5 comments about Fouled Away: The Baseball Tragedy of Hack Wilson.

1. Clifton Blue Parker had a great subject in Hack Wilson but Parker fouled out with his writing.
   Parker took a interesting ballplayer and turned him into a bore. His chapter "Hacking Toward Immortality" was written like it was taken out of a daily newspaper. To many mundane accounts of each and every RBI. It would have been nice to also have a little more info on his second wife in the years after Hack died.
   It took me weeks to finish this book. I couldn't believe I spent so much money on this bio. I will not buy anything else from Clifton Blue Parker. I think he is a overrated writer.



2. This book is full of lively anecdotes written in a thoroughly illuminating and informative manner. Learning about the highs and lows of Hack Wilson - one of baseball's biggest enigmas -- was a rollercoaster ride of fun. Heartily recommend it.



3. I found this to be a very well written and very interesting book. Clifton Blue Parker has done an excellent and very thorough and complete research of a rather difficult subject, and pulled off a solid read from start to finish. Clifton Parker is correct in one of his assessments late in this book...People are forgetting Hack Wilson. Here today and gone tomorrow aptly applies to the career and life of Hack Wilson. That is sad indeed. Hack Wilson was a character of the game both on and off the field. What Mr. Parker has done is preserve a life, career and very important lesson in life in his book.

   Clifton Parker puts Wilson's 191 RBI's into perspective and does not candy coat it. He backs it up with reasonable assumptions and hard facts. A tragic figure is Wilson, and Mr. Parker portrays him accordingly. Interesting how some of today's so-called athletes and heros are really no different than Wilson...

   I consider this a must read for anyone that loves baseball history. This is as good a read as you will find. An interesting subject and an equally interesting read.




4. I read a lot of baseball biographies, and one of the worst things is reading player propaganda. It seems that hero worshipping infects far too many endeavors in the baseball arena, including biogaphies. Refreshingly, this book on Hack Wilson does not hero worship. It is a serious thorough accounting evidently based on plenty of research. It covers Wilson's rise and fall, from cradle to grave, with warts and heroics, and all. Prior attempts on Wilson's life never gave an adequate accounting of his life otuside baseball. The one thing that would have helped this book is any surviving members of the Wilson clan. That's no fault of Parker, who writes in an engaging, almost poetic, manner about this fascinating character out of Baseball's Roaring 20s. I hope to read more of his work!



5. The author makes a diligint effort in telling baseball fans the accomplishments and lifestyle of Hack Wilson, one of baseballs most over looked Hall of Famers. The author does an excellent job tying in the roar 20's and the city of Chicago into the book. Wilson's best years were spent in Chicago at Wrigley Feild with the Cubs. All the accomplishments and downfalls of Wilson are noted. What the author does leave the reader wondering is first who exactly is this complicated yet modest man, which may be of no fault of his own. Second, the author fails to describe why the small West Virginia town of Martinsburg was so important to a man who was a star in the "Second City".

No comments about Biggio: The Final Game.

No comments about "The Father of Baseball": A Biography of Henry Chadwick.

5 comments about Fear Strikes Out: The Jim Piersall Story.

1. Our heroes wear uniforms, not only of the home team, but seemingly a vest for the body blows life can deliver.
   
   And their demons are from the delights of stardom, not mental illness. Right?
   
   In this chronicle of the 1952 season with the Boston Red Sox, then a 22-year-old emerging star, Jim Piersall, and co-author Al Hirshberg tackle what remains a taboo issue in clubhouses and sports talk; mental illness - bipolar disorder - and the athlete.
   
   Originally published in 1955, it is a hard-hitting account of Piersall and his struggle while under the bright lights of Major League Baseball to confront his personal demons, many which had been building since childhood.
   
   But Piersall - once he fully understood that he needed help - did not face the struggle alone. Those close to him in his personal and professional endeavors demonstrated that the timeless tools of patience and understanding are crucial to a person's recovery.
   
   There is no stepping out of the batter's box in life, though it seems as if every pitch is coming in wild, high and tight. For Piersall to hit the demons out of that ballpark is an inspiring tale of victory in the biggest box score of all.



2. After my parents both were committed to a state hospital on two different occasions, I lived with the secret -- in shame. While in grade school, I was looking for a sports book to read and ran across Piersall's book. By publicly telling his story and frankly admitting he was mentally ill, Piersall helped me change my attitude and lose my shame. I realized mental illness is quite common and can be treated successfully.
   
