Fifty-nine in '84

Chronicles the career of Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn who, in 1884, had the winningest single season of any major-league baseball pitcher. Also tells the story of baseball in the 1880s--a brutal, bloody sport played barehanded. In 1884, Providence Grays pitcher Charles 'Old Hoss' Radbourn won an astounding fifty-nine games--more than anyone in major-league history ever had before, or has since. He then went on to win all three games of baseball's first World Series. This book tells the dramatic story not only of that amazing feat of grit but also of big-league baseball two decades after the Civil War--a brutal, bloody sport played barehanded, the profession of uneducated, hard-drinking men who thought little of cheating outrageously or maiming an opponent to win. It is the tale, too, of the woman Radbourn loved, Carrie Stanhope, the alluring proprietress of a boarding-house with shady overtones, a married lady who was said to have personally known every man in the National League. Wonderfully entertaining, this book is an indelible portrait of a legendary player and a fascinating, little-known era of the national pastime. -- Publisher description.