Product Description

He has been cursed since age 15, carrying always the appositive affixed eternally to his name--the youngest pitcher in major league baseball. And yet the Joe Nuxhall story neither begins nor ends with the appositive. Baseball, in fact, may not even have been his best sport. He was a high school fullback, big and fast and good enough to be All-State, and he was unquestionably the best schoolboy basketball center in Ohio. He had pitched ten no-hitters before he was 15, however, and when he pitched for the Cincinnati Reds that historic time, he first had to get permission from his 9th grade principal, and ferried himself to Crosley Field and back, alone, on the bus. It was not, as history tells us, an auspicious occasion (an ERA of 67.50), but it launched the remarkable career of perhaps the best-loved and most enduring sports figure Cincinnati has ever seen. Noted sportscaster Greg Hoard's new biography, Joe, dramatically paints the Depression era background of "Hamilton Joe," closing industrial league games for his athletic father when the boy was barely a teenager, facing feared veteran slugger Stan Musial his first time up, and on to Birmingham, where he watched, astounded, while a lanky Negro pitcher named Satchel Paige warmed up by throwing strikes across a piece of chewing gum tinfoil. "The Old Left-Hander" pitched twenty-two seasons of professional baseball, including an All-Star year in 1955 when he led the league in shut-outs, and even when he retired to the broadcasting booth, he was still pitching batting practice. Greg Hoard's tale of baseball's last great innocent is the story of a charmed life, in which a blue-collar kid from a gritty industrial town, by great athleticism and a disarming guilelessness, found himself an enduring legend.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #949762 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 287 pages

Customer Reviews

A great fun read for a Reds geek
I really enjoyed this book. It may not have tremendous depth but I grew up listening to Joe and Marty. They were a large part of my childhood. Reading the stories about Joe made me realize he lived up to all of my childhood expectations - a really good man who loved baseball and the Reds and shared that with me. Well worth the time.

Enjoyment value is not much - Gets a 1 rating if you're not a Reds' fan
I grew up watching Joe pitch. Lots of pictures in the book, but it could have been much better written. Not that much about his major league career. Mostly about his life up to making the big leagues. If you're a Reds' fan you may want to read the book, but don't make it a priority or buy the book. If you're not a Reds' fan, don't bother.

Reds Fan Must Have
If you are a true Cincinnati Reds fan or even a Major League Baseball fan you must get this book. It is a biography of a baseball star. The writer didn't just write the book as he saw it he interviewed anyone and everyone that might have had contact with Joe Nuxhall throughout his life and carreer.