Ed Delahanty in the Emerald Age of Baseball

Jerrold Casway's fascinating biography of legendary baseball player Ed Delahanty (1867-1903) offers a compelling examination of the life and career of the first "King of Swatsville," including the enigma surrounding his tragic and untimely death. Through Delahanty's story, Casway traces the evolving character of major league baseball and its effect on the lives and ambitions of its athletes. Delahanty's career spanned the last decades of the nineteenth century during a time when the sons of post-famine Irish refugees dominated the sport and changed the playing style of America's national pastime. Baseball for Delahanty and other young Irishmen was a ticket out of poverty and into a life of fame and fortune. The allure and promise of celebrity and wealth, however, were disastrous for Delahanty; he found himself enmeshed in desperate contract dealings and a gambling addiction that drove him to alcohol abuse. The owner of the fourth highest lifetime batting average, Delahanty mysteriously disappeared and was found at the bottom of Niagara's Horseshoe Falls. "Casway's important and highly original book represents many years of thorough and dedicated research, thoughtful analysis and interpretation, and the author's intense interest in his subject." --Lawrence J. McCaffrey, Loyola University "Part history, part mystery, Casway's book offers fascinating insights into baseball at the turn of the century and the tragic death of one of its superstars." --Stan Hochman, Columnist, Philadelphia Daily News