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Spitting on Diamonds
The ball left the tall pitcher's hand at the top of his throwing arc, beginning its erratic, sixty-foot, six-inch journey toward the inside corner of the plate. It was the last step of a fascinating eighty-year journey, whose end would be announced in a single word: "Strike!"
Those words grace the Introduction section of Spitting on Diamonds, a wonderful new biography about a Deadball era pitcher who specialized in the spitball. Please join Baseball Almanac as we take one off the baseball book shelf and share a piece with our online friends and fans.
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"Bradley (Hogg) and future Hall of Fame pitcher Eppa Rixey spent most of the 1919 season relieving each other, to little avail, Bradley winning 5 games. Rixey did little better, winning 6." - Clyde Hogg on BaseballLibrary.com
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| Book Description (From The University of Missouri Press) |
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In 1911, when Bradley Hogg began his major-league pitching
career for the National League's Boston Rustlers, baseball was a different game.
Hogg played during a time known as the dead ball era, when a pitcher could spit
on, shine up, or even roughen a ball to secure an advantage over a hitter.
Though only seven World Series had been played at that point, the names of the
best and most colorful players remain familiar today: Cy Young, Casey Stengel,
Honus Wagner, Rogers Hornsby, and Christy Mathewson.
During his major and minor
league career, Hogg played with or against twenty-seven Hall of Fame ballplayers
and under the critical gaze of two Hall of Fame umpires and eleven Hall of Fame
sportswriters. In Spitting on Diamonds, Clyde Hogg details the life of
baseball's every man, including excerpts from newspapers throughout the country
to bring to life the times in which Bradley Hogg played. The author shows how
Hogg's career is representative of the thousands of men who have played
professional baseball since its inception more than 125 years ago, men who
didn't make it into the Hall of Fame or win awards but made it possible for
millions of fans to enjoy the game. These players were the flannelled hosts of
America's favorite pastime and the ones who made the game what it was and is
today.
The author uses Hogg's
career as a spitball pitcher in leagues from coast to coast to show the rapid
change and growth of our nation between 1910 and 1920. With enough baseball
statistics to satisfy even the most hard core fan, this time capsule of early
twentieth-century America will appeal to sports enthusiasts and readers of
general historical nonfiction alike. They will find in its pages an America now
visible only in faded photographs, along with a version of the national pastime
that no longer exists. Featuring multiple bunts, double steals, inside pitching,
and the now outlawed “spitball,” as well as the skill it took to hit such
deliveries, this game was hard, fast, and nonstop. Spitting on Diamonds
lets the reader understand what it was like to live and play professional sports
when America and its national pastime were coming of age.
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| Editorial Reviews |
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From Baseball Almanac: "Sad, because baseball like that simply does not exist any longer. Enjoyable, because it is written through the eyes of a normal player who is looking at those who are in league by themselves. Excellent, because it is an easy / enjoyable / stat rich (but not too rich) book that vividly portrays both America & baseball at the same time."
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| Spitting on Diamonds Press Release |
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A Spitball Pitcher's Journey to the Major Leagues
Columbia, MO - In 1920, a rule was put into effect by Major League Baseball that outlawed the spitball and other substance-abuse type pitches. Before then a pitcher could spit, shine, emery board, or even muddy a ball to gain an advantage in striking out a batter. Bradley Hogg was one of those pitchers. In 1911, when Hogg began his major-league pitching career for the National League's Boston Rustlers, baseball was a different game. Only seven World Series had been played at that point and names of some the best and most colorful players from that time remain familiar today: Cy Young, Casey Stengel, Honus Wagner, Rogers Hornsby, and Christy Mathewson.
Bradley Hogg's name, on the other hand has not. But, Clyde Hogg, author of Spitting of Diamonds, shows how Bradley Hogg's career is representative of the thousands of men who have played professional baseball since its inception more than 125 years ago, men who didn't make it into the Hall of Fame or win awards but made it possible for millions of fans to enjoy the game. These players were the flannelled hosts of America's favorite pastime and the ones who made the game what it was and is today. The baseball that Hogg played was hard, fast, and nonstop, featuring multiple bunts, double steals, inside pitching, and the now outlawed "spitball," as well as the skill it took to hit such deliveries. Spitting on Diamonds lets the reader understand what it was like to live and play professional sports when America and its national pastime were coming of age.
Spitting on Diamonds follows Hogg's career as a spitball pitcher in leagues from coast to coast to show the rapid change and growth of our nation between 1910 and 1920. With enough baseball statistics to satisfy even the most hard core fan, this time capsule of early twentieth-century America will appeal to sports enthusiasts and readers of general historical nonfiction alike. They will find in its pages an America now visible only in faded photographs, along with a version of the national pastime that no longer exists.
Copyright © University of Missouri Press
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Baseball Book Shelf: Autumn Glory : Baseball's First World Series
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When baseball outlawed the spitball and the shine ball on February 9, 1920, Bradley officially and finally retired, becoming the first spitball pitcher to do so as a result of the new rules.
Did you know that Brad Hogg eventually played with, for, or against twenty-seven Hall of Famers during his nine year professional career, ranging from teammate and double-header rotation-mate Cy Young in 1911 to the Pittsburgh Pirates Casey Stengel in 1919.
After baseball, Brad Hogg became a successful lawyer in Americus, Georgia, but ran into an unconquerable obstacle in 1932 when he drank water from a common dipper at the town well in Americus, contracting tuberculosis which killed him in 1935.
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