{"product_id":"the-last-real-season-9780446537094","title":"The Last Real Season","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA first-person account of the 1975 Major League Baseball season—the last year before free agency took over and changed the national pastime forever.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“One of the funniest baseball books I’ve ever read—who knew that a baseball beat writer could be so funny and clever!” —Bill Madden, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eNew York Daily News\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Last Real Season\u003c\/i\u003e, Mike Shropshire captures the essence of a different time and place in baseball, when the average salary for major leaguers was only $27,600 ... when the ballplayers' drug of choice was alcohol, not steroids ... when major leaguers sported tight doubleknit uniforms over their long-hair and Afros ... and on July 28th, 1975, the day that famed Detroit resident Jimmy Hoffa went missing, the Detroit Tigers started a losing streak of nineteen games in a row. On the day that the Tigers blew a four-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, Shropshire recalls: “I drank three bottles of Stroh's beer in less than a minute and wrote that 'Jimmy Hoffa will show up in the left field stands with Amelia Earhart as his date before the Tigers will win another game.'”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd so it goes. But a warning: \u003ci\u003eThe Last Real Season \u003c\/i\u003eis not or the faint-of-heart. This is hard-core, high-and-tight, big league baseball, as told by someone who was really there and has actually survived to write about it. So if you don’t mind getting a little tobacco juice splashed on your white patent leather shoes, then dig in and enjoy the ride.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Before money corrupted the game, players had to corrupt it themselves. Mike Shropshire’s hilarious account of baseball’s raucous pre-agent era will leave any fan laughing and smiling at the bad old days.” —Michael Rosenberg, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eDetroit Free Press\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Grand Central Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67931988361394,"sku":"9780446537094","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0536\/7418\/0786\/files\/9780446537094.jpg?v=1794049732","url":"https:\/\/shop.hachettebookgroup.com\/products\/the-last-real-season-9780446537094","provider":"Hachette Book Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}