Drinking Coffee with a Fork: The Story of Steve Carlton and the ’72 Phillies

  What Steve Carlton did for the Phillies in 1972 was more than just pitch. This was a magic act, a miracle, a man doing the impossible. Would Sandy Koufax have won 27 games for that team? Would Pedro Martinez? Would Greg Maddux? We have Steve Bucci, Dave Brown, and this terrific book to thank for answering those very questions—and especially this one: Was this the greatest pitching season of all time?Jayson Stark, Senior Baseball Writer ESPN.com   Drinking Coffee with a Fork chronicles Carlton’s extraordinary and improbable ’72 season. Drawing on interviews with Carlton’s teammates, coaches, opponents and the writers who covered the team, as well as newspaper accounts and box scores of the games, Bucci and Brown recreate the phenomenal performance by the man called “Lefty”—his early season duels with superstar pitchers Bob Gibson and Juan Marichal, his brilliant shutout against the Expos in a game marred by a bench-clearing brawl triggered by a retaliatory beanball thrown by Carlton,