Whirty: New Oscar Charleston book chronicles legend’s story
From SABR member Ryan Whirty at Home Plate Don’t Move on December 2, 2019, on SABR member Jeremy Beer:
Whenever I’m prompted to discuss the greatest baseball players of all time, my answer is usually quite succinct: Oscar Charleston is the GOAT, and he most likely always will be. He was a five-tool player times 10, someone who casts a shadow over person I believe is the best MLB figure of all time, Willie Mays. Add in his supreme intelligence, cagey savvy and unquenchable fire, and there’s no one — not even Ruth, Mays, Cobb, Gibson — who can touch Oscar Charleston.
I’ll admit that I’m a little biased because of the seven and a half years I lived in Indiana, Oscar’s home state (he’s an Indianapolis native), and because I wrote an article about him years ago myself. I’ve been to his grave in Floral Park Cemetery, and I’ve strode through Oscar Charleston Park in North Center Indianapolis).
But regardless, there’s never been a comprehensive biography of Charleston that’s done justice to his talent, his influence, his success and his legacy. But Jeremy Beer has changed that with Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player, an exhaustive tome chronicling the Oscar Charleston story, and it’s destined to become a classic, just like Oscar himself.
Read the full article here: https://homeplatedontmove.wordpress.com/2019/12/02/new-oscar-charleston-book-chronicles-legends-story/
Originally published: December 3, 2019. Last Updated: December 3, 2019.