Slide, Kelly, Slide: The Wild Life and Times of Mike King Kelly(American Sports History Series)

Mike "King" Kelly was the hard-living, hard-drinking son of a Civil War veteran whose skills at baseball and infectious charm turned him into the game's first hero, and a symbol of what it meant to be a celebrity in America in the 1880s and 1890s. Slide, Kelly, Slide reacquaints baseball fans and scholars with this little-known pioneer of the game. Marty Appel, the author of several baseball books, conducted a thorough search of local archives to bring the story of King Kelly to light and place him in his proper historical context. An innovator on the field, who was not above taking advantage of the only umpire running the game, Kelly touched many aspects of American culture while a ballplayer. He was the first player to sign autographs, and wrote the game's first autobiography. A Hall of Famer and a two-time batting champion, Kelly's greatest contribution was the popularity that he brought to the game. Slide, Kelly, Slide will truly delight.

About the Author :
Marty Appel has written fifteen books, including collaborations with Larry King, Bowie Kuhn, Tom Seaver, Lee LacPhail, umpire Eric Gregg, and the standard reference work on Cooperstown, Baseball's Best: The Hall of Fame Gallery.

Review :
...there can be no doubt that Appel has done yeoman work in the resurrection business, writing a spritely tale based on his own knowledge of baseball history and on painstaking research in the newspapers of the day. He brings Kelly alive again. A wild, lusty account of this Hall of Fame batting champion. Appel's pleasing writing style and penchant for accuracy and detail make this book one of the year's best baseball biographies. Appel's lively book helps to recover an American icon of the 1880s. ...the rollicking biography of Mike "King" Kelly, superstar of the 1880s and 1890s who lived fast and died young. The recent rediscovery of 19th-century baseball by today's authors is most welcome. Well written, and I was amazed at how much research you had done to uncover all the details of a very interesting life...A very important lesson in the start of our national game...Bravo!, Marty. I don't know of any other book that has gone into such explicit (and fascinating) detail about not just Kelly but day-to-day life in 19th century big league baseball. What strikes me more than anything is the amount of diligent research that went into this project...[Kelly]...come[s] alive, out of the mist and so has the time in which he played and boozed. [This book]... has so much energy and spirit... returns to life such a terrific character that it is in a class by itself... I feel greatly honored that I was asked to write the forward. Appel...wrote the moving biography of Kelly from enormous research sources. The photographs of the 19th century star and the game as it looked a hundred years ago are worth the price of the book...The Kelly book is worth a delightful afternoon.