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!

5 comments about The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness.

1. Buster Olney, a former beat writer for the New York Times, looks at the New York Yankees' run of baseball success from 1996 to 2000 from the vantage point of the night it all came to an end, Game 7 of the 2001 World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
   
   Published in 2004, the book's title seems overwrought. The Yankees haven't won a World Series in the last five seasons, but they have that in common with a lot of other good teams, and the Bombers remain impressive, winning the American League East every season since 1998, and well over .500 in 2006 as of this writing.
   
   But something was lost in 2001, a spirit that departed along with Scott Brosius, Paul O'Neill, and Tino Martinez. One of the remaining Yankees, Derek Jeter, is quoted bemoaning at the end: "It's not the same team." Olney makes a convincing case for that non-quantifiable game element known as team chemistry, both its presence from 1996-2001 and its absence thereafter.
   
   Olney seems to model his book, consciously or not, on the classic Dan Okrent book "Nine Innings," which focused on a single regular-season game in 1982, using each half-inning as an excuse to digress on different elements on the game and its players. The great thing about "Nine Innings," or one of them, was the fact the game wasn't that important, it was just another mid-season game and presented Okrent for a backdrop as he divided his focus between the two small-market clubs playing that day. Here, the game is the last one of the 2001 World Series, and all the focus is on the Yankees.
   
   One weakness is instead of leading each chapter with the game, and then pulling the reader into the backstory, Olney starts with the story he wants to tell, whether it's about pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre fighting cancer or pitcher David Cone's ability to spin the media spotlight to the team's benefit, then throws in a half-inning's worth of business in the last few paragraphs, sometimes connecting it to the rest of the chapter, sometimes not.
   
   While not a solidly constructed book, "Last Night" abounds with a lot of good behind-the-scenes copy, like Mariano Rivera's fatalistic locker-room speech before Game 7 and how George Steinbrenner's tirades caused his general manager, Brian Cashman, to think about wearing a mouthguard to bed, to keep him from grinding his teeth in his sleep.
   
   There's also some funny dish on players ("It was taken as fact in baseball circles that Albert Belle was nuts") and nice insights on how they play the game (Cone's many different release points compensate for underwhelming stuff, Jeter's unorthodox playing style is re-examined by a former teammate who was critical but now thinks Jeter is right). If Olney comes across a little too kind to the Yankees' most vicious player, Roger Clemens, he is repaid by Clemens with some good quotes and worthwhile insights.
   
   Overall, Olney is a sympathetic if not uncritical observer, and those expecting to read "The Bronx Zoo" may be disappointed. I'm not a Yankee fan, and I enjoyed it; I can only imagine how interesting it will be for those who bleed pinstripes and think five years without winning the World Series makes for some kind of drought.



2. A recent personal project required that I read a half dozen books on baseball over the course of about as many weeks. Buster Olney's cool, lapidary prose made a nice sorbet with which to chase down the overweening lyricism of one of the game's Grand Old Men of American Lettahs, and the pomposity of a second. (I resist, with difficulty, the temptation to name names.)
   
   The first thing to do is to set aside that contentious title. Olney, who covered the Yankees for four seasons for the New York Times, is a nonpartisan, or does a fine impression of one. His book is neither the inflammatory crowing of a Yankee hater nor the pessimistic keening of a demoralized loyalist. He uses the seventh game of the 2001 Yankees/Diamondbacks World Series as the springboard for a close analysis of the franchise's history in the years approaching and following the turn of the 21st century, and the treatment is both dispassionate and compassionate. The book's structure has a cinematic quality, with players taking their turns in focused, background-providing flashbacks generated by the inning-by-inning action on the field. Olney's narrative is not an innovation, but with his scrutiny of the decisions (good and bad) that led up to this game, and his attention to the personalities involved, he achieves something rare and tricky. He reminds us that every big game, like every snowflake, is distinct from all others, and suggests that the outcome of Game Seven was foreordained by the confluence of circumstances and people (both on the field and at the executive level) representing the clubs on this night. Put another way, a big game is never one big story; it's a significant point within dozens of smaller stories -- the stories of the uniformed people you see on the field, businesspeople you may recognize in the boxes and clubhouses, and others whose names you might never have heard. If anyone were removed from the tapestry, the whole would be altered. All the obvious slides get their time under the microscope -- Roger Clemens, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Joe Torre, George Steinbrenner, et al -- but the author also finds space, in a crisp 355 pages, for pertinent and illuminating studies of relative peripherals: the intellectually brilliant but fatally detached former Red Sox GM Dan Duquette; the obsessive-compulsive early/mid-1990s Yankee manager Buck Showalter; the gifted, infuriatingly undisciplined former Yankee pitcher David Wells, whose "bloated body camouflaged exceptional athleticism," in Olney's words.
   
