Eddie Collins

In what is sure to be the definitive book on Eddie Collins’s life and long career, author Rick Huhn covers the Hall of Fame player’s experiences from childhood through his days at Columbia University, his tenure with the great Athletics clubs of 1906–1914, the highs and lows of a championship and scandal with the White Sox, and his return to the A’s during their final run at greatness. By the time his 25-year playing career had ended, he was a pivotal performer on five all-time great clubs, dominating his position like no one before (or since), and earning a reputation for intelligent, selfless play that followed him to Cooperstown.
Also covered in detail is his tenure with the Boston Red Sox, a team he served variously as part owner, vice-president and general manager until 1951, when after 45 years in major league baseball a stroke ended his career and, weeks later, his life.

Rick Huhn, a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, is also the author of The Sizzler: George Sisler, Baseball’s Forgotten Great. He lives in Westerville, Ohio.

Rick Huhn
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 376
Bibliographic Info: 33 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3287-5
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8571-0
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii

Introduction      1

Prologue      5

1. Family Ties      9

2. Columbia’s Finest      15

3. Summer Job      27

4. Meeting Mr. Mack      37

5. A Baseball Education      42

6. Yannigan No More      52

7. Signature Season      65

8. $100,000 Infield      77

9. Keystone King      92

10. Switching Sides      112

11. War Clubs      131

12. Sour Series      149

13. Clean Sox      166

14. Trials and Tribulations      184

15. Trade Talk      196

16. Leader at Last      215

17. Hot Seat      229

18. A’s Redux      243

19. On the Line      255

20. Junior Executive      270

21. Building Blocks      283

22. Missed Opportunities      294

23. Parting Shots      308

Appendix One: Transcript of Eddie Collins’ Statement to Leslie N. O’Connor, Chicago, February 19, 1921      319

Appendix Two: Eddie Collins’ Career Statistics (as Player and Manager)      325

Chapter Notes      333

Bibliography      347

Index      355

Finalist, Larry Ritter Book Award—SABR
“most compelling…definitive”—Sports Collectors Digest; “excellent and comprehensive biography”—SABR Deadball Committee Newsletter; “does a sound job with Collins’s career”—Nine; “thorough…the definitive biography of this all-time great”—Along the Elephant Trail; “excellent and comprehensive”—Author Gene Carney.