3 comments about Barry Bonds (Amazing Athletes).

1. This insightful, well-written book is a must-read for the sports fan interested in a personal, inside view of the multi-faceted personality of the immensely talented Barry Bonds.
   
   Bonds has provided few people with the access and insight he provided Steve Travers, the author. History will prove it to be the definitive work on one of baseball's greatest players.
   
   Frank McCormack



2. Prospective buyers should know that F. J McCormack, a friend of a rival sportwriter, is pushing misinformation. Jeff Savage and not that other fellow (who engages in enough self promotion that he shouldn't need to resort to having friends step all over Savage's work) is the author of this book.
   
   Let's repeat: Jeff Savage, and no one else, is the author of this book.
   
   As he has established a reputation for doing, Jeff Savage has put together a well-written, easily-readable and always interesting book about a star athlete. Readers young and old will enjoy this book - which was written by JEFF SAVAGE and no one else.



3. the Yankees are my Team,but Barry Bonds is the Greatest Baseball Player that I have Ever seen.two things I always keep up with during baseball season: first how my Yankees did&then how Barry Bonds is doing.this is another cool Book about the Baddest Player in the game.a easy read but also on Point about the Greatest.

2 comments about The Man in the Dugout: Fifteen Big League Managers Speak Their Minds.

1. This is one more Donald Honig masterpiece that you should add to your baseball library. In this edition, Honig interviews player-managers Ossie Bluege, Roger Peckinpaugh, and Hall of Famers Burleigh Grimes and Al Lopez, among others. This time, you read the stories of a manager's point of view as well, which is very interesting.

   This book is about a rookie third baseman coming up the line to tag out a lumbering Ty Cobb. About Early Wynn just walking into a tryout camp and announcing himself. About how the Chicago White Sox didn't always play to win in 1919-20.

   One of the more memorable parts is Roger Peckinpaugh reflecting on how the illiterate Shoeless Joe Jackson had to listen to what his teammates ordered for dinner first because he could not read the menu. Jackson, by the way, was one of the greatest natural hitters of all time, showing how things were in those days and how they have changed so much.




2. This is an excellent oral history about the art of baseball managing. In the 1970's author Donald Honig interviewed 15 former baseball managers (many long retired), including Joe McCarthy, Al Lopez, Walt Alston, Billy Herman, Dick Williams, etc. We hear them speak passionately about their days as team skipper, and often as player too. These men differ somewhat on their recipes for success, but nearly all agreed that good managers handle players effectively, get their respect, and get them to hustle. Eddie Sawyer insisted that catchers and outfielders take infield practice to increase their skills - a valuable idea he attributed to Joe McCarthy. Paul Richards and certain others emphasized practice and preparation on every aspect of the game. Others promoted not becoming buddies with your players, basic fundamentals, and watching opposing players practice to learn their tendencies. Many of these ex-managers were elderly (Joe McCarthy was nearly 90), but each spoke clearly and from the heart.
   
   This book is valuable reading for today's coaches/managers at both the amateur and professional ranks - wish I'd read it before becoming assistant coach in high school. Readers should also consider BASEBALL WHEN THE GRASS WAS REAL (also by Honig) and GLORY OF THEIR TIMES (by Lawrence Ritter), two excellent oral histories of baseball from long ago.

1 comments about Broadcast Rites and Sites, Revised Edition: I Saw It on the Radio with the Boston Red Sox.

1. This book was awful. I lost this book halfway through and it didn't matter to me. Normally if I lost a book I would go through the house so I could finish it.
   I'm a big Sox fan and Joe Castiglione is a great broadcaster, but he's not a great author. One star for trying.

1 comments about Babe & The Kid: The Legendary Story of Babe Ruth and Johnny Sylvester.

1. I have heard this story many times in movies and books - but this is the accurate full-telling of well-researched facts. Very interesting and educational. A must for any Yankee or Ruth fan.

5 comments about Still Pitching: Musings from the Mound and the Microphone.

1. If you remember the typical sports biography before Jim Bouton wrote Ball Four, arguably the best baseball book -- and the only sports book on the New York Times top 100 books of the last millennium -- this is that "good old days" genre.

   Kaat, with Phil Pepe, is a long way from David Wells, who now plays for the team for which Kaat announces, the New York Yankees. And the difference just isn't in the books Wells and Kaat had published this year. Wells will finish with about 80 fewer career wins than Kaat, but most certainly has more headlines than Kaat ever did. Considering the careers of the two, that seems somewhat unfair. Not that Kaat would complain.

   You'll have to read between the lines when Kaat dislikes someone, although it's clear everything in his 25-year major league career wasn't a "gee whiz experience." In fact, it could be argued Kaat's book is an exercise in tact. His restraint in personal attacks is almost an education.

