Big and Little Poison: Paul and Lloyd Waner, Baseball Brothers [Paperback]

Clifton Blue Parker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 9, 2002

The Waner brothers, Paul and Lloyd—also known as "Big Poison" and "Little Poison"—played together for fourteen seasons in the same Pittsburgh outfield in the 1920s and 1930s. More than half a century after retiring, they still rank as the best-hitting brothers in major league history with a combined 5,611 hits—517 more than the three Alou brothers, 758 more than the three DiMaggio brothers, and 1,400 more than the five Delahanty brothers. And both Waners are in the Hall of Fame, the only playing brothers so honored.

This work tells the story of the Waner brothers from their early lives in Oklahoma through their playing days, which included a World Series against the legendary 1927 New York Yankees. It is also the story of two American eras: the Roaring Twenties and the Depression years. Both put up impressive numbers individually: Paul amassed 3,152 hits, and his .333 lifetime average ranks among the highest ever in the game. Lloyd, a lifetime .316 hitter, collected 2,459 hits, and had it not been for health problems, he might have cleared the 3,000 hit milestone as well. Together, they were baseball heroes.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Clifton Blue Parker has had his work appear in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. A member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), he lives in Davis, California and is also the author of McFarland’s Fouled Away: The Baseball Tragedy of Hack Wilson (2000).

Product Details

• Paperback: 334 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company; First Edition edition (December 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786414006
• ISBN-13: 978-0786414000
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,639,579 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Clifton Blue Parker has written three books on baseball: "Bucketfoot Al: The Baseball Life of Al Simmons," "Big and Little Poison: Paul and Lloyd Waner, Baseball Brothers," and "Fouled Away: The Baseball Tragedy of Hack Wilson." A magazine editor at the University of California, Davis, Parker is a former newspaper journalist, Congressional press secretary, and copywriter.

He has a bachelor's degree in political science from The Pennsylvania State University, and attended graduate school in political science at the University of Pittsburgh and in journalism at the University of Florida.

Before college, Parker spent his teen summers growing up in Pittsburgh on the baseball diamonds, sandlot and organized. When he rolled up his sleeves to make a buck, he did so working at baseball batting cages and cutting countless lawns as a landscape laborer. In high school, he wrestled and in college played rugby. Parker, a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and an aficionado of Strat-O-Matic baseball, lives in Davis, California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificient!, February 28, 2003

By 

Michael W. Miller (Franklin, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Big and Little Poison: Paul and Lloyd Waner, Baseball Brothers (Paperback)

Clifton Blue Parker hits a homerun with this book on the Waners. Parker does a great job telling the story of the Waner brothers and has a wonderful use of quotes from both brothers throughout the text. He frequently uses unpublished materials from Lawrence Ritter's The Glory of Their Times interview with Paul Waner.

Much like one of the other reviewers, I read through this book quickly. An absolute must for Pittsburgh Pirate fans!!!

P.S. - The only historical error of significance is that Parker is not familiar with the 1934 Goudey baseball card set.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Setting the Record Straight, January 21, 2003

By 

Neil McLish (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Big and Little Poison: Paul and Lloyd Waner, Baseball Brothers (Paperback)

Parker is a lively and engaging writer who also knows his subject matter as well as anybody I've come across in a long time. The Waners are two of the most overlooked Hall of Famers who played during baseball's most colorful era. Both the details and the historical context help set the record straight about the Pirates and the Waners. Few know, for example, that Paul Waner holds the record for extra base hits in consecutive games. It's much more than statistics and records. This book is about people and history. Through many anecdotes, interviews and tons of old newspaper and magazine clippings, we learn who Paul and Lloyd Waner are and how this game was played back then.

It's this kind of detail that makes this book a swift and enjoyable read.

I'm not sure what the prior reviewer was talking about -- actually Parker quotes another writer that 1 in 10 ballplayers had SOME connection to Oklahoma (he never says "from" only "passed through"), as defined by being born there, living there, going to school there, playing in the minors or college there. (Read "Glory Days" by Royse Parr et al -- that's the author Parker quoted.) It's common knowledge that the Dean brothers lived in Oklahoma as well as Texas and Arkansas at various points in their lives, that Carl Hubbell went to high school in Oklahoma near the Waners, that Warren Spahn retired to a large ranch in Oklahoma, etc. So what's the big deal? As a reader, I'm glad Parker went to the trouble to give us the full story and everything I read was thoughtfully done. Excellent job!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough job, April 13, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Big and Little Poison: Paul and Lloyd Waner, Baseball Brothers (Paperback)

This book contains tons of info about the days of baseball back in the 1920s and 1930s. The Waners were fascinating, often forgotten today. I'm glad we get books like these and not more of the usual stuff on all the guys who get too much ink, like Ruth, DiMaggio, Mantle.