Bill Veeck (64 page)

Read Bill Veeck Online

Authors: Paul Dickson

BOOK: Bill Veeck
4.29Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

United States Congress.
Hearings Held to Consider Future Use of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, D.C., and Prospects for Location of Another Major League Baseball Franchise in D.C
. United States Senate, Committee on District of Columbia, December 13, 1971. (Veeck testimony pp. 110–30.)

———.
Organized Baseball, Report of the Subcommittee on Study of Monopoly Power of the Committee on the Judiciary
. United States House of Representatives, 82nd Congress, 2nd Session, report no. 632. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1952.

Vandenberg, Bob.
'59: Summer of the Sox
. Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing, 1999.

Vass, George.
The Game I'll Never Forget
. Chicago: Bonus Books, 1999.

Veeck, Bill. “The Baseball Establishment.”
Esquire
, August 1964.

———. “Dear Bowie: Here's Some Thoughts I've Had on Baseball …”
Boston Globe
, March 23, 1989.

———. “The Venerable Satch.”
Elks Magazine
, April 1961.

———. “What's Left for the Left-Hander?”
Saturday Evening Post
, March 16, 1963.

———. “What's Wrong with Baseball … What Can Be Done About It.”
Look
, April 12, 1949.

Veeck, Bill, as told to Gordon Cobbledick. “So You Want to Run a Ball Club?”
Saturday Evening Post
, April 23, 1949.

Veeck, Bill, with Ed Linn. “Back Where I Belong.”
Sports Illustrated
, March 15, 1976.

———.
The Hustler's Handbook.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1965.

———.
Thirty Tons a Day: The Rough-Riding Education of a Neophyte Racetrack Operator
. New York: Viking Press, 1972.

———.
Veeck—as in Wreck
. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962.

Veeck, Bill, as told to Louie Robinson. “Are There Too Many Negroes in Baseball?”
Ebony
, June 1962.

Veeck, Mike.
Fun Is Good: How to Create Joy and Passion in Your Workplace and Career
. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Books, 2005.

Vincent, Fay.
The Only Game in Town: Baseball Stars of the 1930s and 1940s Talk About the Game They Loved.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006.

———.
We Would Have Played for Nothing: Baseball Stars of the 1950s and 1960s Talk About the Game They Loved
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008.

Voigt, David Q.
American Baseball.
3 vols. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1983.

Wallop, Douglass.
Baseball: An Informal History
. New York: W. W. Norton, 1969.

Warfield, Don.
The Roaring Redhead: Larry MacPhail, Baseball's Great Innovator.
South Bend, IN: Diamond, 1987.

Westcott, Rich.
Mickey Vernon: The Gentleman First Baseman
. Philadelphia: Camino Books, 2005.

White, Solomon.
Sol White's Official Base Ball Guide.
Philadelphia, 1907. Reprint: Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1984.

Whitford, David. “Veeck Family Values.”
Fortune Small Business
, July 1, 2003.

Wiggins, David. “Wendell Smith, the
Pittsburgh Courier-Journal
and the Campaign to Include Blacks in Organized Baseball, 1933–1945.”
Journal of Sport History
10, no. 2 (1989): 5–29.

Wilber, Cynthia J.
For the Love of the Game: Baseball Memories from the Men Who Were There
. New York: William Morrow, 1992.

Wiley, George.
Especially for Cleveland Fans: The 1948 Indians Remembered
. Minneapolis: Society for American Baseball Research, 1988.

Williams, Pat, with Michael Weinreb.
Marketing Your Dreams: Business and Life Lessons from Bill Veeck.
Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing, 2000.

Wolfe, Rich, and George Castle.
I Remember Harry Caray
. Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing, 1998.

Woodward, Stanley.
Sports Page
. New York: Greenwood Press, 1968.

Yardley, Jonathan. “The Man Who Brought Joy to Mudville.”
Washington Post
, September 25, 2006.

Yoder, Robert M., and James S. Kearns. “Boy Magnate.”
Saturday Evening Post
, August 28, 1943.

Zang, David W.
Fleet Walker's Divided Heart: The Life of Baseball's First Black Major Leaguer
. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.

