Vernona Gomez,Lawrence Goldstone
A baseball legend distinguished by his competitive nature, quick wit, and generous spirit, Lefty Gomez was one of a kind. Told for the first time, this is his remarkable story.,Â , Born to a small-town California ranching family, the youngest of eight, Vernon â€œLeftyâ€ Gomez rode his powerful arm and jocular personality right across America to the dugout of the New York Yankees. Lefty baffled hitters with his blazing fastball, establishing himself as the teamâ€™s ace. He vacationed with Babe Ruth, served as Joe DiMaggioâ€™s confidant, and consoled Lou Gehrig the day the â€œIron Horseâ€ removed himself from the lineup. He started and won the first-ever All-Star Game, was the first pitcher to make the cover of ,Time, magazine, and barnstormed Japan as part of Major League Baseballâ€™s grand ambassadorial tour in 1934. Away from the diamond, Lefty played the big-city bon vivant, marrying Broadway star June Oâ€™Dea and hobnobbing with a whoâ€™s who of celebrities, including George Gershwin, Jack Dempsey, Ernest Hemingway, Marilyn Monroe, George M. Cohan, and James Michener. He even scored a private audience with the pope., Â , And even when his pro ball career was done, Lefty wasnâ€™t. He became a national representative for Wilson Sporting Goods, logging over 100,000 miles a year, spreading the word about Americaâ€™s favorite game, and touching thousands of lives. In 1972 he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Three baseball fields are named for him, and to this day the top honor bestowed each year by the American Baseball Coaches Association is the Lefty Gomez Award., Â , Now, drawing on countless conversations with Lefty, interweaving more than three hundred interviews conducted with his family, friends, competitors, and teammates over the course of a decade, and revealing candid photos, documents, and film clipsâ€”many never shown publiclyâ€”his daughter Vernona Gomez and her award-winning co-author Lawrence Goldstone vividly re-create the life and adventures of the irreverent southpaw fondly dubbed â€œEl SeÃ±or Goofy.â€, Â , â€œIâ€™d rather be lucky than good,â€ Lefty Gomez once quippedâ€”one of many classic one-liners documented here. In the end he was both. A star-studded romp through baseballâ€™s most glorious seasons and Americaâ€™s most glamorous years, ,Lefty, is at once a long-overdue reminder of a pitcherâ€™s greatness and a heartwarming celebration of a life well-lived.
Sports,Baseball,Biography,Sports,Sports,Nonfiction,Biography Memoir
Lefty: An American Odyssey