Awards

• Winner of Sports Collectors Digest Best Baseball Books of 2016 (Honorable Mention).

Overview

Millions of America’s youth dream of playing major league baseball or in a college bowl game on New Year’s Day. Growing up in Arkansas during the Great Depression, Ransom Jackson had no idea that one day he would not only play in back-to-back Cotton Bowls for two different colleges—the first and only player to do so—but that he would also become known as “Handsome Ransom,” all-star third baseman for the Chicago Cubs. He was in Chicago in 1953 when Ernie Banks became the first African American to play for the Cubs. He was in Brooklyn in 1956, the year Jackie Robinson retired. In 1957, Jackson was the last Brooklyn player to hit a home run before the team moved to LA. Jackson’s major league career spanned the entire decade of the 1950s, a time when the landscape of baseball changed dramatically as teams moved to new cities, built new stadiums, and integrated their rosters. Handsome Ransom Jackson: Accidental Big Leaguer is an autobiographical account of Jackson’s fascinating journey from his boyhood days in Arkansas to playing in the major leagues, where many of his teammates were future Hall of Famers. It’s a fun and nostalgic visit to the past, with Jackson sharing such memories as spring training with the Cubs on Catalina Island, befriending a Mafia boss in Massachusetts, batting behind Hank Sauer and getting knocked down by pitchers retaliating for Sauer’s home runs, rooming with Don Drysdale on an historic baseball tour of Japan, and sitting in the dugout in LA with Dodger teammates looking for movie stars in the stands. In addition, Jackson remembers being brought to Brooklyn to take over third base for the aging Jackie Robinson, and quickly discovering that nobody replaces a legend like Jackie. While many of the players from the 1950s are no longer with us, Jackson’s invaluable and timeless stories celebrate the greatness of the game and preserve a sliver of history from the heart of the golden age of baseball. Featuring many never-before-published photographs from Ransom Jackson’s personal collection, including photos of Dodger and Cub greats Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Carl Erskine, Ralph Kiner, and Ernie Banks, Handsome Ransom Jackson will take the reader back to an era when baseball was truly the national pastime.

Full Product Details

9781442261549

Table of Contents

Reviews

Randy, first an opponent and then a teammate, has penned a classic baseball book. Reading it put me back in my Dodger uniform reliving many of these happenings. You will get the feel of baseball in the eight team league days of the 1950s, from the field, the dugout, and front office, and get it from one of the most popular players of his day... Handsome Ransom. -- Carl Erskine, pitcher, Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, 1948-1959 Ransom Jackson uniquely captures an intimate snapshot of baseball's golden decade of the 1950's with his entertaining storytelling style. It's a walk down memory lane-and watch for the fun twists and turns! -- Peter O'Malley, president, Los Angeles Dodgers, 1970-1998 Randy, with wit and humor, shares the highs and lows of his journey to the Major Leagues and beyond. A must read for anyone who wants to know what baseball was really like before Free Agency. -- Bob Speake, first baseman/outfielder, Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants A fascinating and delightful read of little-known amazing facts of the athletic career of my friend Ransom Jackson. I never knew Ransom played college football at both TCU and Texas. While I was aware he had played some pro baseball, I never knew the depth of this participation or that he played with or against some of my greatest baseball heroes of the glory years of the 50s and 60s. -- Vince Dooley, former head football coach and athletic director, University of Georgia, 1980 National Champions

Jackson's folksy, unassuming account brings back memories of baseball's pre-steroid days as it follows him from his rugged Arkansas childhood in Great Depression to a star turn in college and prominence in big-league baseball. Despite never playing baseball or football in high school, he starred at Texas Christian University in the 1945 Cotton Bowl and later won for another college at the same event the following year. The most enjoyable sections of the book come with Jackson joining the hapless Chicago Cubs in 1950, becoming a star in 1953-1955, and then being traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers that year to succeed the aging Jackie Robinson. Although Jackson gained fame as the last Brooklyn Dodger to hit a home run, he retired in a Cleveland Indians uniform after over a decade of career games, achieving big pro numbers and memories of playing among sports icons. Jackson, with the support of former sportswriter White, shows no ego or arrogance when he writes candidly: 'I'm a lucky guy, lucky to be the right guy in the right place at the right time.' Publishers Weekly [Handsome Ransom Jackson: Accidental Big Leaguer] is [a] funny and engaging oral baseball history, told from the inside. Chicago Tribune Randy, first an opponent and then a teammate, has penned a classic baseball book. Reading it put me back in my Dodger uniform reliving many of these happenings. You will get the feel of baseball in the eight team league days of the 1950s, from the field, the dugout, and front office, and get it from one of the most popular players of his day... Handsome Ransom. -- Carl Erskine, pitcher, Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, 1948-1959 Ransom Jackson uniquely captures an intimate snapshot of baseball's golden decade of the 1950's with his entertaining storytelling style. It's a walk down memory lane-and watch for the fun twists and turns! -- Peter O'Malley, president, Los Angeles Dodgers, 1970-1998 Randy, with wit and humor, shares the highs and lows of his journey to the Major Leagues and beyond. A must read for anyone who wants to know what baseball was really like before Free Agency. -- Bob Speake, first baseman/outfielder, Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants A fascinating and delightful read of little-known amazing facts of the athletic career of my friend Ransom Jackson. I never knew Ransom played college football at both TCU and Texas. While I was aware he had played some pro baseball, I never knew the depth of this participation or that he played with or against some of my greatest baseball heroes of the glory years of the 50s and 60s. -- Vince Dooley, former head football coach and athletic director, University of Georgia, 1980 National Champions

Author Information

Ransom Jackson Jr. was a professional baseball player for twelve years, ten in the majors. He played for the Chicago Cubs (1950-55 and 1959), the Dodgers in Brooklyn (1956-57) and Los Angeles (1958), and the Cleveland Indians (1958-59). He played in two Major League Baseball All-Star games and the 1956 World Series. Jackson also played three years of college football at Texas Christian University and the University of Texas, during which he competed in two Cotton Bowl Classics. 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 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), called “one of the best sports books of 2014” by the Chicago Daily Herald.

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