   The book, as suggested above, casts a wide net, but every one of its portraits has the subtlety and finish of a fine aquarelle. Indeed, some of Olney's most eloquent passages are those devoted to men who were not on the field for the game in question, but who played important parts in seasons leading up to it. I think here particularly of the section on the gracious and articulate yet driven David Cone, a Yankee starting pitcher nearing the end of a distinguished career and attempting (sometimes successfully, other times not) to do with guile and sheer force of will what he could no longer do with velocity and power. And the chapter on substance-abusing Darryl Strawberry's many second chances, and many subsequent relapses, makes something poignant out of material grown hackneyed in both news and fiction. "[T]hrough addictions, incarcerations, and hearings, he had never lost the beautiful buggy-whip swing he'd had when the Mets picked him first in the 1980 draft," writes Olney, and that unshowy yet felicitous phrase (especially that splendid description of the swing) finds just the right note with which to begin a chapter on a man of prodigious natural gifts and abysmal judgment, a package made up of the extraordinary and the dismayingly, even tragically ordinary.
   
   I have taken pains not to reveal my own allegiances, because they are not really at issue here. Whether one roots for or against the Yankees, this is an engrossing and educational book, a potent blend of anecdote and psychology from the perspective of an astute insider. Go along with the author or not on his central point that the seventh-game loss to the Diamondbacks in 2001 was, by itself, of epochal character; but he compellingly makes his case that this franchise, historically restless and overachieving from the top down, was in some way due for sobering disappointment, retrenchment and reevaluation. Though occasioned by a bruising postseason loss, this taking of stock need not have been an entirely bad thing. For baseball franchises, as in life in general, survival is renewal.
   
   Likely to become a classic within its field.



3. Buster Olney, one of the only sentient and honest people still at ESPN (now that Dan Patrick is gone), has written one the best, most comprehensive sports books of all time.
   
   Proof of this is how accurate his prognosis for the next seven years of Yankee mediocrity has become. It takes insight to determine this, and Olney succeeds. The personal stories/flashbacks are great---as is this book. A must read for any baseball fan, and I am FAR from a NYY fan.



4. I loved this book. Olney does a tremendous job of providing background on the many significant parts that contributed to the Yankees success during the late 90s, interpersing them with the historic Game 7 of the '01 World Series. This is not only a MUST-HAVE for any sports and Yankees fan, but anyone who still thinks that baseball isn't the epitome of a TEAM sport.



5. A must read, ESPECIALLY if you are a Yankees fan (although you would think the opposite!). It gives you insight into all sorts of things about Game 7 (and the Yankees in general) that will have you saying "Wow!" to yourself. There are so many more little "what if's" that could have changed the outcome of that game, long before Torre's decision to play the infield in for Luis Gonzalez's last at bat. You'll also understand why the "winning the World Series is the only goal" attitude worked so well for the 1998-2001 teams, as opposed to the post-2001 Yankee rosters of All-Stars.
   
   You might want to wait until closer to the release of the 2001 World Series boxset however... you will DEFINITELY want to see Game 7 again after reading this book!

5 comments about I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson.

1. They say to whom much is given, much is expected. In Jackie's case he didn't ask to take on this feat- but nonetheless he accepted the mission and gave it his all- and succeeded- perhaps at the expense of his own personal life and serenity. This man had a huge task and he never shirked when it seemed to be insurmountable...the crux of the challenge was that jackie was told that he would be up against jeering crowds, small minds, hostile people that would do their best to get his goat- and that it was imperative that jackie did not resist and defend- and he upheld his end of the bargain.Jackie shows us all the high road.I am no sports fan but I did love this book- because it is about focus, strength and grace in the face of opposition, and a trailblazer personality that lit the way for many many people.



2. The autobiography of Jackie Robinsons Life "I never had it made" was an inspiring book to not stop trying. I enjoyed this book as a learner of the old ages and as a young fan of baseball. Jackie inspired millions of African Americans to do what they always have dreamed of doing. The only reason I did not give it 5 stars was because I thought they talked too much about his life after he retired from baseball. The book talks about the hardships Jackie went through and the journey he made to become such a phenomenal athlete and role model. Some of the people that Jackie worked with were greats known as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. After retirement Jackie opens up his own charities and organizations to help the not so fortunate African Americans of today's society. I recommend this book to anyone that has trouble with their self-confidence because this book makes you appreciate your life more. Unfortunately Jackie will be remembered just because of his baseball accomplishments and not what he did off the field.



3. This was just dynamite. Jackie holds nothing back. I've read a lot of baseball books, and I've read a lot of autobiographies. This was hands-down the best, period! If you only want to read about his baseball accomplishments, go elsewhere. He covers his entire life, and there was a lot more than just baseball. The incidents from other episodes of his life serve to quantify what an advocate he was, and how difficult it was to take the abuse heaped upon him in his first two seasons with the Dodgers without responding. Bravo to a well-lived life, Jackie!



4. I read this book when I did a research paper on Jackie Robinson in 11th grade English class back in 2003. It was a great autobiography and I couldn't put the book down. Not only tells the story of the man as a baseball player, but it tells how he struggled being a "black man in a white world." If you are interested in baseball, civil rights, or even just want to read a good book and learn more about the time, I highly recommend this book.



5. A very positive role model for our youth (and adults!) Jackie Robinson was courageous man. I learned about the barriers and obstacles he faced as well as all African-Americans faced during this era. And still face today.

5 comments about Babe: The Legend Comes to Life.

