60 Feet, 6 Inches and Other Distances from Home: The (Baseball) Life of Mose Yellowhorse

By Todd Fuller

Book Overview

"Mose YellowHorse's 1920 fastball traveled "in the neighborhood of ninety-five miles an hour," and Todd Fuller's bio of YellowHorse is a similarly powerhouse affair. Avid and loving in the tribute it pays to this too-neglected American original, but willing to distinguish Mose the myth from the everyday Mose the man, this deeply researched and widely encompassing journey through baseball, politics, poetry, prose, stats, tribal life, and comic strip shenanigans is surely Fuller's equivalent of having all the bases loaded."--Albert Goldbarth

Mose YellowHorse (1898-1964), a Skidi Pawnee, played professional baseball for nearly a decade, most notably with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1921 and '22. Aside from his baseball achievements, YellowHorse, as a boy, traveled with and performed in Pawnee Bill's Wild West show, later served in the Army during World War I, and also appeared as a character in Chester Gould's Dick Tracy comic strip. After his death, he earned induction into both the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame and the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame. His baseball glove remains on permanent display at the Baeball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Using a structural pattern based on an old-time Pawnee Indian storytelling session, many voices and perspectives collaborate to form a multi-faceted recreation of Mose YellowHorse's life. Poetry, oral histories (from tribal elders), critical essays, letters, cartoons, photographs, and newspaper accounts are all included as a way of focusing on cross-cultural tensions.

Todd Fuller teaches Creative Writing and Literature at Drake University. In 1999 he completed his Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Native American literatures from Oklahoma State University, where he researched this book for eight years, with the help of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. The author is donating half of his royalties to establish the Mose YellowHorse Higher Education Endowment.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 093010076X
• ISBN13: 9780930100766
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Holy Cow Press
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

outstanding

I was very impressed by the author's creative way in which he presented this biography. Fuller exercises his gifted skills as a poet as well as delivers a well researched history of Mose Yellowhorse. It's both entertaining and informative.

TODD

Todd was my English Comp teacher in college, good guy, made me believe I could write and I havent stopped since. I was so proud when I read this book.

Could not put the book down!

I don't normally read sports biographies, however, a friend of mine, aware of my interest in American Indian history, recommended this book to me after she'd had the priviledge of attending one of the author's readings. Fascinating indeed! The life and legend of Mose Yellowhorse is told wonderfully and passionately through the talents of Todd Fuller. This book is an amazing journey from start to finish. Take it from me, I could not put the book down!

A book that needs to be on every shelf, in every home

Through Fuller's careful research and beautifully written poetry, we get a unique, intriguing, and entertaining biography on the life of Mose Yellowhorse. As a proud member of the Pawnee Nation, I highly commend Fuller for his dedication to see this work to its completion. For without him, Mose's story would have remained untold and what a shame that would have been for Native American history, Native American sports history, the Pawnee Nation and for Mose Yellowhorse himself....1) This book is about the first full-blood American Indian to play baseball in the major leagues. That he accomplished such a difficult thing in an era when not even African Americans were allowed to play in the majors, is something that all American Indians should be proud of (not just the Pawnee). 2) From this book, Non-Native society learns that Indians DO exist, not just in the historical sense but in contemporary, everyday existence. Non-Native society learns that Indians CAN accomplish great things, such as, playing major league baseball. 3) It could be that Yellowhorse's own words are absent from this book because he passed away nearly 40 years ago and also, it states very clearly in the book that Yellowhorse left no journals or other writings behind. (Possible explanation for that "emptiness," I don't know).

Challenging and Atypical Biography

What the author has done in this work is bring together varied perspectives--from Native to non-Native--in order to tell the life story of a neglected, yet historical, Indian ballplayer. (I had never really heard of Mose YellowHorse before reading the book.) That someone has finally taken up this task is admirable, and the author does it with as much research, creativity, and passion as can be mustered. For that, I think he is to be thanked. As a baseball fan, I was intrigued to read about such accounts involving Ruth, Cobb, etc. To include well-written and balanced poems alongside cartoons, tape transcripts, and letters is quite a feat. I first became interested in reading this book after reading consecutive strong reviews in Booklist and the Native American Times.