   If you grew up in the '50s or '60s -- particularly in the Midwest -- you might enjoy Kaat's book immensely. Surely Minnesota Twins' fans who have begun to read "Best Places to Retire" will enjoy it.

   For any baseball fan, certainly the most poignant aspect that surfaces is baseball might be a warm game to play if you're in love with the sport, but it's a cold business. Despite his near Hall of Fame credentials, Kaat received his share of poor treatment in his career.

   For instance, it certainly would surprise most fans under 25 that despite his statistics in Minnesota, he took a pay cut during 7 of his 13 years with the Twins. And when he details his releases from these teams, well, it doesn't say much about people who run the game. I suppose no real baseball follower will be surprised, but they might be interested.

   Despite all that, it's clear Kaat's a good guy with more humility than you'll find among some people who work in middling "front office" positions in the game today.

   I was a sports writer during the tail end of Kaat's career, and interviewed him a couple times after he left the game as a player. He's as classy and tactful in real life as he is in this book. He's far more entertaining in person or as a broadcaster than he is here.

   Still, stories about advice dad gave him when it came time to sign his first pro contract are certainly interesting, and if you have a kid who is a budding big-leaguer maybe reading Kaat's book will educate the youngster about the game, offer some history and help make him a better person. I'd rather have my kid read Kaat than David Wells.




2. I found this book an inordinately refreshing change of pace from the usual self-aggrandizing, back-biting, and vituperative drivel that one often finds in books of this nature. Instead of bludgeoning his readers with an endless series of cheap ad hominem attacks on his ex-teammates, or whining incessantly about the "wanton cruelty" of the "mass media" (again, an all too common feature in sports biographies these days), Mr. Kaat conveys to his readers something much more profound here: His undying and unconditional love for the sport he played.

   While it may seem almost Kafkaesque to laud an ex-athlete for "doing the right thing" in his memoirs, that is not to say, however, that Mr. Kaat doesn't offer any criticism of some the men that he played with. It is just done tactfully, and in a manner that is devoid of the sort of malignant narcissism that one finds in say, David Wells' Tell-all tale.

   Indeed, this book does feature more than its fair share of criticism against those who Mr. Kaat feels could have done more to help themselves, and their respective teams. For example:

   - Did you know that Harmon Killebrew, while a great ballplayer, lacked the sort of leadership skills that one would hope for in a star of that magnitude? His passivity, especially with regards to his sheepish acceptance of any contract offered him by ownership, helped to undermine the position of many of his teammates when negotiating contracts.

   Remember, this was long before professional athletes earned the sort of money they do today. They measured their financial success, as did most Americans at that time, in the tens of thousands, not the tens of millions that they do today.

   - Did you know that George Steinbrenner, while always willing to spend millions on high-profile free agents, was capable of lying to and then chiseling aging veterans, like Jim Kaat, out of a meager few thousand dollars? (hehe...surprised? Nor was I).
   
   Now, Mr. Kaat does not frame his criticism of King George in quite the same way as I did above. But his anger was, nonetheless, evident. There are, of course, more such examples of this book's critical offerings, but the two I've provided above should suffice.

   Any Yankee fan, like me, who has listened to Mr. Kaat broadcast Yankee games for the past nine years, knows that he is literally a bottomless well of baseball anecdotes. One of my favorites from his book is the story he tells about Graig Nettles, the great Yankee third baseman from 1973-83, who had started his career with Minnesota in late-60s.

   Kaat and Nettles had been good friends during their days together in Minnesota. Subsequently, after Nettles had been traded to Cleveland and then to New York, the two faced each other many times, with Nettles usually getting the better of Kaat. Kaat speculates that this was so because they had been such good friends in Minnesota. Nettles, therefore, felt comfortable batting against Kaat-too comfortable. One night, Nettles, while batting against Kaat, was being pestered by a moth that kept flying around his face. Nettles jokingly barked out at Kaat, "hey Jim, was that your fastball?" Angered by this, and by all the previous success that Nettles had had against him, Kaat threw the next pitch, a fastball, right under Nettles' chin. Nettles fell backward and looked out at Jim in stunned disbelief. Suffice it to say, Nettles never again enjoyed the same success against Kaat after that.

   That is but one of many charming stories that Jim shares with his readers. This is a book that any true baseball fan will enjoy reading. Mr. Kaat's sincerity, straight-forwardness, and love for the game of baseball is as refreshing as a cold iced-tea is on a hot summers day...a day which is perfect for baseball.




