He finally decides that the New York papers came up with it in 1935, the year after the Cards won the Series. Heidenry spends the better part of a chapter trying to determine where the moniker “Gashouse Gang” came from. There is also a nice, but short, sketch on Sam Breaden, the owner. These include players like Paul Dean (who apparently hated being called “Daffy”), Pepper Martin, Medwick, and Leo Durocher while other players like Rip Collins, Spud Chandler, and the non-Dean pitchers get only passing reference. The players Heidenry finds most fascinating (or maybe that he can find the most info on) range over several pages. The sections are uneven in that the comments on Joe Medwick are more in-depth than the comments on Ernie Orsatti. There are also sketches of general manager Branch Rickey, of manager Frankie Frisch, and of a handful of the players. There are a dozen or so episodes in the book centering on Dean that make him come alive as a person. Heidenry sees Dean as intelligent and manipulative, a classic con man who can pitch. It centers around Dizzy Dean (naturally) and occasionally you forget that there were other players on the team. The book concentrates more on the players than on the games. Louis Cardinals, who won the World Series that year with one of the more colorful teams ever. It’s called “The Gashouse Gang”, it’s by John Heidenry, and here’s a quick review of it. Along the way I picked up a book to read in down time. The Gashouse Gang, the brilliant culmination of a dream by its general manager, Branch Rickey, the first to envision a farm system that would acquire and “educate” young players in the art of baseball, was adored by the nation, who saw itself - scruffy, proud, and unbeatable - in the Gang.īased on original research and told in entertaining narrative style, The Gashouse Gang brings a bygone era and a cast full of vivid personalities to life and unearths a treasure trove of baseball lore that will delight any fan of the great American pastime.Well, I’m back from high school graduation.

Epic baseball feats offered welcome relief from the hardships of daily life. went off the gold standard, banks collapsed by the score, and millions of Americans were out of work. The year 1934 marked the lowest point of the Great Depression, when the U.S. Louis Cardinals, filled with larger-than-life baseball personalities like Branch Rickey, Leo Durocher, Pepper Martin, Casey Stengel, Satchel Paige, Frankie Frisch, and - especially - the eccentric good ol’ boy and great pitcher Dizzy Dean and his brother Paul. With The Gashouse Gang, John Heidenry delivers the definitive account of one the greatest and most colorful baseball teams of all times, the 1934 St.

The Gashouse Gang by John Heidenry