Death in the Strike Zone

<p><b>He threw the first fastball. The first curveball. He was baseball’s first star—and its first tragedy.</b><br><br> In <i>Death in the Strike Zone</i>, acclaimed historian Thomas W. Gilbert uncovers the forgotten life of James Creighton, the first American ballplayer to become a national sensation. On the eve of the Civil War, Creighton invented something utterly new in baseball – modern pitching. Creighton was so dominant, so mesmerizing, that the game had to rewrite the rulebook to catch up with him. He is the reason we have a strike zone. Then, in one fateful game he collapsed—and four days later, he was dead at the age of twenty-one.<br><br> Was it a freak injury or was baseball somehow to blame? Was there a cover-up? Why has Creighton been denied the credit he deserves? <i>Death in the Strike Zone</i> is part biography, part detective story, and part time machine. With vivid storytelling and groundbreaking research, Gilbert revives a vanished era of barehanded fielders, heroes and gamblers, and the strange, thrilling beginnings of America’s pastime and sports stardom itself.<br><br> <i>Death in the Strike Zone</i> is a remarkable journey into the past that will keep you on the edge of your seat and profoundly change how you see the game of baseball.</p>