1. That was written for boys & swallowed every legend whole. Robert Creamer has written quite a bit on baseball. This may be about the best biography of its time. You can't do much better than Tom Parker if you take the audio route. I've read or listened to other works by Mr. Creamer & they are consistently good. That said he has alway seemed a bit to attached to the numbers. Baseball is the most satistical of sports & I do enjoy them. Ever year there is a new on that can be applied however unofficially to players of other eras such as the Babe. One of the newest ones now in vogue is the quality start.
   Six inningss minimum with three earned runs or less is a quality start. Having said that sometimes the numbers overwhelm the story. Stats on the Babe's minor league years will be forgotten about 2 seonds after you hear them. Mr Creamer endeavors to be accurate & may knock down some of the legends, or reduce them to believable proportions. The belly-ache heard round the world & The Babe hitting three home-runs in his last game are examples of the hype at the time. Creamer gets real & lifts, in the end his biography to a more adult level. I think Mr. Creamer dwells a bit more on Babe's other appetites, as well, such as women. His various ailments, injuries & suspensions have surprisingly depressed records that could have been even greater than they eventually were. Babe's juvenile behavior in his early years & the number of people in the baseball world that he irritated by his sometimes arrogant attitude through-out his career thwarted him in the thing he wanted most: to be a big league manager. That is sad & we'd have a lot more to talk about since he lived for another 10 years after he left baseball. He died relatively young but he was & still is (despite his numbers being slowly
   eclipsed) the greatest. If you wanted a truthful biography this is is a pretty good one & its available in the audio version.



2. Some personalities are too big to be contained in a single book, especially one who exemplified bigness like Babe Ruth.
   
   Ruth was not much into analyzing the whys of his greatness. As retold in Robert Creamer's 1974 biography, when asked the secret of why he hit so many home runs, he replied: "Just swinging." Asked about "the psychology of the home run" by the same reporter, Babe responded: "Say, are you kidding me?"
   
   Creamer seems to feel the same way. He's not the prose version of Jack Webb exactly, but his "Babe" is heavy on facts and remarkably light on the sort of thing modern sports writers like to fill their weighty tomes up with, cultural impact and inner-self profiling. Creamer presents teasing glimpses of Babe's revelries, and some hints of who he really was beneath the legend (one close friend says "I don't think he really loved anybody"). But his focus is on Babe the baseball player, his statistical brilliance and his awesome, game-breaking power.
   
   He broke into the majors as a pitcher, developing into "the best lefthander in the game" before it became clear, in this blessed time before the advent of the designated hitter, that he could do more to win games with his bat than his arm. What followed transformed baseball from a slightly noisier and faster version of cricket into the National Pastime. Babe Ruth didn't invent the home run, but he might as well have deserved the copyright, hitting 54 homers in 1920, more than any other entire team produced except for his Yankees, red-haired stepchildren to the fabled New York Giants until Babe arrived and changed everything.
   
   Even though his career home-run record was in the process of being broken when "Babe" was published, Ruth was about so much more than that. Creamer gets at a lot of the on-field stuff, especially, like the fact he once led the American League in batting average and, as a pitcher, produced the longest stretch of earned-run-free innings for more than 40 years.
   
   The book does come across as dry at points, though, focusing on Ruth's more measurable accomplishments and ignoring the less tangible stuff. Creamer doesn't overwhelm you with a lot of flowing prose, which is a good thing, but he leaves a lot of things alone that seem fertile ground for exploration. Possibly because the last bio I read was Robert Caro's "Path To Power," it felt like Creamer was light on sourcing, but that's probably because his method of research was a lot less formal, chats at the bar with old-timers over the course of decades condensed into the iceberg we get here.
   
   What Creamer wrote, he got right, though, something I know as a fact. My grandfather covered the Yankees and was Babe's favorite ghostwriter, and my father, who saw Babe in the Yankee clubhouse, swore by Creamer as one of sportwriting's best for giving the honest, unvarnished truth. It's not a book for boys, as Creamer notes, but "Babe" will make you feel like one reading about this real-life giant who walked the earth.



3. Legends transcend time. The Stories get better, the adjectives get bolder, until they become passé. Ruth was the only athlete who was already at legend at age 21. There was no reason to exaggerate, and no words to describe his ferocious dominance. And the timing of his nuclear assault on history couldn't have been better planned. Fresh from the Black Sox crisis of 1919, America's greatest sport teetered on extinction. To this day, this baby faced Neanderthal had more athletic dominance over his peers than anyone in history...and more charisma than ten W.C. Fields. He changed the sport. Some say he changed the world.
   
   Home Runs were non-existent before him. Baseball runs were earned one base at a time; singles...sacrifice bunts...a sport of hard drinking pitchers, and gritty base stealers led by Cobb. After Ruth arrived, the physical dimensions had to be rearranged just to accommodate his abilities. Mammoth stadiums were built with double the capacity, replete with awe inspiring 450+ ft fences. All because of Ruth. But the parks were no match for him. He was the all-time home run champion at age 25, HR champ 13 times in 15 years, and in his 17 years as a hitter, he hit 235 home runs 450 ft. or further. By comparision, Bonds was HR champ just twice, and hit just 3, count em, 3 450ft HRs his first 15 seasons pre-roids.
   
   I've just read the new Ruth book out called The Big Bam, but afficionado's like me still choose Beamer's documentary as the voice of record. Unlike the rest, he best captures Ruth's massive power and abilities, childhood innocence, great sense of humor and rebelliousness, and rock star image. Ruth was the real deal. He was a true legend in his own time, and wore the badge humbly on his sleeve. He lit up every room he entered, and lit up every pitcher he faced. This book is a classic, like the man himself.



