The hustlers handbook

Facing certain banishment from baseball, he was forced to put the Cardinals up for sale. Most of the bids came from out-of-town interests, and it appeared that Veeck would succeed in driving the Cardinals out of town. However, just as Saigh was about to sell the Cardinals to interests who would have moved them to Houston, Texas, he instead accepted a much lower bid from St.

Louis-based brewing giant Anheuser-Busch, who entered the picture with the specific intent of keeping the Cardinals in town. Veeck quickly realized that the Cardinals now had more resources than he could even begin to match, especially since he had no other source of income. Reluctantly, he decided to leave St. Louis and find another place to play. At first Veeck considered moving the Browns back to Milwaukee where they had played their inaugural season in Milwaukee used recently-built Milwaukee County Stadium in an attempt to entice the Browns.

However, the decision was in the hands of the Boston Braves, the parent team of the Brewers. Under major league rules of the time, the Braves held the major league rights to Milwaukee. The Braves wanted another team with the same talent if the Brewers were shut down, and an agreement was not made in time for opening day. Ironically, a few weeks later, the Braves themselves moved to Milwaukee.

Louis was known to want the team to stay, so some in St. Louis campaigned for the removal of Veeck. He got in touch with a group that was looking to bring a Major League franchise to Baltimore, Maryland. After the season, Veeck agreed in principle to sell half his stock to Baltimore attorney Clarence Miles, the leader of the Baltimore group, and his other partners.

Even though league president Will Harridge told him approval was certain, only four owners—two short of the necessary six for passage—supported it. Gaedel some sources say the family name may actually have been Gaedele, which is the name seen on his gravestone gained recognition in the second game of a St. Louis Brownsdoubleheader on August 19, Weighing 65 pounds 29 kg and standing 3 feet 7 inches 1.

Gaedel made a single plate appearance and was walked with four consecutive balls before being replaced by a pinch-runnerat first base. He was also the only one. Appearance Due to his size, Gaedel had worked as a riveter during World War II, and was able to crawl inside the wings of airplanes.

Some early Mercury recordings featured a caricature of him as its logo. The uniform was that of current St. The stunt was also billed as a Falstaff Brewerypromotion. Falstaff personnel, who had been promised national publicity for their participation, were particularly dissatisfied.

Veeck lays out the mechanizations in selling the Yankees to CBS and I had never heard that story told before. Veeck points out the specific conflicts of interest and rule violations and how they ignored it. Maybe most fascinating is the portion of the book where he deciphers a diary he finds in the White Sox archives that chronicles the Black Sox Scandal in from the first suspicions until the players are punished a year later. Through the diary Veeck constructs a timeline of what the White Sox knew and when they knew it.

President of the AL, Ban Johnson, wanted a different candidate. Commiskey won the pyrrhic victory as Landis banned every scandal tainted White Sox player and his team would spend 40 years in the wilderness, not returning to the World Series until Veeck owned the club in As the journal shows, Landis knew there were other instances of throwing games, but he had no interest in what happened before What Landis wanted was to scare every player not to try it again.

Veeck is not a romantic about such things. He references the Alex Karras suspension in the NFL for gambling and suggests that baseball has probably not solved their problems entirely either. This books just fills in a lot of gaps in baseball history and I find it to be a forgotten classic. Jul 16, James rated it really liked it. Bill Veeck wrote this as a sort of sequel to Veeck As In Wreck, and has a similar sort of fast-paced, witty joking every other sentence old school writing style.

He was a very entertaining writer indeed. Much of it is specific to the inner workings of s baseball, specifically how bad the owners and GMs of baseball are at running their teams. That is much of the book which probably would appeal to hardcore baseball history lovers than a casual reader much more than his first book.

Still, he h Bill Veeck wrote this as a sort of sequel to Veeck As In Wreck, and has a similar sort of fast-paced, witty joking every other sentence old school writing style. Still, he has a funny way of putting things that you get the feeling that he'd be great to sit and drink a beer or smoke a cigarette with, a sort of stream of consciousness yet very directed way of talking. He wrote this inbetween his two stints as the Chicago White Sox owner, and is very ahead of his time when y0u boil it down to his ideas.

Hell, he even claims, in the afterword written near the end of his life in the mid s, that he had tried to begin a process of signing women baseball players something I've started to see more traction around in recent years. I'd say if you love learning how deals are made behind closed doors and you love old school wit, you'll love this book.

