McFarland & Co Inc Bill Dickey: A Baseball Life

This is a first-ever biography of one of the New York Yankees' greatest stars in the long, successful history of Major League Baseball's winningest franchise. Bill Dickey is regarded as one of baseball's greatest catchers of all time from his playing days with the New York Yankees between 1928 and 1946, including an interruption for service during World War II. Not only a .313 lifetime hitter, Dickey was routinely praised for his brilliant fielding and game management, as well as his wise handling of pitchers. A legendary backstop for the Yankees, Dickey was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1954, was an 11-time All-Star (though the All-Star game was not founded until after his playing career began) and a seven-time World Series champion as a player. After briefly managing the Yankees, Dickey served as a coach under Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel for most of the period when the Yankees won 10 American League pennants in 12 years. One of the most prominent baseball figures ever from Arkansas, where he was raised from the age of seven and made his life-long off-season home, Dickey was a quiet leader amidst a collection of stars spanning generations of Yankee luminaries. Dickey was a teammate on the field of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig (whom he called his best friend), and Joe DiMaggio during championship years. Later, as a Yankee coach, Dickey was an instructor of Yogi Berra, Elston Howard and Mickey Mantle. The present biography covers the entire life of this celebrated son of Arkansas and decades-long Yankee. Autorid: Lew Freedman