4. As author of the yet to be published "Babe Ruth: The Man Behind The Legend," I have read every book I can find on the subject of Babe Ruth. The more I read, the more I appreciate Creamer's exhaustive account of Ruth's playing career. This one is, by far, the best of all and I keep it with me at all times when I am in need of reference material. It is the most thorough and comprehensive. It is easy to see why this book has endured the test of time - an amazing 33 years in print. Thank you, Robert Creamer, for your truly wonderful contribution, and may you enjoy many more years in print! Sincerely, Rebecca Rau



5. This is a complete and thorough examination of the life and playing career of a baseball icon. The author has done a commendable job of separating the facts from the fanciful fictions that have grown up surrounding George Herman Ruth. While his home run record has been surpassed, I still think one can argue that Ruth was the greatest baseball player when one considers that in addition to his hitting abilities Ruth was an outstanding pitcher. He was shifted to the outfield when his managers determined that he could be of greater value as an everyday player rather than pitching every third or fourth day.

4 comments about Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman.

1. While every major league team is required to retire Jackie Robinson's #42, the Lords of Baseball might also consider having every team display a pair of rimless glasses, an unlit cigar and a bow tie in memory of Branch Rickey. Until that happens, Lee Lowenfish's book stands as an excellent and precise memorial.
   
   Robinson's contribution to baseball and American history is undeniable, but he was acting, to some extent, in his best self-interest. Rickey's self-interest, as normally defined, however, would have been to continue to bar the door to African American participation in the big leagues, while denying the door was even shut. This was the path of his fellow baseball decision-makers, for decades.
   
   Rickey defined his self-interest in broader, even spiritual terms. He was several kinds of paradox: a muscular Christian, a country gentleman who lived and worked in the biggest cities, a tee-totaler who constantly supported and even loved rascals like Leo Durocher, Dizzy Dean and Pepper Martin.
   
   Mr. Lowenfish, in addition to being a fine baseball maven and historian, is also a professorial-grade expert on American History. He combines these areas of expertise smoothly, giving depth and meaning to the various events and decisions in Rickey's life. He weaves details from inside baseball and culture into a deeply textured whole.
   
   He also does not see the world in terms of cardboard heroes and villains, a particularly rare and useful point of view when it comes to this story, which has so much genuine and well documented heroism. Lowenfish reports on Happy Chandler, Lee Mac Phail, Ben Chapman, even that original baseball Satan, Walter O'Malley, by treating them as real people with complex motives, instead of mere evil-doers put in the world specifically for Robinson and Rickey to overcome.
   
   Give Robinson, who walked through the door, all the credit in the world. But also credit he who opened the door. Lee Lowenfish does so in the way that Rickey himself would have most admired: by showing the human beings behind the myths.



2. Let me touch on that last first.
   
   Branch Rickey may have used the term "ferocious gentlemen" about various people he appreciated. It certainly was NOT used regularly of others about him, definitely not to the point where it became a moniker.
   
   But, Lowenfish tags Rickey with it, and uses it of him about every 10-15 pages. It's grating, it's off-putting, and does nothing to move the story line forward. Nor does it do anything for me in a good sense of establishing Lowenfish as a special author.
   
   There's a few small errors of fact in the book. Most notably, the 1948 Chicago Tribune headline was "Dewey DEFEATS Truman" and not "Dewey BEATS Truman."
   
   Other than that, while not leaden, the style of the book is not crisp, either.
   
   As far as content, the book could either have been written a bit tighter and be 50 pages shorter, or else have been longer and more jam-packed. Rickey's Brooklyn years and especially his relationship with Walter O'Malley come immediately to mind. What first set them off against one another? Did Rickey have any quotable comments about O'Malley? Ditto for O'Malley about Rickey.
   
   In other words, this book isn't bad as a Rickey bio -- if you can get past Lowenfish's writing tics. But, there's surely a more compelling -- and better written -- book available.



