5 comments about Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy.

1. I have a better understanding of integregation and how it affected every American no matter what his race or beliefs. Baseball was a pioneering vechicle for social questioning and challenged many men other than Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson into greatness. They were courageous men who had to fight convention and who lead other Americans to follow their example. I realize the impact integration had on everyone involved Black or White: the team owners, the players, broadcasters, vendors, and families. Many individuals sacrificed to improve their freedom and the freedom given to other humans. Mr. Rickey and Mr. Robinson are not portrayed as mythological figures but rather as real men I can respect more because they are like all of us. I am convinced that Mr. Robinson endured because he had strong character and determination and he believed in "the experiment." I feel I know him better now that I know more about his struggles and triumphs. I kept reading because everything was explained simply and with logic and with an absence of bias.



2. This scholarly yet readable look at baseball integration from 1947-1959 goes well beyond the inspiring story of Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey. Author Jules Tygiel also informs about such secondary figures as Larry Doby, Bill Veeck, Hank Aaron, Pumpsie Green, etc. Tygiel shows that integration proceeded slowly and in the face of strong resistance - the Boston Red Sox didn't add a black player until 1959, three years after Jackie Robinson retired. We also see how baseball integration spurred civil rights, while hastening the end of the Negro Leagues. I'd have liked more coverage of baseball's declining attendance after 1949 (probably caused by television), and the suspected correlation between athletic dominance and underclass poverty. Still, BASEBALL'S GREAT EXPERIMENT is a well-researched look at an interesting period in sports history.



3. I purchased this book to learn more about Jackie Robinson and his relationship with Branch Rickey. Jules Tygiel gave me that (in an unbiased, thorough manner with great historical perspective) and then some! I gained an increased appreciation for the role of the Negro Leagues in the development of Major League baseball. I gained insight into the changing perceptions of baseball management, players and fans toward African-Americans and their contributions to the game. I was momentarily transported to that time, not as long ago as I would have thought, where non-white players were treated as second-class citizens. It was really an eye-opener. In addition, Mr. Tygiel's style was so honest and even-handed that I can't wait to read his book, "Past Time: Baseball As History," which I ordered today!



4. THis is a wonderful book that I can't praise enough. If you - like me - have been putting off reading about Jackie Robinson and the other black baseball pioneers of the late 1940's and 1950's, this is the book for you. It's a shocking description of just what life was like for blacks at that time. It's a real eye-opener that needs to be read by all baseball fans and all students of American history.



5. This is the book from which John McCain and his ghost writer "borrowed" most of the content, both of facts and of rhetoric, for the first chapter of McCain's "Hard Call". The ghost does acknowledge Tygiel, but merely in passing.
   
   And this is surely the deepest historical biography of any sports figure ever written. Jules Tygiel is a professor of history at San Francisco State University, and the author of a fine dispassionate biography of Ronald Reagan, as well as the book "Baseball As History", which quite brilliantly examines the culture of America in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries through the lens of baseball.
   
   You can read "Baseball's Great Experiment" simply for pleasure, as a baseball lover, or you can read it for historical insight, which it offers aplenty. It's a great irony that baseball and the army were integrated meaningfully long before corporate business, the mainline Christian churches, the federal bureaucracy, or academia!
   
   Tygiel writes firm straight-forward prose, with a minimum of sermonizing (McCain's big fault as a writer) or academic pomposity. His portrayals of Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson are well-rounded and believable, with both their strengths and their weaknesses. Even if you have a total indifference to baseball, you'll find the human drama fascinating.
   
   As for yours truly... Do it again, Red Sox!

1 comments about Pepper Martin: A Baseball Biography.

1. This is an excellent biography of one of baseball's truly remarkable characters. Although names like Dizzy Dean, Frankie Frisch and Leo Durocher are more reknowned, Pepper Martin was the true heart and soul of the legendary "Gashouse Gang" Cardinals team of the 1930's and Barthel leaves no stone unturned in detailing the life of this unique and talented ballplayer from yesteryear. News article references chronicling his World Series exploits are included and serve as a glimpse back to a time when a signing bonus consisted of a couple of hunting dogs and a Winchester rifle.

