Sportswriter Bob Dolgan has written about them all while covering the sports beat for The Plain Dealer during the past six decades.
This book collects for the first time Dolgan’s best short profiles of the most interesting athletes—stars, bench-jockeys, and everyone in between—ever to grace the fields, courts, and rinks of Cleveland.
These stories will rekindle memories in any Cleveland sports fan and introduce some remarkable characters from the past who are worth getting to know.
It takes all kinds to fill out the sports pages.
Look back on any era, and dozens of wonderfully memorable people stand out, sparkling like diamonds in the grass.
There have been heroes, like Rocky Colavito and Jesse Owens. Scamps, from Joe Jackson to Albert Belle. Good guys, like Lou Groza and Mark Price. And a few special cases—legendary greaseballer Gaylord Perry, for one—who were a little bit of each.
Dolgan recalls the onfield glory but looks beyond it, too, for the telling details that reveal the person behind the athlete.
Most of the big names are here. But Dolgan also shares the tales of some special people who deserve to be remembered as more than just a few statistics in a record book. Kevin Rhomberg, for instance, the Indians outfielder best known for his extraordinary superstition about being touched. And Eddie Klep, the only white player in the Negroe Leagues. And jovial Honest Yockim, diminutive denizen of Cleveland’s notorious Short Vincent sports gambling scene.
