Lefty O'Doul

Baseball's Forgotten Ambassador

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Pub Date May 01 2017 | Archive Date Jun 30 2017

Description

From San Francisco to the Ginza in Tokyo, Lefty O’Doul relates the untold story of one of baseball’s greatest hitters, most colorful characters, and the unofficial father of professional baseball in Japan. Lefty O’Doul (1897–1969) began his career on the sandlots of San Francisco and was drafted by the Yankees as a pitcher. Although an arm injury and his refusal to give up the mound clouded his first four years, he converted into an outfielder. After four Minor League seasons he returned to the Major Leagues to become one of the game’s most prolific power hitters, retiring with the fourth-highest lifetime batting average in Major League history. A self-taught “scientific” hitter, O’Doul then became the game’s preeminent hitting instructor, counting Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams among his top disciples.

In 1931 O’Doul traveled to Japan with an All-Star team and later convinced Babe Ruth to headline a 1934 tour. By helping to establish the professional game in Japan, he paved the way for Hideo Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki, and Hideki Matsui to play in the American Major Leagues. O’Doul’s finest moment came in 1949, when General Douglas MacArthur asked him to bring a baseball team to Japan, a tour that MacArthur later praised as one of the greatest diplomatic efforts in U.S. history. O’Doul became one the most successful managers in the Pacific Coast League and was instrumental in spreading baseball’s growth and popularity in Japan. He is still beloved in Japan, where in 2002 he was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. 

From San Francisco to the Ginza in Tokyo, Lefty O’Doul relates the untold story of one of baseball’s greatest hitters, most colorful characters, and the unofficial father of professional baseball in...


Advance Praise

“Perhaps the most important twentieth-century figure not enshrined in Cooperstown, Lefty O’Doul influenced the game on both sides of the Pacific. . . . Dennis Snelling brings Lefty to life in this well-written and fascinating biography. Lefty O’Doul should be on the must-read list of all serious baseball fans. A true Sayonara home run!”—Robert K. Fitts, author of Banzai Babe Ruth, winner of the Seymour Medal

“The life of Lefty O’Doul was filled with joy, enthusiasm, and accomplishment, and no one has told his story better than Dennis Snelling. This wonderful book fully describes the many facets of Lefty’s personality.”—Dick Beverage, secretary-treasurer for the Association of Professional Ballplayers of America and president of the Pacific Coast League Historical Society

“Perhaps the most important twentieth-century figure not enshrined in Cooperstown, Lefty O’Doul influenced the game on both sides of the Pacific. . . . Dennis Snelling brings Lefty to life in this...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780803290969
PRICE $39.95 (USD)
PAGES 392

Average rating from 7 members


Featured Reviews

Francis “Lefty” O’Doul can be considered a rarity in baseball – while he was an outstanding major league player, retiring with the fourth-highest career batting average in history, it was his work in the minor leagues and in Japan where he truly made a difference in the game. The story of his life in and out of baseball is told in this biography by Dennis Snelling.

O’Doul was raised in the Butchertown section of San Francisco, a tough neighborhood which got its name from the proliferation of butchers and slaughterhouses in the area. O’Doul was destined to follow his father into that business until he was encouraged to use his athletic gifts by his teacher Rose Stolz. It was uncommon for women to be coaching sports at that time in the early 20th century, but she was his coach and O’Doul gave her credit for teaching him the game and mentoring him early in his athletic career.

His career started with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League , which at (PCL)the time was considered close to the equal of the Major Leagues and the highest level of baseball played west of the Mississippi. O’Doul was playing the outfield and pitching, eventually gaining a spot on the New York Yankees, but not succeeding in either position. He set a record during that brief time that still has not been broken – he gave up 13 runs in one inning, the most allowed by a single pitcher in one inning. He was convinced to give up pitching during another stint with the Seals, and this time it proved to be better when he played for the New York Giants, becoming a prolific hitter including a season in which he hit .398 in 1929.

However, despite this success, where O’Doul left his mark in the game was with his coaching and managing, which he did for a few decades for the Seals and San Diego in the PCL. One of his prize pupils was Joe DiMaggio, who gives O’Doul much credit for his success. They stayed friends long after both of their careers were over.

The book’s format has each chapter start with an excerpt describing O’Doul’s biggest accomplishment, and that was the 1949 series of exhibition games between a team of Major League all-stars and Japanese teams played in Japan. This exhibition was notable for several reasons – the countries still had some bitter feelings so soon after World War II, the American players were treated like royalty by the Japanese fans, and General Douglas MacArthur even attended games. O’Doul worked tirelessly to promote the game in Japan, having made several trips there and was in attendance when Masanori Murakami became the first Japanese player to play in the Major Leagues in 1964.

Given the variances in topics in which to write about O’Doul, I felt that Mr. Snelling did a very good job of piecing all of these aspects of the career of O’Doul and wrote a book that is not only easy to follow with all of these pieces, but is also informative enough that the reader will finish it believing that he or she knows a lot about O’Doul. That was the case for me as I had not known much about the man’s career and certainly not that he was a true ambassador for the game in Japan. After reading this book, I believe that Lefty O’Doul’s story is one that anyone interested in the game’s history, whether in the United States or in Japan, is one that should be read.

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

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Excerpt from Review: "...Author Dennis Snelling makes the reader fall in love with the larger than life character that was Lefty O’Doul. We root for his successes and mourn his failures, railing at him when he stubbornly sticks to pitching and cheering when he realizes his true potential as a batter. One can tell that the story of Lefty O’Doul is important to Snelling and he tells it in loving detail..."

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