Charlie Gehringer was the best second baseman of his era. He is regarded by many as the best two-strike hitter of all time and his seemingly effortless fielding ability earned him the nickname of “The Mechanical Man.” Sports writers groused that he was too quiet to be a star. Charlie replied that he didn’t hit with his mouth. This work follows Gehringer’s career from the day a scout spotted him on the sandlots of Michigan in 1923 to his induction into the Hall of Fame in 1949 and into his life after baseball.

John C. Skipper, a political reporter for the Mason City (Iowa) Globe Gazette, has written numerous books on politics and baseball, including a history of the The Iowa Caucuses and acclaimed biographies of Grover Cleveland Alexander, Dazzy Vance and Charlie Gehringer.

John C. Skipper
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 209
Bibliographic Info: 18 photos, box scores, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3574-6
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5521-8
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction      1

1. “You never really leave the game.”      5

2. “If that guy is a ballplayer, then so am I.”      10

3. “His potential excited me.”      19

4. “You can’t talk your way into a batting championship.”      30

5. “He leads the league in line drives right at somebody.”      43

6. “What in the hell is he talking about?”      58

7. “Every time I turn around, the guy’s on second base.”      72

8. “May you live ten thousand years.”      82

9. “The entire town was ga-ga.”      91

10. “Too much time to think.”      102

11. “The Michigan Mummy.”      110

12. “The cry babies.”      125

13. “I kept yelling ‘home, home, home.’”      136

14. “If my chatter bothers you too much…”      144

15. “He simplified where others dramatized.”      149

16. “I didn’t know who was and who wasn’t.”      157

17. “They won’t get me in that suit again.”      167

18. “The Good Lord needed a second baseman.”      174

Chapter Notes      179

Bibliography      191

Index      195

“essential”—Library Journal; “Gehringer’s career is well researched and documented in this quick, but thorough, study…. a nice, and well-told, change of pace.”—Journal of Sport History; “a workman’s biography fit for every bookshelf”—The Past in Review; “the proliferation of baseball biographies in recent years had passed Gehringer by, but John Skipper redresses this oversight capably”—Nine; “Gehringer’s career is well documented and researched in this quick, but thorough, study. It is a nice, and well-told, change of pace”—Journal of Sport History.