Stealing Games; How John McGraw Transformed Baseball with the 1911 New York Giants

New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2016. First. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Includes Introduction, Prologue: The Rite of Spring; The Groundwork, The Season, Epilogue: The Parade Passing; Appendix A: The 1908 Brush Committee Report; Appendix B: Statistics of the 1911 New York Giants, Abbreviations, Notes, Bibliography, and Index. Bookplate which reads "A Gift From the Library of Kenneth L. Greif, The Park School of Baltimore" is pasted on the inside of the front board. Maury Klein (born 14 March 1939 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American historian and author of books on 19th-century American history and the American railroad industry. Throughout his career writing has remained Klein's greatest passion. He is the author of 18 books, along with many articles in publications ranging from scholarly journals to Sports Illustrated, essays, book reviews, and, more recently, blogs. Contains an introduction by the author, Maury Klein, about the 1911 New York Giants--the team that revolutionized baseball and stole more bases in one season than any other baseball team in history. Under the Giants' combative and innovative manager John McGraw, they also embodied a rapidly changing America on the cusp of a faster, more frenetic pace of life dominated by machines, technology, and urban culture. The sport was evolving from the dead-ball to the live-ball era--the cork-centered ball was introduced in 1910--altering not only the outcome of individual games but the way the game itself was played, requiring upgraded equipment, new rules, and new ways of competing. McGraw proved himself as clever a tactician as he was a charismatic leader. He reshaped his team--with surprising trades and signings--into a slashing, disruptive force on the base paths, backed by a powerful pitching staff led by his one star, the masterful but aging Christy Mathewson. The result grew into a team like none other, featuring some of the great characters in baseball history.