Wilson, Willie, 291
Winfield, Dave, 20
Won-lost records, 86, 103, 105, 109, 112, 115, 119, 127, 134, 149, 159, 314
Woodson, Tracy, 78, 79, 82
World Series, 39, 42, 270, 308, 311–13
designated hitter in, 58
1905, 299
1908, 117
1912, 282
1914, 248, 314
1918, 117
1919, 104
1920, 197, 255
1927, 34
1934, 3
1954, 84
1955, 33
1956, 33, 84
1957, 99
1959, 32–33
1960, 275
1961, 33
1962, 268
1964, 212
1966, 238
1970, 282
1975, 210–11
1979, 4, 128
1980, 311
1982, 43, 313
1983, 128, 238, 239, 282
1985, 178, 313
1986, 12, 42, 58, 134, 207
1987, 134–35, 170, 282–83, 304, 313
1988, 4, 16–17, 19, 48–49, 51–52, 54, 65, 77, 83, 92, 94, 145, 156, 158, 313
1989, 28, 54, 232, 305, 314
World War I, 298
World War II, 150, 214, 298, 311
Worrell, Todd, 133
Wright, Craig R., 127, 301
Wrigley Field, 56, 117, 118, 272
Wynn, Early, 98, 115, 132
Yale Univ., 5, 195
Yankee Stadium, 175, 214
Yardley, Jonathan, 316
Yastrzemski, Carl, 105, 174, 213, 224, 317
York, Rudy, 16
Young, Cy, 103, 127, 129, 149, 298
Young, Gerald, 16, 93, 182
Yount, Robin, 55, 280
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Bill Rosen of Macmillan is a splendid rarity, an editor who knows more than the writer does about the writer’s subject but who is too gracious to prove it too often.
Michael Erlinger and Russ Jaeger are currently students at Georgetown University and tomorrow can be anything they want to be if they apply to their vocations the diligence that they applied to checking the numbers in this volume. Their diligence was supplemented by David Hallstrom’s. Not since Tinker, Evers and Chance has such an awesome trio teamed up to stamp out errors. Mary Moschler fields line drives all day long in my office with the aplomb of a Cal Ripken, thereby making it possible for me to pay attention to him. Again, as always, I owe much (time, for example, and efficiency) to my assistant, Dusa Gyllensvard. She organized the complicated itineraries and many interviews that made this book possible. I believe that if today I said, “Dusa, I must speak with Honus Wagner,” she would say “You shall,” and I would. Come to think of it…
Gail Thorin was the closer on this project, coming in from the bull pen and getting a save. As her reward, she learned the meaning of “closer” and “save.” She already knew the meaning of “bull pen,” I think.
Seymour Siwoff and the other encyclopedic minds at the Elias Bureau answered every question I threw at them. Any errors remaining in this book are evidence that I did not throw enough. Concerning three subjects—the designated hitter rule, the mysterious matter of a ball player being “overdue” and the movie Bull Durham—I have drawn upon a few paragraphs of my writings that have appeared elsewhere.
Finally, thanks to all the baseball people—players, managers, front office personnel, writers and broadcasters—who were so generous with their time and teaching. They gave me a wide window on their world. I thank them all for admission to their society, for the benefit of their instruction and, most of all, for the pleasure of their company.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
George F. Will’s column appears in more than four hundred newspapers nationwide. His work also appears biweekly in Newsweek. Will is a commentator for ABC News and the author of twelve books in addition to Men at Work. He was educated at Trinity College in Connecticut, Oxford University, and Princeton University. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
Acclaim for Men at Work by George F. Will
“Men at Work goes up on my short shelf of essential texts…. It’s a hit—a triple off the center-field wall, perhaps—and there’s not much for me to do here except join the standing O…. Will is a talented listener, but the best voice in this book is his own…. Baseball rewards the stayer, and I am delighted to have stayed around long enough to receive this fresh gift from the game.”
—Roger Angell, The New Yorker
“There is something to learn on every page. The sweep and range is without precedent. Will himself is a craftsman of considerable magnitude, an angel at the typewriter.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Will has well honored this fragile, elegant, rough, exacting sport. [The players and managers] talked with full and fine intelligence about their artful labors to a man who knew what questions to ask.”
