From Spring Training to Screen Test: Baseball Players Turned Actors - SABR Digital Library, #55

Just in time for the Academy Awards, SABR"s book of baseball's "matinee stars."For well over a century, stars and supporting players on baseballdiamonds have become stars and supporting players in the movies, on Broadway, in vaudeville and, eventually, on television and inconcert halls. After all, ballplayers are celebrities. Whether on thefield or the stage, they are in the business of entertaining themasses.
Not surprisingly, many showbiz luminaries have becomebaseball enthusiasts. They have invested their time, money, andexpertise to be part of the baseball world as team owners and fans. From Spring Training to Screen Test: Baseball Players Turned Actorsincludes essays by 43 SABR members that connect baseball andshow biz. Not every ballplayer who ever made an appearance onscreen or stage is included; to do so would result in a mini-encyclopedia.
The purpose here is to offer a representativeselection of those who crossed the lines between professionalsports and popular entertainment. Included are biographies ofselected individuals from the famous (Gene Autry, Joe DiMaggio, Jim Thorpe, Bernie Williams...) to the forgotten (Al Gettel, LouStringer, Wally Hebert, Wally Hood...) There are other select topics, from baseball on television shows and in Coca-Cola commercials toJim Bouton's casting as "Jim Barton" in his Ball Four TV series andDon Drysdale playing "Don Drysdale" on The Donna Reed Show, Leave It To Beaver, and The Brady Bunch.
Those who will relish theprivileged peeks at the off-the-field life and times of Mike Donlin andEdward G. Robinson playing Hans Lobert on the big screen in BigLeaguer will surely savor From Spring Training to Screen Test:Baseball Players Turned Actors.