An original, "fictionalized" replay of the 1924 baseball season, told in the language of the time, through the eyes and hearts of 17-year-old Phillies fan Vinny Spanelli, Tigers beat reporter Calvin J. Butterworth, and others. Meet all the stars of '24, from Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, and Walter Johnson, to Goose Goslin, Kiki Cuyler, Zack Wheat, and Negro League greats Oscar Charleston and Rube Foster. Told in a daily diary format, "1924 and You Are There!" is a funny, heartwarming and unpredictable plunge into a bygone baseball era unlike any you've ever read. Still scarred from losing his father during the First World War, Vinny finds daily solace in attending Phillies games at the old, decrepit hitter's paradise known as Baker Bowl. The Phils are pretty awful but Vinny is fiercely loyal to them, and with his best friend and ballgame companion Benny Zepp, heads up to New York in late April to watch them play the hated Giants and Brooklyn Robins. It's there that Vinny meets Rachel Stone, a literary-minded Jewish girl and rabid Brooklyn fan, and kindles a season-long courtship filled with giddy ups and downs. When Benny comes into some family money, he takes Vinny on a "far west" road trip in one of the first Chryslers, following the Phillies as they tour through Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis, and falling into trouble with a host of unsavory local characters. Back home, a quirk of fate finds Vinny becoming the Phillies' batboy at the end of June, and the hot summer eventually gets hotter when he and Benny try to pull off an unheard-of exhibition series between white players and Negro League stars. Intertwined with occasional dispatches from Calvin Butterworth's American League news, Vinny's saga coasts to an exciting pennant race conclusion. With every passing week of the season, Vinny learns more about the obstacles of life and how to wend his way around them—but never without humor and danger. Basically, if you took Huck Finn and dropped him into a vat of baseball cards, Vinny Spanelli would pop out the bottom.
1924 and You Are There!
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"Polman's re-imagining of the 1924 season is an exuberant coming-of-age tale, road saga, and love story all rolled into one sunny summer at long-gone ballparks across the land."--Josh Wilker, author of Cardboard Gods
"Polman's lively prose takes you back to the Roaring '20s for a romp through one of the best seasons, as seen through the eyes of a baseball-crazy teen. It's the book to take with you on that last winter vacation, to be devoured under an umbrella by a pool or the shore." --Joe Sheehan of Sports Illustrated and the MLB Network
"Brimming with wit and fun...Even readers who aren't familiar with tabletop games might find something to like here. A screenwriter and journalist, Polman's creativity extends well beyond the diamond, with period details researched on the internet as he blogged. --James Bailey, Bailey's Baseball Book Reviews
"It may not be the way 1924 actually played out (in real life, the Senators beat the Giants; in the book....well, read it and see) but it's a highly entertaining and engaging tale of a boy growing into manhood with some incredible stops along the way." --Daniel Shoptaw, C70 At the Bat
"Polman's lively prose takes you back to the Roaring '20s for a romp through one of the best seasons, as seen through the eyes of a baseball-crazy teen. It's the book to take with you on that last winter vacation, to be devoured under an umbrella by a pool or the shore." --Joe Sheehan of Sports Illustrated and the MLB Network
"Brimming with wit and fun...Even readers who aren't familiar with tabletop games might find something to like here. A screenwriter and journalist, Polman's creativity extends well beyond the diamond, with period details researched on the internet as he blogged. --James Bailey, Bailey's Baseball Book Reviews
"It may not be the way 1924 actually played out (in real life, the Senators beat the Giants; in the book....well, read it and see) but it's a highly entertaining and engaging tale of a boy growing into manhood with some incredible stops along the way." --Daniel Shoptaw, C70 At the Bat
About the Author
JEFF POLMAN is a journalist, screenwriter, and blogger who just can’t stop writing about baseball. "1924 and You Are There!" is adapted from the first of his four fictional replay blogs, which include "Play That Funky Baseball", "The Bragging Rights League", and the upcoming "Mysteryball ‘58". After getting his start writing freelance articles for the Advocate newspapers and Boston Phoenix, he was Arts Editor of the Vermont Vanguard Press for its first five years before moving out west. His recent Web writing has appeared on The Huffington Post, The Hardball Times, New England Baseball Journal, and Seamheads. He is a lifelong Red Sox fan and resides with his wife and son in Culver City, CA.
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More About the Author
Jeff Polman was born in Hartford, CT in 1954, grew up in Longmeadow, MA and graduated from the BDIC program at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He worked for the Advocate Newspapers and Boston Phoenix before becoming Arts Editor for the Vermont Vanguard Press in Burlington, VT its first five years. Having enjoyed his earlier years as a student filmmaker, he moved to Los Angeles in 1982 to pursue screenwriting. He has written over 20 scripts and has had two low-budget thrillers produced, Grave Secrets (1989) and Benefit of the Doubt (1993), which starred Donald Sutherland and Amy Irving. Baseball has proven to be his passion, though, and his season replay blogs--1924 and You Are There!, Play That Funky Baseball, The Bragging Rights League, and his latest, Mysteryball '58--reflect this. He has also written Web articles for The Huffington Post, Seamheads, The Hardball Times, New England Baseball Journal, Wezen-Ball, and The Platoon Advantage. He is a proud member of SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) and lives in Culver City, CA with his wife and son. He can be followed on Twitter at @braggers41
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Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
neat, fast, product good, price is right.
Really enjoyed 1924 as played by Strat O matic.
Bring on more soon
Really enjoyed 1924 as played by Strat O matic.
Bring on more soon
By Ray Venezia
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Well written novel tying together the great game of baseball as seen through the eyes of a teen in 1924 and the real life adventures he has along the way. Highly recommend this to true fans of the game.
By Lou Siegel
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The voices in Polman's narrative are pitch perfect, capturing the innocence - and the hypocrisy - of the 20s in America.
And you don't have to be a baseball fan to follow the action.
Covering an era when baseball players were just working-class stiffs who could hit, 1924 and You Are There is a coming-of-age story, but not just for 17-year-old Vinnie.
This "Fictionalized Baseball Replay" is an amusing and compelling look at America before the Depression, the New Deal and World War II transformed the game - and the nation.
And you don't have to be a baseball fan to follow the action.
Covering an era when baseball players were just working-class stiffs who could hit, 1924 and You Are There is a coming-of-age story, but not just for 17-year-old Vinnie.
This "Fictionalized Baseball Replay" is an amusing and compelling look at America before the Depression, the New Deal and World War II transformed the game - and the nation.
