Home-run Hitters: Heroes of the Four Home-Run Game [Hardcover]

John A. Torres (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1995 | Age Level: 9 and up

A look at the great sluggers of American baseball history combines photographs, statistics, and exciting sportswriting to profile some of the great home-run hitters of baseball, from the fabled early days to the present.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8?By concentrating only on the 10 players who have accomplished the rare feat of belting four home runs in one game, Torres has put together an interesting collection of profiles. Of course, some of the material on the well-known sluggers, such as Lou Gehrig, Mike Schmidt, and Willie Mays, can be found in countless other anthologies, but some of the lesser-known players?Mark Whiten, Pat Seerey, and Chuck Klein?are found in few other sources. Each player is covered in a breezy, highly readable style. Career statistics are appended at the end of each chapter. Young fans interested in the history of the game will want to check out this book.?Todd Morning, Schaumburg Township Public Library, IL
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing (March 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 002789407X
• ISBN-13: 978-0027894073
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #916,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars The ten players who have hit four home runs in one game, July 14, 2004

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Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Home-run Hitters: Heroes of the Four Home-Run Game (Hardcover)

"Home-Run Hitters: Heroes of the Four Home-Run Game" is an interesting juvenile baseball book in that it gives equal attention to Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig, Willie Mays and Mike Schmidt with players young readers will never have heard of before such as Pat Seerey, Joe Adcock, and Mark Whiten. But then hitting four homers in a single game has only been accomplished ten times in baseball history, which is still more than the number of times three home-runs have been hit in a World Series game or the number of times someone has gone deep twice in the All-Star game.

Babe Ruth never turned the feat, but John A. Torres begins his book by looking at the premodern era of the game to Babe Ruth, when everything changed. Instead of the game being based on smarts and speed as favored by the Ty Cobb and John McGraw, the long ball was what was drawing the big crowds. Torres, a veteran sportswriter, tells the story of these ten players and the combination of talent and luck (and power) that made them into the greatest slugger in the world for one game. The ten players on this short list, in order, are: Lou Gehrig, Chuck Klein, Pat Seerey, Gil Hodges, Joe Adcock, Rocky Colavito, Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt, Bob Horner, and Mark Whiten. So, from a statistical standpoint, half of these players ended up in the Hall of Fame, which serves to prove that not just great players have great days at bat.

My only real complaint about "Home-Run Hitters" is that Torres spends relatively little time talking about the actual four homers for most of these players. For example, there is a great story about Gehrig hitting his four homers that is not included. Gehrig hit his first three home runs to right field against starter George Earnshaw of the Philadelphia Athletics. Manager Connie Mack pulled Earnshaw from the game and insisted the pitcher sit on the bench next to him and watch how relief pitcher Roy Mahaffey pitched to Gehrig, who then hit his fourth home run to left field. The story is that Earnshaw turned to Mack and said: "I see, Mr. Mack. He made him hit it the other way." Then there is the irony that Gehrig, always in Ruth's shadow, did not get the biggest headlines on the sports page the next day because John McGraw, the manager of the New York Giants, winner of ten National League pennants, had announced his retirement.

Torres wrote this book in 1995 and in his epilogue he speculates that the feat been duplicated in the near future is rather doubtful. He makes an interesting but ironic argument that the emphasis in the game "today" is on team speed and defense, as evidenced by artificial turf and large domed stadiums making home runs more difficult to hit. Of course, this was before Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds all shattered the magic 61* mark set by Roger Maris in 1961. Then again, Bonds is never going to be allowed to hit three home runs in a game let alone four because managers are going to walk him (he set a new single season mark for intentional walks this season and we are only at the All-Star break).