Hot Stove League [Hardcover]

Lee Allen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1955

Before the modern era, the closest fans could get to big-league action during the long winters was sitting around the hot stove in general stores and barber shops, exchanging bits of baseball history and anecdotes from the uplifting to the unseemly. These fascinating true stories are collected in The Hot Stove League, and they chronicle everything from the first electrically illuminated night game and Babe Ruth's legendary gluttony to such curiosities as why some of the most populous states produce the fewest major league players.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This 1955 volume can be likened to campfire tales for baseball nuts. It is essentially a collection of stories about the game that might be told in the winter when the last season was just a memory and the upcoming one the stuff of dreams. Diehard baseball fans just never get enough, so this should circulate well.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Amereon Ltd; First Edition edition (December 1955)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0848814940
• ISBN-13: 978-0848814946
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,162,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First-rate collection of baseball anecdotes, May 3, 2000

By 

Doug Pappas - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hot Stove League (Classics) (Paperback)

Before his sudden death in 1969, Lee Allen had spent 10 years as the librarian at the Baseball Hall of Fame, and at least thirty as one of the game's most indefatigable researchers. The Hot Stove League, first published in 1955, displays Allen's dazzling erudition to great advantage. It's the only book of its kind to have made numerous lists of the best baseball books ever written.

Unlike authors of many superficially similar books, Allen doesn't just string together unverifiable tales and pointless lists. His well-written stories are organized by topic, often accompanied by tables of heretofore-uncompiled data, and inevitably based on Allen's own encyclopedic knowledge of baseball history. Lazier authors still repeat myths Allen debunked almost 50 years ago.

The Hot Stove League would be perfect bedtime reading, except that many of Allen's tales will keep readers awake all night looking for more information about his subjects.