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978-1-878086-14-3
1-878086-14-6
$19.95 hardcover
5 1/2" x 8 1/2"
139 pages black-and-white photographs, appendix
Down Home Press
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The 1951 season was an
important one in major league baseball. It was the year Joe DiMaggio
retired and the year of Bobby Thompson's "shot heard 'round the
world" home run.
But in Granite Falls, North
Carolina, a minor league baseball team was setting records of another
sort.
In The Rocks, Wilt
Browning brings to life the year of the worst team in baseball history.
In the only season in which Granite Falls would appear on the minor
league map, the Western Carolinas League team made up mostly of very
good textile baseball players won just 14 games and lost 96.
This is the story of that
team and that town and of the men who played the game. It is the
memories of a home run so long old-timers still talk about it, and of
home runs pulled just foul.
It is the story of an old
left-hander who, at the age of 70, still doesn't want good hitters to
know he threw a very good curve ball.
Above all, this is the story
of a town and a handful of businessmen who tried to do something
special. And amid all the lost games, there were indeed some special
moments.
about the author
Wilt Browning has worked for the Greenville, South Carolina, News,
the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Charlotte Observer,
and the Greensboro, North Carolina, News & Record, where he
is now a sports columnist. His work has won numerous awards, and he has
been named North Carolina Sports Writer of the Year. He also has been
public relations director for the Atlanta Falcons and the Baltimore
Colts. He and his wife, Joyce, have five children and five
grandchildren.
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