In Peter Schilling's wonderful novel, the extraordinary baseball season of 1944 comes vividly to life. Bill Veeck, the maverick promoter, returned from Guadalcanal with a leg missing and $500 to his name, has hustled his way into buying the Philadelphia Athletics. Hungry for a pennant, young Veeck jettisons the team's white players and secretly recruits the legendary stars of the Negro Leagues, fielding a club that will go down in baseball annals as one of the greatest ever to play the game. Here are the behind-the-scenes adventures that bring this dream to reality, and a cast of characters only history's pen could create. The End of Baseball is the most rollicking, free-spirited baseball story in years, the unvarnished truth of that incredible season and the men who lived it.
The End of Baseball
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
With this debut, sportswriter Schilling has written one of the best baseball novels since Howard Frank Mosher's Waiting for Teddy Williams. Using actual events, Schilling has fictionalized a fantasy scenario in baseball history—the integration of black players into the major leagues in 1944. Bill Veeck Jr., a Marine veteran from a prestigious baseball family, buys the Philadelphia Athletics in 1943, becoming the youngest man to ever own a major league club. Veeck is a genius at publicity and promotion who wants to win the World Series—but using black players. He signs the best of the Negro League to the Athletics, against all conventional feeling and the opposition of Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, the vicious commissioner of baseball. The Athletics romp through the 1944 season behind the on-and-off diamond antics of real-life stars like Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and Roy Campanella, with Veeck struggling to raise money, avoid race riots and flummox Judge Landis. This exciting, fast-paced story is a fine commentary on baseball lore, race relations, and American sentiment during World War II, and it will have the reader hanging on every pitch, wondering how Veeck and his players will overcome racial discrimination to prove they can play in the major leagues. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Maverick baseball entrepreneur Bill Veeck returns from World War II and buys the Philadelphia Athletics from irascible owner Connie Mack. The caveat is that if the team doesn’t turn a profit in its first year, it reverts back to Mack. That means A’s must be transformed into a winner, and in the war years, the only sources of good players are the Negro Leagues. Veeck begins with a bitter, alcoholic Josh Gibson and then adds Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, and Buck Leonard—all of whom think they’ll be playing on a Philly Negro League team. The Veeck shenanigans continue, and he opens the season with his groundbreaking team despite the resistance of owners, players, the press, and J. Edgar Hoover, who smells a Communist plot. Schilling’s alternate-history fiction pushes baseball’s integration ahead by four years, but the pages turn on the larger-than-life characterization of Veeck, who emerges here as every bit as flamboyant as he was in the real world. In the ultimate “woulda-coulda-shouda” story, the vaunted color line is no match for Veeck’s showmanship and unquenchable spirit. --Wes Lukowsky
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Peter Schilling, Jr.'s inventive novel "The End of Baseball" describes a mesmerizing 1944 baseball season that might have been - if Bill Veeck had been able to purchase a major league team and recruit an entire team of Negro Leaguer stars.
Veeck loses a leg at Guadalcanal. Before enlisting in the Marines, he had been a successful minor league baseball team owner whose innovative promotions lured fans to the ballpark and whose competitive teams kept them coming back for more.
In "The End of Baseball," Veeck returns to civilian life and purchases the Philadelphia Athletics. He turns the ball club into an instant contender by secretly signing Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Oscar Charleston, Buck Leonard, Cool Papa Bell, Willie Wells, Roy Campanella, and other Negro League stars.
The book contains many poignant moments on and off the field. To his credit - and to our good fortune! -- Schilling provides the historical and social perspective the story demands. He captures the essence of the men and the game they play for life and, perhaps, death.
In real life, Veeck owned the Cleveland Indians and signed the American League's first black player, Larry Doby, and also Satchel Paige. He had less talent to work with on his St. Louis Browns ball club, so he grabbed the spotlight by sending a midget to the plate. When he owned the Chicago White Sox, Veeck put player names on the backs of uniforms and introduced the exploding scoreboard. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.
Veeck loses a leg at Guadalcanal. Before enlisting in the Marines, he had been a successful minor league baseball team owner whose innovative promotions lured fans to the ballpark and whose competitive teams kept them coming back for more.
In "The End of Baseball," Veeck returns to civilian life and purchases the Philadelphia Athletics. He turns the ball club into an instant contender by secretly signing Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Oscar Charleston, Buck Leonard, Cool Papa Bell, Willie Wells, Roy Campanella, and other Negro League stars.
The book contains many poignant moments on and off the field. To his credit - and to our good fortune! -- Schilling provides the historical and social perspective the story demands. He captures the essence of the men and the game they play for life and, perhaps, death.
In real life, Veeck owned the Cleveland Indians and signed the American League's first black player, Larry Doby, and also Satchel Paige. He had less talent to work with on his St. Louis Browns ball club, so he grabbed the spotlight by sending a midget to the plate. When he owned the Chicago White Sox, Veeck put player names on the backs of uniforms and introduced the exploding scoreboard. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Peter Schilling brings back the game of baseball complete with the personalities, the idiosyncrasies, the after hours stories and all of the fun that this sport once had. This is an amazing novel that just sucks you in and doesn't let go. I couldn't wait to find time every day to continue my reading. It is somewhat unique in its use of historic information and mixing of baseball story fiction. In it, Schilling has captured an era in the sport just as African Americans are beginning to be "allowed" into the game. But in this story, not just one Black ballplayer is in the Majors, an entire team is being moved up.