Zimbalist, Andrew.
Baseball and Billions: A Probing Look Inside the Big Business of Our National Pastime
. New York: Basic, 1994.

———.
In the Best Interests of Baseball: The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig
. New York: Wiley, 2006.

Zimmerman, G. “Veeck … A New Bill for the White Sox,”
Look
, August 4, 1959.

Zoltak, James. “Legendary Promoter Veeck Shares Tips at Stadium Managers Meet.”
Amusement Business
111, no. 7 (February 15, 1999).

Notes
PROLOGUE

1
. Interview with Andy MacPhail, July 1, 2009.

2
. Interview with Cliff Kachline, August 1, 2009.

3
. Pat Williams interviews: From the transcript of interviews conducted by Pat Williams in 1997–98 for his book, written with Michael Weinreb,
Marketing Your Dreams: Business and Life Lessons from Bill Veeck.
The transcripts are available at the National Baseball Library and are used with permission of both Mr. Williams and the NBL.

4
. Interview with Ray Grebey, August 17, 2009.

5
. Bill Veeck with Edward Linn,
Thirty Tons a Day: The Rough-Riding Education of a Neophyte Racetrack Operator
(New York: Viking Press, 1972), inside front dust jacket.

6
. Interviews with Bert Randolph Sugar, July 9–10, 2009.

7
. Interview with Mike Veeck, June 28, 2008.

8
.
New York Times
, January 4, 1986, 7B.

9
. Bill Veeck with Edward Linn,
Veeck—as in Wreck
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962), 257–258.

10
.
Sports Illustrated
, July 4, 1960.

11
. Interview with Marty Appel, March 21, 2010.

12
.
Sports Illustrated
, July 4, 1960.

13
.
Evening Star Sportsweek
, May 10, 1970, s10.

14
. Interview with Mary Frances Veeck, June 7, 2010.

15
.
Baseball Digest
, September 1972, 34.

CHAPTER 1: SENIOR

1
. Kenneth M. Stampp,
Indiana Politics During the Civil War
(Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1949), 211;
Chicago American
, October 5, 1933. (The
Chicago American
piece was written two days following Veeck's death by his friend Jim Gallagher and is an invaluable source about Veeck's early days; it was also published in the
Chicago Daily News
, October 5, 1953.) A visit to the Hinsdale cemetery, July 6, 2011, attests to the fact that the two worked to keep their age difference a secret for the rest of their lives and even beyond: his cemetery headstone has the date of birth and death, while hers has none.

2
. Louisville experienced twenty-seven 90-degree days and eight 100-degree days (seven of which were consecutive), including a 107-degree day on July 24, which still stands as of 2011 as the highest temperature ever recorded in the city.

3
.
Chicago American
, October 6, 1933. Smith also said of this period, “It was Bill's life and did he live! He wouldn't have traded jobs with the President.”

4
. The
American
was immortalized in Hecht and MacArthur's play and film
The Front Page.

5
.
Chicago Tribune
, September 30, 1909;
Chicago Record Herald
, September 30, 1909. The latter paper played it on page 1, while the
Tribune
put the story on
page 3
.

6
.
Chicago American
, September 30, 1909.

7
. James E. Elfers,
The Tour to End All Tours: The Story of Major League Baseball's 1913–1914 World Tour
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), 15.

8
.
Chicago American
, October 5, 1933.

9
. Interviews with Fred Krehbiel, June 26 and July 6, 2010.

10
.
Baltimore Sun
, March 31, 1953, 19.

11
. Discussed by Timothy M. Gay in
USA Today
, June 9, 2005.

12
. Sean Deveney, “Did the 1918 Cubs Throw the World Series,”
Seattle Times
, April 17, 2008. The Cicotte affidavit sits in a room on the third floor of the Chicago History Museum. In December 2004, the museum won an auction for the rights to a group of documents pertaining to the 1919 White Sox.

13
.
Chicago American
, September 4, 1918.

14
. Ibid. September 16, 1918.

