Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms: A Lifetime of Memories from Striking Out the Babe to Teeing It Up with the President

by Tom Keegan and Elden Auker

Book Overview

Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms brings baseball legends to life through the eyes of Elden Auker, a submarine-style pitcher in the American League from 1933-1942. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1892049252
• ISBN13: 9781892049254
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Triumph Books (IL)
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

A Pleasure To Treasure

I read a lot of baseball books and this is one of the best I've come across in years. I took it straight home from the bookstore and read it in one sitting. Auker tells us what baseball was like in the '30s without getting on a soapbox about how wonderful the old days were. It uses humor in just the right doses and offers plenty of insight into a past era. One minor complaint: Toward the end, we get a little too much about his post-baseball life. But that's not near enough to bump this from the elite of baseball books. This one will endure.

The baseball book you've been waiting for!

True fans have always known that the real story of baseball players and their lives lay somewhere between the idealized William Bendix/Gary Cooper portrayals of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and the hatchet jobs done by Jim Bouten and his like. "Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms" is that story. Elden Auker and Tom Keegan tell the story of baseball players who are basically honest, moral and hard-working guys doing a job, albeit one of the best jobs anyone could ever have. Do they have their faults and weaknesses, their bouts with anger and depression? Yes, of course. Who doesn't? Do they love their job and the game of baseball? Yes, but they don't obsess over it. They love their families and friends more.This book is touching and sincere, funny and raunchy all at once. This is a wonderful story and a wonderful book, engagingly told and smartly written. It is a must read for baseball fans, or for anyone looking for a good read that also helps keep life in perspective.

An instant baseball clasic. The real Forrest Gump.

Elden Auker beat Satchel Paige, played golf with Babe Ruth and won World Series games. On top of that he was a three sport star at Kansas State. Auker was actually involved in these events unlike the fictional Forrest Gump.He gives you the real inside baseball. Find out what started Boston fans hating Ted Williams.Find out what player stole money from Babe Ruth.What was Elden's role in Dimaggio's streak?Many other great stories.Some of them make you realize how coarse the country has become, viz, the story about the Providence College player.Auker is 90 and a real baseball treasure.

A MOTOWN CLASSIC

ELDEN TELLS A WONDERFUL STORY. HIS BOOK IS A VERY EASY READ. I FINISHED IT IN ONE DAY. THE ONLY THING I WISHED HE WOULD HAVE TALKED ABOUT MORE WAS THE BASEBALL PART. WHILE HIS TIME AFTER BASEBALL WAS INTERESTIING, I WISH HE WOULD HAVE INCLUDED A FEW MORE "WAR STORIES" FROM THE DUGOUT. HOWEVER, THE BOOK IS STILL OUTSTANDING. A MUST READ

Finally, a good baseball book

It's inconceivable that this man, 90 years old, had such a wealth of stories, yet no one had ever bothered to ask him to write a book. This is the best baseball book I've read since Boys of Summer. Very entertaining and well written.