‘Fifty-Nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had’

"All fans of baseball, all fans of a good story, will love this book.
-- Professor Gordon Wood, Pulitzer and Bancroft Prize winner

"This is a beautifully written, meticulously researched story about a bygone baseball era that even die-hard fans will find foreign, and about a pitcher who might have been the greatest of all time." -- Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer prize-winning historian

Following in the tradition of the sleeper bestseller Crazy '08, Fifty-Nine in '84 is the story of Charles Radbourn, a brilliant major league baseball pitcher who, in the 1884 season, won an astonishing 59 games, a record that has never been broken. Set against the backdrop of 19th century baseball, Fifty-Nine in '84 gives readers a glimpse of the dangerous and violent game that preceded the sport we enjoy today.