Mike Donlin

"This biography of early 20th century outfielder Mike Donlin is a captivating account of one of the sport's early celebrity athletes, who parlayed his baseball wizardry into a subsequent theatrical career on stage and screen. Steinberg and Spatz brilliantly examine Donlin's life beyond the ballpark to illuminate his heretofore little known, unusual contribution to baseball history."—Bevis Baseball Research blog

“‘Turkey Mike’ was the most picturesque, colorful baseball player I ever saw. He had more pure color than that mighty man, George Herman Babe Ruth.”—Damon Runyon, journalist and short-story writer (1880–1946)

“Steve Steinberg and Lyle Spatz have always dug deeper than most baseball biographers into the inner characters of their subjects. In Mike Donlin their digging has struck rich gold. Their crisp narrative takes Donlin from his tragic youth through his wild baseball career to his redemption by the wife who took him away from baseball and led him to a second life as an actor.”—Gabriel Schechter, author of Victory Faust: The Rube Who Saved McGraw’s Giants

“Steve Steinberg and Lyle Spatz have written an engrossing story: the tale of a real-life baseball legend and the vaudeville star he loved that is as incredible as any fiction. . . . Steinberg and Spatz have captured not only the poignancy of [Donlin’s romance with Mabel Hite] but the color, the joy—and the brutality—of the raw, young America.”—Kevin Baker, author of Dreamland and Paradise Alley

“This is a grand slam of a baseball book. One of the game’s first great competitors, Mike Donlin, was also the owner of an oversized, irrepressible personality that captivated the nation before Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth. . . . I tip my ancient New York Giants cap to the authors, Steve Steinberg and Lyle Spatz, for telling a fascinating uniquely American story in meticulously documented detail and a brisk readable style.”—Noel Hynd, author of The Giants of the Polo Grounds and The Sputnik Season: 1957