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In 1960, an upstart Pittsburgh Pirates team beat the highly
favored New York Yankees in the World Series. Given the power
of a Yankee roster that included Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford,
and Yogi Berra, that improbable victory did more than give longsuffering
Pirates fans something to cheer about; it put Pittsburgh
on the map.
Though John Moody was only six years old during that magical
baseball season, he was a devoted fan of the Pittsburgh team.
The star pitcher for the Pirates and John’s first hero was Vernon
Law—an unsophisticated Idaho country boy, widely known as
The Deacon, a friendly nickname derived from his strict Mormon
upbringing.
Law was a relatively young man at the time and should have
enjoyed several more seasons of fame and success, yet his career
went into decline following that phenomenal Series. In this
insightful book, John Moody explores a compelling mystery that has
persisted now for nearly fifty years, revealing at last why Vernon Law
was unable to continue his dominance of Major League batters.
But the book is more than just another exposé. Recalling a
distant time in American sports, Kiss It Good-bye contains a
universal theme: a son’s affection for his father and the bond that
was forged between them because of their love of baseball. It is a
book that will be welcomed by fathers, sons, and baseball fans of
every age.