3. This book really captures Jim Kaat. Having listened to him broadcast over the years I could almost hear him speaking the words from this book. It's a nice story by a guy who doesn't have an axe to grind with anyone. It was also a great example of how someone can be very opinionated without being controversial or nasty. As another reviewer hinted, this won't go down as a landmark in sports literature, but it is a really nice, easy read and is an all-around interesting story.



4. Jim Kaat's 20+ years on the mound translates into a good understanding of pitching which benefits his announcing and his book writing. Instead of wasting time with gossip, he offers solid and concise analysis of baseball, much of it unconventional.

   He thinks that pitchers shouldn't be running before ballgames, because they are strengthening the wrong muscles. Pitchers can best get in shape by pitching and conditioning the same muscles they will need when they are working late in a game. He also thinks that pitchers should be throwing everyday to keep those muscles limber. There must be something to it. When Kaat retired, no one had played as many seasons and his only stint on the DL was when he broke his arm sliding into second base.

   He also thinks that pitchers get into trouble over-thinking situations. A good example is Mike Mussina, a Stanford graduate. Kaat makes a good case that there is no substitute for throwing strikes. He points out that even the best hitters can't hit every pitch out in batting practice when they know what's coming. Why do pitchers worry that putting it across the plate is going to be disaster? David Wells is his example of a guy who just battles the hitters with his best stuff.

   The book is pretty short, because unlike most authors who go on and on about a subject hitting it at the edges, Kaat aims square in the middle and moves on to something else. The publisher's worry about the book's shortness has lead to a bunch of filler material like Kaat's Teammate All-Star teams and greatest catchers he's seen. There's also a section at the end full of newspaper stories written about Kaat during his playing career.

   The main body of the book may be short, but the wisdom contained within is worth more than books twice the size. I think Jim Kaat could write a really good book in the style of George Will's MEN AT WORK if some publisher gave him the opportunity.




5. STILL PITCHING COVERS THE LONG CAREER IN A SHORT BOOK ABOUT JIM (KITTY) KAAT. JIM TELLS US A BIT ABOUT HIS CHILDHOOD AND HIGH SCHOOL DAYS BUT MOST IS ABOUT HIS MAJOR LEAGUE AND BROADCASTING CAREER. SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS ARE PITCHING AGAINST SANDY KOUFAX DURING 1965 WORLD SERIES AND HIS THOUGHTS AND RELATIONSHIPS WITH DICK ALLEN, HARMON KILLEBREW AND MANY OTHERS. IT IS AN EASY READING BOOK AND MOVES ALONG AT A NICE PACE. I REALLY ENJOYED THIS AND RECOMMEND IT FOR ALL BASEBALL FANS. ( AND THAT AINT NO KITTY LITTER)

No comments about John Fetzer: On a Handshake : The Times and Triumphs of a Tiger Owner.

5 comments about Safe at Home.

1. I have known Bob Muzikowski for three years now, and he never ceases to amaze me. Reading this book has been a revelation. If you're feeling cynical, or doubt that one man can make a difference in society, read this book. Muzikowski chronicles his life from a tough childhood to a self-destructive early adulthood through his current and permanent persona, a caring, compassionate person who genuinely wishes to spread goodwill. Hopefully, this story will inspire others to follow in Bob's footsteps, and love their neighbors. The narrative is alternately heartbreaking, hopeful, and humorous, but always honest. A seemingly endless parade of intriguing supporting "characters" add color and depth to Muzikowski's infectiously interesting vignettes. Rather than see the Keanu Reeves/Hollywood version, read the real thing. Pass it on!



2. When Bob Muzikowski and I sat across from each other on a plane ride last September, I mostly listened as he told his story. As publisher for Zondervan, I knew by the time we landed I'd be asking him if he was interested in telling this story in print! The world is hungry for stories about "everyday heros" with whom we can actually identify. Bob is a regular guy who, in spite of a rough and tumble first few decades of life, has found a way to live an extraordinary life. His story reads like a novel but the inspiration that drives him is compelling and accessible to all of us. This is a book that you will not be able to just read. You will most definately encourage your adolescent children to read it and you will talk about it with your colleagues and friends. Trust me...for what started as an idle conversation on a plane last September is now a wonderful book that in just over a month is being read by thousands.



3. Although Bob Muzikowski's book, "Safe at Home," is catagorized as an autobiography, it is so much more! This book is a real life story of THE Author's plan for one man. Bob Muzikowski has shown us how one man (and woman, Tina!) can make a difference when he chooses to please an Audience of One - the blessings of God on Bob Muzikowski's life have been multiplied exponentially to others! "Safe at Home" has been described as "inspiring," but Bob's story will only be truly inspiring if it generates a response from its readers; one that takes them out of their comfortable church pews and into the God-prescribed place that He wants them to be! "Batter Up!" The choice is yours: you can take the challenge as the designated hitter or warm the bench in the dugout!



