Left on Base in the Bush Leagues

This book profiles minor league legends from baseball’s golden era, as well as many unknown players and gifted storytellers. Newspaper and magazine stories are interwoven with comments gleaned from some 200 player interviews, many of them dating back to the 1970s, creating a colorful tapestry of baseball and the times.

Gaylon H. White was a sportswriter for the Denver Post, Arizona Republic and Oklahoma Journal before working in the corporate world for nearly forty years. He is the author of The Bilko Athletic Club: The Story of the 1956 Los Angeles Angels (2014) and Singles and Smiles: How Artie Wilson Broke Baseball's Color Barrier (2018), and co-author with Ransom Jackson of Handsome Ransom Jackson: Accidental Big Leaguer (2016), all published by Rowman & Littlefield.

Foreword Wes Parker Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1: Bushes and Bushers: Three Bush League Legends and Two Unknowns 2: Following a Dream: Walter Buckel and the "Biggest Little Baseball City in the United States" 3: Round Trip to Nowhere: Bob "Round Trip" Crues 4: The Man Who Wore the Texaco Star: Joe Bauman 5: Father, Son, and Little League: Tom and Tommy Jordan 6: The Mellow Irishman's Merry Band of Cubans: Pat Stasey and the Big Spring Broncs 7: The Bobo and Jojo Show: Bobo Newsom and Joe Engel 8: "A Boy Named Kingston": Al Pinkston 9: Playing Drunk: Joe Taylor 10: A Whiff of the Big Time: Joe Brovia 11: Unwanted: Bob Dillinger 12: Made for Hollywood: Carlos Bernier 13: A Tale of Two Legends: Ron Necciai and Steve Dalkowski Notes Bibliography Index About the Author