Field of Screams: The Dark Underside of America's National Pastime - Softcover

Scheinin, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393311384 ISBN 13: 9780393311389

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1994

Synopsis

Field of Screams is an anecdote-filled romp that unearths all the funny, bizarre, off-the-wall personalities and incidents that don’t fit in the official baseball picture. From violent and vengeful Ty Cobb and skinflint owner Charles Comiskey to such specimens of contemporary manhood as Pete Rose, Jose Canseco, George Steinbrenner, Darryl Strawberry, and, yes, Vince “Family Man” Coleman, Field of Screams definitely highlights the men who will never ever be presented as role models again. Kevin Costner wept. Sorry, Kev.

For people who have had it up to here with the endless nostalgia about "The Summer Game" on a "Field of Dreams," here is a bracing antidote: baseball history with an attitude. From baseball’s rough-and-tumble origins in the nineteenth century to today’s spoiled megamillionaire players and corporate shark owners, Field of Screams provides an entertaining and blackly funny reality check. It is a crowded rogues’ gallery of the cheats, misers, sadists, head cases, cheeseballs, chiselers, perverts, egomaniacs, beanballers, slobs, substance abusers, gamblers, game throwers, and violent criminals who have so enlivened the game. Not to mention the sullen, bloodthirsty fans.

About this title

From Booklist

Ever since the publication of Roger Kahn's Boys of Summer nearly 30 years ago--and even more so since the release of the movie Field of Dreams--baseball's past has been filtered through a soft-focus lens designed to induce melancholy reveries about lost youth, fathers and sons, and the like. Not to worry. Scheinin is here to replace that diaphanous haze with the harsh light of reality. This compendium of baseball negativity includes death, crippling injury, racism, revenge, greed, unsportsmanlike conduct, and a large dose of Ty Cobb, the game's all-time bastard. Cobb, who embodied virtually everything evil in a human, once beat up a teammate who criticized his play--and then kicked him in the face for good measure. Also included are a sampling of the racial taunts endured by Jackie Robinson, a recap of the Black Sox scandal, and a profile of beanball-artist Carl Mays, the only player ever to kill a man with a pitched ball. And, of course, no book on baseball's sullied citizens would be complete without some mention of punch-out artist and world-class drunk Billy Martin. Sure to be a popular title among the more mean-spirited baseball fans. Wes Lukowsky

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0393311384
• ISBN 13: 9780393311389
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 404