Tris Speaker

A three-time World Series winner and an early inductee into the Hall of Fame, lauded by Babe Ruth as the finest defensive outfielder he ever saw, and described as perfection on the field by the great Grantland Rice, Tris Speaker enjoys the peculiar distinction of being one of the least-known legends of baseball history. Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend is the first book to tell the full story of Speakers turbulent life and to document in sharp detail the grit and glory of his pivotal role in baseballs dead-ball era. Playing for the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians in the early part of the twentieth century, Tris Spoke Speaker put up numbers that amaze us even today: his record for career doubles792may never be approached, let alone broken. Timothy M. Gay gives a rousing account of some of the best baseball ever playedand of some of the darkest moments that ever tainted a game and hastened the end of a career. Gays four years of research on Speaker unearthed a document that suggests that cheating induced by gambling was far more widespread in early baseball than officials have acknowledged. Gays book captures the bygone spirit of the big leagues rough-and-tumble early years and restores one of baseballs true greatsand a truly larger-than-life personalityto his rightful place in the American sports pantheon.