Touching Second

Book excerpt: Johnny Evers was widely considered the brainiest ballplayer of his day and, along with Ty Cobb, one of the most guileful and cantankerous. (He and Joe Tinker, two thirds of the famous double-play combination, battled each other nearly as viciously and as often as they did their opponents.) One of the great practitioners of the inside game, Evers was quick to pick up on the unwatched-for advantage that might upend his opponent and propel his team to victory. In 1910's Touching Second, Evers and sports writing great Hugh Fullerton describe the game as it was played during the first decade of the 20th century. With an emphasis on what Evers saw as baseball's development "into an exact mathematical sport," he describes the great plays and players, shares "anecdotes and incidents of decisive struggles on the diamond," and discusses "the signs and systems used by championship teams."