Books written by Dan Helpingstine

The 1919 Black Sox Scandal

Published: September 2019
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 978-1439668047
Pages: 215

Description: 
All kinds of spurious rumors had swirled around the 1919 World Series. Allegations about a fixed game between the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies on August 31, 1920, began a chain of events that led to a grand jury indicting eight White Sox players for conspiring to throw the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds the year before. Outside the courtroom, Shoeless Joe Jackson, just coming off his best overall offensive season with .382 average, was reportedly confronted by a young fan pleading for a denial from his hero. Jackson would later deny the encounter ever occurred and also deny any guilt in the World Series fix. In the almost 100 years since eight White Sox players were banned for life, there has been little historical closure due to a fleeting consensus on a scandal that almost took down Major League Baseball. [more]

Highland

Published: July 2017
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 978-1467127207
Pages: 130

Description:
In 1912, the Hammond Times boasted of available 10-, 20-, and 40-acre tracts “located on the Ridge Road.” That newspaper piece helped sell these tracts as part of a developing area that had an agriculture base but was also part of a region on the verge of joining the Industrial Revolution. The announcement’s predictions rang true and, in a sense, told of the development of a town called Highland, Indiana. In the beginning, the town had its agricultural roots with it farms, open spaces, and prairies. As the steel mills along Lake Michigan grew into a major manufacturing hub and American society modernized, Highland evolved. The once developing turn-of-the-20th-century small town became a more urban and populated center. This book will show how Highland became one of the largest and most vibrant towns in Indiana. [more]

Dallas Forever Changed – The Legacy of November 1963

Published: April 2010
Publisher: Pelican Publishing
ISBN: 978-1455620548
Pages: 302

Description:
Shots rang out, and a city changed forever. Despite the hostility shown in the weeks leading up to Pres. John F. Kennedy’s visit, the city of Dallas reeled in the aftermath of his death. The public perception of the region and its residents suffered a heavy blow, due in part to the media coverage of the community’s reaction. This insightful portrait of one town struggling with its legacy details the transformation from the “city of hate” to the inspiration for the TV show Dallas and home of “America’s team,” the Dallas Cowboys. Tracing the profile of the city up through the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s death, this highly readable volume draws from extensive interviews with Dallasites and researchers.

For fifty years, Dallas has been indelibly associated with the death of a president. Thousands of books, tens of thousands of news stories, and hundreds of thousands of people have picked over every moment of November 1963. To a community looking for healing—;and absolution—;the proliferation of theories about the events and motives of the assassination made it difficult to be seen as anything other than “the city that killed Kennedy.” This work also examines the effects of the assassination on individual Dallas citizens, including Jean Hill, James Tague, and Victoria Adams—;the “girl on the stairs.” [more]

The Cubs and the White Sox – A Baseball Rivalry, 1900 to the Present

Published: September 2010
Publisher: McFarland Publishing
ISBN: 978-0786446698
Pages: 267

Description:
Beginning with the premise that there is no other rivalry in team sports like that between the Cubs and the White Sox this work traces the history of the antagonism (and, at times, open hostility) between the fans of the two clubs. Of special interest is the baseball culture that is fostered in Chicago, as well as a recounting of the memorable on-field moments between the two teams. There are 50 photographs and two essays that deal with the question of bias at the Chicago Tribune. [more]

Southside Hitmen – the Story of the 1977 Chicago White Sox

Published: March 2006
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 978-0738539898
Pages: 128

Description: 
By self-admission, the 1977 Chicago White Sox couldn’t catch, run, or throw; and only on occasion could they pitch. Some felt unwanted and unloved by past teams. Two were told by skeptics that they didn’t even belong on the field. Yet it was these qualities that made them one of the most entertaining teams in franchise history. They didn’t bunt to move runners along, steal bases to distract the opposing defense, or turn the double play. They just hit and hit until demoralized opponents cried uncle. They didn’t win the World Series or even a division title. They couldn’t be called champions, but they lived up to another title. They were the South Side Hitmen.

Team owner Bill Veeck transformed a hapless 1976 ball club into contenders and big-time draws at the ticket box. New acquisitions Oscar Gamble, Richie Zisk, and Eric Soderholm led the team to a franchise record 192 home runs, while legendary broadcaster Harry Caray led Comskey Park fans through the seventh-inning stretch. The White Sox won 90 games that season (including 22 in an amazing month of July) and finished first in the hearts of baseball fans across the city’s South Side. [more]

Chicago White Sox – 1959 and Beyond

Published: July 2004
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 978-1439615003
Pages: 225

Description: 
The Chicago White Sox are a charter member of the American League. Through a little over a century of baseball, they have accumulated a history of triumphs, scandals, and heartbreaking setbacks. The photographs in this book come from the collections of Leo Labau, Mark Fletcher, and Gerry Bilek, three lifelong White Sox fans. The images show dramatic, emotional, and light moments that could only happen in a baseball game played on the south side of Chicago. In these pages you will find showmen Bill Veeck and Harry Carey, the 1959 World Series, sluggers like Allen, Melton, Zisk, Gamble, and Kittle, and great pitchers like Peters, Horlen, and Wood. There are no world championships in this story, just the great moments of a team that hasgiven its fans great memories. [more]