About this item

From San Francisco to the Ginza in Tokyo, Lefty O'Doul relates the untold story of one of baseball's greatest hitters, most colorful characters, and the unofficial father of professional baseball in Japan. Lefty O'Doul (1897-1969) began his career on the sandlots of San Francisco and was drafted by the Yankees as a pitcher. Although an arm injury and his refusal to give up the mound clouded his first four years, he converted into an outfielder. After four Minor League seasons he returned to the Major Leagues to become one of the game's most prolific power hitters, retiring with the fourth-highest lifetime batting average in Major League history. A self-taught "scientific" hitter, O'Doul then became the game's preeminent hitting instructor, counting Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams as his top disciples.



About the Author

Dennis Snelling

You can follow Dennis Snelling's projects and see additional material by "liking" his Facebook pages for "Lefty O'Doul: Baseball's Forgotten Ambassador" and "The Greatest Minor League." A baseball fan since age eight, Snelling is proud to have caught a foul ball off the bat of Fernando Gonzalez at San Diego (now Qualcomm) Stadium in 1978. (Interestingly, his college roommate at the time also caught a foul ball off the bat of the same player at Candlestick Park the next year.)

Snelling's book "The Greatest Minor League" was a 2011 finalist for the Casey Award as Best Baseball Book, and his "Johnny Evers: A Baseball Life," the biography of one of the game's great competitors, was both a Casey Finalist for Best Baseball Book of 2014 and a 2015 Seymour Medal finalist. Snelling was a senior writer for "Helmar Baseball History & Art Magazine" and writes a column for "Minor Trips Digest." His newest book, a biography of Lefty O'Doul, was published by University of Nebraska Press in 2017.



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