   The book was a godsend to a child living with psychological trauma.



3. "Fear Strikes Out" tells the tale of Jimmy Piersall, who played for the Boston Red Sox in the early to late 1950s. He and Willy Mays of the Giants were the best defensive center fielders in pro baseball then and perhaps ever. "FSO" is more concerned with Jimmy's nervous breakdown in 1952 and his subsequent recovery. The real story should be his patient wife, without whom Piersall would have been at sea. The Catholic Church has canonized people for less! "FSO" skims along the edges of Jimmy's problems but to its' credit does not sweep them under a rug. The problems may be sanitized but not trivialized. In my opinion, the true meat of the book is its' 1950s American League backdrop, which I'm just barely old enough to remember. Red Sox fans should enjoy reading about Ted Lepcio, Lou Boudreau, Ellis Kinder, Joe Cronin and Billy Goodman. "FSO" has a limited scope and appeal. The 1950s sportsworld was lilly white and not given to tell all, dirt digging locker room scoops and the book reflects that era. Jimmy gets a free pass on some (not all) of his antics. Readers who accept those constraints should find "FSO" enjoyable and worthwhile. Anyone with a dad or uncle, etc who is a hardcore Red Sox fan has a great Christmas present to click unto.



4. "Fear Strikes Out" tells the tale of Jimmy Piersall, who played for the Boston Red Sox in the early to late 1950s. He and Willy Mays of the Giants were the best defensive center fielders in pro baseball then and perhaps ever. "FSO" is more concerned with Jimmy's nervous breakdown in 1952 and his subsequent recovery. The real story should be his patient wife, without whom Piersall would have been at sea. The Catholic Church has canonized people for less! "FSO" skims along the edges of Jimmy's problems but to its' credit does not sweep them under a rug. The problems may be sanitized but not trivialized. In my opinion, the true meat of the book is its' 1950s American League backdrop, which I'm just barely old enough to remember. Red Sox fans should enjoy reading about Ted Lepcio, Lou Boudreau, Ellis Kinder, Joe Cronin and Billy Goodman. "FSO" has a limited scope and appeal. The 1950s sportsworld was lilly white and not given to tell all, dirt digging locker room scoops and the book reflects that era. Jimmy gets a free pass on some (not all) of his antics. Readers who accept those constraints should find "FSO" enjoyable and worthwhile. Anyone with a dad or uncle, etc who is a hardcore Red Sox fan has a great Christmas present to click unto.



5. This short biography of talented centerfielder Jim Piersall of the Red Sox has long been well-received for it's frank portrayal of mental illness and the difficult road to recovery. Unfortunately, the book is ultimately disappointing because it goes only to the brink of discovery; we never fully understand the real cause of the illness or have explained to us what the treatment was like.

   The book begins with Piersall's fascinating life story including his difficult family life and we see the strains of his illness develop from his earliest memories. Piersall proves to be a very real person and his humanity is quite believable as he accomplishes many things under the heavy burden of his illness. However, about the time Piersall suffers his blackout, the book blacks out as well and we only learn about his descent into madness as he thumbs through photo albums with his longsuffering wife. He only mentions in passing that he received shock therapy, but we never learn why or for how long or whether there were other treatments involved. The book has a gloriously happy ending with Piersall fully recovered and on his way to Spring Training for next season. I think the reason for this is that the book may have been written as a sort of apology or explanation to the general public about Piersall and his antics on and off the field; it also may have been considered poor taste in the 1950s to have been more descriptive than that.

   Overall, this book is great for biographical information on Piersall and as an inspirational story of triumph over adversity, but may leave you hungry for more detail.

5 comments about The Mick.

1. Mickey Mantle was my childhood baseball idol. This book was first published in the early 1980s. I am fond of this book because even as a adult with a successful career I was still awestruck by Mantle. The book cover was different from the one shown here. I was working at the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo California and went I heard that mantle was doing a book sign of this new book over in Westwood, I took a very long lunch break, went to Brentano's in Westwood bought the book and waited in a long linr to talk to Mickey and get his signature.
   
