Deacon Bill McKechnie

Widely regarded as the best manager of his time, Bill McKechnie built winners at every stop, took four teams to the World Series and became the only man to do it in three different cities. He tamed roughneck players with a fatherly approach to leadership and a scholarly approach to strategy. This biography covers the life of McKechnie from his birth in a Pittsburgh suburb in 1886, through his playing and managing days, to his retirement years in west central Florida. Firsthand accounts come from the author’s interviews with McKechnie’s only surviving child, who also provided family photographs for the book.

Mitchell Conrad Stinson is an award winning sports reporter in Evansville, Indiana.

Mitchell Conrad Stinson
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 246
Bibliographic Info: 38 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6066-3
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9236-7
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1

Prologue      3

1. In the Beginning      7

2. More Seasoning      21

3. In the Company of Champions      34

4. Reaching New Heights with the Feds      44

5. Garden State Peppers      56

6. Back to the Majors      66

7. Getting Better      77

8. Homecomings      84

9. Start of Something Special      96

10. The 1925 World Series      107

11. Trouble in Horsehide Paradise      123

12. The Braves and the Babe      142

13. Resurrecting the Reds      163

14. Triumph and Tragedy      178

15. Old Wounds and New Horizons      191

16. Golden Years      202

17. Tributes      212

Chapter Notes      223

Bibliography      230

Index      233

“pull[s], from baseball obscurity a giant of the past and make him relevant today”—Nine.