Product Description

Hungry for a pennant, young Veeck jettisons the team's white players and secretly recruits the legendary stars of the Negro Leagues, fielding a club that will go down in baseball annals as one of the greatest ever to play the game. Here are the behind-the-scenes adventures that bring this dream to reality, and a cast of characters only history's pen could create: the players themselves-the tragic Josh Gibson, the remarkable but self-centered Satchel Paige, the Cuban wonder Martin Dihigo, the veteran stalwarts Cool Papa Bell, Willie Wells, and Buck Leonard, and the rising stars Roy Campanella, Artie Wilson, and Dave Barnhill--plus Walter Winchell, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, and J. Edgar Hoover! The End of Baseball is the most rollicking, free-spirited baseball yarn in years, the unvarnished truth of that incredible season and the men who lived it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #196505 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781566637824
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
With this debut, sportswriter Schilling has written one of the best baseball novels since Howard Frank Mosher's Waiting for Teddy Williams. Using actual events, Schilling has fictionalized a fantasy scenario in baseball history—the integration of black players into the major leagues in 1944. Bill Veeck Jr., a Marine veteran from a prestigious baseball family, buys the Philadelphia Athletics in 1943, becoming the youngest man to ever own a major league club. Veeck is a genius at publicity and promotion who wants to win the World Series—but using black players. He signs the best of the Negro League to the Athletics, against all conventional feeling and the opposition of Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, the vicious commissioner of baseball. The Athletics romp through the 1944 season behind the on-and-off diamond antics of real-life stars like Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and Roy Campanella, with Veeck struggling to raise money, avoid race riots and flummox Judge Landis. This exciting, fast-paced story is a fine commentary on baseball lore, race relations, and American sentiment during World War II, and it will have the reader hanging on every pitch, wondering how Veeck and his players will overcome racial discrimination to prove they can play in the major leagues. (May)
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From Booklist
Maverick baseball entrepreneur Bill Veeck returns from World War II and buys the Philadelphia Athletics from irascible owner Connie Mack. The caveat is that if the team doesn’t turn a profit in its first year, it reverts back to Mack. That means A’s must be transformed into a winner, and in the war years, the only sources of good players are the Negro Leagues. Veeck begins with a bitter, alcoholic Josh Gibson and then adds Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, and Buck Leonard—all of whom think they’ll be playing on a Philly Negro League team. The Veeck shenanigans continue, and he opens the season with his groundbreaking team despite the resistance of owners, players, the press, and J. Edgar Hoover, who smells a Communist plot. Schilling’s alternate-history fiction pushes baseball’s integration ahead by four years, but the pages turn on the larger-than-life characterization of Veeck, who emerges here as every bit as flamboyant as he was in the real world. In the ultimate “woulda-coulda-shouda” story,  the vaunted color line  is no match for Veeck’s showmanship and unquenchable spirit. --Wes Lukowsky

Review
"The world of baseball during World War II provides the atmospheric background for this inspired debut novel that mingles fact and fantasy...Schilling's what-if tale brilliantly re-creates a bygone era." --Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"Baseball, when on the field, is one of those books where pages can flip in wonderful three or four pages chunks. Schilling has a great talent for description of in-game storytelling, and also for getting inside both the respective heads of his players and the mood of the dugout." -- City Pages

"I always wished I could have spent time in the Negro Leagues, and I always wanted to hang out with Bill Veeck. In Peter Schilling's work of inventive history, Invincible Summer, I was allowed to do both, and I thank him for that. If you ever wondered what might have happened if Veeck had succeeded in an attempt to buy the A's and fill the roster with Negro League stars, here's a chance to find out. Enjoy the journey." -- Peter Golenbock, author of Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Dynasty: the New York Yankees, 1949-1964

"Mainly, as somebody in baseball puts it, `The End of Baseball' sails straight down central. As somebody else in baseball used to say, it's a winner." -- Harry Levins, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Peter Schilling Jr....writes a gripping novel that diehard fans and those in search of a great story alike will love." --Associated Content

"Peter Schilling takes one of the great `what-might-have-been' episodes in baseball history and brings it to life. This is the best baseball novel I've read about this era since Mark Winegartner's Veracruz Blues. A fine achievement." -- Brad Snyder, author of A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports (Viking Oct. 2006) and Beyond the Shadow of the Senators: The Untold Story of the Homestead Grays and the Integration of Baseball

"The End of Baseball is more than a simple story; it also serves as a reminder of the consequences of indulging, rather than battling against the darker natures that exist within us all.... Peter Schilling Jr. deserves the highest of marks for creating a fictitious history that feels like the genuine article." -- John Brattain, Hardball Times

"The author is an experienced sports journalist who has written a delightful historical novel about his favorite sport. It is about the team that "almost was" in an extraordinary baseball season of 1944. The protagonist is Bill Veeck, a maverick promoter, who buys the Philadelphia Athletics. Because he is hungry to win a pennant, Veeck drops the white players and secretly recruits the legendary stars of the Negro Leagues. The result is the greatest team ever to play the game. Schilling recounts behind-the-scenes stories that include real-life columnist Walter Winchell, J. Edgar Hoover, and such players as Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Martin Dihigo, Cool "Papa" Bell, Willie Wells and Buck Leonard." -- Desert Morning News (Salt Lake City)

