The Glory of Their Times
From BR Bullpen
The Glory of Their Times is the abbreviated title of a 1966 book by Lawrence Ritter. Ritter, a university professor, used his summers to interview players from the turn of the century. He was inspired by the death of Ty Cobb to preserve oral histories. Among his subjects was Sam Crawford, who had slipped into obscurity in California. He published 22 of the interviews in his book. Currently the book is available in an expanded, 26 interview edition (ISBN 0688112730). Audiobooks have also been released of the original interviews. Setting a standard for oral histories of baseball, the book led to a slew of imitators, none of which achieved the same level of commerical or critical success. In Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?, Bill James has noted that the book also helped enshrine several players into the Hall of Fame; four of the featured players were elected within 5 years despite no prior drive to get them in. These four were Goose Goslin, Stan Coveleski, Rube Marquard and Harry Hooper, the latter two of whom clearly had inferior credentials to many people not in the Hall of Fame.
[edit] Chapters
- Bill Wambsganss
- Rube Marquard
- Tommy Leach
- Davy Jones
- Sam Crawford
- Jimmy Austin
- Fred Snodgrass
- Stan Coveleski
- Al Bridwell
- Harry Hooper
- Smoky Joe Wood
- Chief Meyers
- Hans Lobert
- Rube Bressler
- Edd Roush
- Sam Jones
- Bob O'Farrell
- Lefty O'Doul
- Goose Goslin
- Willie Kamm
- Heinie Groh
- Paul Waner
- George Gibson (added in expanded version)
- Babe Herman (added in expanded version)
- Specs Toporcer (added in expanded version)
- Hank Greenberg (added in expanded version)
