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CATCHER: HOW THE MAN BEHIND THE PLATE BECAME AN AMERICAN FOLK HERO (2009, Ivan R. Dee)
My new book is out and it tells the history of the
catcher from the early days of baseball up until 1920, focusing on how he
achieved the status of folk hero in the tradition of frontiersmen and cowboys,
only to lose it in the 1880s and '90s when he donned equipment and became
perceived as less manly and courageous. It was a fascinating book to write
and research and I did my best to do justice to a very important story that has
largely escaped notice. I was delighted to recently learn that the book is
a finalist for this
year's CASEY Award. Some of the praise the book has attracted:
"Nobody writing about baseball -- its present or
its past -- does a better job of tapping into the game's collective unconscious
than Peter Morris. Where the rest of us see tradition and inevitability, he sees
an opportunity to find out how, why, and since when. Such it is again in
Catcher, in which he finds yet another compelling, complex route to the
present-day expression of the backstop's job, and tells it with the skill of a
mystery writer." Keith Olbermann, MSNBC
"This study of baseball's 'quarterback position' is, like Peter Morris's
previous books on the game, unique, enlightening, and wholly entertaining."
Donald Honig (author of the classic Baseball When the Grass Was Real)
"Peter Morris brings his historical vision and baseball understanding to bear
on the toughest position on the field in
'Catcher: How the Man Behind the Plate Became an American Folk Hero' ...
This is a marvelous book filled with anecdotes, illustrations, and
exhilarating extracts from the days of gothic sports writing."
Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe
"Tools of Ignorance? Hardly, but if you've ever wondered about the glove, the
mask, and everything else that goes into being a catcher, now Peter Morris has
given you the resource. I kept saying 'Wow, I didn't know that' with almost
every turn of the page. It's every question I never thought to ask about the
most important position on the diamond." Will Carroll, baseball author
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