   Also included are numerous AP and never before seen photographs and illustrations.

   Pepper Martin was truly one of a kind and this book captures the essence of his life and character.

No comments about Branch Rickey: A Biography.

No comments about Money Pitcher: Chief Bender And the Tragedy of Indian Assimilation.

5 comments about Ten Rings: My Championship Seasons.

1. This light reminiscence of Yogi's ten championship seasons is a quick, pleasant read. Like a fleshed out magazine article, perhaps, it touches on a bit of history, a few sketches of famous teammates, and a recounting of the high spots of this charming hall of famer's career. A good choice for the younger fan with no memory of the game as it was in a simpler time.



2. I feel that I can make the claim that Yogi Berra is the most beloved living baseball player, without the same sort of argument I would get if I happened to be making a claim about the greatest living baseball player (Mays or Bonds or Aaron?) or the most admired living baseball player (Musical or Ryan or Aaron?). But who else brings a big smile to your face when you see him still doing commercials on television almost four decades after he retired from playing baseball?

   "Ten Rings: My Championship Seasons" was written by Yogi with Dave Kaplan, a former newspaper reporter who is currently the director of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, and you have the sense that Yogi was looking at his scrap books and press clippings talking about what he remembers from each of the ten seasons in which he and the Yankees won the World Series. Yogi also comments on the four years the Yankees lost the Fall Classic and the three years they did not even win the American League pennant, but the focus is mainly on what those ten seasons that ended with him receiving one of his "Ten Rings."

   I have read most of the books by and about Yogi since I was given a copy of Joe Trumbell's biography in the mid-1960s, and I was rather surprised by how many new stories Yogi came up with for this trip down memory lane. Especially interesting "Ten Rings" are what he has to say about Casey Stengle during the 1949-53 seasons when the Yankees became the first team to win five World Series in a row, and his thoughts about the Brooklyn Dodgers during all their classic confrontations in the 1950s. He also provides some nice details on the end of Allie Reynolds's second no-hitter in 1951. Some readers might be dismayed that Berra has little bad to say about his teammates and opponents, although I think it is clear he felt about Yankee GM George Weiss the way many feel about the team's owner George Steinbrenner today, but clearly Yogi is long past holding grudges. He talks about some of the abuse heaped on him in the early days of his major league career and speaks modestly about his own impressive career accomplishments.

   If you read between the lines the key thing you will pick up is the sense of teamwork and professionalism that existed on the Yankees during the Berra years. This book will be of some value to baseball historians in that it contains Yogi's thoughts on the key players in each championship season as well as some interesting anecdotes that show a different side of the Yankees. For example, Mickey Mantle thought calling pitches was not that hard so Yogi lets him do it during a game Whitey Ford is pitching. Then there is rookie Gil McDougald making a point to veteran pitcher Allie Reynolds. So there are a few choice tales in this rather brief book.

   In the fifth grade there were three of us with the same first name and since I had a catcher's mitt, I spent a year as Yogi. It did not matter that Yogi had already retired and that I had never seen him play. I liked New York as a city and the Yankees in the Civil War, so becoming a New York Yankees fan seemed like a good idea. The fact that they had a catcher with basically the same first name and a last name starting with the same three letters as my own, was too obvious to ignore. Since then I have become much more impressed by what Berra did on the field, much more than the celebrated Yogi-isms (although I love the way the best of those make perfect sense if you pay attention to what is meant rather than what is being said). Clearly I am at the point where I will read anything Yogi happens to write, and while we are not talking classic baseball books, you are not going to be disappointed by "Ten Rings" or any of his other volumes.

   Final Notes: Yes, the page numbers are superimposed on a miniature image of Yogi's ring for that particular championship season. Also, I find it somewhat ironic that the cover is done in a layout rather reminiscent of the 1965 Topps baseball cards, which was the first year in which Yogi was pictured as a player-coach for the New York Mets. The back of "Ten Rings" has an Appendix listing Yogi Berra's World Series Career Records along with his season and post-season batting stats along with line scores for all of the World Series games for those ten championship seasons.