Veeck was a man who rankled the nerves of other owners, and this was another shot across the ownership class bows of the s. Jun 13, Dave Capers rated it liked it. Depending on the chapter this book is alternately ahead of its time the "art of promotion " chapter's ideas on enhancing the in-game experience via technology , of its time the cringe-worthy racial politics of "Mine eyes doth tell me so" even if they were well intentioned and progressive for the mid s and off the mark some of the "this is going to kill baseball" stuff is the same stuff you hear now, decades later and if baseball is dead as a business we should all be so financially dead Depending on the chapter this book is alternately ahead of its time the "art of promotion " chapter's ideas on enhancing the in-game experience via technology , of its time the cringe-worthy racial politics of "Mine eyes doth tell me so" even if they were well intentioned and progressive for the mid s and off the mark some of the "this is going to kill baseball" stuff is the same stuff you hear now, decades later and if baseball is dead as a business we should all be so financially dead.

A must read for people seriously interested in the history of the game. A bit self-aggrandizing and in need of a better editor at points but you wouldn't expect anything less from one of the visionary thinkers and great promoters in 20th century America. Sep 06, Jon rated it really liked it. A visionary in the industry. Remarkable for something written in Nov 20, Spiros rated it really liked it Recommends it for: anyone who has a remote idea that the Lords of Baseball care about the best interests of the Game.

Shelves: beisbol , favorite-americans , strand , vacationreads , heroes. Bill Veeck, as I may have written elsewhere and I'll never tire of iterating was one of my all-time favorite Americans, one of the Charter Starting Nine hmm Thompson, doggedly manning the hot-corner when not under attack from giant lizards; Harvey Milk, a bal Bill Veeck, as I may have written elsewhere and I'll never tire of iterating was one of my all-time favorite Americans, one of the Charter Starting Nine hmm Thompson, doggedly manning the hot-corner when not under attack from giant lizards; Harvey Milk, a ball of energy in center, having to cover a ton of ground between Ben Franklin, his preoccupied leftfielder, and Dashiell Hammett, indolently vogueing in right.

Veeck would be the starting pitcher, in every sense of the word. In this book Veeck gleefully savages the stuffed shirts in positions of authority in the game in the mid '60's; and because Veeck cared very deeply about the game, there is a vibrant hum of moral outrage as continuo to the high notes of levity. These pages lay bare the wisdom of a very great baseball mind as he brilliantly forecasts the Yankee's Years in the Wilderness, stretching from the World Series loss, relieved a dozen years later when Reggie Jackson hit three home runs on a memorable October evening in and brought the Yankees back to relevance.

Veeck astutely forecasts the disaster which corporate ownership would bring to baseball, and expresses his outrage at the many conflicts of interest manifest in the CBS purchase of the Yankees, over which figurehead Commissioner Ford Frick really, they let HIM into the Hall of Fame?

One of the sweetest blendings of humor and outrage occurs in this passage, when Veeck is describing Red's GM Billy DeWitt's reaction to the publication of Jim Brosnan's The Long Season : "Jim Brosnan is the most recent example of baseball's resistance to anybody who refuses to prostrate himself before the shrine. Brosnan wasn't a drunk. He was something far worse. Brosnan was a practicing literate. The truth of the matter is that Brosnan wrote even better than he pitched.

He had the true writer's gift for the recognizable truth and the true writer's sense of rebellion. You read Brosnan's book and, knowing nothing about baseball, you had to say to yourself, "Yes, this is the way it is.

He even led some of his more gullible readers to believe that some managers and maybe even some baseball operators are neither lovable or competent. So Bill DeWitt pulled paragraph 3 c of the uniform players' contact on him.

He not only silenced Brosnan but he revealed to the public that there is a quaint little LOYALTY section in which the player not only agrees to be diligent, faithful and obedient but in which he surrenders his right to say or write anything "without the written consent of the club" - a clause which is not only patently unconstitutional, but which is, far worse, stupid.

What William O. Sep 28, Billhotto rated it really liked it. Reread this follow up to "Veeck as in Wreck". In a several essays, Veeck, then retired, takes stock of Baseball.

The 60's were a turbulent time in what was still the National Pastime. Expansion, ten team leagues, the free agent draft, TV money changed front office operations although the game stayed the same. But this was small potatoes to what would happen in the next decade.

Published by Simon and Schuster, Contact seller. Seller Rating:. First Edition. Used - Softcover Condition: Fine. Within U. Quantity: 1. Soft Cover. Condition: Fine. Published by G. Putnam's Sons, New York, Used - Hardcover. Hardcover with dustjacket. First edition. Book is VG condition; interior has a musty odor, and corners of boards are bumped. Jacket is in Good condition; there are several pieces torn from edges, as well as several closed tears, creasing and chipping.

Rear cover is stained, and the author's name is partially blacked out on front cover. Co-authored with Ed Linn. Interior is crisp and binding is tight. In protective mylar.