   This is a well-written book about Mantle's life in baseball and includes a lot about his frienship and relationship with Billy Martin. All Mantle's books are well-written because he had the good esense to pick excellent sportswriters to ghost write for him. Mantle still appeared to be in good health at the time although the gray was showing in his hair. Liver cancer possibly a result of his heavy drinking and partying during his career took him out of this world too soon. The controversy over his liver transplant came much later as did his final book which was his best and had a heavy message. This book doesn't do that but it does give Mantle's side of the story on a lot of issues that were told much differently by the media. This included the famous brawl at the Copa Cabana bar that many think trigered the trade of Billy Martin to Kansas City. Casey Stengel loved Martin's heart and aggressiveness in the field, but he grew tired of Billy's antics that seemed to be corrupt his star player (Mickey Mantle).



2. I REALLY ENJOYED THE MICK. MICKEY DOES A VERY GOOD JOB TEELING US ABOUT HIS HARD LIFE AS A CHILD IN OKLAHOMA TO HIS GLORY DAYS WITH THE YANKEES. I FOUND IT VERY INTERESTING TO READ IN THE MICKEY'S WORDS THAT HE HAD A DRINKING PROBLEM, BUT UNFORTUNATELY HE STOPPED TOO LATE AND IT COST HIM HIS LIFE. MICKEY WAS QUITE A LADIES MAN ALSO AND HAD MANY AFFAIRS. THE MICK IS VERY HUMAN AND HAS A VERY HIGH TOLERANCE TO PAIN. MICKEY WAS MY BOYHOOD HERO, I LOVED TO WATCH HIM. HIS COMBINATION OF POWER AND SPEED WAS AWESOME. HIS ABILITY TO PLAY WITH PAIN MADE HIM A HERO WITH MANY FANS. THIS IS SAD IN MANY PLACES BUT I RECOMMEND IT FOR ALL YANKEE AND BASEBALL FANS. THE MICK IS STILL THE MAN.



3. "The Mick" is about the legendary Mickey Mantle. The best part of this book is that it's told in the first person by Mickey himself. Mick was a great guy, and he doesn't edit himself in this book. My favorite part of this book was his upbringings. Any baseball fan knows the guy was a legend on the field, but his origins are less known. It tells of how his father and his grandfather would alternate pitching left and right handed to teach him to hit switch. Or the games he played while Dad was away at the mines. His siblings would box with him, or throw balls over their house and chase them down. If you like Mickey, or even just baseball, you'll love this book.



4. Mickey Mantle (1931-1995) tells his story in this readable and interesting book. Mantle was neither intellectually gifted nor particularly insightful - in these pages he comes across as plain and somewhat humble. Imagine the American League's biggest star running a family bowling alley in Dallas during off seasons in those days of modest salaries. Mantle tells of his antics with his teammates, the thrill of key games, trips overseas, etc. The superstar from Commerce Oklahoma was more responsible for the loved and hated Yankee dynasty of the 1950's thru 1964 than anybody. Mantle said he couldn't remember a single parade after another Yankee title - they were expected to win. Compare that with the 86-year championship wait in Boston, or the long pennant droughts of the White Sox, Cubs, and other teams.
   
   This book came out in the mid-1980's and steers clear of the drinking problems that would lead to Mantle's death in 1995. This is not a great autobiography, but it is an interesting look from a surprisingly humble man.



5. As a lifelong baseball fan, I am well aware of the legend of Mickey Mantle. I was born just as his career was fading, and he retired three years before my first Little League game.
   But the name "Mickey Mantle" always meant something. Like DiMaggio or Musial or Ruth, he represented a certain type of baseball "hero" that doesn't exist anymore.
   Mythic. Ethereal.

   I decided to read this book in order to learn more about Mantle, and I have to say I learned quite a bit.
   Not all of it good.
   The book is written as if Mr. Mantle dictated it into a tape recorder, and was transcribed with minimal embellishment.
   He comes across as a plain, simple and often humble man. Not very bright, and not terribly insightful. The language is plain and monosyllabic. Fractured sentences and unfinished thoughts are sprinkled throughout the tome.

   Knowing what we know now about his alcoholism and eventual death from liver failure, it's a little embarrassing to see him downplay these problems. Shockingly, his drunk driving accident that put his wife "through the windshield" and led to his wife needing "a lot of stitches in her head" is briefly mentioned in a half a page, as really "scaring" him. That's it. There are passages where he is almost boastful about his drinking...which are a little uncomfortable.

