Mark Rucker

New York Sluggers Mark Rucker

New York City was the original hotbed of baseball, so it is not surprising that fans in the five boroughs are very knowledgeable about the game. It did not take long after baseball was established in the city in the late 1850s for heavy hitters to rise in popularity. New York has continued to set the standard. When thinking about hitting, or better yet, smashing or crushing a baseball, the first team to come to mind is always the New York Yankees. Slugging was actually invented by the Yanks and was most prominently demonstrated by Babe Ruth. When Lou Gehrig joined the team in 1923, a one-two punch was established that set a standard seldom equaled in major-league history. Meanwhile, across the East River, the Giants manufactured lots of hitting, and the New York Nationals rattled the walls in the Polo Grounds. This book is a pictorial story of the sluggers that made history in New York, in both the American and National Leagues.