3. If you consider yourself a baseball fan you need to read this book, because Branch Rickey was an integral part of the game's history. The book is 600 pages long, but the reading style flowed easily for me, and held my interest throughout the book. The legal profession's loss was baseball's gain as he devoted practically his entire life to serving the game while serving others at the same time. He spoke his mind and rubbed some people the wrong way, but this conservative Republican knew a wrong when he saw it, and opened up the game of baseball to the Negro race when other owners dared not disrupt the status quo. After a stint at coaching at the University of Michigan where he encountered who he deemed one of his two favorite players, George Sisler, he moved on to St. Louis to cover the lowly Browns where he worked under his favorite superior, Robert Hedges. From there it was to the Cardinals where he placed his stamp on the Redbirds successful teams of the mid-1930s Gashouse Gang, and early 1940's which were under the ownership of Sam Breadon. From there it was on to Brooklyn where he made history by signing Jackie Robinson along with others who would become stars of Roger Kahn's book "The Boys of Summer" during the 1950s. Following the 1950 season he left the Dodgers following a power struggle with "The Big O", Walter O'Malley. The Pittsburgh Pirates came calling, and once again Rickey built a cellar-dwelling franchise into a championship 1960 team with players such as Dick Groat and stealing an unprotected Roberto Clemente from the Dodgers' minor league system. Rickey's last stop was back in St. Louis when Cardinals' owner "Gussie" Busch hired Rickey as a consultant. This proved an unwise move on the part of both Busch and Rickey. Rickey clashed with Redbird general manager "Bing" Devine who was in the process of building a winner in St. Louis. Rickey wanted Stan Musial to retire, certainly an unpopular suggestion where The Man reigned supreme. Rickey died in November of 1965 while making a speech in Columbia, Missouri. I remember listening to it on St. Louis radio station KMOX. This book is filled with legendary baseball characters such as Larry MacPhail, Red Barber, Leo Durocher, "Pepper" Martin (Rickey's other favorite player), Clyde Sukeforth, Rogers Hornsby, Frankie Frisch, Connie Mack, and numerous others. Incidentally, I was disappointed to learn that Mack was the only owner who protested to Rickey personally regarding the signing of Robinson. Mack is quoted, "I used to have respect for Rickey. I don't have any more." Mack added that his Athletics would not play the Dodgers in Florida if Robinson came with them. Don't be intimidated by the length of the book. To adequately cover Rickey's life it needs to be a lengthy book. If you enjoy baseball history this book will be a breeze. Treat yourself! You will also enjoy Rickey's quotations which are still appropriate today.



4. Lee Lowenfish has written a fabulously researched book that is an entry point into the history of baseball since the start of the 20th century. Yes, I knew that Branch Rickey ran the Dodgers and hired Jackie Robinson, breaking the color barrier in major league baseball. I didn't know, however, that he started his career in St. Louis and as I read this easy to like book, I began sending copies to people I thought would be interested.
   
   I'm 65 (born in 1943) and started listening to New York baseball games in the car with my Dad starting in about 1948. As we drove, we'd hear the Yankees and the Giants and the Dodgers. Did I know that I was listening to history as Jackie Robinson ran the bases?
   
   Many of my friends are 20 years older than I am. I thought that this book would bring back wonderful memories for them and I was right.
   
   Imagine, to date I've sent 18 books as gifts to people from New York, St. Louis, Los Angeles. Everyone has been reading and loving Lowenfish's book.........each for a different reason.
   
   SO BUY THE BOOK ALREADY.

5 comments about Cobb: A Biography.

1. "Cobb" by Al Stump: This is THE book that made me truly appreciate the game of baseball and Ty Cobb. I read all 400 plus pages in three days of reading and it was very difficult to put down at the end of the night. Do not confuse this book by Al Stump with the one he co-authored with Ty Cobb titled "Ty Cobb My Life in Baseball." That book was more of a PR campaign for Ty Cobb to help improve his image in the public eye. "Cobb" however is 100% pure, raw, and insane Ty Cobb. It is within this book that you will learn why so many people say that Ty Cobb still is the best that ever was in baseball. You will also learn why so many players and fans thought he was possessed with the "furies"; in fact many questioned his sanity. Ty Cobb hit .367 over 24 seasons, won over a dozen batting titles and was the first ball player to ever be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I was surprised to learn that Ty Cobb had founded a hospital system, an educational foundation and helped down-and-out ballplayers. Truly one of the best baseball books I have ever read. Robert Pedersen www.fatherachildsright.org



2. This is a searing biography of baseball legend Ty Cobb (1887-1961). As the author shows Cobb was a superbly talented and intelligent ballplayer, and he still has the highest lifetime batting average (.367). Cobb was also intensely competitive, and so mean and fast-tempered that even roughneck players feared and detested him. The author examines Cobb's upbringing in Georgia (including his father's being shot dead by his mother) and his long career (1905-1928) in baseball. Readers learn of Cobb's many batting and stolen base titles, his unproven involvement in a 1919 fix, and his years as player-manager for the Detroit Tigers. Cobb was careful with his dollars and blessed with investment savvy that made him rich - players calling him "penny pincher" had an instant fight on their hands. The book also takes a brief look at his life after his playing days ended.
   
   As many know, a dying Cobb hired the author to write his autobiography - and that first book said what Cobb wanted. This second and more honest effort appeared three decades later, and is far from pretty. We see Cobb as a volatile racist lout, unpopular as a player, and shunned in his later years by both his family and by those struglling ex-players that the financially generous Cobb helped. This second biography is relentless, revealing, and not for those with a weak stomach.



3. Those who saw the movie "Cobb" know that it centers on the last year and a half of Ty Cobb's life, when he hired sportswriter Al Stump to help him write an autobiography [though Cobb was a highly literate man, who really didn't need a ghostwriter]. Ty Cobb was dying, and knew it; cancer and diabetes were about finished with him, and he wanted to tell his story while he could. This is Al Stump's story of that experience.
   
   Ty Cobb was a strange, difficult, complex, man. His manner was not designed to make him well liked, but he really didn't care. His fellow Tigers may not have cared for him, but they were well aware that he was the greatest player in the game, and that he gave 100% on the field. Some of the popular stories [the sharpened spikes, and, until cancer got the best of him, the drinking] are lies, but the statistics aren't. Cobb always saw himself as an outsider, a member of an aristocratic Southern family, who really didn't belong.
   
