Sports

[close] This group is intended for all students in Bender/Meer's American Studies class. Students should use this forum to post about at least two INDEPENDENT books they have read this semester.

[close] Anything basketball or baseball related.

[close] Welcome to Hamza's Huddle. Hamza's Huddle is a Book Club and space for human beings to congregate, exchange ideas and build. God willing, we will introduce a new book, the first Thursday of every month and discuss it in its entirety on the fourth Thursday of the month. I was thinking of books geared toward general nonfiction, self-help, memoir and other books I’ve derived benefit from. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, please let us know. I also have a ton of books on my shelf and need a good excuse to read them. My mother-in-law has even more books and I pray that one day, I can read all of them. She won Jeopardy twice, so anything she's reading must be beneficial. God willing, we can gain beneficial knowledge through the literature and discussions. We are here to build, not tear down. You may not agree with everything that is said here. That's okay. We can agree to disagree, but it's the way we disagree that bothers me. We have lost the human element of discussion so it becomes a "must-win" debate. I'm not here for a debate, I'm here to learn. I would like to connect on a personal level here. I'm stripping away my mask and I pray you will do the same. I am no superstar, celebrity or machine. I am a human being with feelings and a family. Thank you for stopping by the page and welcome to my huddle. (A sprinkle of fiction will be considered by special request)

[close] Is it an ironic coincidence or natural development that perhaps the second greatest gambling scandal in baseball history occurred a mere six days before the start of the 1919 World Series? On September 25, 1919, a seemingly meaningless game was played between the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians, a game that should have faded to a tiny line item on MLB s historical ledger. But Hubert "Dutch" Leonard had other ideas, and nearly seven years later he presented letters written by Ty Cobb and Smoky Joe Wood implicating them in the fixing of and wagering on that game, setting off a chain of accusations, denials, resignations, player transactions, and a power struggle at the top of baseball s power hierarchy that would change the game forever. Baseball Gods in Scandal Is three stories in one, and author Ian Kahanowitz tells them all with the art of a storyteller and the precision of an historian: The pervasiveness of gambling and crooked dealings in the early days of baseball, all the way through to the Black Sox Scandal The relationship between the affair s complex protagonists Cobb, Tris Speaker, Smoky Joe Wood, and Dutch Leonard with detailed profiles and ample color from baseball s rough-and-tumble Dead Ball Era The epic battle for control of the game between the long-time Czar of Baseball, Ban Johnson, and the game s new sheriff in town, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who cared not to share even a whiff of power with anyone Capping off the book is a never-before-published interview with Smoky Joe Wood (told to Lawrence Ritter for The Glory of Their Times) in which Wood recounts a vastly different version of the affair from his original testimony. It is safe to say that had Wood testified to this version originally, the fates of Baseball Gods Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker may well have turned out very differently.