Book Review: Addie Joss - King of the Pitchers

[wolterse]

One of the greatest benefits of our hobby is the amount of research and writing dedicated to the era and players we all collect. One of these examples is Scott Longert's Addie Joss biography published in 1998 by SABR.

Addie Joss - King of the Pitchers

Longert does a great job bringing Joss' youth and days as a ball player to life in his concise, 132-page account. The reader can expect about 30 pages of Addies youth and minor league ball playing days with teams like the Toledo Mud Hens. His dominance in these circuits foreshadowing his hall of fame career with the Bluebirds/Naps.

Longert examines 'The Human Slat' (nick-named as such based on his slender frame) and his meteoric rise to stardom as one of the American Leagues great pitchers (if not the best). Lajoie is quoted as saying, 'There is not another pitcher living who has anything on the big fellow when he is right.' Nap made these comments after Joss' fourth one-hitter of the season against the Tigers.

Longert also spends time sharing stories about Addie's fame as a baseball writer in the offseason, where his World Series coverage was picked up nationally. Addie was as well-known a writer as he was a pitcher.

Of course, as we all know there is a tragic end to Addie's life. Longert does a phenomenal job detailing Joss' (and his family's) struggle and tragic loss to tuberculosis. It ends on a high note, though, as Longert writes about the famed Addie Joss tribute game, which raised over $14,000 for his widow and two children (a sum equivalent to nearly $250,000 in today's terms!!) this clearly was a demonstration for the admiration that people had within and outside of baseball for Addie.

I picked this book up and finished it in a weekend. I never once felt like I was laboring to get through it. I recommend for any Joss fan as well as anyone interested in the life and career of baseball's "King of the Pitchers"