4. This is one of the most AMAZING books I have ever read. Touching, heartfelt and gutsy! I have passed this book on to many friends and they have all had the same response. One of those books that changes your outlook on pretty much everything.



5. I never knew Bob Muzikowski ... nor did I know of the book prior to last month (April 2004). However, I was fortunate enough to meet this amazingly honest, articulate, straight-shooting gentleman [yes ... gentleman] at a prayer breakfast in Albany, NY. After hearing him speak [him being the featured speaker] and hearing his story I simply needed to know more. I spent a little time researching Bob and was interested in reading the book.

   OK ... now for the book review ...
   DON'T READ THIS STORY if you are not interested in changing your heart and mind for a greater good. THE RIPPLE EFFECT will occur in your heart as you realize the full potential each and every one of us has to better the lives of others. HHHMMM ... isn't that what Jesus taught?
   AND if you're an Evangelical Christian, the story will either motivate you INTO service for Him or it will refresh your walk and current service.
   Either way ... this story is SO MUCH BIGGER than Bob and his boys. It's a glimpse of the ON-GOING ACTIONABLE LOVE AND COMPASSION for everyone associated with Bob and Tina ... and for you and I? It's fuel for our hearts ... raw honesty, compassion and love seen through very tough circumstances and people.
   
   BOTTOM LINE ... this book is an example of what God can do when a heart is willing to be transformed.
   PS: Check out the Chicago Hope Academy ... a school opening in 2004 that was built on the fire and determination of these folks.

1 comments about Teddy Ballgame, Revised: The Exceptional Life of Baseball's Greatest Hitter, In Pictures and His Own Words..

1. This revised edition of Ted Williams: My Life in Pictures is even better than the original which was terrific. If one is not moved to tears by David Pietrusza's account of his last meeting with the Splendid Splinter, you have no heart. This book is a wonderful combination of genuine straight-from-the-hip anecdotes and commentary by one of the most opinionated men in the history of the game and brilliant editing of pictures and text by co-author Pietrusza. Coming on the heels of Pietrusza's excellent biography of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, this book establishes him as one of the top baseball writers of his generation.

3 comments about Off Base: Confessions of a Thief.

1. This book simply shows how good Rickey Henderson is, both on the field and off. He takes you behind the scenes of his 20 year career in the major leagues and what it took for him to get there. From the early little league games in Oakland to his 939th Stolen Base...Rickey Henderson is truly a living legend in what he does....BEING THE GREATEST LEADOFF HITTER OF ALL TIME!!



2. This book is a must for all Rickey fans. Henderson holds little back in his autobiography. He's a touch arrogant, but he's earned that right; with the single season set (and likely not to be broken in today's baseball) and the career mark out of reach. If you like Rickey, then you'll like this book.



3. RICKEY HENDERSON IS PROBABLY THE BEST LEADOFF HITTER EVER IN BASEBALL. IN THIS BOOK HE LET'S US KNOW THIS AND MANY OTHER THINGS HE IS GREAT AT. AS A PLAYER RICKEY REALLY WAS A THREAT ON BASE AND AT BAT. IN THIS BOOK WE FIND OUT ALOT MORE ABOUT RICKEY AND HIS OPINIONS ON MANY THINGS. I FOUND THIS BOOK TO BE BOTH INTERESTING AND ENTERTAINING. RICKEY HAS A VERY LARGE EGO BUT HE CAN BACK IT UP. I REALLY DON'T THINK ALOT OF HIS TEAMATES CARED FOR HIS ARROGANCE AND SELF CENTEREDNESS BUT RICKEY HELPED MAKE HIS TEAMS A WINNER. I RECOMMEND THIS FOR ALL RICKEY HENDERSON AND BASEBALL FANS WHO APPRECIATE HIS UNIQUE TALENT OF SPEED AND POWER.

2 comments about A League of My Own: Memoir of a Pitcher for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

1. My sincere thanks to this author. I was facinated by the movie, A League of Their Own. I welcomed the detail and reality of the era of womens baseball that this author shared. It was warm, humorous and long overdue. She was a remarkable woman, with the courage to follow her dreams.



2. Pat Brown's A League of My Own is a great addition to anybody's baseball library. While there are have been several great books written on the league's history, Brown's has the distinction of being written by an actual former player. For AAGPBL enthusiasts, A League of My Own offers great insight into the events, attitudes, and experiences of the 1949-1950 player development teams which is mentioned in most accounts, but so far hasn't been detailed this well. Also interesting to read of this woman's personal story and how professional baseball was just one chapter in a long sports career. Great Book!