Read more
A biography of early twentieth-century baseball player and actor Mike Donlin, one of the best hitters and most colorful players in the history of the game. Haunted by tragedy, he was a showman and an alcoholic, married one of the nation’s most famous vaudeville actresses—who turned his life around, and acted on the stage and in approximately one hundred films.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Historical Notes
Part 1. Mike before Mabel
1. Growing Up with Tragedy
2. “I’m Going to Be a Sensation in Baseball”
3. The Making of Mike Donlin
4. “Provided He Takes Care of Himself”
5. Donlin and McGraw Battle with American League Umpires
6. A Brutal Assault
7. A Return to the National League
8. “A Manager Who Can’t Control Himself”
9. “I Am Through with Donlin!”
10. Goodbye to Cincinnati; Hello to Broadway
11. “I Guess I Have Had My Share of Trouble”
12. Mathewson Pitches the Giants to a World Series Title
13. The New York Hoodlums
Part 2. Mabel
14. Vaudeville, America’s Other National Pastime
15. A Star Is Born
16. Mabel Meets Mike
Part 3. Mike and Mabel
17. A Season Interrupted
18. Chicago, Their Kind of Town
19. Mabel Tells Mike: Become a Changed Man—or Else
20. The Prodigal Returns
21. The Most Popular Ballplayer in New York
22. A Pennant Race Like No Other
23.
Stealing Home 24. Will He or Won’t He?
25. I Play for the Money
26. Despite Health Concerns, Mabel’s Star Continues to Rise
27. A Return to Baseball
28. A Trade to Pittsburgh
29. Tragic End of a Loving Partnership
Part 4. Mike after Mabel
30. Life Goes On
31. Remarriage and a Final Return to the Major Leagues
32. Mike Enters the New World of Motion Pictures
33. Memphis Blues
34. Back on Broadway and Hollywood Calls
35. “The Very Breath of Life”
36. Acting Success and a Mysterious Illness
37. “Lights, Camera, Action” Continues to the End
38. A Life Well Lived
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Steve Steinberg is a baseball historian and author of
Urban Shocker: Silent Hero of Baseball’s Golden Age (Nebraska, 2017), winner of the SABR Baseball Research Award, and
The World Series in the Deadball Era.
Lyle Spatz is the author of many baseball books and the coauthor (with Steve Steinberg) of
The Colonel and Hug: The Partnership that Transformed the New York Yankees (Nebraska, 2015), winner of the SABR Baseball Research Award, and
1921: The Yankees, the Giants, and the Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York (Nebraska, 2010), winner of the Seymour Medal.
