{"product_id":"floridas-first-big-league-baseball-players-a-narrative-history-9781540204059","title":"Florida's First Big League Baseball Players: A Narrative History","description":"In recent years, Florida s playgrounds have produced an abundance of exceptional professional baseball players: Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, Luis Gonzales and Tino Martinez, to name only a few. Before 1950, however, only twenty-six Florida boys made it to the pros got their shot in the big leagues. \u003cbr\u003ePlayers like Tampa s Al Lopez, a Hall of Fame member and baseball s first Hispanic manager, and Pensacola native Russ Scarritt, who set the Boston Red Sox record for most triples in a season his rookie year, blazed a trail that has opened the door for many of today s baseball superstars. Florida s First Big League Baseball Players, by baseball historian and enthusiast Wes Singletary, is a narrative journey into the early days of baseball in Florida before 1950. \u003cbr\u003eWhen this project was undertaken only eight of the original twenty-six players were still living. Written from hours of interviews and presented in a narrative form that is engaging and informative, this collection allows the reader to journey back to a time when the game was more innocent and the heart of the men playing, a little bigger.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSingletary, Wes:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Tampa native Wes Singletary is currently Executive Director for the Discovery of Florida Quincentennial Commission, Florida Department of State, mapping a statewide celebration of Florida s Quincentennial in 2013. Wes has served as an adjunct history professor at Tallahassee Community College since 1993. He is author of Al Lopez: The Life of Baseball s El Senor and is presently working on a biography of John Henry Pop Lloyd, a baseball hall-of-famer from the Negro Leagues; both are Florida natives. He currently resides in Tallahassee Florida.","brand":"History Press Library Editions","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50352753049874,"sku":"9781540204059","price":23.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_fca405fc-ede8-4daf-8584-75efccc9702d.jpg?v=1728278014","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/floridas-first-big-league-baseball-players-a-narrative-history-9781540204059","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}