"Spoke is a first-rate biography of one of the most important 
and intriguing, but today largely overlooked, figures in baseball 
history."—C. Paul Rogers III

Charles C. Alexander's fact-filled biography of Tris Speaker 
chronicles the twenty-two-year career of arguably the greatest 
centerfielder ever to play the position. It follows the colorful 
ballplayer through his years with the Boston Red Sox, the 
Cleveland Indians, the Washington Senators, and the Philadelphia 
Athletics, and on into his later years as manager of a professional 
ball club and promoter of the national pastime. Alexander 
examines both the highs and lows of Speaker's illustrious career, 
including his bitter contract dispute with the Red Sox in 1915, the 
death of his close friend Ray Chapman from a pitched ball in 1920, 
and the game-fixing scandal Speaker found himself embroiled in, 
along with Ty Cobb, late in his playing career.

Despite the fact that Speaker was in the inaugural induction class 
when the National Baseball Hall of Fame opened in 1939, 
compiled a lifetime .345 batting average, and accumulated more 
doubles than anyone in baseball history, he is today not a 
household name like Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth, both of whom were 
Speaker's peers. Renowned baseball historian Alexander makes 
the case that Speaker, a fiery competitor and an immensely popular 
figure in his day, deserves to be known to a wider audience. 

Alexander details not only every significant major league game in 
which Speaker played, but also describes the careers of his 
teammates and opponents, the baseball of their day, and the way it 
changed within the context of the larger world around them. Tris 
Speaker's reputation receives new luster in Charles C. Alexander's 
even-handed biography of one of baseball's greats.

_________________________________________________________

CHARLES C. ALEXANDER, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of 
History at Ohio University, is the author of several important works 
of American intellectual and cultural history in addition to his other 
acclaimed baseball books—Ty Cobb, John McGraw, Our Game: An 
American Baseball History, Rogers Hornsby: A Biography, and 
Breaking the Slump: Baseball in the Depression Era.


Sport in American Life, C. Paul Rogers III, series editor


Also by Charles C. Alexander



TY COBB

978-0-87074-509-6 PAPER

$17.95