One of baseball’s infamous events is the 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds. Overshadowed by the suspicion cast upon, and the subsequent indictment of, eight White Sox players for throwing the games, the 1919 World Series has often been simplistically and inaccurately portrayed by the popular media in the decades since. This book takes an objective look at the series, players, managers, owners, and on-field events to separate fact from fiction in regard to the outcome. The Reds would probably have emerged victorious no matter how the game was played because they were, in fact, an excellent team capable of beating the seemingly superhuman White Sox. Included are various statistical references that include line and box scores as well as comparative statistical charts of batting averages, pitching and team records, and other relevant information.
William A. Cook's latest work Jim Thorpe - a Biography, was published in July 2011. Unlike other Thorpe biographies, Cook's work provides the reader with broader attention to Thorpe's major and minor league baseball career and stormy relationship with legendary New York Giants manager John McGraw.
Cook's epic and well researched work the 1919 World Series - What Really Happened, published in 2001, reignited the dialogue among baseball historians on the facts of baseball's most notorious event, spawning more than ten new titles on the subject within a few years of the publication of his book. Cook's thesis in his book is reviting in that he asserts that no matter how the World Series was played, fair, fixed, or otherwise, the Chicago White Sox were not going to win. The 1919 Cincinnati Reds were simply a better team.
Also Cook's exiciting and fast paced, King of the Bootleggers - a Biography of George Remus, has gained significant attention from flim makers and screen writers alike and is one of most interesting and well documented works about the prohibition era recently published. As one reviewer stated, Cook has the ability in his writing to take historical facts and make the read like a novel.
As a historian, Cook has a repuation as being objective and detailed in his writing. Cook's work Pete Rose - Baseball's All-Time Hit King, is an example of his laser like ability to describe events objectively and let the reader make-up their mind as to the legacy of a sports celebrity surrounded by lasting controversey.
Cook's forthcoming work is a biography of 1950s baseball icon and strongman Ted Kluszewski and will be published in 2012.
William A. Cook was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has served in the nation's health care system in hospitals and social service agencies in several states. He has resided in North Brunswick, New Jersey for the past 24 years where he also served one-term as a township councilman. Prior to coming to the east coast, Cook lived and worked in Chicago and Minneapolis. His educational experience includes holding an MA, University of Illinois at Chicago; BS, University of Cincinnati; AA, University of Cincinnati. A widower, he was married for 14 years.
