John C. Skipper, a political reporter for the Mason City (Iowa) Globe Gazette, has written numerous books on politics and baseball, including a history of the The Iowa Caucuses and acclaimed biographies of Grover Cleveland Alexander, Dazzy Vance and Charlie Gehringer.

• Table of ContentsPreface      1. Alone in a Crowd      2. A Stone’s Throw Away      3. A Big League Pitcher      4. A Pennant Flies in Philadelphia      5. Nobody Does It Better      6. The Changing of the Uniforms      7. The Cub Years      8. Managerial Merry-Go-Round and McCarthy      9. A Strikeout for the Ages      10. Forty Years Old and Counting      11. The End of the Road      12. When the Cheering Stopped      13. The Long Road Downhill      14. Brother Can You Spare Me a Dime?      15. The Last Hurrah      16. Coming Home      17. Bottom of the Ninth      Appendix: Lifetime Statistics      Notes     Bibliography     Index

“absorbing...Skipper has done an admirable job...Wicked Curve deserves its place on the bookshelves of the serious lover of baseball history. The book is thoroughly researched and...is written with the aplomb expected from a professional journalist. Most of all, Skipper writes with sympathy about a man who lived during an unforgiving era with ‘the epilepsy that he tried to hide and the alcoholism that he could no longer hide’”—Nine; “Skipper is a seasoned baseball researcher and writer...an easy read...worthy”—The Inside Game (SABR Deadball Era Committee Newsletter).