"The cast of characters has been researched in extraordinary detail. ... Schilling's project was a daring one and his accuracy provides the greatest strength of the book." --James Bailey, Hardball Cooperative, March 26, 2009

"The detail paid to each character, making each unique, and making many both hero and villain, will mesmerize any reader." -- Chrissie Bonnes, Minnesota Game Day

"The End of Baseball is a gem of historical fiction, a diamond, if you will. Taking place during World War II, a time in which America was embroiled in a fight against Hitler's bigotry, it is a well-written, well-needed investigation into the roots and realities of prejudice in our own land... [It] is a hearty feast for the baseball glutton." -- Winston-Salem Journal

"An imaginative, thought-provoking novel." --Frommer's Book Reviews

"Brilliantly conceived...The best baseball novel so far this century." -- Allen Barra, Baltimore Sun

"Readers are sure to cheer." -- New York Post

"Schilling hits a home run with his debut novel." --Baseball Book Review

"Schilling offers a compassionate, enjoyable re-imaging of the early days of baseball.... A terrific tale." -- Kirkus

"The End of Baseball is a gem of historical fiction, a diamond, if you will. Taking place during World War II, a time in which America was embroiled in a fight against Hitler's bigotry, it is a well-written, well-needed investigation into the roots and realities of prejudice in our own land... [It] is a hearty feast for the baseball glutton." --Winston-Salem Journal

Customer Reviews

A rip-snorting baseball yarn
Peter Schilling, Jr.'s inventive novel "The End of Baseball" describes a mesmerizing 1944 baseball season that might have been - if Bill Veeck had been able to purchase a major league team and recruit an entire team of Negro Leaguer stars.

Veeck loses a leg at Guadalcanal. Before enlisting in the Marines, he had been a successful minor league baseball team owner whose innovative promotions lured fans to the ballpark and whose competitive teams kept them coming back for more.

In "The End of Baseball," Veeck returns to civilian life and purchases the Philadelphia Athletics. He turns the ball club into an instant contender by secretly signing Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Oscar Charleston, Buck Leonard, Cool Papa Bell, Willie Wells, Roy Campanella, and other Negro League stars.

The book contains many poignant moments on and off the field. To his credit - and to our good fortune! -- Schilling provides the historical and social perspective the story demands. He captures the essence of the men and the game they play for life and, perhaps, death.

In real life, Veeck owned the Cleveland Indians and signed the American League's first black player, Larry Doby, and also Satchel Paige. He had less talent to work with on his St. Louis Browns ball club, so he grabbed the spotlight by sending a midget to the plate. When he owned the Chicago White Sox, Veeck put player names on the backs of uniforms and introduced the exploding scoreboard. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.

Excellent novel, whether you're a baseball fan or not
This book has it all: the high drama of a "what if?" season of baseball, historical cameos, and real social commentary. If you're looking for an always-entertaining page turner, look no further. The End of Baseball simulates what it's like to be swept up in a particularly thrilling baseball season in 1943, and reading it is like having a spot in the bleachers to watch the team that almost was. It has subtle character studies, and closely observed details that summon up that time and place: America as a country in the midst of WWII, the African American baseball community prior to Civil Rights. It will keep you up nights reading!

When Baseball was America's Pastime
Peter Schilling brings back the game of baseball complete with the personalities, the idiosyncrasies, the after hours stories and all of the fun that this sport once had. This is an amazing novel that just sucks you in and doesn't let go. I couldn't wait to find time every day to continue my reading. It is somewhat unique in its use of historic information and mixing of baseball story fiction. In it, Schilling has captured an era in the sport just as African Americans are beginning to be "allowed" into the game. But in this story, not just one Black ballplayer is in the Majors, an entire team is being moved up.

Schilling has written an enjoyable and moving story that shows many of the great Negro League players coming together and playing in the Major Leagues on the same team: Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige among them. The antics of Bill Veech Jr. contribute to the main storyline and how the difficulties from the all White league and their overbearing Commissioner continually throw up barriers to the entry of this special team on the hallowed Fields.

In addition to the game of baseball, the societal ills of the general population and the mind games of J Edgar Hoover, himself, are all part of the plot. This is a slice of Americana; America going through the pain of WWII with their boys of summer as their only distraction. Only this summer has the potential of bringing out real change for the sport. Bill Veech, Jr., is the man trying against all odds, fictitious and historic, to keep the team together against the powers of baseball and others desperately trying to keep the status quo. This is a baseball story for the ages. A terrifically different novel for anyone tired of the same old stuff.

I was amazed at how perfectly interwoven truth and fiction were done by Schilling. The character studies are on target and made a part of the story blurring the lines of fact and fiction like nothing I'd ever read in the world of baseball writing. The ending is beautiful and fulfilling. I am giving it my hearty recommendation of 5 stars. There just isn't much not to like.