{"product_id":"9781450281065","title":"Brass Bonanza Plays Again: How Hockey's Strangest Goon Brought Back Mark Twain and a Dead Team--and Made a City Believe","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat happens when a major league pro sports team leaves a city? The Hartford Whalers left on April 13, 1997—leaving behind devastated fans. The players left, too—except one who stayed and suffered like the fans.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTiger Burns is an unlikely hero—even for a hobbit-sized, smash-faced, hockey goon with 600 fights. Standing 5’3”, with one-eye, cauliflower ears, and a full-rigged ship tattoo on his chest, his most unusual feature is this: he loves Hartford and its team, the Whalers. In a league where players date super models, ice princesses and Miss Americas, he is a misfit. But in a league of Los Angeles, New York and Boston so is Hartford. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBrass Bonanza Plays Again tells the riches-to-rags story of Mark Twain’s hometown, once the nation’s richest, now the butt of jokes. It relates the true saga of a small city’s beloved team moved away, like Brooklyn’s Dodgers. And it weaves the tragicomic tale of the muscle-bound gnome who blows the jump-the-shark game against arch-rival Boston on April 11, 1990, lives homeless under a bridge, only to rise up and lead a dead team, out of the stands onto the ice. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTiger rallies not only a dead hockey team, but awakens the ghosts of Hartford’s past. He brings to life a ragtag band of 19th century legends and is saved by a guardian angel Rube Waddell, one of sport’s “goats” from the 1905 World Series. Can a one-eyed, homeless underdog make a faded city believe and rescue a star-crossed spirit? In Brass Bonanza Plays Again, we have Rocky (on Skates!) meets Field of Dreams. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRocky came out of a Philly row house, Rudy out of an Indiana steel mill, and now Tiger Burns comes out from under a Hartford bridge to bring a dead team to life. A book of provincial aspirations and condescension, Brass Bonanza Plays Again tells the story of this small city, midway between New York and Boston, long considered just a urine-stop or ass-wipe between Wall Street and Cape Cod. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe New York Times recently printed an essay “In Search of the Great American Hockey Novel” lamenting that hockey, unlike other sports, has yet to be celebrated in a notable work. “Where is the Chekhov of the Chicago Blackhawks?” the Times asks. “Who is the Stendahl of the stick to the groin?” To that, we humbly say: read on.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"iUniverse, Incorporated","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47128588288240,"sku":"9781450281065","price":9.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781450281065_p0.jpg?v=1763838398","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781450281065","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}