One of America's finest sportswriters of the first half of the twentieth century, James Roy Stockton was a clever writer whose sarcastic humor, written or spoken, often stung his targets. His irreverence made him the enemy of the pompous and the delight of his readers. Bob Broeg, who worked for and succeeded Stockton as the sports editor of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, described him in an obituary as a master of rapier wit who "could thrust so cleanly that he didn't even draw blood." With his pipe clenched in his teeth, Stockton would put the second finger of each hand over the first and pound away at his typewriter. According to Broeg, Stockton "didn't always bear down," but when he did do his best work, such as the articles he wrote for The Saturday Evening Post, he was as good as any sportswriter of his time. He was...