Fantasy Baseball 2003 2003 American League Sleepers By Rick Brooks Written December 16, 2002 I just finished reading Veeck as in Wreck , the autobiography of Bill Veeck, with an assist from Ed Linn. If you didn't get this book in your Christmas stocking, run - don't walk - run to the nearest bookstore and grab a copy. Now you're set for your winter baseball reading. Bill Veeck was a man of great spirit, filled with the joy of life. He loved baseball and he loved people. The book is replete with anecdotes about Bill's dealings with other baseball executives, as well as stories about his personal life. He was a partyer of the first magnitude, and he constantly surrounded himself with and talked to people of all colors and stripes. He never sat with the bigwigs in a box seat at a baseball game, preferring to move about among the real fans in the bleachers. Bill Veeck's father William was the first baseball executive to broadcast his team's games on radio. Of course, he was considered a nut. He campaigned for interleague play 80 years ago. Nutty, huh? It was William Veeck who insisted on a strong, autonomous commissioner in the aftermath of the Black Sox scandal, and who nominated his personal friend Judge Landis for the job. How nutty can you get? When his father passed on, Bill took over the family nut concession. He had such nutty ideas as breaking the color barrier. In fact, had he been allowed to carry out his plan, he would have had the first back players in the major leagues, an honor which fell to Branch Rickey. Bill also carried on the torch for interleague play, the expansion of major league baseball, the monitoring of umpires' performance, and the killing of the reserve clause, which led to free agency for veteran players. Not to mention fireworks displays and exploding scoreboards. | |
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