3. If you are a sports fan, baseball fan, Yankees fan, or a Yogi fan this book won't disappoint. The book chronicles the tough, unlikely hero over his career in his words. In many ways Yogi was the bridge between the "old" Yankees (Di Maggio, etc.) and the Mantle / Maris Yankees and beyond. Great book! Fun read!



4. YOGI BERRA DOES A FIND JOB IN REHASHING EACH OF HIS 10 WORLD SERIES VICTORIES. HE GIVES US A LOOK AT HOW THE SEASON WENT, ADDITION OR SUBTRACTION OF KEY PLAYERS, AND SOME DETAILED HIGHLIGHTS OF THAT PARTICULAR SEASON. I ENJOYED HIS HUMOR AND HONESTY CONCERNING HIMSELF AND MANY TEAMATES. THE ONLY THING I WANTED WAS MORE DETAIL ON THE EVENTS HE COVERS. ALL IN ALL THIS IS A VERY EASY BOOK TO READ AND IS VERY ENTERTAINING. FOR ALL YANKEE FANS.



5. This is great book to read if you love the pre-Steinbrenner Yankees of Mantle, Berra, and Ford. Yogi
   gives a simple (what else would you expect?) description of the glory days of baseball before big money. I loved the book! If you are a Yankee fan you can't afford not to read this one. Spend the money and sit back and
   let Yogi tell you what it was like to be young and a Yankee!

5 comments about The Curse of Rocky Colavito: A Loving Look at a Thirty-Year Slump.

1. Terry Pluto wrote two of my favorite sports books, "Loose Balls" and "Our Tribe", this one makes three. Reading this will be great entertainment for the casual or die-hard Indians fan. Those who don't fit those two classifications will probably enjoy it also.



2. Failure on the baseball field may not be enjoyable for a team's fans. But it can often produce some funny, poignant literature. Terry Pluto's "The Curse of Rocky Colavito" is a great example of the genre. Pluto is well-qualified to offer this tale of the Tribe from the mid-50s to the mid-90s. He grew up as a fan, then covered the team as a professional sportswriter. (Cliff Johnson once told him, "I've been ripped by better writers than you.") Anyone who watched as Herb Score was injured, Rocky Colavito was traded, and the team settle into a long era of mediocrity, will no doubt find a special resonance in these pages. Who can forget the immortal Jack Kralick, Joe Azcue or Chico Salmon? Or in more recent times, Super Joe Charboneau? Pluto has a wonderful gift for finding the humor or pathos in the story of the Tribe in this era. It's a worthwhile read for anyone who enjoys good baseball yarns.--William C. Hall



3. Terry sums up perfectly what it's like to be a sports fan in Northeast Ohio since 1955. The talent we've had is incredible, the results even more incredible in that not much good has ever come of it. It will bring back tons of bittersweet memories.



4. The Cleveland Indians are as much a hard luck team as the storied Boston Red Sox or the Chicago Cubs; they just don't get as much media attention. They were one of the best teams in the American League during the latter 1940s and 1950s, winning a World Series in 1948 and a pennant in 1954, but the last pennant race that they really participated in was in 1959. That is, until the 1990s when the team took several division titles and two pennants, 1995 and 1997, but lost in the World Series.

   Author Terry Pluto contends that the demise of the Indians on the field can be traced to the April 1960 trade of slugger Rocky Colavito to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn. It wasn't a particularly good trade; Colavito was a ball-crushing slugger and a fan favorite but Kuenn was a batting champion who specialized in flares to the gap. For more than thirty years thereafter the Indians were pretty awful. The team did poorly on the field, which prompted fans to stay away from the games, which put the team into the red, which prompted the team's ownership to sell or trade its best players and to forego investment in its farm system, which led to even poorer performance on the field, and the continuation of a downward spiral.

