More than just a book about baseball, these nine poignant short stories share the genuine love and lure of the game, and the way it touches the lives of the people who play it across America. Drawing genre elements from science fiction, fantasy, paranormal, and period fiction, readers meet a diverse range of characters who all still share one thing in common: baseball. Meet astronauts, farmers, business tycoons, minor-leaguers, an aging peanut vendor, Civil War soldiers, and more, all with...

From 1940 to 1970, Cincinnati overflowed with musical opportunities. Hank Williams recorded his hit "Lovesick Blues." Andy Williams, Rosemary andBetty Clooney, and Doris Day appeared regularly on WLW Radio, which also broadcast Boone County Jamboree. Then came the network television showMidwestern Hayride and stardom for Kenny Price. Meanwhile, King and Fraternity Records released hundreds of hits for James Brown, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Cowboy Copas, Lonnie Mack, a...

Founded as Fort Hamilton in 1791, the City of Hamilton was settled by pioneers and immigrants and was forged in steel by her talented workers and craftsmen. Factory owners became wealthy and built magnificent homes along Dayton Street. Hamilton prospered and became known as the "Greatest Little Industrial City of Its Kind in the World," home to Mosler Safe Co., Ford Motor Co., Beckett Papers, and many others. Following World War II, some factories closed their doors or moved away, but Hami...

Settlement in Butler County began when Fort Hamilton was built on the Great Miami River in 1791. For the next century, water shaped the county's fortunes. Settlers built towns, commerce moved on the river, and mills and factories grew up along the Miami and Erie Canal and its hydraulic canals in Hamilton and Middletown. The devastating 1913 flood tested residents' resolve and reshaped parts of the landscape. Despite losses caused by the flood, the county's important landmarks remained. The...

Starting with a few songs and a dream in 1943, King Records�a leading American independent�launched musical careers from a shabby brick factory on Brewster Avenue in Cincinnati�s Evanston neighborhood. Founder Sydney Nathan recorded country singers Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Wayne Raney, and others and later added black acts such as James Brown and the Famous Flames, Bull Moose Jackson, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Lonnie Johnson, and Freddy King. Meanwhile, King also explored po...

Ever hear of a butt splice? A cover? An iron mother? A biscuit? These were terms used in the heyday of vinyl records, from 1949 to the mid-1980s. This colorful and almost forgotten language was once used by record producers, label owners, disc jockeys, jukebox operators, record distributors, and others in the music industry. Their language is collected in this dictionary. Each entry offers both an explanation of a term's meaning as well as its context and use in the history of the record b...

An American recording icon of the early 1900s, Cal Stewart created the popular Uncle Josh Weathersby character; Joshs town, Punkin Center; and the many colorful characters who inhabited his fictional town from Way Down East. Stewarts recordings were among the bestselling of the period, and through his satire he showed life in a fast-changing world. The actor, singer, songwriter, and author performed across the nation with his Cal Stewart & Co. group, consisting of his wife, the Indiana vio...

First settled in 1634, and incorporated in 1640, the Town of Braintree has a long and distinguished history. �Old Braintree,� which originally encompassed what is now Braintree, Quincy, Randolph, and Holbrook, was the birthplace of John Adams, John Hancock, John Quincy Adams, and Sylvanus Thayer. Primarily a farming community for almost three centuries, Braintree was also home to a number of water-powered mills and businesses, which prospered along the banks of the Monatiquot River. With t...

North Brunswick, a large town spread over 12 square miles, has a rich history extending back to the early 1600s, when its only occupants were members of the Lenni-Lenape tribe. Some of the earliest establishments included the Black Horse Tavern building, which in 1670 was a stagecoach stop, and the Lion Tavern. By 1750, a gristmill operated near where a dam is currently located on Farrington Lake and was later joined by a snuff mill and tannery. From 1775 through 1900, the area was almost ...

Wilkinsburg, named for Gen. John Wilkins Jr., was incorporated as a borough in 1887. The village was founded on a 266-acre parcel purchased in 1789 by Col. Dunning McNair, who also laid the central street plan. After McNair�s death in 1825, the village was purchased by James Kelly. Caring deeply about the social life of the community, Kelly donated the land for most of the schools, churches, and residences for the elderly. When Wilkinsburg was annexed by Pittsburgh in the early 1870s, Kell...

Etowah County Volume II traces the history of everyday citizens in this Alabama community. Largely derived from the collections of local photographers Bob Scarboro and Hugh Hall, the images in this volume depict the county's championship sports teams, the drive-in theaters and restaurants of the post-World War II era, and the mansions that once lined Forrest Avenue. Also included are two rare and seldom-seen photographs-the old dummy engine of the streetcar line that ran from Gadsden to At...

Established in 1809, Cabell County is located in West Virginia's Mid-Ohio Valley. When rail tycoon Collis P. Huntington pushed the tracks of his Chesapeake & Ohio Railway across the mountains from Virginia into Cabell County, he founded the town that would become the county's great metropolitan center. Business and industry soon began to rise, and Cabell grew into one of the Mountain State's busiest, most populous regions. This dramatic history of Cabell County begins with the arrival of t...