15
. Interview with Jacob Pomrenke, August 11, 2011; online column by Anthony Castrovince at MLB.com, May 18, 2011,
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110517&content_id=19210316&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=chc
. Castrovince noted, “The circumstantial evidence, however, lends at least some credence to the claim. Consider that, in 1918, baseball attendance was ravaged by the war. Many top players were drafted, and many fans cut back on their discretionary spending. The game's future—and, with it, the prospect of paychecks for its players—looked uncertain, and it was already assumed that the 1919 season would not take place. The 1918 season was cut short at 140 games, with owners putting a freeze on the salaries of all players not involved in the World Series.”

16
.
Chicago Daily News
, October 5, 1933;
Chicago American
, October 5, 1933.

17
. Warren Brown,
The Chicago Cubs
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1946), 80.

18
. Interviews with Fred Krehbiel, June 26 and July 6, 2010.

19
.
Chicago American
, December 8, 1918;
Chicago Evening Post
, December 10, 1918.

20
.
Chicago Tribune
, May 9, 1919, 19; May 10, 1919, 19;
Dubuque Telegraph-Herald
, May 9, 1919, 8.

21
.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
, August 10, 1919, 22.

22
.
Chicago Tribune
, August 5, 1919.

23
.
Oregonian
, June 3, 1920;
Chicago Tribune
, June 10, 24, 1920; Two Finger Carney, “The Dead Zone,” Notes from the Shadows of Cooperstown: Observations from Outside the Lines, no. 335, July 31, 2004,
http://baseball1.com/carney/index.php?storyid=247
.

24
.
Miami Herald
, April 16, 1920.

25
.
Idaho Daily Statesman
, September 5, 1920.

26
. AP,
Paterson (NJ)
Sunday Chronicle
, September 5, 1920, 18.

27
. UPI,
Milwaukee Journal
, September 5, 1920, 20.

28
. AP,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, September 4, 1920, 1.

29
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, September 10, 1920, 1.

30
. Daniel E. Ginsburg,
The Fix Is In: A History of Baseball Gambling and Game Fixing Scandals
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1995), 134; Harold Seymour,
Baseball: The Golden Age
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 298;
Atlanta Constitution
, January 5, 1921, 6; Alexander R. Jones, “It's War to the Finish: Veeck of Cubs Declares There'll Be No Compromise with Gamblers,”
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, July 14, 1922, 18.

31
. Jeff Davis,
Papa Bear: The Life and Legacy of George Halas
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005), 61–62; George Halas,
Halas by Halas
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979).

32
.
New York Times
, November 9, 1922.

33
. Typed notes from the National League Service Bureau, on file in the William Veeck Sr. vertical file at the National Baseball Library.

34
. Bill Veeck with Edward Linn,
Veeck—as in Wreck
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962), 24.

35
.
New York Times
, February 26, 1929.

36
. Brown,
Chicago Cubs
, 110.

37
. From an undated five-part series in the
Chicago Daily News
on Veeck obtained from the family but which, from references involved, was clearly written within weeks of his death in 1933. Hereafter Carmichael,
Chicago Daily News
biography, 1933.

38
.
Chicago American
, August 16, 1932.

39
.
Wisconsin State Journal
, August 2, 1930, 1.

40
. Bill Mead interview with Charlie Grimm.

41
. An undated clipping from the Veeck vertical file, National Baseball Library.

CHAPTER 2: VEECK ON DECK

1
. Joseph Durso,
The Days of Mr. McGraw
(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969), 199.

2
. Pat Williams interviews, 1997–98, unnumbered.

3
. Scott Jones interview, November 2, 2010.

4
. This quote is from an article Jones wrote about their shared childhood in the Hinsdale newspaper,
The Doings
, several days after his Veeck's death. January 9, 1986, 102.

5
. Ibid.

6
. Pat Williams interviews, 1997–98, unnumbered.

7
. Bill Veeck with Edward Linn,
Veeck—as in Wreck
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962), 31.

8
.
Chicago Tribune,
May 3, 1959, G16.

Other books

THE Nick Adams STORIES by ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Treading Water by Laurie Halse Anderson
Martin Eden by Jack London
Thrush Green by Read, Miss
In Love and Trouble by Alice Walker
Fatal Storm by Rob Mundle
Where Women are Kings by Christie Watson
Aftermath by Tracy Brown