   The book is slight and short. I found myself longing for more information, more detail, more of what it must have been like to be a Yankee at that glorious time in baseball history. Twelve pennants and seven Series in fourteen years? The Yanks OWNED baseball.

   There are many enjoyable anecdotes regarding his fellow ballplayers...pranks, stunts, arguments, fights...that are the clear highlight of this book. He really doesn't have a bad word to say about anybody. Except maybe George Weiss.
   And that leads to the one thing I DIDN'T like about this book.

   Mickey Mantle comes across as a little whiny. Especially about two things: his salary and his injuries.
   And you don't ever want to think of Mickey Mantle as "whiny".

   I realize the book was written in 1985. Things WERE totally different in the 50's. But to put so much emphasis on the annual salary negotiations, and to leave out so much good stuff about the actual game itself, is just plain wrong. There's no perspective.

   Injury after injury gets recounted, with the same "aw-shucks" manner that infuses his less-detailed accounts of his MVP years; it's a bit numbing.

   Since he's gone, we may never know what it must have been like to be Mickey Mantle. Perhaps had he involved his co-writer Herb Gluck more, or had Gluck been able to draw more out of Mantle, we'd have a better book. There's too much pity if you will and not enough glory.

   Believe me, Mantle had enough "glory" in his life for half a dozen Hall of Famers. He truly is one of those legends whose reality justifies the myth. Maybe he wasn't the best person to write a book about Mickey Mantle, strangely enough.
   Did he ever understand how awesome...I use that word carefully and precisely...how truly awesome he really was to a whole generation?

   I consider this merely a taste, a tantalizing glimpse, into the life of Mickey Mantle. I need to read more...I HAVE to.

5 comments about Power, Money & Sex.

1. I was wandering around a Gold Beach, Oregon book store last week and just happened to pick up Deion Sanders' book. I vaguely knew who he was. For some strange reason, I purchased it. Although, riddled with grammatical and spelling errors, I found his message very compelling. I am just new to the world of Jesus and have had many folks in my life talk to me about living a Christian life, but I have to say that Deion's book really TALKED to me about this issue. More than anyone else. He just broke it down in plain terms and related his story in a way that spoke to me loud and clear. Thanks Deion.



2. I FOUND THIS BOOK TO BE QUITE INTERESTING AND WRITTEN WITH HONESTY. DEION HAS ALWAYS BEEN FLASHY AND FLAMBOYANT. HE PRESENTED HIMSELF AS BEING THIS WAY ALL THE TIME. HIS "PRIME TIME" PERSONALITY IS NOT WHAT I CONSIDER TO BE A MODEL CITIZEN ON HOW TO PRESENT YOURSELF. HE SAYS UNDERNEATH HE IS A CHRISTIAN AND HUMBLE, I HOPE HE IS. I HAD HOPED HE WOULD HAVE GIVEN MORE DETAIL TO HIS CAREER. THIS IS WORTH READING AND ENJOYABLE. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK DEION AND PLEASE WRITE ANOTHER BOOK WITH MORE DETAIL AND INSIGHT INTO HOW TO LIVE LIFE.



3. Let me start off by saying I like Deion Sanders, otherwise I never would have purchased his book. And I admire the fact that the man has come a LONG way and overcome many obstacles to accept Christ into his life.
   However, I do have a major complaint - well, two to be totally honest.
   One, Deion seems to blame all his past problems on others. Even though Deion admits he was hell on wheels and self destructive for a time, he still doesn't take responsibility for many of his actions in this book. The time in Cincinnati, when he played for the Reds, when he got into an altercation with a security guard while he was riding around in a golf cart. Everyone knows Deion made that situation worse than it ever could have been, but in Deion's retelling of the story, the security guard provoked him. There are several more stories like this one, where Deion was involved in something that escalated because the other party in the dispute was out to "get him". I'm not going to say that everything that has happened to Deion is his fault, but let's be real - a lot of it is. I'm surprised, as a christian, that Deion hasn't stepped up to the plate and taken a little more responsibility for his past actions. I'm not judging Deion, but I must admit my disappointment.
   The other problem I had with the book, and this is most likely not Deion's fault but rather the authors, is that his "escapades" are glamourized, instead of downplayed. I've read several biographies written by famous people - athletes, politicians, actors, etc - and they all are guilty of this. I understand the risk you take as a writer, explaining the past deed and attempting to unfold what happened, but doing so in a manor that is interesting to the reader. When this happens, it's every easy to glamourize the story, instead of exposing it for the bad thing that it was.
   Overall, an entertaining read, albeit somewhat short to my surprise.



