MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 03434fam a2200409 a 4500
001 1777950
005 20220608233354.0
008 960125s1996 nyuaf 001 0beng
010 $a 96000292
020 $a0684804026
035 $a(OCoLC)34149974
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm34149974
035 $9ALK4143CU
035 $a(NNC)1777950
035 $a1777950
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dNNC$dOrLoB-B
043 $an-us---
050 00 $aGV865.G53$bR53 1996
082 00 $a796.357/092$aB$220
100 1 $aRibowsky, Mark.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n88120616
245 14 $aThe power and the darkness :$bthe life of Josh Gibson in the shadows of the game /$cMark Ribowsky.
260 $aNew York :$bSimon & Schuster,$c1996.
263 $a9605
300 $a319 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates :$billustrations ;$c23 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
500 $aIncludes index.
520 $aThere's a distinct sound that results from a great hitter making pure contact with a baseball, a thunder-clap of power that lesser hitters can only aspire to. Before his first exposure to Josh Gibson, long-time Negro leagues all-star Buck O'Neil had heard the sound just once, coming from the bat of Babe Ruth.
520 8 $aIt is as "the black Babe Ruth" that Gibson is best remembered, but while Ruth invited the adoration of millions with his easy smile, becoming a beloved symbol of the national pastime, Gibson lived his life bathed in the darkness that came both from the shadow world of the Negro leagues and from within his own tortured soul.
520 8 $aThe legends that grew up around Gibson are legion. It is said that he is the only man to have hit a fair ball out of Yankee Stadium. Some claim he hit as many as seventy-five home runs in a season. He was a fightening hitter to face, and in addition he played the most demanding position on the field, donning the mask, chest protector, and shin guards - the so-called tools of ignorance - required to play catcher, the defensive team's true leader and quarterback.
520 8 $aWhat Satchel Paige was to pitching in the Negro leagues, Gibson was to hitting: their greatest star, biggest gate attraction, and most important symbol.
520 8 $aBut while Satchel Paige was not just a pitcher but an entertainer, mindful of the need to please the crowd and always ready to join what he called "the social ramble," Gibson was a harder man, a victim of a harder life. Forever haunted by the death in childbirth of the woman he loved, he destroyed his body through drink and drugs even as he kept launching tape-measure home runs into the far reaches of the bleachers.
520 8 $aEven at his peak, it was not unusual for him to spend part of a season in a hospital, drying out or under sedation for his violent rages. If Satchel Paige is baseball's Louis Armstrong, belatedly loved as an accommodating caricature that belies the greatness of his accomplishments, Josh Gibson is its Charlie Parker, a genius dead too soon in a body that bore the consequences of the life he led.
600 10 $aGibson, Josh,$d1911-1947.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n91027802
650 0 $aBaseball players$zUnited States$vBiography.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2007101902
650 0 $aNegro leagues$xHistory.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2010103617
852 00 $boff,glx$hGV865.G53$iR53 1996