Books by Rick Swaine

Do It for Chappie: The Ray Chapman Tragedy is an authentic account of the Cleveland Indians’ 1920 season and the incredible obstacles they overcame to beat out Babe Ruth’s destiny-favored New York Yankees and Shoeless Joe Jackson’s ill-fated Chicago White Sox for the American League pennant – most notably the devastating loss of their popular team captain and star shortstop, Ray Chapman.

Chapman, one of the most popular players in the game, was fatally beaned by the New York Yankees’ Carl Mays, a reputed head-hunter and one of the league’s most reviled characters, late in the season. Tied with the Yankees for the league lead at the time of the incident, the Indians all but fell out of the pennant race before taking up the battle cry “Do It for Chappie” and storming back to win the American League pennant - and subsequently the World Series.

Ironically, the 1920 season was supposed to be Chapman’s last as a player. The son of a poor miner, he’d married the daughter of a wealthy Cleveland family less than a year earlier following a storybook romance. Though still in his prime, he intended to retire from baseball when it came time to raise a family. He had found out his new bride was pregnant just weeks before he was killed.

No account of the 1920 season would be complete without the story of the infamous “Black Sox Scandal” in which the Chicago White Sox were accused of fixing the previous year’s World Series. The scandal’s exposure during the 1920 season had a direct bearing on the pennant race in which the Sox battled the Indians and Yankees down to the wire.

This book is written in the historical novel style, which allows the story to be told in the present tense through the eyes of the characters involved, portrayed as they are known to history. No documented facts are knowingly misrepresented or omitted. However, plausible dialogue, musings and minor scenarios are constructed to flesh out the characters and impart the rich flavor of baseball as it was played in the formative years of the modern game, just as the turbulent decade of Roaring Twenties was beginning to unfold.

A post-1920 epilogue and profiles of key characters are included.

For readers who want more information about contributing sources, review the complete bibliography and chapter notes which provide the sources for different facts, quotes, and anecdotal material, as well as the basis for character portrayals.

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Baseball's Comeback Players, profiles forty major league ballplayers who engineered remarkable comebacks to salvage fading careers. Details of each comeback is provided along with a summary of the player’s career. The comeback players range from Hall of Famers like Ted Williams and Stan Musial; to near-greats like Tommy John and Luis Tiant; to journeyman performers like George McQuinn and Tony Cuccinello.

In the absence of statistical standards to evaluate or even define comebacks, the selection of the top comeback players was based on the following criteria: historical significance, uniqueness, dramatic content, degree of difficulty, and the player’s overall reputation and standing.

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The Integration of Major League Baseball: A Team by Team History, is a record of the events of baseball’s protracted integration era. It is not another Jackie Robinson or Negro League history book. Instead The Integration of Major League Baseball focuses on the owners, executives, and managers who were the heroes, villains, or spectators of integration, shedding new light on the unheralded champions of integration and well as those whose culpability has so far been overlooked. Each team’s responsible individuals are identified, its acquisition, treatment, and deployment of black players examined, and the resulting effect on team performance analyzed.

The actions of many of the biggest names in baseball history are documented and scrutinized, often with surprising results. Most baseball fans are aware of the roles that integration trailblazers Branch Rickey and Bill Veeck played in introducing black players, although even some of their actions warrant a deeper second look. But what about giants of industry who also controlled big league clubs like mega-contractor Del Webb, Gussie Busch of the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company, chewing gum magnate Phil Wrigley, Briggs Motor Company founder Walter O. Briggs, and Dupont Company heir Bob Carpenter. Or beloved long-time owners like Connie Mack, Clark Griffith, Walter O’Malley, Tom Yawkey, and Chuck Comiskey. Or powerful front office executives like George Weiss, Frank Lane, Joe Cronin, Warren Giles, Gabe Paul, John Quinn, Larry MacPhail, and his son Lee MacPhail. Or legendary field managers like Casey Stengel, Leo Durocher, Rogers Hornsby, Paul Richards, Al Lopez, and Lou Boudreau.

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The Black Stars Who Made Baseball Whole is the story of the integration of major league baseball, told through the lives and careers of the players who made it happen. Featured players include superstars, as well as lesser lights whose accomplishments indicated that they too might have attained stardom if timing and circumstances had been kinder.

Hall-of-Famers whose feats are documented in these pages are Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Satchel Paige, Roy Campanella, Monte Irvin, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, and Hank Aaron. Other featured players are Luke Easter, Sam Jethroe, Sam Jones, Joe Black, Brooks Lawrence, George Crowe, Bob Boyd, Connie Johnson, Gene Baker, Bob Thurman, and Dave Hoskins - guys who spent too much of their prime in the Negro and/or minor leagues waiting for a chance to prove themselves in the big leagues. In addition, under-appreciated stars Minnie Minoso, Elston Howard, and Vic Power, and early casualties Don Newcombe, Hank Thompson, and Dan Bankhead are covered.

Also included are annual summaries of integration progress by year, a recap of circumstances leading up to the breaking of the racial barrier, and brief profiles of other black pioneers.

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Few baseball fans are aware of the number of players with serious disabilities who have succeeded and even starred in professional baseball,or realize the full extent of the challenges they faced. Beating the Breaks: Major League Baseball Players Who Overcame Disabilities, is a collection of profiles of players who overcame significant disabilities to play major league baseball.The players covered range from all-time greats to one-game big leaguers and their disabilities include missing or incomplete limbs, damaged organs or senses, debilitating internal diseases, psychiatric problems, and neurological disorders.

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