Book Description

Long before L.A. Dodger pitcher Brian Wilson, in his buzz-cut Mohawk and hillbilly beard, there was Dizzy. And Daffy. And Ducky, Goofy, Babe, Pepper and Yogi - not cartoon characters, but baseball players - great ones, who made America's pastime playful and fun and sometimes outrageous. Before Peyton and Eli, there were the Mad Duck and Broadway Joe, the Tooz and Golden Boy. Football was not for sissies but for men who jarred loose a few brain cells and bloodied each other's noses on a Sunday afternoon.Decades before pro golfer John Daly whacked a golf ball out of a stranger's mouth, Walter Hagen barnstormed the world from Terra Haute to Timbuktu, and the Merry Mex with his army of Lee's Fleas invaded venerable courses ruled over by the Lords of Golf. Before Lebron, before Shaq and Charles Barkley, even before Pistol Pete and Wilt the Stilt, there was Goose and Meadowlark and little boys with big dreams.Revisit Billie Jean King defending women against sexist pigs like Bobby Riggs, wrestling in its pre-TV heyday, the hilarious escapades, pranksters and jokesters of yester yore and more in this revised and updated collection of rollicking sports anecdotes.