Hugh Casey

Reviews / Votes

Hugh Casey: The Triumphs and Tragedies of a Brooklyn Dodger is a prolific baseball biographer Lyle Spatz's latest effort, and it rescues another worthy subject of the author from the mists of baseball history. The book contains much game reportage but necessarily so, as Spatz uses it to characterize Casey as a prototype of the relief pitcher role known today as 'closer.' The book also portrays the big hard-drinking Southerner as a tough and fearless competitor; a well-liked restaurateur and supporter of local civic causes; and a key member of teams that led to the establishment of the 19050s Dodgers as a NL powerhouse. Even with the benefit of the subtitle, the reader is shocked and saddened by the account of the pitcher's demise, at age 37. * Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine * Baseball author and historian Lyle Spatz presents a deeper portrait of the pitcher and the man in his latest biography, Hugh Casey: The Triumph and Tragedies of a Brooklyn Dodger.... Spatz's talent as a researcher shines through in an extensive bibliography. * The Sports Bookie: A sports blog by Bob D'Angelo * 4 Stars: [Spatz] examines the life and career - from his birth in Atlanta to his suicide in that same city 37-years later - of one of the most colorful members of the iconic Brooklyn Dodgers, [exploring] a different place in time in Brooklyn and in baseball. * Baseball Almanac * With meticulous and absorbing detail, master biographer Lyle Spatz has crafted a memorable portrait of a neglected Brooklyn Dodger hurler. As unfortunate as Casey's life was off the field, Spatz has done an exemplary job of giving his career as a mound craftsman its overdue credit. -- Lee Lowenfish, author of the award-winning biography Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman and collaborator with Tom Seaver on The Art of Pitching For the longest time, Hugh Casey's career was marginalized to a single World Series pitch. Thanks to the research by Lyle Spatz, fans can replay Casey's "complete game" and his bittersweet life in baseball. -- Mark Langill, team historian, Los Angeles Dodgers