The Original Louisville Slugger: The Life and Times of Forgotten Baseball Legend Pete Browning - Paperback

by Tim Newby (Author)

Louis "Pete" Rogers Browning was one of the greatest baseball players of the nineteenth century. His skills with the bat made the difficult art of hitting a baseball appear easy. Over his thirteen-year career, he won three batting titles, finished in the top three nine times, and was one of the premodern era's greatest hitters. Browning is recognized as not only the namesake but also the genesis for the famed Louisville Slugger, as the Hillerich & Bradsby Company shaped the first ever custom-made bat based on his instructions. Browning's athletic prowess was overshadowed by his drunken adventures and struggles off the field. A champion consumer of bourbon and a man with obvious demons, he led a life littered with eccentricities. During games he refused to slide and often stood perched on one leg. Known as the Gladiator, he drank tabasco sauce, washed his eyes with buttermilk, and named bats after biblical characters, all in an effort to improve his hitting. Few were aware that, behind the comedic persona, Browning suffered from mastoiditis, a devastating physical ailment that robbed him of his hearing, deprived him of an education, eroded his professional skills, and led to his heavy dependence on alcohol. Accounts of Browning's unconventional behavior were bolstered by his own outlandish storytelling. These stories were embellished by newspapers of the time, making him a legend.

Tim Newby addresses the myths surrounding the larger-than-life figure, uncovers the thin line between fact and fiction, and presents an extensive account of Browning--the man, and legendary ball player.

Author Biography

Tim Newby is the author of Bluegrass in Baltimore: The Hard Drivin' Sound and Its Legacy and Leftover Salmon: Thirty Years of Festival. Bluegrass in Baltimore was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections for Best Research in Recorded Country Music and was named one of the thirty best books about bluegrass by About Great Books.He lives in Baltimore with his wife and daughter.