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Hugh Casey was one of the most colorful members of the iconic Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1940s, a team that took part in four great pennant races, the first National League playoff series, and two exciting World Series over the course of Casey's career. That famed team included many outsized personalities, including executives Larry MacPhail and Branch Rickey, manager Leo Durocher, and players like Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Dixie Walker, Joe Medwick, and Pete Reiser. In Hugh Casey: The Triumphs and Tragedies of a Brooklyn Dodger, Lyle Spatz details Casey's life and career, from his birth in Atlanta to his suicide in that same city thirty-seven years later. Spatz includes such moments as Casey's famous "pitch that got away" in Game Four of the 1941 World Series, the numerous brawls and beanball wars in which Casey was frequently involved, and the Southern-born Casey's reaction to Jackie Robinson joining the Dodgers. Spatz also reveals how Casey helped to redefine the role of the relief pitcher, twice leading the National League in saves and twice finishing second-if saves had been an official statistic during his lifetime. While this book focuses on Casey's baseball career in Brooklyn, Spatz also covers Casey's often-tragic personal life. He not only ran into trouble with the IRS, he also got into a fistfight with Ernest Hemingway and was charged in a paternity suit that was decided against him. Featuring personal interviews with Casey's son and with former teammate Carl Erskine, this book will fascinate and inform fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers and baseball historians alike.
Photographs Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: The Blood of the Old South Chapter 2: A Sense That Good Times Were Coming to Brooklyn Chapter 3: Brooklyn's Best Pitcher Chapter 4: A Legitimate Pennant Contender Chapter 5: Beanballs, Spikings, and Rhubarbs Chapter 6: Casey Fuels a Feud with the Cubs Chapter 7: Building a Champion Chapter 8: Casey the Workhorse Chapter 9: National League Champions Chapter 10: A Dramatic World Series Ends a Memorable Season Chapter 11: The Pitch That Got Away Chapter 12: A Memorable Night with Ernest Hemingway Chapter 13: Becoming a Full-Time Relief Pitcher Chapter 14: You're in the Navy Now Chapter 15: Baseball Enters a New Era Chapter 16: The Return of Peace Brings the Return of Wars with St. Louis and Chicago Chapter 17: A Restaurant Launched and a Pennant Lost Chapter 18: A History-Making Addition Chapter 19: Burt Shotton Replaces Leo Durocher Chapter 20: The Hugh Casey Theory of Relief Pitching Chapter 21: Holding Off the Cardinals Chapter 22: The Mainstay of the 1947 World Series Chapter 23: A World Series Hero and a Successful Restaurateur Chapter 24: Falling, Literally and Figuratively Chapter 25: Casey and the Dodgers Part Ways Chapter 26: The Pirates and the Yankees Chapter 27: A Pennant and a Paternity Suit Chapter 28: A Wonderful Guy Who Never Hurt Anyone-but Himself Chapter 29: Remembering Hugh Casey Notes Bibliography Index About the Author
