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About the Author's Books

Addie Joss: King of the Pitchers, a biography of baseball pitcher Joss in 1999. Longert has a genuine interest in Cleveland and Ohio history, but nothing has been more engaging to research nor more fun to write than the baseball player biography. The book is a detailed study of the life of one of baseball's greatest pitchers. Joss was born in the tiny village of Woodland, Wisconsin in 1880. His family later moved to Juneau, Wisconsin where Addie played baseball for the local high school. There are many Indians' lives Longert would like to chronicle, but he felt compelled to tell the astonishing career and tragic death of Addie Joss first.
The Best They Could Be: How the Cleveland Indians Became the Kings of Baseball 1916-1920. Published April 2013 by Potomac Books. The story of a team that overcame great adversity to win their first pennant and World Series in 1920. The book covers the historic League Park and the great players including Ray Chapman, Tris Speaker, Stan Coveleski, Joe Wood, Bill Wamby and others.
​No Money, No Beer, No Pennants, The Cleveland Indians and Baseball in the Great Depression was released in September 2016 by Ohio University Press. It is the telling of how Baseball in Cleveland and other cities survived during one of the worst economic disasters in American history. Along the way Cleveland Municipal Stadium was built despite a lawsuit that lingered for a year and a half. The Indians opened play at the new facility in 1932, then abandoned the stadium after the 1933 season due to horrid attendance. They would return occasionally when the New York Yankees came to town and attendance was way above the norm.

The Indians did not win any pennants, but produced some excellent ballplayers in Earl Averill, Wes Ferrell, Hal Trosky, Mel Harder and a teenage pitcher from Iowa named Bob Feller. Radio play-by-play came to Cleveland in 1928 and would later feature ex-Indian Jack Graney behind the microphone.

Read Scott's books about the
Cleveland Indians
And How Their Teams Were Built
Copyright © 2015 Scott Longert, Author. All Rights Reserved