No comments about Dravecky: A Story of Courage and Grace.

2 comments about The 3,000-Hit Club.

1. Greats like Sam Crawford, Sam Rice, Rogers Hornsby, Al Simmons, Mel Ott, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, Ernie Banks and Carlton Fisk and so many other have failed to do what 24 players have done - get 3,000 hits.

   From Rose to Clemente this exclusive fraternity of two dozen of baseball best is covered n this one of a kind collectors book. This must have for every baseball fan of all ages breaks down each of the 24 and gives you a short glimpse into what has made them great.

   In 213 pages you'll read about men like Aaron, Brett, Boggs, Gwynn, Ripken, Cobb, Rose, Musial, Waner, Winfield, Carew, Anson, Mays, Murray, Brock, Clemente and eight others. Simply one of the best books on baseball I have ever read.

   Under $15.00 is well worth the price; I would have paid double for this book. Congratulations to the 24 best hitters in baseball and also to Sports Publishing Inc. for allowing me to read this book.




2. This is really a very exclusive club. Less than twenty-five players amassed this many hits. Lots of very fine hitters never quite made it to 3,000. It takes a long and fruitful career to make it. There are a lot of good stories about each one in this book.

1 comments about Mickey Mantle: My Very Best Friend..

1. For the true Mickey fan a chance to hear about the person when out of the public spotlight. Great stories that will make it seem that you were Mickeys friend to.

1 comments about Miracle Man: Nolan Ryan, The Autobiography.

1. I am still reading this book. I'm just impressed to get a super sports star's thinking on the way of life.
   He insisted on the importantance of moral in the society.

5 comments about Catching Dreams: My Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues (Sports and Entertainment).

1. This book tells how things realy were back then. When Mr.Robinson told his story, he did not sugar coat anything. You don't find this in alot of the other books that were written about the Nego Leagues. I highly recommend this to book to any baseball fan.



2. I consider myself a student of Negro League history, and I read virtually everything I can locate on the subject. I have also developed friendships with many of these players over the years, and many of them have written books/memoirs regarding their playing days. In speaking with these great pioneers of professional sport, one quickly surmises that certain "stars" spent a fair amount of time embellishing legends and perfecting the art of self-promotion once their playing days ended. A handful have even managed to parlay this ability into a modest supplement to their income via baseball memorabilia shows, and I sincerely hope this trend continues for all who have mastered it.

   Truthfully however, this group comprises only a tiny percentage of the remaining Negro Leaguers (they're just the loudest, so they garner the most notoriety, I suppose). Should you attend any gathering of former players, you will notice that these "showmen" are generally shunned or otherwise discredited by their peers. That speaks louder than anything I could write here. While these spotlight-lovers' ability to spin a yarn surely brings furthered interest and financial benefit to personal appearances by ALL former players, it likely also speaks to the historical accuracy one can expect from their books.

   A select few didn't go the Barnum route -- they were who they were, they did what they did, and, while proud of their accomplishments on the diamond with arguably the greatest ballplayers of ANY era, they continued to live as they always had after their baseball careers ended. I am thankful when any player publishes a book, but when one of these select players leaves a record of what they saw, heard, accomplished and/or overcame, free of hyperbole, that book takes on a "treasured" status on my bookshelf. More than just a treasure, CATCHING DREAMS is flat-out the best of the genre. Buy it, read it, and learn something. I wouldn't recommend it this highly if it wasn't this good. It is.

   Kudos to Paul Bauer for his efforts in faithfully documenting what was said and getting it published. I was fortunate enough to know Mr. Robinson well, and this book is an accurate representation of his character and personality -- it's honest, accurate, and self-effacing. You could waste time and money on lesser efforts by better-known players, or you could read something that captures the feel of a private audience with the author (with the added bonus that it's all TRUE!). I knew him well enough to know. I find myself wishing everyone else could have, too. Trust me. Buy the book.

   Please find and read books by these authors, too:

   Wilmer Fields (another honest account), Monte Irvin (yet another honest account), Effa Manley (difficult to find, but remarkable), Kevin Keating/Michael Kolleth (guide to the Negro League autograph collecting hobby, exhaustively researched and thoroughly enlightening), Phil Dixon/Patrick J. Hannigan (also hard to find, but still the best collection of negro league photos ever, and also well-researched).




3. Being a baseball history buff (addict) for the past 42 years, I've read just about everything I could get my hands on. I cannot now think of an autobiographical book to which I could attach a higher recommendation that "Catching Dreams" by Frazier "Slow" Robinson. This true gentleman travelled the dusty roads that connected the sites of Negro League baseball during the 30's, 40,s and even the 50's. Although produced by the University of Syracuse press, there is no attempt to make the book erudite or complicate it with an assortment of exotic literary techniques and obscure words. Instead, the publisher and co-author, Paul Bauer have presented the story of Slow Robinson in language truly spoken by the man himself. When you read this book, you will feel that you are seated beside Mr. Robinson as he speaks with words, terms and expressions uniquely those of a man with little formal education, who gained his lessons in life on the fly and had to learn his own language. His ability to recall a voluminous list of names and anecdotal material from his experiences, and to relate them descriptively, suggest a man who would have had little trouble dealing with a formal post-secondary school education. His relationships with such Negro League stalwarts as Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Leon Day and Satchel Paige are detailed with humour, insight and compassion. He is forthright without offending his old friends, as in Ball Four by Jim Bouton. In his own words, his goal in life was to be remembered as a nice guy; he passed with flying colors. If you choose only one book to read on this subject, you simply cannot go wrong with Catching Dreams.



