German-Americans and Our National Pastime By Frank Amoroso

This nonfiction work fills a void in baseball literature. By compiling the outstanding contributions of German-Americans to the game of baseball in one work, Mr. Amoroso captures this enduring, but largely unseen, legacy. Through every era of professional baseball,the German-American community hasproduced prominent players who have madelegendary contributions to the game. Startingwith Honus Wagner, the great Pirate shortstopwho was arguably the best player of his era andcontinuing today with Mike Trout, the fantasticyoung outfielder for the Angels, there has beena continuous thread of greatness.Wagner passed the torch of greatness tonone other than Babe Ruth, the greatest andmost dominant player of all time. Ruth handedthe torch to his teammate Lou Gerhig, the IronHorse. Carl Hubbell of the Giants and FrankieFrisch of the Cardinals passed the torch toWarren Spahn of the Braves and Duke Sniderof the Dodgers, then it went to Sandy Koufax ofthe Dodgers and Mike Schmidt of the Phillies.