5 comments about Eddie Mathews and the National Pastime.

1. A VERY INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF A VERY UNDERRATED PLAYER IN EDDIE MATHEWS. EDDIE PLAYED IN THE SHADOW OF HANK AARON, SO HE DIDN'T GET THE TRUE CREDIT HE CERTAINLY DESERVES. HE DOES A GREAT JOB OF DESCRIBING LIFE IN THE 50'S TO THE 60'S WITH THE BRAVES. THE STORY IS SIMPLE, FACTFUL, AND HONEST. EDDIE'S CANDID APPROACH IS VERY SUCCESSFUL AND REFRESHING. HIS EXERPTS ABOUT BOB UECKER ARE HILARIOUS. HIS ADMISSION WITH ALCOHOL IS VERY OPEN BUT DISTURBING. I LOVE THIS BOOK. A MUST READ.



2. It was over 5 years ago that I met Eddie Mathews at a local restuaurant in Santa Barbara, California. I had heard so many stories about Eddie and how tough he was, but when he invited me to sit at his table and talk about the old families that he knew and I grew up with, it was a wonderful 4 hours of memories. This book tells of the Real Eddie Mathews and his love for the game of baseball and of course the Brave fans that were so supportive of the team! I enjoyed every minute reading the book and it was well followed in the sequence of his career. Eddie Mathews is what baseball is all about, a kid who wanted to win and be the best he could be in the Major leagues! I asked my cousin, Ted Williams of the Bo Sox if he knew of Eddie Mathews? Ted was very complementary about Eddie and said, " they ( Management ) knew he was going to hit 500 home runs for the Braves orgainztion and he did just that." On February 18th 2001 Eddie Mathews was laid to rest. The Baseball World Lost A True Baseball Player of the Game. Beleive me, " Only a handful like Eddie Mathews " This book is a fine tribute to the life Eddie Mathews in the National Pastime. Signed, MAHerrera



3. I'm only 44 years old, yet fondest memories when growing up on the northwest side of Milwaukee were going to Braves games at County Stadium their last two years (1964-65) prior to moving south to Atlanta. Eddie Mathews was the idol of every eight or nine-year old in Milwaukee who had any interest in the game of baseball. I knew back then he was a hit with the fans (while not necessarialy so with the press), and this book reinforced my memories. Two sports memories that flash in mind daily involve Eddie Mathews. The first involving a game I attended at County Stadium in 1965 with the score tied in the ninth inning and two runners on with two out and Mathews stepping up to the plate. There as an eight-year old, I said to myself he is going to win this with a three-run homer. One pitch later, he did just that! The other involved his last game ever when he played third base in the 4th game of the 1968 World Series and went 1 for 3 against Bob Gibson (almost 2 for 3 had he been five more feet to the left of the right field foul pole when he knocked a Gibson fast ball over the right field roof of Tiger Stadium). This book is beautiful -- an absolute must for those having vivid memories of the Milwaukee Braves as I have. Word of caution: the book is highly addictive and the reader will find it to be nearly impossible to put it down. A true sports classic written on a classy, frank, and honest human being. Eddie Mathews with his book is indeed "UNFORGETTABLE"!



4. I now have nearly 1,000 books in my baseball library, so I've read my share of ballplayer biographies and autobiographies.

   Mathews has a reputation of being somewhat hard-nosed and unlikeable, but it hardly comes across here. He's forthright and honest in telling tales of both his positive exploits and negative habits. I came away with a higher regard for Eddie, who unfortunately remains baseball's most invisible 500-homer man.

   If you grew up with baseball in the 50's-60's, you could do far, far worse than reading this one. I also recommend John Roseboro's autobiography for fans of this era.




5. I can't begin to count the number of baseball biographies I've read over the years, but I do know that this is one of the best I've ever read. Most baseball biographies are long on facts and short on feel. For example, you will get a sense of what it was like to play hard and drink even harder with Johnny Logan, Burdette, Buhl, Spahn, and all the guys that made up the Brave family. You will learn how Frank Robinson bit off more than he could chew when he slid in with spikes high, and how Mr. Tough Guy Mathews was dragged from a fight like a baby by the unusually strong Gil Hodges, and you will learn another side to Davey Johnson when he was a player. These are the kinds of stories you don't get with the usual biographies, each more nondescript and sugar coated than the next. This is not an easy book to find, but it's worth the trouble.

1 comments about Crossing the Line: Black Major Leaguers, 1947-1959.

1. I like this book. I like black baseball players. Jackie Robinson is my hero, he played for the Dodgers, and was very black. I think that I will start liking Thomas Edison Alston better because of his story on page 108-09. He was a tall black man from North Carolina, I live in South Carolina so that is close to my home. I am not black though, if that matters to you. I have a learning disorder and writing this essay will help with bettering my condition. I think that if I lived in 1947-59 I would like black people better than those mean white baseball players did. I mean some of those players names I have heard before because they had strong black powers to hit the ball far, like Hank Aaron, he played in Atlanta, I live near where he played too, and my daddy watched him hit home runs very far. He was number 44.

1 comments about How Far do You Wanna Go?.

1. Inspirational story by a reluctant baseball coach and mentor who helped 16 inner-city kids avoid the streets and succeed in sports and life. Tru Dixon is not perfect but he is honest, caring and willing to give of himself. When you read this book you will feel like doing something good today!

