Barbary Baseball: The Pacific Coast League of the 1920s [Paperback]

R. Scott Mackey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1995

In the 1920s baseball fans flocked to minor league ballparks, making stars of players who would never wear a major league uniform. This was particularly true on the West Coast, where fans embraced the colorful Pacific Coast league as a third major league. The rowdy reputation of the PCL was well earned. Owners' meetings were rambunctious affairs where league issues were sometimes settled with fists. In the stands, drinking and gambling went unchecked; especially notorious was the "Booze Cage" at San Francisco's Recreation Park where 75 cents bought a shot of whiskey and the best seat in the house. On the field, players and umpires were as likely to trade punches as insults. But its bawdy style did not detract from the quality of the PCL where talented players used the 200-game schedule and cozy, bandbox ballparks to produce unparalleled offensive fireworks. The rich history of the West Coast's "major league" is detailed here, including the first-ever listing of all players in the PCL during the 1920s.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"all kinds of interesting information" -- Yankee Magazine

"well-researched.... Recommended for academic and public libraries" -- Choice

"well-written...incredibly well researched...a necessary addition to every baseball library" -- SABR Minor League Committee Newsletter

About the Author

Sacramento's R. Scott Mackey is a member of the National Association of Baseball Writers and Broadcasters. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 237 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company (March 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786400552
• ISBN-13: 978-0786400553
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,779,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars entertaining to read; provides real insight to the era, December 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Barbary Baseball: The Pacific Coast League of the 1920s (Paperback)

The author has researched his subject well, capturing the era of the 1920s as few other writers have. Accurate and brutally honest. My only criticism is that I wish the author would have cut loose with his considerable writing talent. The style is fairly close to the vest but highly readable. Having read hundreds of baseball books, this stands as a classic.

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-read for every baseball history fan, February 9, 2011

By 

Gina Spadafori "http://www.petconnection.com" (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Barbary Baseball: The Pacific Coast League of the 1920s (Paperback)

I'm not obsessive about baseball history, even though there's a lot of baseball in my family. My mother's uncle Fred McMullin was one of the Black Sox, and my dad and his brother both played in the minors in the '50s. But for me it's not enough to have the history down right: I also need a book that's well-written and makes me want to keep reading.

OK ... I admit it: I may actually be more involved than a casual fan of either history or baseball. Look in my closet: Two Ebbetts Field Flannels throwback jerseys: One from the SF Seals, the other from the Sacramento Solons.

That probably explains why a friend gave me a copy of this book as a gift, that and because he knew the author also lived in Sacramento and he wanted to support a local author. I loved the book, and found it clearly a labor of love by the author, a talented writer, researcher and story-teller. (In a strange twist of fate, I actually ended up working with the author for a while after I'd read his book.)

If you love classic California, the sun-kissed paradise everyone dreamed of before everyone moved here and no one could afford to live here you need to buy this book. And if you never have heard of the Solons, the Seals or the other teams ... then you REALLY need to buy this book. You're in for a real treat, a look at California in a simpler time, when our boys of summer all had major-league dreams.