189 - Baseball, Chemical Warfare and The Great War w/ Jim Leeke

Former Houston Astro Jason Lane is one of 21 pitchers in MLB history that have pitched or pitched at least 10 innings in the big leagues with a career ERA below 1.00. The list includes both Negro League players and players that played in the National Association (1871-75).

We are looking at the background and history for all 21 players in this episode -- stories that include unfortunate injuries, bad luck, military service, returns home and other fates.

Oh, believe it or not, one of the 21 players is a Baseball Hall of Fame inductee!

In Part 2, Rex leads a review and discussion about the new motion picture, "Dune, Part Two."

Errata: The correct name of the Negro League baseball database is Seamheads.com.

Episodes Mentioned:
189 - Baseball, Chemical Warfare and The Great War w/ Jim Leeke
142 - The 1919 Black Sox w/ Jacob Pomrenke
107 - Bert Shepard, Lou Brissie & Baseball During World War II
106 - Baseball Rebels w/ Professor Peter Dreier

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Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)      

This week's guest is Jim Leeke, author of the new book, "The Gas and Flame Men: Baseball and the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I" (Potomac Books, 2024). This is the Leeke's fifth book about baseball and the Great War authored by Leeke, a retired journalist, copywriter and U.S. Navy Veteran. We thoroughly enjoyed this chat.

This interview discusses players such as Hall of Famers Eppa Rixey, Christy Matthewson and Ty Cobb that served in the Army's Chemical Warfare Service during the "The Great War."

Leeke's other books on Baseball and The Great War are:
"Ballplayers in the Great War: Newspaper Accounts of Major Leaguers in World War I Military Service" (2013) (co-edited);
"Nine Innings for the King: The Day Wartime London Stopped for Baseball, July 4, 1918 (2015);
"From, the Dugout to the Trenches: Baseball During the Great War (2017); and
"The Best Team Over There: The Untold Story of Grover Cleveland Alexander and the Great War" (2021)

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Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)      

Life got in the way this week so we reached back into the archives for this interesting interview with Prof. Levy in January 2022. Here are the show notes from that episode:

This week we discuss Hall of Fame southpaw, Rube Waddell with his biographer, Professor Alan Levy. Levy, a professor of history at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, published, "Rube Waddell: The Zany, Brilliant Life of a Strikeout Artist" in 2000. Waddell was not only one of baseball's most talented pitchers in the first decade of the last century -- he stands out as one of the most colorful and unpredictable personalities as well. Join us for this exciting interview about one of baseball's most interesting personalities.

Errata: In 1901, they were the Chicago Orphans, not the Chicago Cubs, as we discussed in Episode 77.

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Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
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Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/  
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)      

Rex and Craig are on the case, from Luke Combs' "Fast Car" cover and performance at the Grammy Awards Show with songwriter Tracy Chapman; to our review of this year's Super Bowl halftime show starring Usher and friends; to our inquiring why some people get so triggered by Taylor Swift to Houston Astros pitchers and catchers reporting. Also, Craig has a couple of Tik Tok stories.

Errata: Not really an error, but the quote from the Whatever Podcast is, "It's very convenient that women waited until after one of the most deadly and brutal wars to secure their right to vote." The vampire's name in "Nosferatu" (1922) was Graf Orlok, played by Max Schreck. The film starring Willem Defoe was "Shadow of the Vampire," not "Kiss of the Vampire." Craig replaced "Possum Kingdom" with Delta Spirit's "How 'Bout It." It's not made clear, but Nicky Minaj settled with Tracy Chapman. The "Mark" in Devo is Mark Mothersbaugh.

Some Links
Chris Willman, "Nicki Minaj Agrees to Pay Tracy Chapman $450,000 in Settlement Over Unauthorized Sample," Variety.com, January 8, 2021.
Nick DeRiso, "Why Don't Rock Bands Play the Super Bowl Halftime Show Anymore?" at UltimateClassicRock.com, February 7, 2024.
Max Pilley, "Dua Lipa thinks people don’t want pop stars to be 'political' or 'smart'" NME.com January 21, 2024.

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-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)     

Harris Cooper, Ph.D. is the  Hugo L. Blomquist Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University and for our more immediate purposes author of "Finding America in a Minor League Ballpark: A Season Hosting for the Durham Bulls" (Skyhorse, 2024). He is our guest this week to talk about his book and the joys of baseball.

Errata: Ron Shelton wrote and directed "Bull Durham."

Episodes Mentioned
148 - Baseball Is the Story of America w/ Derick McDuff

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Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
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Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)     

This week Craig and Rex conclude the three-part series ranking the first generation concrete and steel ballparks build prior to the Great Depression. This episode includes the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium in New York City, Comiskey Park and Wrigley Field in Chicago and Fenway Park in Boston.