No comments about 101 Reasons to Hate George Steinbrenner.

1 comments about Danny Litwhiler: Living the Baseball Dream (Baseball in America).

1. Whether you are a baseball fan or not, you will find this book entertaining and enlightening. There's no plot, just a brief summation of a gentleman who has devoted his life to baseball. Danny Litwhiler is the seventh son of a seventh son, and his life has been a dream realized.
   
   Danny has written at least five other books, all "technical manuals" for baseball coaches, managers, and players. This one is his life: born in a small Pennsylvania town, playing ball in High School and College, then in the semi-pros for $5 per game. Then the big leagues: the Philadelphia Phillies, the St Louis Cardinals, the Boston Braves, and the Cincinnati Reds. In 1942 set a record that will probably never be broken: Danny played every inning of every game (in left and right fields) for the entire season, and had ZERO errors.
   
   After retiring in 1951, Danny was a Minor League manager and player for a couple of years. Then he became a College Baseball Coach, at Florida State University for nine years, then at Michigan State University for twenty years. He still wasn't through--he worked for the Cincinnati Reds minor teams as a hitting instructor and consultant. Starting during WWII, Danny spent many months involved in the Olympics and in International Baseball--exhibitions, symposia, and so on; in fact there could be a whole book about these adventures, rather than just a chapter.
   
   Throughout his career, Danny has been an innovator and inventor. See the speed of the pitch on the TV screen? Danny was the first (while at FSU) to adapt the trooper's radar gun to baseball. See the stuff they put on a wet spot on the diamond? Yep, Danny again. Then there are some of which you probably havent heard: the Triple Tee--three baseballs to teach batters how to place their hits, a special bat to teach bunting.
   
   Danny Litwhiler has touched thousands of lives during his career. Both old timers and youngsters will recognize names of some of his former teammates and students. This is a story of an authentic gentleman who has devoted his life to the National Pastime.
   
   Full disclosure: My wife and I were fortunate to live near Danny and Pat for a couple of years in Tampa. They are both wonderful people and great Americans, and we value their friendship.

1 comments about Paul Molitor: Good Timing: The Paul Molitor Story.

1. It isn't often that I here a fact or a story about Paul Molitor that I don't already know. He was my hero when I first saw him play on my 7th birthday, and as I graduate with a Master's degree 20 years later, he is still every bit the hero I remember. That is why it was such a nice surprise to find several tidbits brought to light by Broomer that I had never been aware of. There is no question that Molitor is the last of a dying breed of players who play the game the way it is meant to be played, and a review of his career from American Legion to his World Series MVP performance would be interesting for any baseball fan. Broomer's writing however, lacks imagination. The text of the book reads like a laundry list of where Molitor played ball during his life, and is all too briefly interupted by short quotes from the people who knew Molitor at various times during his life. I believer Broomer expended very little energy writing this book. However, any baseball fan would be excited to review the evidence of Molly's dedication to baseball, and his class on and off of the field. For the true Molitor fan, there are several outstanding photos of Molitor in his Golden Gophers uniform and throughout his professional career.

1 comments about Cap Anson 4: Bigger Than Babe Ruth--Captain Anson of Chicago (Cap Anson) (Cap Anson) (Cap Anson) (Cap Anson).

1. The work of serious baseball historians tends to fall into two main categories; excellent writing short on research and extraordinary research spoiled by pompous, often pedantic prose.
   Then there's Howard Rosenberg. Rosenberg's "Cap Anson 4" the recently released...biography of one of the game's first "superstars" is as compelling as the latest James Patterson thriller and as meticulously well-researched as a successful doctoral thesis.
   Adrian C. Anson was the first player to get 3,000 hits,arguably the greatest player-manager of all-time and a pivotal figure in the creation of baseball's shameful color line that kept Black players out of the majors for more than 60 years.
   Rosenberg doesn't flinch from the accusations of Anson's racism, nor does he gloss over the Hall of Famer's other foibles and eccentricities. The book contains literally hundreds of footnotes and citations and perhaps thousands of newspaper quotations.
   Rosenberg poured over thousands of ancient newspaper clippings and archives. He concluded that in the 1880s and '90s writers were given a virtually free hand and did a superior job of capturing the mannerisms of players and painting pictures with words." He added "By the first decade of the 1900s, photography was a major presence and writers would, overall never be as independent and thus as interesting again."
   That may have been true for the vast majority of baseball writers including those plying the trade today. But it is certainly not true of Rosenberg.
   If you're at all interested in the early days of the "great America game," you can never go wrong reading Howard Rosenberg.
   
   (From a review and feature) by Bart Fisher, New Britain (Conn.) Herald, May 1, 2006

No comments about Joe and Marilyn: The Tragic Love Story of Joe Dimaggio and Marilyn Monroe.

No comments about Mark McGwire: The Power Hitter (Sport Snaps).

1 comments about Pete Rose: A Biography (Baseball's All-Time Greatest Hitters).

1. Pete Rose was one of baseball's greatest hitters, but his off-field actions cast a dark light on his achievements, leading to investigations into his gambling and a lifetime banishment from the game which even barred him from induction into the Hall of Fame. His story is told in Pete Rose: A Biography, a hard-hitting sports biography which presents the nature of his lasting legacy and his post-baseball life.