the plate. Their first-person stories are both fascinating and enlightening.
And that is just the beginning.
St. Louis baseball is filled with so many magic moments and with so many star performers, it took all the self-control I could muster to keep the book at 600 pages!
But if you're a St. Louis baseball fan, you'll wish it had gone on and on and on. My last chapter, entitled God, is about Mark McGwire and his magical transformation since coming to St. Louis from Oakland. Big Mac may well finish ahead of both Ruth and Aaron in career home runs. It'll be one of the great stories as we head into the millenium.
For you baseball fans who enjoy reading about the lives of the players, I hope that The Spirit of St. Louis becomes a cor- nerstone of your baseball library.
Do you have a favorite moment in either St. Louis Cardinal or St. Louis Brown history? Submit it, and perhaps I will use it in the next edition of The Spirit of St. Louis.