   Cobb and Stump had quite a time, and Cobb's book did get written. They visited casinos, churches, the Hall of Fame, Cobb's daughter [who rejected him, though she was willing to have his money after he died], and got Ty his medical care. Stump stayed till the end. Al discovered that Ty was financially supporting a number of old ballplayers, and their widows...he turned Christ's admonition around, publicizing his bad deeds, and keeping the good secret [the support was anonymous; Cobb's lawyer hired another lawyer to pay it].
   
   A psychiatrist could have a grand time with Ty Cobb. PTSD? Probably...what his Mom did to his Dad would throw anybody for a loop. Cobb did give his mother all the love money could buy, but even that may have been more than she deserved. He took chances, from the way he played ball, to his Army service as a Captain in the Poison Gas Division in WWI...no soft job in Special Services for Ty Cobb.
   
   This is a fine book about a very difficult subject...brilliant, hard driven, complex, Ty Cobb was the greatest baseball player that ever lived. He may have had some faults as a person, but NOT as a ballplayer. You can't understand Ty Cobb in one book any more than you can Thomas Jefferson [there actually are parallels]...Al Stump obviously disliked his subject, but his skill and honesty are enough to make the greatness shine thru. Read this, but also read Charles Alexander, and Cobb's own book.



4. I found this book very fascinating. Stump gets into the complexities of a baseball perfectionist while interweaving the complexities of a truly disturbed and unstable man. The story is well told and intriguing.



5. Tyrus Raymond Cobb, over a twenty three year career compiled a major league record that will likely never be matched. With a career batting average of .367, he won twelve batting titles, recorded 892 stolen bases, 4191 hits in 11,429 at bats, and played in 3,033 games . When Babe Ruth came on the scene during the last several years of Cobb's career baseball fans were caught up in long ball fever. Unimpressed, Cobb once hit five home runs in two consecutive games simply to show how easy it was to hit homers.
   
   He played the game with an intensity and ferocity that both intrigued and appalled the baseball fans of his generation. Reportedly sharpening his steel spikes to a razor's edge he would slash any second baseman or catcher to the bone who showed the audacity to block the baseline. Cobb was not a pleasant man to be around on or off the field. He was hated and feared even by his own team mates, yet he did more for baseball than any player before him, or possibly since.
   
   Al Stump goes behind the scenes and tells the tragic story of a man who battled baseball officials and his own demons all of his life. Toward the end of Cobb's life Stump lived with him while writing his biography and was on edge the whole time. Even in old age Cobb was tempermental, demanding, and feared by those he came in contact with.
   
   If you're a baseball fan, or simply enjoy a well written biography, this is one that you won't want to miss.

5 comments about Yogi: The Life and Times of an American Original.

1. ** BASEBALL HALL OF FAME ** 3 MVP AWARDS ** 21 WORLD SERIES (14 AS A PLAYER - 2 AS A MANAGER - 5 AS A COACH) ** 10 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS AS A PLAYER - 3 AS A COACH ** 15 ALL STAR GAMES ** 285 LIFETIME AVERAGE ** 358 HOMERUNS ** 1,430 RUNS BATTED IN **
   
   That is YOGI BERRA!
   
   ** "NOBODY GOES THERE ANYMORE; IT'S TOO CROWDED!" ** "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER." ** "ALWAYS GO TO OTHER PEOPLE'S FUNERALS; OTHERWISE THEY WON'T COME TO YOURS." ** "BASEBALL IS 90 PERCENT MENTAL THE OTHER HALF IS PHYSICAL."
   
   This also is YOGI BERRA!
   
   I am not a Yankee fan, but I am an "old-school" baseball fanatic. And any true "die-in-the-wool" baseball fan will enjoy this detailed recollection of when baseball truly was the "National Pastime". This biography covers Yogi and his family's life from the time his Italian parents landed on Ellis Island. It chronicles his growing up in a mostly Italian American neighborhood up on "The Hill" in St. Louis, where one of his best friends was a mediocre future Major Leaguer, who would hit it big in radio and TV Joe Garagiola. Joe's future success was neatly packaged around stories of his youthful days with Yogi on "The Hill". Yogi's Father Pietro was hard working, loving and a stern disciplinarian in the house. He thought playing baseball was a waste of time, and of course no way to make a living. Yogi's three older brothers, Anthony, Mike, and John, were all good baseball players and had been offered tryouts and contracts with professional teams. But Pietro would not hear of it and did not allow it. When Yogi was in the eighth grade he had no use for school and wanted to quit school and go after his dream of playing Major League baseball. Though Yogi feared his Father's wrath he confronted him with his desire and dream. It became a family war that eventually even included the family's priest. Pietro finally relented as long as Yogi got a regular job to contribute to the family's livelihood while he tried to get a baseball contract. Yogi sold newspapers, where his favorite customer was his baseball idol (And my mother's favorite player.) Joe "Ducky" Medwick. He also had a few factory jobs. Then he was signed by the New York Yankees, and the rest as they say is history. When he reached the big leagues, Joe DiMaggio was the undisputed leader of the team but within a few years as Joe's career came to an end the Yankee torch was passed from Joe to Yogi. A lot of baseball revisionists say it went from DiMaggio to Mantle but that isn't so. The history of uncrowned Yankee leadership actually went from Ruth to Gehrig to DiMaggio to Berra to Mantle. Yogi not only became known as one of the greatest clutch hitters in history, but he was also one of the greatest "bad ball" hitters in history, so it was extremely tough to pitch to him in crucial situations. His ten world championship rings as a player is unmatched in the annals of baseball history. One extremely sad part of this story is all the abuse Yogi took because of his looks and "supposed" lack of intellect. Yet he is probably the most successful Yankee in history after his playing days. This story also conjures up many of the old fan rivalries of the 40's and 50's between the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers. Since the Dodgers and Yankees played each other seven times in the World Series during this period there is a lot of information about Yogi's competition with Roy Campanella, another catcher with 3 MVP's right across town in Brooklyn, and some wonderful quotes by Jackie Robinson as to Yogi's greatness. This story covers it all from Casey Stengel to Yogi's refusing to return to Yankee stadium for fourteen years after his firing by George Steinbrenner. Yogi was one hell of a ballplayer and reading about it was "LIKE DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN!"



