Before the Babe, the Emperor

Who has the highest single season average in American League history? Napoleon Lajoie Who had a major league baseball team named after him? Napoleon Lajoie Who received more Hall of Fame votes than the immortal pitcher Cy Young? Napoleon Lajoie Napoleon who? As fire engines roared and whistles blew, the city poured onto the street to get a glimpse of their "Poli." the man they knew was the greatest baseball player on the planet. When Napoleon Lajoie came home to the small industrial city of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, the delirious city was prepared to show its love for its champion. No devotion burned stronger that day in 1910 that that of the young boy envisioning himself as Napoleon Lajoie doing battle with spitballer Big Ed Walsh. Thirty years later, the boy would travel to baseball's first Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown. If most had come to cheer for Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Connie Mack, he had come to honor the emperor who had captured his imagination of so many years ago. Before the Babe, the Emperor: Napoleon Lajoie is a youth coffee table book with a plot, a mix of baseball history and memorabilia, driven by the universal tale of a young boy who refuses to abandon the hero who still reigns in his heart.