Schilling has written an enjoyable and moving story that shows many of the great Negro League players coming together and playing in the Major Leagues on the same team: Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige among them. The antics of Bill Veech Jr. contribute to the main storyline and how the difficulties from the all White league and their overbearing Commissioner continually throw up barriers to the entry of this special team on the hallowed Fields.
In addition to the game of baseball, the societal ills of the general population and the mind games of J Edgar Hoover, himself, are all part of the plot. This is a slice of Americana; America going through the pain of WWII with their boys of summer as their only distraction. Only this summer has the potential of bringing out real change for the sport. Bill Veech, Jr., is the man trying against all odds, fictitious and historic, to keep the team together against the powers of baseball and others desperately trying to keep the status quo. This is a baseball story for the ages. A terrifically different novel for anyone tired of the same old stuff.
I was amazed at how perfectly interwoven truth and fiction were done by Schilling. The character studies are on target and made a part of the story blurring the lines of fact and fiction like nothing I'd ever read in the world of baseball writing. The ending is beautiful and fulfilling. I am giving it my hearty recommendation of 5 stars. There just isn't much not to like.
Schilling has written an enjoyable and moving story that shows many of the great Negro League players coming together and playing in the Major Leagues on the same team: Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige among them. The antics of Bill Veech Jr. contribute to the main storyline and how the difficulties from the all White league and their overbearing Commissioner continually throw up barriers to the entry of this special team on the hallowed Fields.
In addition to the game of baseball, the societal ills of the general population and the mind games of J Edgar Hoover, himself, are all part of the plot. This is a slice of Americana; America going through the pain of WWII with their boys of summer as their only distraction. Only this summer has the potential of bringing out real change for the sport. Bill Veech, Jr., is the man trying against all odds, fictitious and historic, to keep the team together against the powers of baseball and others desperately trying to keep the status quo. This is a baseball story for the ages. A terrifically different novel for anyone tired of the same old stuff.
I was amazed at how perfectly interwoven truth and fiction were done by Schilling. The character studies are on target and made a part of the story blurring the lines of fact and fiction like nothing I'd ever read in the world of baseball writing. The ending is beautiful and fulfilling. I am giving it my hearty recommendation of 5 stars. There just isn't much not to like.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book has it all: the high drama of a "what if?" season of baseball, historical cameos, and real social commentary. If you're looking for an always-entertaining page turner, look no further. The End of Baseball simulates what it's like to be swept up in a particularly thrilling baseball season in 1943, and reading it is like having a spot in the bleachers to watch the team that almost was. It has subtle character studies, and closely observed details that summon up that time and place: America as a country in the midst of WWII, the African American baseball community prior to Civil Rights. It will keep you up nights reading!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Baseball historians, take note
Novel treatment about what might have happened if Bill Veeck had purchased the Phillies and stocked the team with Negro League stars. Realistic. Baseball fans will enjoy this one.
Published 2 months ago by JJ Writer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read!
Peter Schilling's novel, The End of Baseball, is a book that will appeal to anyone who appreciates an engaging, fast paced story. Read more
Published 8 months ago by M. Stone
4.0 out of 5 stars
I was Bill Veeck's milkman!
Yes, I really was Bill Veeck's milkman. He was one of two customers who actually ordered buttermilk and yogert. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Bob Lewis
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful journey
The End of Baseball is an alternative history novel. It posits a world in which maverick baseball owner Bill Veeck buys the Philadelphia Athletics and stocks the team from the... Read more
Published 8 months ago by John Lovell
5.0 out of 5 stars
What If.....
Every baseball enthusiast enamored with its history has always imagined what it might have been like if the major leaguers of the old segregated white leagues had to play against... Read more
Published on June 24, 2010 by Brkat
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful Revision to Baseball History
It's a sad commentary of American history that the game of baseball - our National Pastime - kept some of its greatest players out of the limelight because of the color of their... Read more
Published on March 29, 2010 by Larry Underwood
5.0 out of 5 stars
A compelling historical baseball novel
Peter Schilling, Jr. has written a first novel that furnishes an extra-base hit. Indeed, this novel wins the game!
The book is published by Ivan R. Read more
The book is published by Ivan R. Read more
Published on February 16, 2010 by Michael H. Ebner
4.0 out of 5 stars
What could have been
This is a very interesting fictionalized story about Bill Veeck and the great Negro League stars. If only things had been different and integration of the major leagues (not to... Read more
Published on January 21, 2010 by G. Allevato
4.0 out of 5 stars
"It's always easier for the next guy. Only it isn't as much fun."...
According to baseball lore, a flamboyant investor/owner named Bill Veeck tried to purchase the Philadelphia Phillies in 1942, planning to staff the team entirely with stars from... Read more
Published on October 23, 2009 by J. Green
4.0 out of 5 stars
A really good baseball/social/historical novel
An interesting "account" of the first season of integrated major league baseball. Peter Schilling's novel keeps your attention, for the most part, by devising a page-turning... Read more
Published on May 30, 2009 by Steve
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