   There are an enormous number of bumbling incidents in the history of this baseball team, all detailed in excruciating detail by Pluto. Take the example of Rick Manning's contract. Before the beginning of the 1978 season the team sent him a contract offer 25 percent less than he was paid in 1977, despite the restriction in the MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement against cutting a player's salary more than 20 percent. It was a mistake, pure and simple, but emblematic of the team's slipshod management. Rather than allow him to become a free agent, the Indians resigned Manning to a five year, $2.5 million contract instead of $75,000 for a one year contract. It was stupid. So was letting Jim Bibby get away in 1978 by failing to pay him a $10,000 merit bonus he had earned during the 1977 season for making 30 starts. This incident became legendary and some of the players even wrote a little ditty about it:
   "Pack up all my gear and dough
   Here I go
   Ho, ho, ho
   Bye, bye, Bibby.
   No one here understands me,
   Look at the late check they tried to hand me...
   Bye, bye, Bibby" (p. 196).

   Then there was the June 1974 ten-cent beer night in which drunken fans rioted, went after members of both teams playing that night, and forced a forfeit. That was a disaster, but at least no one was seriously injured. What a screwy attempt at a promotion! What did the team's leadership think would happen? It ranks as one of the all time worst episodes in the history of Major League Baseball. Then there was the team's one foray into the free agent market. The Indians signed Wayne Garland to a ten year, $2.3 million contract in 1977 and Garland injured his arm in his first spring raining game. He never recovered. Then there were ridiculous trades: notably a 1965 trade to reacquire Rocky Colavito, but they had to give up both Tommie Agee (who went on to star with the New York Mets during their championship season in 1969) and Tommy John (who won 286 games after departing Cleveland).

   The real curse of the Indians has nothing to do with Rocky Colavito. It has everything to do with incompetent management. Terry Pluto indicts Gabe Paul for most of the mismanagement. He served as general manager and/or owner of the Indians for more than 20 of the 30+ years that the Indians were horrendous. His supporting casts of buffoons includes general managers Frank Lane-known to all by his nickname of Trader because he loved to make deals to move players and almost all of them were Indian losses-and Phil Seghi. Perhaps the epitome of ineptitude was when the dignitary scheduled to throw out the first pitch at an Indians game couldn't make it and was replaced by Bozo the clown. The irony is striking.

   Terry Pluto ends his book with a review of movement of the Indians from doormats to dominators of the American League. That really began when Dave and Dick Jacobs bought the team and infused it both with new leadership, who knew what they were doing, and the cash necessary to succeed.

   "The Curse of Rocky Colavito" is an interesting and informative book. It does not seek any universal truths, but it does entertain and offer some insight. For Indians fans it will be painful, but perhaps cathartic.




5. I agree 100% with everything Roger Launius said - curses are not curses, unless you have inept managers and even more inept front offices - the Indians had players just as good as anyone else, and their pitching in the late Sixties was among the best in the game - what killed the Indians' chances were inept front office people like Frank Lane and Gabe Paul, people who were far more interested in promoting themselves and bettering themselves than their teams - people like Gabe Paul were just happy to have a team to run.
   
   The corresponding curses of the Red Sox and the Cubs were/are also due to inept management and inept front offices - people who jockey for position to appear in the news or for control of the team, like what happened with the Red Sox with the LeRoux-Sullivan(?) rift - people who were more concerned with their own egos than the good of the team - maybe the Cubs need to quit promoting venerable Wrigley Field, etc. and get more serious about fielding a winning team.
   
   I read this book many years ago - I'm hoping that Pluto wrote this book as an exercise in folly.

3 comments about I Remember Harry Caray.

1. I Remember Harry Caray is a good book and i highly suggest buying it if you are a die hard Cubs fan like myself. This book has some very good stories in it about Harry and the Cubbies. Harry Caray is in my mind what really kept me watching the Cubs through their terrible years and this book is the perfect tribute to a wonderful man.



2. HARRY CARAY WAS ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR BASEBALL ANNOUNCERS OF ALL TIME. I REMEMBER HIM DURING THE LATE 1960'S UNTIL HIS DEATH IN THE LATE 90'S. HE WAS SO ENTHUSIASTIC AND HIS LOVE FOR THE GAME WAS ADDICTIVE. I REALLY ENJOYED THIS BOOK AND FOUND IT BE VERY WELL WRITTEN. I RECOMMEND IT ESPECIALLY FOR ALL CHICAGO AND ST LOUIS FANS WHO CAN APPRECIATE THE TALENT AND CHARACTER OF HARRY.



