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Sports & Recreation Essays & Writings

Pure Baseball

The Carl Jaxsom Legend

by (author) Ryan Thaddeus

Publisher
Ryan Thaddeus
Initial publish date
Apr 2015
Category
Essays & Writings
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780994072009
    Publish Date
    Apr 2015
    List Price
    $$9.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780994072016
    Publish Date
    Apr 2015
    List Price
    $$5.99

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Description

At the dawn of the 20th century, baseball has caught on like wildfire in the big cities. As 1904 is set to mark the second year of the modern-day World Series, one of the most heated rivalries in sports history begins to emerge. In order to defend their title, Boston needs to get past their future nemesis from New York. But as the season winds down to its final series, a myth is growing out of the very fibers of the American fabric itself. Fantastical rumors have been romanticizing an unknown hitter who is said to be batting one thousand! This is the story of that mythical slugger, Carl Jaxsom, a man playing in an age of the game that won’t allow his presence, told through the youthful eyes of a Boston grandfather recounting the tale to his grandson.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Ryan Thaddeus is a globe-trotting, Saskatchewan-born writer and semi-professional fastball player with deep farming roots. An early love of short stories, combined with interests ranging from world cultures and history to politics, the UFO topic and Universal Law Principles, through to sports and the modern human condition, means that nothing is too far off the radar for conversation. He is pleased to reissue his first critically supported short story, Pure Baseball: The Carl Jaxsom Legend with Saskatchewan publisher DriverWorks Ink.

Excerpt: Pure Baseball: The Carl Jaxsom Legend (by (author) Ryan Thaddeus)

Some folks said that God made the world’s greatest pitcher, in the form of Satchel Paige, to offset the fact that he had first created baseball’s greatest hitter, present in the ghost of one Carl Jaxsom. Growing up, I heard the astounding tales of Jaxsom so many times that they feel like a part of my DNA. The idea that the man retired batting one thousand. “That’s incredible, ridiculous, unfounded,” you will say. Just to hit a pitch is the most difficult action to perform in sports by repute. Men have played whole careers and professed never to have completely mastered the task. Ted Williams, one of a handful to have hit .400 for a season’s efforts, famously said, “Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.” Three-for-ten or four-for-ten, a feat within reach for a mortal man, but a perfect ten, a daydream at best. Although I understand your immediate pangs of disbelief, I say before you now to hold your judgment until my testimony is complete; facts and evidence presented. Listen and I will tell you the story of a man so skilled as a batsman that he could hit any pitch within range, and hit it clean. But the game that Jaxsom loved did not love him in return, too young at a violent time, not ready for a master’s touch…