2. I only knew Yogi as the cuddly master of the malaprop who had played some ball years ago. What I learned is that he's one of the most accomplished athletes in the history of sports - and a pretty shrwed businessman, too. A well written and ubiased bio that's must read for any baseball fan and recommended for anyone who wants to read the story of a guy who came from nothing to become an American legend.



3. I have to admit some bias first. Yogi has been one of my favorite Yankees forever, I love baseball books and I know some of the people involved in this book. Nonetheless, this is a wonderful read, a trip from a St. Louis neighborhood to the big leagues, the Big Apple and a look at one of the biggest hearts in sportsdom. Though I've gotten the Yogi story in bits and pieces before, I still enjoyed reading it. As the man himself would say, "It's like deja vu all over again." If you love baseball, read this book!



4. There is, and always will be, only one Yogi. And thank heavens that he's still with us. The Hall of Fame Yankee catcher and everyman philosopher is brillently covered in this wonderful book. If you are a fan of baseball, the Yankees, or just love Yogi, you gotta have this one.



5. Former feature writer for "Mirror" magazine Carlo DeVito presents Yogi: The Life & Times of an American Original, a solid biography of one of America's most successful sportsmen. the celebrated Yankee baseball team member Lawrence Peter Berra, a.k.a. "Yogi". The son of Italian immigrants, Yogi overcame his short height and taunting from his teammates, opponents, and the media to earn a phenomenal three MVP awards, ten World Series championships, and an assortment of catching records. Yogi's career in baseball didn't end with his retirement; he went on to manage a team from league of the World Series. He encountered famous people ranging from DiMaggio to Hemingway and Sinatra, inspired an enduringly popular cartoon character (Yogi Bear), and even enriched the American lexicon with an assortment of malapropisms. A handful of black-and-white photographs enrich this down-to-earth chronicle of one of baseball's most beloved celebrities.

5 comments about An American Journey: My Life on the Field, in the Air, and on the Air.

1. Jerry Coleman has honorably served America both as a military man, as a baseball player during the 1950's for the New York Yankees, and as an announcer for the Yankees, CBS, and as an announcer/manager for the San Diego Padres. He considers his greatest achievement in life to be the five years he spent as a marine during both World War II and the Korean War. He grew up in a home with a physically abusive father, and a very devoted mother. His best friends with the Yankees were Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi, Ed Lopat, Bobby Brown, and Charlie Silvera. Coleman believes Mickey Mantle's alcohol problems became full blown after he retired from the game and the cheering stopped. Coleman vividly recalls the incident in May of 1957 when Yankees' infielder Gil McDougald lined Cleveland Indians' pitcher Herb Score in the eye. This had a great emotional effect on McDougald who considered quitting the game. Coleman's one year at the helm of the Padres did not go well. His players viewed him as the team's announcer, and a relic from the past. Coleman gives his views on various things regarding the game such as the size of players compared to when he played, and the effect large contracts can have on some players. He blames the players' union for fighting against a strong drug program which has ultimately harmed players who play by the rules. Coleman considers Aaron to be the all-time home run leader with Maris to be the home run leader for a single season. This book is light easy reading, and I enjoyed reading about one of the bubble gum cards of my youth.



2. I don't know how many "with." books I have read not 100 but more than fifty. Even wrote two of them. YOGI IT AIN'T OVER WITH YOGI and THE OCTOBER TWELVE with PHIL RIZZUTO.Jerry Coleman's "WITH" RICHARD GOLDSTEIN did an outstanding job. I envy him but not for writing the book. Writing is hard work. Spending time in the company of Jerry Coleman is a joy. A tonic for the soul.



3. I bought this book for my father as he has been an avid Padre fan since 1969. He just loves it. Jerry Coleman is the San Diego Padres.
   
   Scott
   El CAJON, CA



4. I can't wait to read this book. Amazon makes ordering new and used items so easy. I am a customer for life.



5. Former Yankee Jerry Coleman recalls his playing days: second baseman played his entire nine-year career in New York and appeared in six World Series.(Turn ... An article from: Baseball Digest
   
   
   Great Read! Jerry is true example of what real heros are made of. How many players would unselfishly leave the game not once, but two times to serve their country in combat? This is the stuff Pat Tillman was made of. Jerry is a great guy! You never hear him speak of any of this unless asked. He is a San Diego treasure.