—New York Times Book Review
“Gets my vote as this season’s baseball book of choice.”
—Frederick C. Klein, Wall Street Journal
“Terrific…. [Will got] himself invited to sessions that a mere sports-writer wouldn’t have been allowed near. And clearly he did a lot of interviewing, extracting information that even the best-informed baseball fan will find illuminating.”
—Joseph Nocera, New Republic
“Will defends the game as eloquently as anyone who ever collected a bubblegum card or caught a foul ball. Men at Work is not an ivory tower book. Will crisscrossed America’s locker rooms in search of baseball ’s secrets.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Hardcore baseball presented in a fluent style. Sure to instill in readers a greater appreciation of what is required to master the sport at the major league level, therefore providing a deeper understanding of the foundation of the game.”
—Library Journal
“An amazing book…[with] a quantity of detailed knowledge that is absolutely astounding. One wonders when George Will has the time to pay attention to politics.”
—National Review
“Endlessly fascinating and revealing…. Will tells you much about each of these men that you are unlikely to have read in the daily sports pages, even if you are an avid fan who reads a good sports section every day.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“An intelligent book by one of America’s most intelligent writers. Will’s love for baseball shines through in this witty, insightful look at four of the game’s skilled artisans…. Will is terrific at getting inside the heads of his subjects and taking the reader there.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Absorbing…. [Will] combines an incisive writing style with his great love of baseball to offer a gritty look at the skills involved and a greater perspective on the game.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“A delight. Will has done his homework and even well-informed fans can gain things from him.”
—Boston Globe
“A fascinating book which should challenge the most avid fan.”
—Los Angeles Daily News
“Men at Work might stand among the best books written on the mechanics of the game. Will has done a masterful job of reporting, not just in speaking with living masters of the game but in probing the musty depths of baseball history.”
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“A rock solid look at the game. Will accomplishes what he no doubt has wanted to do for a long time: write a baseball book with style and authority. He definitely succeeds.”
—Booklist
“A fascinating book about the serious business of baseball. [Will’s] got the intelligence to ask the right questions and the patience to really listen to the answers…. A fine piece of work that doesn’t take anything for granted.”
—Trenton Times
—Christian Science Monitor
“Men at Work has all the sweep of the outfield at the old Polo Grounds. Will’s subjects talk shop the way a stonecutter talks marble. Will sees a statue where others see a slab…. Like the game itself, Will’s book is a team effort and he has managed extremely well.”
—San Diego Tribune
“Will shows himself to be a master at enticing players into particularly enlightening discussions. The reader is left with a vivid understanding of how the game is played and the extraordinary talent and dedication required.”
—Publishers Weekly
Copyright
HARPER
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint excerpts from the following:
The Crack-Up by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Copyright © 1945 by New Directions Publishing Corporation. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation. “The Sporting Scene—Hard Times (The Movie)” by Roger Angell from The New Yorker. Copyright © 1988. Reprinted by special permission. All rights reserved. “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” from Assorted Prose by John Updike. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract by Bill James. Reprinted by permission of Villard Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
“Seven and a Half Cents” from The Pajama Came. Reprinted by permission of Richard Adler Music and J. and J. Roth Company. Administered by the Songwriters Guild of America.
The Bill Durham screenplay by Ron Shelton. Reprinted courtesy of Orion Pictures Corporation.
A hardcover edition of this book was originally published in 1990 by Macmillan Publishing Company. It is reprinted here by arrangement with Macmillan Publishing Company.
MEN AT WORK. Copyright © 1990, 2010 by George F. Will.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST HARPER PERENNIAL EDITON PUBLISHED 1991.
FIRST HARPER PAPERBACK PUBISHED 2010.
EPub Edition © MAY 2010 ISBN: 9780062007759
The Library of Congress catalogued the previous edition as follows:
Will, George F.
Men at work: the craft of baseball / George F. Will.—1st Harper Perennial ed.
p. cm,
Originally published: New York : MacMillan : London : Collier MacMillian, cl990.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-06-097372-2 (pbk.)
1. Baseball—United States—History I. Title.
GV863.A1W53 1991b
796.357′0973—dc20 90-55518
ISBN 0-06-097372-2
ISBN 978-0-06-199981-9 (pbk.)
10 11 12 13 14 RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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