Slide, Kelly, Slide The Wild Life and Times of Mike King Kelly (American Sports History Series)

The Scarecrow Press, 1999. Paperback. Fine. Glossy illustrated softcovers. Fine. 211 pp. with statistical appendix, bibliography, index. Illustrated with photographs and reproductions. Biography of baseball's first "celebrity superstar", 19th century played Mike "King" Kelly (1857-1894). A native of Troy, New York, Kelly made his major league debut at age 20 with the Cincinnati Reds of the three-season old National League. After the 1879 season, the Chicago White Stockings (ancestors not of today's White Sox but rather of the Cubs), secured him and it was in the Windy City that Kelly's audacious style of play and outsized personality made him a national figure. He won two batting titles with Chicago and, after the 1886 season was sold to Boston for the then-staggering sum of $10,000. While there his popularity grew (he is thought by nany to be the inspiration for The Mighty Casey in "Casey At The Bat"). There were later stops for him in the Players League, American Association, and a final stop with the New York Giants in 1893. King Kelly is thought to be the first ballplayed to sign autographs and the first to write an autobiography. Kelly's boisterous, hard-drinking, high life caught up with him and he died in 1895 at age 35.