4. This is a wonderful book that needed to be written. I had the opportunity to meet Frazier while living and I am so glad that his stories live on in this book. It brings back the memory of the time when players played the game for the love of the game and not for what they were being paid. And worrying about what deal they could acquire in the off season. Also in a time when color mattered over talent it should remind us that never again should we engage in human exclusion



5. This book faithfully recreates the world of Frazier Robinson and the Negro Leagues. Outstanding and fascinating. It would make a perfect gift for any baseball fan. Paul Bauer inserts nothing between you and his subject. It is a must have book for any serious fan of the game.

1 comments about Future Stars: The Minor League Abstract.

1. For those interested in getting good, solid information on tomorrow's future major leaguers, this book provides capsules on 20+ players per organization with rankings of each team's top 10 minor leaguers. There are also lots of statistical analysis, charts and lists. Tony Blegnino's statwork is particularly noteworthy, but what really makes this book shine is the in-depth information you can get here that you can't get elsewhere. Go ahead, try and find as much about Marlon Anderson as you do here. You can't. If you want to have a good idea of who will be the impact players of 2002, this is a great place to start

1 comments about Sawdust Trail Preacher: Billy Sunday (Faith's Adventurers).

1. What do we know of Billy Sunday? That, in the words of the song, he could not "shut down" Chicago, That as William Ashley Sunday he endured a difficult youth and displayed a temper always hard to manage. He also played pretty fair baseball for the Chicago Whitesockings and other major league teams. One season he batted .359. And he could run like a deer. Before his conversion, he cussed, drank and was a battler, taking no guff from anyone.
   
   Young Sunday came to his Lord in Chicago and never looked back. He understudied evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman from 1893 to 1895. He then became his own man, first as a lay preacher and after 1903 as an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church. He evolved his own style as a preacher, acting out skits on stage during his revivals, using simple slang-filled language, sliding across the stage as if stealing a base. By general consensus he had, before his death on November 6, 1935, persuaded more than a million men and women to commit themselves in writing to God.
   
   Billy Sunday's theology was short, simple and appealing: "With Christ you are saved; without Him you are lost." A leading ethical opinion of his was that "whiskey and beer are all right in their place, but their place is in hell." But Sunday also believed that God meant Christians to be happy, even merry. He innovated in the craft of evangelical and revival preaching, with emphasis on careful planning, attention to finance, and erection of inexpensive but safe temporary wooden buildings with sawdust strewn on the floors to hold down the noise. This led to the phrase "hitting the sawdust trail," used of persons who came forward during a revival, walking down a sawdust covered aisle to declare themselves for Christ.
   
   SAWDUST TRAIL PREACHER: BILLY SUNDAY is a little gem, only 93 pages long. It covers Billy Sunday's life in more than adequate detail for an introductory biography. It is a model for what its author means to do. And Billy Sunday left his mark on America and many, many individuals and families.

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

2 comments about The Biographical History of Baseball.

1. When the first edition of this book came out, it was a breath of fresh air. It carved a niche in the market by covering not just baseball players but baseball people. But it also had loads of mistakes. I had looked forward to the second edition hoping that the factual errors would be fixed. Unfortunately, very few of them were fixed. Incredibly, this book still clings to myths such as the story of Ford Frick attaching an actual asterisk to Roger Maris' home run record. Dewey and Accocella's writing is certainly more consistent than that of competing volumes, so it is unfortunate that they didn't take advantage of the opportunity a second volume presented them to fix the mistakes that are almost inevitable in a first edition. Also, some of ther additions/subtractions are puzzling - why was Dusty Baker in the first volume and not in this volume when his baseball career has only gotten more significant since the first edition?



2. Ok, I didn't have any high expectations when I purchased this book. After all, any project with Jerome Holtzman involved is going to be hit or miss. Unfortunately, this one misses much more than it hits.

   I've always heard that some of the greatest stories don't come from the superstars. Sometimes, they are found in the lesser stars or the ones who had just a brief moment in the spotlight. Unfortunately, many of these players and their experiences are sacrificed for long-winded accounts of players that had been written about in excess over the years.

   Don't get me wrong -- there is some interesting information here. However, I've found a number of errors in dates, statistics and references. In addition, the book seems to have been rushed to print without the benefit of thorough proofreading.

   The good thing? It's fairly inexpensive. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for here.

No comments about Rafael Palmeiro: At Home With the Balitmore Orioles (Contemporary American Success Stories).