In his book, Urban Shocker: Silent Hero of Baseball’s Golden Age, Steve Steinburg tells the story of one of the greatest pitchers in history, although few fans have heard of him. Shocker came to the New York Yankees in the late 1910’s but, much to the chagrin of his manager and to Shocker himself, he was traded away to the St. Louis Browns because he had been a “bad teammate.” Determined to show the Yankees their mistake, Shocker saved his best stuff for his outings against his opponents in pinstripes. He considered the epic battles with Babe Ruth some of the best of his career.

Impressed with his ability, competitive nature, and knowledge of the game, the Yankees re-traded for Shocker, and he played a pivotal role on the Bronx Bombers’ 1927 Championship team. Shocker pitched at the highest level of competition while battling a serious heart condition, which would lead eventually to an early retirement and an untimely death.

Urban Shocker is a well-written account of a man who would put himself at risk if it meant that his team would win. Steinburg does an admirable job of piecing together the rare historical record and presents a picture of a courageous competitor of whom even serious baseball fans rarely hear.

Urban Shocker is a great read for any baseball fan. It is the forgotten story of one of the greatest pitchers of the game. He may have been the indispensible piece to one of the amazing teams in history of baseball. I highly recommend Urban Shocker.



I was given a free copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review

A wonderfully written book written about a forgotten old time pitcher by the name Urban Shocker. The story follows his life into the minor leagues to the majors and when he finally makes it to the Yankees he is then traded to the St. Louis Browns where he would have four consecutive 20 win seasons and for a three year period was the pitcher with the most wins. He did have his moments of suspensions, and fines from owners and managers not agreeing with keeping quiet on any issue. He especially enjoyed pitching against the Yankees whether he won or lost it would be a very good game. Also while with the Browns he did pitch both games of a double header. He was traded back to the Yankees and played 25, 26, 27, and one game in 28. He was part of the great 1927 Yankee team even though he was becoming sick he was still 18-6. When he passed away in 1928 the team rallied around and won again and even voted a share to his widow. The story was very interesting and well researched. I liked all of the games that he was involved in. one bit that was or could be fixed by the 60’s through an operation. A very good book and worth the read.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book from Net Galley and the University of Nebraska Press, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my history book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book because I am a die-hard New York Yankees fan and read most anything that I can get my hands on. This is not the first book by Steve Steinberg that I have read.

The book is well researched and well written. The author's style makes this a pleasureable and fairly quick read. The book does a very good job of covering how the personality of Urban Schocker was developed by his parents who were somewhat polar opposites in their approach to child rearing. He was intensely focused on winning , but at times it did not take much for him to fly off the handle early in his career.

He started out with the New York Yankees, but was traded to the St. Louis Browns and wanted to face his former team as often as he could. He particularly enjoyed his battles with Babe Ruth. Late in his career he was traded back to the Yankees just as his health started to impact his pitching. He used guile and knowledge of hitters to make up for the loss of array of pitchers. He was one of the last legal spitball pitchers, but faked it more than he used it to throw hitters off balance.

He eventually won a World Series, but did not appear in any of the games. He died in 1928 from a heart condition shortly after retiring from professional baseball.

I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of baseball and in particular the New York Yankees.

An interesting bio of one of the great pitchers of the Babe Ruth era. He was well respected around the game and has been overlooked by the Hall of Fame. Mr Steinberg did a great job of bringing this long lost character to life.

One of the lesser-known members of the famous 1927 New York Yankees was a pitcher who was on his second tour of duty with the Yankees. Urban Shocker was one of the pitchers for the team after several outstanding seasons for the St. Louis Browns. His career and life is captured in this terrific biography by Steve Steinberg.

The book covers much more than Shocker’s life before the game, his career highlights and game-by-game accounts (there is very little of the latter). The reader will learn much about Shocker’s mindset when pitching. This is evident by his use of a spitball or “wet ball”, allowed when he began his career and one of the pitchers who was allowed to keep using it after it was banned from the game in 1920. Another passage in which the reader gets into Shocker’s mind is when he threw this pitch as a rookie to two star Yankee teammates in an intra-squad game. He was gutsy and did what he wanted.

This was also true throughout his career. He was bitter about being traded to the St. Louis Browns, especially because he was considered a troublemaker because of who he befriended on the team. He always wanted the ball against the Yankees to show how wrong they were to trade him. However, when the Yankees reacquired him, he was very excited to be playing for the same manager who he thought wanted to get rid of him, Miller Huggins. The book does a great job of illustrating this relationship between the two men.

Shocker also wanted to keep his health problems as secret as possible, in which he succeeded as it was a surprise to many when he died months after retiring as a pitcher. He had cardiac issues and it would case him many issues on the field late in his career, including sudden collapse. It was the main reason he had to retire, but he was a fighter to the end.

This biography provides a lot of information on Shocker, a pitcher whose contributions to the Yankees are often overlooked. The book even mentions Bill James’ proclamation that Shocker was one of the best pitchers of the era. Written in a manner that gives readers a clear picture of Urban Shocker, both the man and the baseball player, it is a book that all baseball fans should add to their libraries.

I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Outstanding work. Incredibly well researched. the first half is somewhat slow and standard baseball book fare but the reward is in the second half which is superb