3. I was surprised by many of the observations in this book, but far from sensationalistic, it is very honest in what made up Harry Carey. I appreciated the fact it was authorized, and I imagine there is more then enough information about Harry to warrent another volume. Here's hoping we get to see more of "the voice of the Cubs'!

5 comments about Thurman Munson: A Baseball Biography.

1. I go to school with Chris Devine, and not only is Chris a great writer and Thurmun Munson: A Baseball Biography, an awesome book, but Chris is also divine in personality and definitely in looks as well!



2. I go to school with Chris Devine and not only is he a great writer, and Thurman Munson; A Baseball Biography a great book, but Chris is also divine in personality and in looks!



3. I ordered this book before it was published and I jumped on it when it finally arrived at the house. After about an hour of reading I had to take a break from the book and I have never picked it up again. The writing was terrible, I felt like I was reading a book designed for sixth graders. The book has no style, it never draws you into the life of Thurman Munson. After the first chapter I had to wonder why I thought this guy was so great that I'd want to read his biography. It seems to me that someone with such a great life as Munson would be an easy target for a great book--it would almost write itself. But Devine took any and all life out of this great character. I'll keep the book only to add to my collection and it will gather much dust on that shelf.



4. Wow - the worst-written baseball bio I've seen in a long time. I grew up a non-Yankee fan, but I always admired Munson. I thought he would be a ripe subject for examination, but Devine's writing just dulls the whole book. Not recommended.



5. I need to first state that I am a HUGE Thurman Munson fan. I have almost every book written about him. I couldn't wait to read this book but after I finished I was pretty disappointed. There really is nothing new in this book. We know that Munson was a great player, that he loved his family, that he had a difficult relationship with his dad, etc. Devine seems to have taken the easy route in writing this book which is to say that he got most of his information from already printed sources. He doesn't seem to have spent a lot of time doing original research. For example: there are NO interviews of his own. He didn't speak to any teammates, players from other teams, much less any of his family. If you have the books written about Munson or the articles from newspapers or magazines then there is really no need for this book. On the other hand, if you want a one stop synopsis of all of these media, then this is a good book for you. Just don't expect to learn anything new.

2 comments about Hello Everybody, I'm George Kell.

1. That George's book turned out to be a long, tall, cold drink of water on a hot summer day came as no surprise to me. We in Michigan, who watched George throughout his years as the premier Tiger TV announcer and as one of the great players of his time, have long known of his commitment to to all that is good and right about America's pastime. But he also served as a prophet concerning the aspects of the modern game which led to a slow decay not only in the quality of the game, but in the character of some of the game's players and management. Even so, how can a baseball aficionado not feel the warm sunshine of yesteryear as we read of a living Hall of Famer's account of playing under Manager Connie Mack, alongside and against Ted Williams...Joe DiMaggio...even Minnie Minoso! George's book is special. I can virtually guarantee you will not read the likes of "Hello everybody, I'm George Kell" ever again. It is an easy-reading account of baseball's glory days, when a nation came out of a war against the forces of evil, and after looking in the mirror, realized the color line must be obliterated in what was then the undisputed King of American sport. George's decency shines through the entire book, just as his light has shined his entire life. Bravo!



2. I know...I know...Ernie Harwell is a legend in Detroit and a Man of God. I would never take anything away from Mr.Harwell.
   
   But, having listened to them both for years growing up, I can tell you that George Kell DEFINED baseball for many more Detroiters than you might think.
   
   And this book helps resurrect the feeling he brought to the game for those who still miss him.
   
   He had so many great lines. Every Tiger fan knows what kind of play he was describing when he said "...And it's a dandy."
   
   And what about "...that helps." Maybe too obscure of a reference for some but Kell's voice uttering those words pop into my head almost everytime a fortuitious circumstance occurs in my life.
   
   A little old fashioned, maybe even uptight by the standards of the 1990's when he hung it up, George would be PERFECT as the ultimate retro announcer in today's baseball climate where fans, so jaded by one disillusionment after another, would relish a rock-solid influence like the GREAT George Kell...

