Easton Press: SIGNED: PETE ROSE: BASEBALL: BART GIAMATTI: NATIONAL LEAGUE PRES.

Description: Easton Press leather edition of James Reston Jr.'s "Collison at Home Plate,"," a COLLECTOR'S edition, illustrated with period photographs, one of the SIGNED FIRST EDITION series, published in 1991. Bound in royal blue leather, the book has camel tan moire silk end leaves, satin book marker, acid-free paper, Symth-sewn binding, hubbed spine, gold gilding on three edges---in near FINE condition. Pete Rose, who lived from 1941---2024, was born in Anderson Ferry, a river crossing near Cincinnati, Ohio. A poor student, Rose was a skinny kid who failed to graduate from high school but was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds. With his drive and desire, Rose did his best to compensate for his apparent lack of natural talent. At first veteran players made fun of Rose for his grandstanding, his alpaca sweaters, his language, and the gap in his teeth. In his rookie year, Rose lived the enviable existence of a high-spirited, highly sexed, unmarried, twenty-two-year-old baseball star. For a while after he was out of high school. Rose's steady girlfriend was a fourteen-year-old with a sensational body. But the next year Rose married Karolyn Engelhardit, a bookkeeper and ebullient Catholic girl, and an avid sports fan. She was the perfect ball player's wife: loyal, subservient, voluptuous. In 1965, Rose's firstborn, a daughter named Fawn, arrived and five years later a son, Pete II. Karolyn was soon left to raise her children alone while Pete had a girlfriend in several cities. Pete began gambling and ran up several huge debts. By 1981, Rose could lay claim to being the best player in National League History. In contrast, Bart Giamatti had a quiet and graceful upbringing. His father was a Dante scholar, and the family spent a year in Rome when Bart was nine-years old. Bart later attended Andover and Yale. All in all, Bart's Yale undergraduate years were rich and varied where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, the fraternity of jocks and Scroll and Key and Skull and Bones. Bart was obsessed with baseball. After serving as a professor, administrator and then as President of Yale University, Giamatti was chosen to be the Commissioner of the National League. Giamatti said, "Men of letters have always gravitated to sports. I've always found baseball the most satisfying and nourishing pursuit outside literature." In 1985, when Rose's gambling had become wild and uncontrollable, and when he needed secret cash to pay his debts, he sold his M-1 model BMW for $70,000 cash, even though the engine was blown. Rose and Giamatti began to clash. President Giamatti suspended Rose for thirty days for bumping into an umpire and fined him $10,000 for disgraceful behavior. In 1988, Giamatti and baseball began the investigation into Rose's gambling and his debts to the IRS for taxes. Rose, over a thirty-six-day period, had bet more than $16,000 a day, or a total of nearly $600,000. On baseball, Rose always bet on the Reds. On August 23, Giamatti stepped before the press and banished Pete Rose foever from the game of baseball. By banishing a sports hero, Giamatti bgecame a moral hero the nation. Rose had hidden $354,968 of income in car sales and memorabilia in the years 1985 and 1987. He cheated the gocernment out of $162,703 in taxes, and he was the subject to substantial tax evasion charges for the years 1984 and 1986. Before Judge Spiegel, his voice cracked. Rose spoke of the loss of dignity and self-respect, but Rose remained bitter and unrepentant. Rose was sent to the penitentiary. After Bart Giamatti's death, the outpouring of affection was extraordinary. Memorial services at Yale and Carnegie Hall blended scholars and athletes, statesmen and literary figures. At Yale, a black granite bench was dedicated to him. 326 pages, including an index. I offer combined shipping.

Price: 79.95 USD

Location: Walnut Ridge, Arkansas

End Time: 2024-11-22T22:19:46.000Z

Shipping Cost: 8 USD