Baseball player and manager Hugh Ambrose Jennings was the kind of colorful personality who inspired nicknames. Sportswriters called him “Ee-yah” for his famous coaching box cry and “Hustling Hughey” for his style of play. But to the nearly 100 other men from northeast Pennsylvania who followed Jennings from the coal mines to the major leagues, he was known as “Big Daddy,” not for his physical stature but for his iconic status to men desperate to escape the mines.
The son of an immigrant coal miner from Pittston, Pennsylvania, Jennings himself became a miner at the ripe old age of 11 or 12. He eventually became a mule driver, earning $1.10 per day and dreaming of getting $5 per day for playing baseball on Saturday afternoons. From the rough-and-tumble world of semi-pro baseball to the major leagues, Jennings was driven to succeed and fearless in his pursuit of his dream. He joined the Baltimore Orioles in 1894 and went on to become manager of the Detroit Tigers during Ty Cobb’s heyday. Jennings’ story is emblematic of how the national pastime and the American dream came together for a generation of ballplayers in the early 20th century.

SABR member Jack Smiles is associate editor of the Sunday Dispatch in Pittston, Pennsylvania. He lives in Wyoming, Pennsylvania.

Jack Smiles
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 231
Bibliographic Info: 23 photos, tables, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2005
pISBN: 978-0-7864-2202-9
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8428-7
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vi
Preface      1

1. The Mule Driver      7
2. Escape from the Mines      14
3. Hughie at the Falls      22
4. Harry von der Horst Finds a Manager      28
5. Foxy Ned      32
6. The Big Four      39
7. The Beginning of a Dynasty      45
8. The Temple Cup      55
9. The Greatest Shortstop in the Land      65
10. Hughie the Honeymooner      77
11. The Big Four, No More      85
12. From Cornell to Brooklyn      93
13. Philadelphia Freedom      97
14. Back to Baltimore      104
15. The “Ee-yah” Man      111
16. Cobb      116
17. 1907: The Year of the Tiger      124
18. The 1907 World Series      134
19. The Greatest Race Ever      145
20. Three Straight Pennants      152
21. A Wreck and a Wedding      160
22. Hugh Jennings, Esq.      170
23. The Tigers Are Tamed      177
24. Hughie the Giant      181
25. The Long Decline      188
26. The Saint in Uniform      193
27. Hughie in the Hall      200

Appendix A: 1896 National League Hitting Leaders      205
Appendix B: Playing Career Statistics      208
Appendix C: Managerial Career Statistics      209
Chapter Notes      211
Bibliography      217
Index      219

“an excellent choice…well written and thoroughly researched”—The SABR Deadball Committee Newsletter.