History has remembered Carl Furillo as an opponent of Jackie Robinson becoming a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers, despite that being untrue. This biography sets the record straight, while also detailing Furillo’s contributions as a clutch hitter and an outstanding right fielder, his angry departure from the team, his hearing before the commissioner of baseball, and his life after the sport.

Former Miami Herald reporter, Ted Reed is a business and labor writer. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Ted Reed
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 210
Bibliographic Info: 29 photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2011
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4709-1
eISBN: 978-0-7864-6180-6
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1
Introduction      3
1. The Early Years      9
2. Home from the War      20
3. The Arrival of Jackie Robinson.      28
4. The Reading Rifle      39
5. The Team Takes Shape      49
6. Forced to Grow Up      60
7. The First Bad Year      70
8. The Worst Bad Year      78
9. “I Couldn’t Even See the Ball”      87
10. Batting Champ      93
11. Next Year Finally Arrives      101
12. “We’re All Dagos in Here”      110
13. “I Should Never Have Moved Out There”      120
14. Number Six Passes On      127
15. The Game Turns Sour      136
16. Outside Looking In      149
17. Back Home for Good      .162
18. The Right Way to Leave      171
Appendix: Furillo’s Career Statistics      183
Chapter Notes      185
Selected Bibliography      195
Index      197

• “Illuminating look into Furillo’s career”—Examiner.com
• “This book needed to be written and Ted Reed has done his homework”—Carl Erskine, Brooklyn Dodgers
• “This book offers something unique, something that even the most prominent sportswriters of the past were unable to obtain: extensive, in-depth interviews with Carl Furillo…. The author has given him the voice and the venue he never had when he was alive.”—Judith Testa, author of Sal Maglie, Baseball’s Demon Barber
• “Reed is at his best in analyzing and clarifying the two specific incidents that diminished Furillo’s image when his playing days ended. He uses Furillo’s own words along with the testimony of teammates, to refute the charge that he was opposed to Jackie Robinson joining the Dodgers in 1947. The more significant ‘rap’ against Furillo concerns his 1960 departure from the Dodgers. The roles of Marvin Miller, Andy Messersmith, Dave McNally, and Curt Flood have been well covered in the literature of baseballs labor-management relations. But Furillo’s case, which appears to be a gross injustice, has not.”—Lyle Spatz, baseball historian