Lefty O'Doul

Baseball's Forgotten Ambassador

By: Dennis Snelling

Narrated by: Chaz Allen

Lefty O'Doul relates the untold story of one of baseball's greatest hitters, most colorful characters, and the unofficial father of professional baseball in Japan.

Lefty O'Doul (1897-1969) began his career on the sandlots of San Francisco and was drafted by the Yankees as a pitcher. Although an arm injury and his refusal to give up the mound clouded his first four years, he converted into an outfielder. After four Minor League seasons he returned to the Major Leagues to become one of the game's most prolific power hitters, retiring with the fourth-highest lifetime batting average in Major League history. A self-taught "scientific" hitter, O'Doul then became the game's preeminent hitting instructor, counting Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams as his top disciples.

In 1931 O'Doul traveled to Japan with an All-Star team and later convinced Babe Ruth to headline a 1934 tour. O'Doul's finest moment came in 1949, when General Douglas MacArthur asked him to bring a baseball team to Japan, a tour that MacArthur later praised as one of the greatest diplomatic efforts in US history.

O'Doul became one of the most successful managers in the Pacific Coast League and was instrumental in spreading baseball's growth and popularity in Japan. He is still beloved in Japan, where in 2002 he was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

The book is published by University of Nebraska Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

"A superb biography...One of the best baseball books of the year." (San Francisco Chronicle)

"Dennis Snelling's compelling biography Lefty O'Doul tells of the pitcher who, after a sore arm, became one of baseball's greatest hitters..." (The New York Times)

"An engrossing, scrupulously researched new biography to remind--or enlighten--fans about the outsized role O'Doul played in the history of the game." (Paul Hagen, MLB.com)

©2017 Dennis Snelling (P)2021 Chaz Allen

Seal of Approval

As a San Francisco native whose father grew up watching the Seals, I’ve always know of Lefty O’Doul. This book, however, has given me greater insight than I could have imagined into this San Francisco treasure.

Needs an editor

Very good story, sloppily told. The narrator mangles virtually every Japanese name in the book - something of an insult to some of O'Doul's most ardent fans and O'Doul himself. However, no apparent bias here as the names of a couple of Hispanic players are also tortured, as are a few words of the English language. Too many unforced errors?

Good Story. Horrible Narration. Bad Editing.

This is my second baseball book from University Press Audiobooks (other book: Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend) that the narrator was beyond awful and the editing horrible.

The editing was terrible where there were errors left in and all re-records were annoyingly noticeable. It was like driving down a road and every edit was like the pavement changed and you could hear the difference.

The narrator’s enunciation is awful, he reads like there is no punctuation and constantly butchers player names. HOW do you not KNOW how to pronounce Lou GEH-RIG? He constantly pronounces it as Lou GEH-RING. Ugh.

At least the content was good. Not sure I can recommend the audio version with this narrator. Buy the paperback.

Great story that deserves better narration

Snelling does a terrific job of writing the complete story of one of baseball's great characters, but the audio version suffers from very weak narration. What a shame that one of baseball's colorful individuals, who is written about splendidly by the author, gets a such colorless audio treatment (there is a phoned-in rhythm by the narrator, who seems profoundly uninterested in the story, and has real difficulty pronouncing some pretty famous names. Anyway, I highly recommend the printed version of this wonderful baseball biography.

A great baseball biography

Slugger Francis "Lefty" O'Doul is an often overlooked baseball great, despite a career batting average of .349. Year after year, O'Doul is shunned by Major League Baseball's hall of fame. Author Dennis Snelling's "Lefty O'Doul Baseball's Forgotten Ambassador" recounts his impressive baseball career - including an outstanding run as a minor league manager. Lefty tutored Yankee legend Joe DiMaggo and his younger brother Dominic. O'Doul was instrumental in bringing Babe Ruth to Japan, and correctly predicted that Japanese ball players would play in the major leagues. O'Doul is considered the unofficial father of professional baseball in Japan. Snelling's storytelling of O'Doul's career is brilliant.