"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
August 10, 1914: Defeated Cincinnati, 3-1, at the South End Grounds, Boston. Starters: Rube Benton vs. Bill James. The Braves (51-46) moved into second place in the National League, six and a half games out of first. (Baseball Library)
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At the end of the 1914 season, 22-year-old Bill James stood on the cusp of baseball stardom. He had just pitched his Boston Braves to the most improbable pennant in baseball history, and followed up on that performance by beating the mighty Philadelphia Athletics twice in three days during that year's World's Series. He was such a uniquely gifted pitcher that John J. Ward of Baseball Magazine predicted, "The further acquisition of experience should [make him] one of the greatest all-round pitchers in history." When he wrote those words, Ward probably never could have imagined that this talented pitcher, who already had 32 major league wins behind him, had but five more in front of him... (SABR)
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