Willie Wells : : El Diablo of the Negro Leagues / / Bob Luke.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Luke, Bob,
• MitwirkendeR: Irvin, Monte,
• TeilnehmendeR: Irvin, Monte.
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2007
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (208 p.)

Willie Wells was arguably the best shortstop of his generation. As Monte Irvin, a teammate and fellow Hall of Fame player, writes in his foreword, "Wells really could do it all. He was one of the slickest fielding shortstops ever to come along. He had speed on the bases. He hit with power and consistency. He was among the most durable players I've ever known." Yet few people have heard of the feisty ballplayer nicknamed "El Diablo." Willie Wells was black, and he played long before Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. Bob Luke has sifted through the spotty statistics, interviewed Negro League players and historians, and combed the yellowed letters and newspaper accounts of Wells's life to draw the most complete portrait yet of an important baseball player. Wells's baseball career lasted thirty years and included seasons in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Canada. He played against white all-stars as well as Negro League greats Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Buck O'Neill, among others. He was beaned so many times that he became the first modern player to wear a batting helmet. As an older player and coach, he mentored some of the first black major leaguers, including Jackie Robinson and Don Newcombe. Willie Wells truly deserved his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but Bob Luke details how the lingering effects of segregation hindered black players, including those better known than Wells, long after the policy officially ended. Fortunately, Willie Wells had the talent and tenacity to take on anything—from segregation to inside fastballs—life threw at him. No wonder he needed a helmet.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- PART ONE. Talking with John Graves -- The Writer John Graves Symposium -- An Interview with John Graves -- PART TWO. Friends -- John -- John Graves: A Tribute -- John Graves Tribute, November 11, 2000 -- John Graves: From Prairie Gothic: The Story of a West Texas Family -- Texas Past, Texas Present -- The Golden Age of John Graves -- PART THREE. Works -- Haunted Landscapes: The Ecology of Story in John Graves’ Texas -- Goodbye to a River and American: Environmental Literature -- Two Approaches to Ecology and Gender in Goodbye to a River -- Boys’ Stories: Beverly Lowry, John Graves, and the (Male) Texas Literary Tradition in The Perfect Sonya -- Of Dachshunds and Dashes: Subjects and Style in E. B. White and John Graves -- Brazos Bildungsroman: John Graves and Texas in Transition in Goodbye to a River -- Contested Landscapes: John Graves’ Meditations on Hard Scrabble Texas History and Ecosystems -- Kindred Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- One He Could Pick It -- Two I Never Went for Anything Crooked -- Three Family -- Four Leaving Home to Play Ball -- Five The “Devil” -- Six You Had to Do All Kinds of Things -- Seven They Treat Me Like a Man -- Eight My Contract Said “Ballplayer” -- Nine We’ll Talk -- Ten He Has Slowed Up Afield -- Eleven A Mind-Set Put to Rest -- Twelve Any Players with Hall of Fame Credentials? -- Thirteen Tradition Meets Fair Play -- Fourteen Why in Hell? -- Fifteen The “Devil” Is In -- Sixteen Righting a Wrong -- Seventeen “Baseball Is a Beautiful Game -- Notes -- Sources: Books, Magazines, Interviews, Newspapers, and Archives -- Index