If you love baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals, Browns, and/or Stars, or just the beautiful and complicated city that these major professional teams have called their home, then you need The St. Louis Baseball Mosaic, which combines stories from the game’s colorful past with a rich local history and pointed social commentary. The book does double and triple duty as a lighthearted personal memoir of its author and as a twentieth century entertainment history for the city of St. Louis.

Highlighted biographies within the text are those of…
Ernie Orsatti, the Hollywood stuntman and one-time stand-in for Buster Keaton who graduated from the motion picture business to become the primary center fielder for the Cardinals’ famous Gashouse Gang of the 1930s.
Helene Robison Britton, the first female owner of any team in the major North American professional sports leagues.
Joaquin Andujar, the entertaining but volatile star pitcher of the 1982 world champion Cardinals, and
Ralph “Blackie” Schwamb, the notorious and nearly-forgotten convicted murderer and one-time pitcher for the nearly-equally-forgotten St. Louis Browns.

Better-known baseball stars and personalities of the Mound City are charmingly detailed here as well: Cooperstown Hall of Famers Branch Rickey, Dizzy Dean, Ozzie Smith, Cool Papa Bell, Yogi Berra, Bob Gibson, and the dynamic duo of Bill Veeck and Satchel Paige. A chapter on “Stan Musial & Biggie’s” landmark restaurant in the city pinch-hits as a bio of Musial himself.

This is a book jam-packed with amusing and informative stories, passionately and creatively presented. Ostensibly, each of the ten chapters, and individual histories, revolves around a piece of baseball memorabilia, but these stories bend, they loop, and they meander. They present a whole host of complex heroes, and a handful of villains besides. It’s a book as unique as its historical subjects and a must-read for all residents and fans of what has come to be called “Baseball City, USA.”

About the Author

Chris Moeller is a veteran of both the radio and financial services industries in Des Moines. A lifelong Iowan, he’s a 1997 graduate of the Journalism and Mass Communication program at Iowa State and the author of one previous book. He lives on the near north side of Des Moines with his partner, Jessie, and his cat, Nola.

This event will be moderated by John Liepa.  John is Professor Emeritus of History and Political Science at Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC.)  A life-long baseball card collector, John owns an extensive collection of cards and memorabilia representing Iowa’s 222 Major Leaguers, featuring Iowa’s seven Hall-of-Famers. Over the past 11 years, he has done more than 160 presentations on baseball history throughout Iowa, often appearing as Montrose, Iowa’s Calvin McVey, Iowa’s first professional baseball player, who played for America’s first all-professional baseball team-the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings. John lives in West Des Moines, Iowa with his wife, Dianne.