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Breaking the Slump

By Dr. John D. Eigenauer
July 21, 2006

Sometimes, you have to respect a man’s efforts—stand back, tip your cap, and say, “That is a whole lot better than I could do.” That was my feeling upon finishing Charles Alexander’s book, Breaking the Slump: Baseball in the Depression Era which won the Seymour Medal Award for best baseball history in 2003. It doesn’t need my vote, therefore, to establish itself as worthy reading. But because it was published a few years back, I would like to bring it back into readers’ kens.

What do you know about baseball in the 1930s? Serious baseball folks remember the odd 1930 season in which the National League hit over .300 and the Phillies had a team ERA of 6.71. Perhaps you remember that Ted Williams came on the scene in 1939, or something about the famous Gas House Gang with Dizzy Dean and Pepper Martin. You might even remember Ruth’s “called shot” against the Cubs in the World Series. But when you finish this book, you will realize that your knowledge is superficial—you’re reading a book by an expert.

Charles Alexander, Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at Ohio University, wrote this book after three successful baseball biographies: Ty Cobb, John McGraw, and Rogers Hornsby, a Biography. As a professional historian who also published books on social and political history, he brings to his craft an unusual amount of erudition and scholarly acumen. Because he knows how to research and to write, the book is free of distracting historical and statistical errors, making it thorough and reliable.

It is, however, far more than steady—it is thoroughly enjoyable. The (mostly) chronological narrative is interlaced with numerous terrific anecdotes: Roy Johnson complaining that Joe McCarthy wants to win every game (a comment that quickly got him released); Dizzy Dean stopping into the Giants’ locker room to tell them exactly how he would pitch them; Kenny Keltner applying for unemployment compensation after the 1939 season and getting thoroughly lambasted in the press; Alabama Pitts being discovered playing ball in a prison; and Josh Gibson losing his house in court because he went to play ball in Mexico. Almost every page brings a surprise that makes the book worth rereading as soon as you finish it.

Keltner Future SABR member Ken Keltner was employed by the Cleveland Indians when this photo was shot.

The book tells the story of baseball during the depression—and it tells it well. Alexander makes the issues that confronted America seem a part of baseball and of players’ lives. We see players at work in the off season, salaries being cut after what most would consider to be terrific seasons, fans staying away in the leanest years and returning when the economy finally came around, teams selling off their stars in order to survive, racism, players in the Negro Leagues playing at times for meal money, World Series victories that doubled incomes and allowed players to purchase extravagances like cars, and the owners’ incredible stubbornness in resisting night baseball, radio, and seemingly every other innovation that would have increased fan interest. Alexander describes all these forces that shaped what baseball became with the consummate ease of a true expert.

Expertise makes this book. One can find faults with Alexander’s work—I have read reviews that pointed them out. But in the end, I realized that I was reading a book by someone who mastered his material as well as anyone could and gave us a complete picture of a vast subject. When I think how long it would take me to learn everything that Alexander included in Breaking the Slump, I choose to simply tip my cap. It is, after all, a whole lot better than I could do.

John Eigenauer can be contacted at jeigenauer@yahoo.com. A complete list of his reviews and more about him can be found here.