5 comments about Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy.

1. Growing up a huge LA Dodger fan, I eagerly consumed each page of this book. I received A Lefty's Legacy a few years ago, read a few chapters and put the book down as Jane was a little too down in the details about Sandy's adolescence. How he dealt with his step-father, sandlot ball and his aspirations of playing basketball provided some insight into Sandy's character, but the content was rather dry and dull.
   
   I did find the 9 "innings" of the perfect game, interlaced in between chapters of the book (and Koufax's life) curious and interesting. But honestly, as a perfect game starts out, there is a lack of excitement...even as described within this book.
   
   There has been criticism over Jane's inclusion of Sandy's decision to observe Yom Kippur (instead of pitching game 1 of the '65 Series) and the details surrounding Sandy's Jewish heritage. I found that chapter very telling in who Koufax was then and is now, breaking down the misconceptions of his perceived reclusive life.
   
   For a Koufax or Dodger fan, this book is a must.



2. I really do not know much about the history, stats, or events of baseball. This book was so much more than that. It makes you wish you had either known or met Mr. Koufax. This is a story that both men & women from all walks of life would love. It was a reminder that truly complex, compassionate,non-conforming men are out there. Who are not so much impressed by WHAT they do, but more about HOW they do it. Today's athlete would never make the choices and sacrifices that Mr. Koufax did. Sadly, those days are long gone.



3. I'll agree with the author that Sandy was a terrific pitcher and an introvert in a sport where it seems like all the really big stars were all capitalizing on their fame. But the really great thing about the book were all the personal stories...between catcher and pitcher, Drysdale and Koufax, kids and coaches who grew up with Sandy, opposing players and managers who played against the Dodgers, etc.
   
   Certainly there was some myth-making going on...by the author as well as many of the teammates who played with Sandy. I think that's what happens when you meet up with an extraordinary talent who enjoys his privacy on his terms.
   
   Loved the little quotes by Ernie Banks and the one story when Mickey Mantle faced him in the world series. Baseball isn't just a fun game to play...it's the stories that are fun as well and this book tells them very well. You'll enjoy it.



4. This admirable biography mixes a little baseball history with its revealing insight into one of the game's greatest pitchers. Readers learn much about Sandy Koufax, from his Brooklyn childhood, to his college basketball days, to his modest-then-stellar career with the Brooklyn/LA Dodgers from 1955-1966. As these pages show, Koufax was highly intelligent player who marched to his own drum. He also emerged from several years as a struggling southpaw into the game's most dominant hurler. During the five seasons (1962-1966) that he dominated baseball Koufax sported a phenomenal 111-34 won-loss record and 1.95 ERA - far eclipsing the game's other top hurlers. Sadly, painful arthritis in his pitching arm led him to retire (at age 30) after the 1966 season, when his superb record (27-9, 1.73 ERA) helped lead his team to another pennant. As a Jewish player, Koufax endured occasional Anti-Semitic taunts, and he made headlines by electing not to pitch the opening game of the 1965 World Series due to a major Jewish holiday. Still, many teammates thought him quite cool, and Pirates slugger Willie Stargell said that hitting against Koufax was like trying to drink coffee with a fork.
   
   Author Jane Levy interviewed hundreds of teammates, friends, etc., in writing this book, although Koufax himself declined to participate. His absence leads to a slight feeling of incompleteness, but this remains a very interesting and revealing effort.



5. I'm not a baseball, or even a sports fan, but a good biography is worth reading no matter how the subject spent his or her life. I was drawn to reading this because I happened to see Koufax pitch one of his last games. It was in Chicago, and he lost to the Cubs. I've seen maybe half a dozen pro baseball games, and that's the only one I remember at all. Leavy is a fine writer; her prose is energetic and highly readable. Any really good biography is also history, and she made the historical setting, of the days when Koufax was actively pitching, come alive. Baseball, like the rest of the world, has changed a lot in the last forty years, but if Koufax made an impression on me way back then, he must have been some phenomenon! A fine read from any angle.

5 comments about Harry Caray: Voice of the Fans (Book w/ CD).

1. If you too think that Cubs radio announcer Pat Hughes is one of the best in the business, you'll enjoy this book. I'm not a Cubs fan, but the person I bought it for is. We both agree that listening to Cubs games on the radio is a pleasure, mostly because of Pat.
   
   He tells tales about Harry Caray mostly from the broadcasting perspective. The person I got this book for is an avid reader, and finished it very quickly. It's an easy but fun read, or so I was told. The CD which comes with the book is a nice addition for those who want to hear a some soundbites of the immortal Harry Caray.



2. Absolutely loved this book. The CD that comes with it is great too. Loved to hear the bits with Harry again.



3. I learned a lot I didn't know but I thought the c.d. would have more of my favorite announcer and not just him being talked about.



4. It is a great book in that it tells a side of Harry Carey's life as a broadcaster that I never knew. I learned quite a few things about him, plus one of my friend's grandson is pictured in the book. (He is the one with the big glasses and the ivy on his head. He is a big Cub's fan!) My son-in-law loved the book, too! Great reading!



5. I have to say that this is awsome. Thanks Pat Hughes, Harry and any other contributers. Highly recommended to anyone, even if you are not that much of a ball fan.