Baseball Eccentrics: A Definitive Look at the Most Entertaining, Outrageous and Unforgettable Characters in the Game

If you're looking for someone to write the book on the greatest hitters of all time, you want a Stan Musial, a Hank Aaron, or a Willie Mays. If you want a book on baseball eccentrics, you need look no further than Bill Spaceman Lee. His qualifications are impeccable: Lee is to quirkiness what Picasso was to painting and what Pavarotti is to tenors. In Baseball Eccentrics, the Spaceman has rounded up the most outrageous group of malcontents, characters, rebels, nut jobs, reprobates, wing-nuts, wackos, space cadets, head cases, goofs, free thinkers, and oddballs who ever livened up the grand old game. Not only does he describe their most bizarre antics in often-hilarious detail, but he offers his own unique thoughts on their particular genre of eccentricity. Lee has included them all: Dizzy, Daffy, Ducky, Dazzy, Yogi, Casey, a whole ward of Lefties, and an entire flock of Birdies, Birds, and Hawks. There are also Mad Hungarians, spies who can speak seven languages (but can't hit in any of them), philosophers, and relief pitchers who drop their pants and sit on birthday cakes. So sit back and let your mind wander to the days when baseball was much more than a business, a time when baseball was fun and players treated it as a game. Baseball is more than dry statistics and record books. It is a living, breathing reflection of America--warts, oddities, and all.