4 comments about Hardball: The Education of a Baseball Commissioner.

1. Plainly, Mr. Kuhn would prefer that his official version of events in baseball from the late 60s into the 80s prevail, despite the popular notion that he was overdrawn at the clue bank during much of that period. His account of labor negotations during his tenure conflicts in many respects with the published accounts of Marvin Miller (the players union representative) and (more objectively) with the account set forth in LORDS OF THE REALM (written by a WSJ reporter). Mr. Kuhn's attempt to repaint his missteps as leadership is certainly understandable, and the book is interesting as a historical document, but bring your grain of salt -- or maybe the whole shaker.



2. I recently read Hardball: The Education of a Baseball Commissioner with the notion that this book is a defense on Bowie Kuhn's part and not a story. He's written this book, after the fact, that the trail of dirt he left cannot not be pushed to the side and forgotten about. Though, he has agreed about some of his missed calls, he has also made it known who else was at fault in say the 1981 strike, etc., etc., etc. Mr. Kuhn made some good points in the book, however he should have used the good knowledge while commissioner.



3. The reader should come away from an autobiography with an understanding of the author's personality and his place in the world. By that standard, Bowie Kuhn's autobiography is a success: on nearly every page, he reveals that even in retrospect he doesn't understand what happened while he was Commissioner of Baseball.

   Kuhn, who served as Commissioner from 1969 until 1984, comes across as a character out of P.G. Wodehouse -- a doddering nobleman who obliviously mouths platitudes while his world collapses around him.

   Unlike predecessors Spike Eckert and Ford Frick, Kuhn actually believed the myth of the Commissioner as Majestic Neutral, lording above owners and players alike to proclaim The Best Interest of Baseball. The players were never fooled: they knew Kuhn was hired and paid by the owners, and took their cues from master negotiator Marvin Miller. Within a few years they had won the right to take their grievances to a truly impartial arbitrator, using this leverage to win free agency. Kuhn never knew what hit him.

   The owners weren't fooled, either. They knew the difference between a pretentious title and actual power -- and they fumed when Kuhn's attempt to play a role in labor negotiations undercut their own bargaining position. Throughout the second half of his tenure, Kuhn spent more time battling to keep his job than actually doing it.

   When Kuhn took office, the owners ran MLB as they pleased. When he left, the owners couldn't sneeze without clearing it with the Players' Association. Read this book and you'll understand how this happened.




4. Hardball: The Education of a Baseball Commissioner is, at base, a sad book about a guy who spent 15 years of his life attempting to accomplish something that had a zero percent chance of success from the start. Kuhn, you see, wanted to be Kennesaw Mountain Landis, which is fine except for the fact that nobody in baseball either wanted another Landis or was particularly crazy about the original. Bowie appears to have believed that the growing acrimony between the owners and the players in the 1970s would ultimately result in his emergence as a "court of last resort" - but it didn't happen and as a result Kuhn sat on the sidelines of most of the great debates of the time.
   
   In essence, he was a man waiting for a train that never arrived.
   
   The argument that Bowie didn't understand what was going on around him has a lot of validity, but I think that (as the book clearly shows) Kuhn's problem was more along the lines of seeing things the way he wanted to see than simply being oblivious to the situation. He clearly doesn't "get" people like Marvin Miller, Charlie Finley, and George Steinbrenner, and moreover he feels dismayed that they are so hell-bent to change the game that he knows and loves. Of course, Bowie Kuhn's vision of baseball has something of the smell of an 1850s plantation to it, but hey - the man is clearly as much fan as executive, so can we really blame him for his illusions?
   
   I gave the book two stars because it is a heavy, somewhat depressing read steeped with high levels of self-delusion, but students of the era will find it interesting to review the Messersmith-McNally decision and others through the eyes of someone who was on the scene - even if his sight was a bit foggy. The book's biggest revelation is that Bowie Kuhn comes across as a very decent man: a little straightlaced, perhaps, but a solid kind of fellow who was basically for the good guys and against the black hats.
   
   In the final analysis, a book that perhaps shouldn't have been written by a guy who probably shouldn't have been Commissioner of Baseball.