A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cooperstown

In A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cooperstown, you'll meet all the greats from the Golden Age of baseball, from Williams and DiMaggio to Mantle, Berra, Ford, and Musial. You'll also meet non-baseball pals like Frank Sinatra, Eddie Fisher, and Rocky Marciano, as well as presidents from Eisenhower to Bush. Mickey McDermott loves people, people love him, and after reading his riveting autobiography you'll know why.

In the minors, he pitched two no-hitters and shattered the American Association strikeout record long held by the legendary Johnny "2-No-hit" Vander Meer. In the majors, the buzz was that, with his 100-mile-an-hour fastball, this whip-armed southpaw rookie could be the next Bob Feller, Lefty Gomez, or Cy Young. Or, as Birdie Tebbetts, whose hand stung from catching him put it, "This could be the greatest left-hander of his generation." But happy-go-lucky McDermott, as popular among fellow ballplayers as free beer, took his eye off the ball, choosing to have himself a ball instead.

Play ball with him in the Cuban League, as Castro's revolution sweeps through the stadium and a ricocheting bullet fells the first-base coach, and in the Mexican League, where a manager shoots his short-stop for missing a sign that loses the game. Stand by in the operating room when he momentarily dies on the table and comes back to life. Sympathize with him as he hits the skids, literally and figuratively. Read about how Mickey, finally sober after years of drinking, carousing, and squandering his talents, wins millions of dollars in the Arizona state lottery, commenting, "Either somebody up there likes my jokes or the Heavenly Computer printed out the wrong McDermott."