All Episodes
My Thirty Years In Baseball by John McGraw (1873 - 1934) — 51 episodes
Chapter XLIII: McGraw picks the All-National League team of thirty years -- The first "floater" pitcher -- Delehanty's record -- Four home runs in one game.
Chapter XLIV: The All-American League team -- Greatest of all spitball pitchers -- Ty Cobb vs. Tris Speaker.
Chapter XLV: A defense of the sand-lot player -- Baseball as a training school for other professions.
Chapter XLVI: Around the world with the White Sox -- Baseball and the crime wave -- Meeting with the King of England.
Chapter XLVII: The mutton pie episode in London -- Playing before the Khedive of Egypt -- The Federal League's offer to McGraw -- Why the Federal League died.
Chapter XLVIII: Why baseball unions fail -- McGraw's personal suggestions for a real ball players' fraternity.
Chapter XLIX: Should a ball player marry? -- Two kinds of wives -- The marital year of grace.
Chapter L: The commissioner of baseball -- Why he was needed -- A tribute to Judge Landis.
Chapter XVI: The real mark of superiority in a ball team -- Secret of Ty Cobb's success -- The "steal and slam" play -- McGraw's speciality -- Effect of the lively ball.
Chapter XVII: "Bench" vs. "coach line" managers -- How signals are given -- Personal contact in spring training.
Chapter XVIII: Difference between major and minor leaguers -- Drilling the recruit -- Mastering the slide -- A pitcher's peculiar fault.
Chapter XIX: Temperaments of rookie twirlers -- The trouble with Rube Marquard -- When is a curve not a curve? -- Exit the "spitball."
Chapter XX: Origin of the World's Series idea -- The spree that cost the Orioles the championship -- Trouble over series receipts -- First intimation of "fixed" games.
Chapter XXI: Gambling nearly kills the national sport -- McGraw makes base-stealing record -- An umpire's compliment -- Players' share of gate receipts.
Chapter XXII: The Orioles planted in Brooklyn -- McGraw a manager -- Bucking the syndicate -- McGinnity comes to Baltmore.
Chapter XXIII: Cutting down the big league -- McGraw sold to St. Louis -- Playing baseball and the ponies.
Chapter XXIV: Growth of the American League -- Disagreement with Ban Johnson -- McGraw accepts management of New York Giants, 1902.
Chapter XXV: McGraw's wide-open contract -- Christy Mathewson as a first baseman -- Roger Bresnahan, pitcher -- Rebuilding a team.
Chapter XXVI: Christy Mathewson becomes a pitcher-- His wonderful memory -- Other phases of the personality that made "Matty" the greatest twirler that ever lived.
Chapter XXVII: How Mathewson stopped the "squeeze play" -- Coveleskie's scheme for keeping track of base runners -- "Crazy" Schmidt discovers "Pop" Anson's "weakness."
Chapter XXVIII: Brodie forgets to score -- The umpire who "talked back" to Dummy Taylor -- McGraw's fifty-dollar umbrella joke -- Wilbert Robinson and the balloon ascension.
Chapter XXIX: Bresnahan becomes a catcher -- American League formed in New York -- Why the Giants refused to play a World's Series in 1904 -- The Giants beat the Philadelphia Athletics in their first World's Series, 1905.
Chapter XXX: Greatest ball team McGraw ever managed -- "Vegetable reception" of the Giants in Pittsburgh -- Skylarking.
Chapter XXXI: Sam Merteas's great catch -- Keeler pulls one out of the barbed wire -- The danger of the sunfield.
Chapter XXXII: Science of managing a ball team -- Hitting the weak spots -- Why base running is a lost art -- The delayed steal.
Chapter XXXIII: The affadavit -- Making a ball club -- Getting back at the fans -- Police protection in Cincinnati.
Chapter XXXIV: Greatest hit ever made -- What actually happened the day Merkle failed to touch second -- Longest wallop on record.
Chapter XXXV: What happens when a ball team grows old -- Big trades -- A new batch of famous youngsters.
Chapter XXXVI: The check on personal habits of players -- Best way to keep in condition -- The pitcher who ate his way out of the league.
Chapter XXXVII: Interesting development of the game -- 1907-12, Philadelphia Athletics in first rank -- The team that "stole" the pennant -- Marquard and Mathewson do some explaining.
Chapter XXXVIII: Greatest of all ball players -- The longest throw on record.
Chapter XXXIX: Has the lively ball taken the pep out of the national game? -- Base running a lost art.
Chapter XL: The All-American team of thirty years -- What McGraw thinks would be the greatest ballclub in the world - and why.
Chapter XLI: Analysing the players on McGraw's All-American team of all time -- Infielders and outfielders who contributed innovations to the sport.
Chapter XLII: The Hall of Fame pitchers -- Devore's experience with Walter Johnson's "smoke" -- Rube Waddell's hands.
Introduction by George M. Cohan
Chapter I: What McGraw told his team the day before the recent World's Series began -- Why Babe Ruth failed to shine -- Do college men make the best ball players?
Chapter II: The new play that ruined the Yanks -- Outwitting Joe Bush -- Twenty-five dollars fine for a home run that won the game.
Chapter III: Individual vs. team work -- The "I thought" ball players -- What happened to Snodgrass for the error in Boston that lost the World's Series?
Chapter IV: A manager's troubles with picturesque characters -- Bugs Raymond, the spitball pitcher, and his trial by a newspeper jury.
Chapter V: Schreckengost and the "Cracker" contract -- How Rube Waddell put one over on Connie Mack -- Walter Brodie "waits out" a Boston pitcher.
Chapter VI: How McGraw, batting left-handed, learned to hit into left field -- The curve that couldn't be pitched -- First professional days with the Olean team.
Chapter VII: Early experiences in Cedar Rapids -- The half-wit who emptied the grandstand -- Sammy Strang the first pinch hitter.
Chapter VIII: The freshest ball player -- First meeting with Pop Anson -- McGraw's "jump" to the Baltimore Orioles -- The first big league game.
Chapter IX: Is modern baseball superior to old? -- Plays that were never heard of thirty years ago -- Origin of the "charley horse" -- New spirt of the game.
Chapter X: The "bench" school of training -- McGraw shifted to second base -- First meeting with Hugh Jennings -- Trading experinece for an education.
Chapter XI: Ned Hanlon starts a revolution in baseball -- How Jennings improved his batting average -- Invention of the "hit and run" play -- New blood for the Orioles.
Chapter XII: "Hit-'Em-Where-They-Ain't" Keeler -- The greatest team in baseball history -- Horseshoe luck that beat the Giants.
Chapter XIII: Oratory that misfired -- The mustache era in baseball -- Umpire Jack Kerns and the lemon "strike."
Chapter XIV: The invisible ball -- Folly of baiting the umpire -- Joe Kelley and the hundred dollar watch.
Chapter XV: Baseball fans now better sportsmen -- "Steve" Brodie and the heckler -- Old "Well! Well!" -- The darkey rooter who asked to be lynched.