Episodes Mentioned
127 - The Old Ballparks Project, Part I
184 - Class Warfare in Detroit!: The Old Ballparks Project, Part 2

Sources:
Philip J. Lowry, "Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of Major League and Negro League Ballparks (Walker & Co. 2006).
Al Kamen, "High Court Throws Out Baseball Suit," Washington Post (Oct. 12, 1988) (accessed January 13, 2024).
Wikipedia for the ballparks and ball clubs mentioned and the sources cited therein.
www.baseball-reference.com

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-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)    

Professor Katherine Rye Jewell (Fitchburg State) joins us this week to discuss her new book "Live from the Underground: A History of College Radio" (Univ. North Carolina 2023). Jewell relates in her wonderful book and this interview how college radio progressed from a sleepy "left of the dial" collegiate training ground to a major force in the popular music business, and the struggles and controversies students and administrators confronted along the way.

Professor Jewell on Twitter/X, Linktree

The Links:
Professor Katherine Rye Jewell:
https://katejewell.wordpress.com/
Professor Jewell is on Twitter: https://twitter.com/katisjewell
Professor Jewell is on Linktree; https://linktr.ee/katherinejewell
Live from the Underground at University of North Carolina Press:
https://uncpress.org/book/9781469677255/live-from-the-underground/

If you enjoyed this episode you will probably enjoy:
134 - An Inside Look at College Radio w/ Ana Cubas
102 - SST Records & The Sound of the Underground w/ Jim Ruland

Just for fun -- The Replacements, "Left of the Dial," from their 1987 LP "Tim."

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Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
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Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
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Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)  

It's been a minute but Rex and Craig this week pick up the old ballparks project started in Episode 127. Andrew, Craig and Rex ranked the 14 brick, concrete and steel ballparks build between 1909 and 1923 (with the Baker Bowl, built in 1895 thrown in for good measure) based upon several factors we don't remember and didn't exactly follow. This episode includes the middle tier - the ballparks that emerged from the process ranked 6-10.

Also this week Hooks & Runs remembers Merv Connors, a ballplayer who played parts of two seasons for the White Sox in the late 1930s.

Episodes mentioned:
172 - They Were Two People Desperate to Stay in the Game w/ Bob LeMoine

Errata: Craig, it's Comiskey Park, not Comiskey Field.  Craig, it was Ralph Terry, not Bill Terry. Craig, Ralph Kiner led the National League in home runs every year from 1946 to 1952, not from 1947 to 1954. Mazeroksi's blast was the first walk-off home run in World Series history, not in history. The Yankees outscored the Pirates in the 1960 World Series 55-27, not 54-27.

Sources:
Philip J. Lowry, "Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of Major League and Negro League Ballparks (Walker & Co. 2006).
Al Kamen, "High Court Throws Out Baseball Suit," Washington Post (Oct. 12, 1988) (accessed January 13, 2024).
Wikipedia for the ballparks and ball clubs mentioned and the sources cited therein.
www.baseball-reference.com

-->Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/tT8d3pVUsN
-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)      

Bill Lamb is our guest this week to discuss the sad and tragic Len Koenecke. Koenecke played three seasons for the Brooklyn Dodgers during the Great Depression. The Dodgers released Koenicke in September, 1935 while the team was in St. Louis and sent him home to New York by plane with two other players. Koenecke never made it home in a story filled with both mystery and tragedy.

Bill Lamb, an award-winning researcher and writer with the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) and Koenecke's biographer on the SABR to relive Koenecke's life, baseball career and fateful journey on that September day and night in 1935.

Bill Lamb's biographical essay about Len Koenecke.

Errata: Len Koenecke set a fielding percentage record for National League outfielders in 1935. That record was broken by Harry Craft in 1940. The first qualifying National League center fielder to field 1.000 in a season was Curt Flood in 1966 -- the most recent was Brandon Nimmo in 2022.

Episodes referenced:
142 - The 1919 Black Sox w/ Jacob Pomrenke
159 - Hidden Histories: Baseball's Deadball Era Photographs w/ Jim Chapman
178 - Called Up to the Major Leagues w/ Zak Ford

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-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)     

Julia Simon's book, "The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson," is new in paperback via Penn State University Press. This book, originally released in late 2022, examines the life and times of New Orleans blues and jazz great Lonnie Johnson through his music, from his first cut, "Mr. Johnson's Blues," on Okeh Record in the mid 20s to his unforgettable ballads and jazz songs in the 1960s.

Simon describes the traits that make Johnson inconvenient for scholars and music fans alike in her book and in this interview brings this talented and often misunderstood master of the guitar, violin and voice to life.

Visit Julia Simon at California-Davis, and on Facebook.

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-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns

Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com
Hooks & Runs on TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@hooksandruns
Hooks & Runs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thehooksandruns
Andrew Eckhoff on Tik Tok
Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@hofffest
Rex von Pohl (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ 
Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)