4. Overall, I really enjoy Deion and I was looking forward to reading his autobiography, but I have to say I was somewhat disappointed. It wasn't as 'thorough' as I thought - and his cockiness and self-centeredness really showed. I still enjoy him, and I wish him the best on his journey with Jesus.. I just pray that he's sincere.



5. I've always dug Deion Sanders.To Me he has been the Most Complete Athlete of His Time.cuz He is a Good Baseball Player&A Great Football Player.but More Importantly The Brother is Very Honest with Himself&His Surroundings.he has come full circle&has Inner Peace.this is a Great Book.

No comments about Ty Cobb: A Biography (Baseball's All-Time Greatest Hitters).

5 comments about The Mind of Bill James: How a Complete Outsider Changed Baseball.

1. This book could have been titled "The Best of Bill James" instead of "The Mind of Bill James." About 70% of the book is just excerpts from old publications of James', often inserted without any real context or additional insight. Gray, when he appears, is a decent writer but not a great one, and I agree with an earlier reviewer who said that his writing style often seems derivative of James himself.
   
   Fun in parts, but poorly edited, disorganized, and ultimately a very sparse book.



2. "The Mind of Bill James: How a Complete Outside Changed Baseball" delivers better on the first part of the title.
   
   The book serves as a narrative biography of James, who is best known for popularizing a term he coined, "Sabrmetrics" or the use of statistics to analyze all facets of baseball decisionmaking, from which minor league pitchers would have solid major league careers to the value of stolen bases. While it summarizes James's most important ideas, it really doesn't explore how they've impacted the Major Leagues at all, even though James is now a paid consultant to the Red Sox and his ideas clearly play a role.
   
   Gray's sources seem to be limited to James's writings (which are mostly out of date) and interviews with James. He really doesn't seem to have talked at all with other baseball executives to get their views on James's methods, and therefore its really difficult to know how seriously those truly "in power" take them. For instance, Billy Beane of the A's is known to use Jamesian methods and done quite well with them (see Michael Lewis's "Moneyball"). Gray doesn't seem to have talked with him or other GMs though.
   
   Another disappointment is the cursory coverage Gray gives some of James's most important ideas, such as the concept of "Win Shares" that allows players to be evaluated over different periods of time, i.e. did Yogi Berra or Jackie Robinson contribute more to their teams' success? Calling the concept too complicated to really break down, Gray doesn't even get to it until about 2/3 of the way through the book.
   
   One of the reasons for this is a real weakness of the book - its use of a narrative format instead of a topical one. Because the book takes James from childhood to the presdent and discusses his ideas as he wrote them, there's no sense of hierarchy, i.e., which of them are most important in terms of their contribution to baseball, which is the book's ostensible purpose.
   
   Finally, the book doesn't really take a comprehensive look at the world of baseball analysis to get a sense of how much ground James really broke. The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) preceeded James's appearance onto the scene. To what extent did James popularize work being done already (James can write clearly and make the mundane fascinating) and to what extent did he plow new ground? Again, while the book acknowledges that there was this universe of research and analysis before James, he doesn't even begin to explore this.
   
   None of this is to criticize James at all, who best exemplifies someone who writes about the game with intelligence and passion. His ideas are important (whether you agree with him or not), and deserve a better explication than this volume.
   
   In short, a good concept poorly executed in my view.



3. One sign of a great, compelling biography, I think, is a kind of merging of the two voices - that of the subject of the biography and that of the biographer himself. When a kind of seamless interaction between them occurs on the page the result can be beautifully illuminating. Scott Gray's The Mind of Bill James: How a Complete Outsider Changes Baseball accomplishes exactly this and does so by focusing on the essence of James' contribution to the game rather than devoting too much time to more personal details of his subjects' history. That said, the book is, in it's way, intensely personal - again, from the both the standpoint of the individual as well as the author, for both make a deeply felt, strong case for the beauty of real, meaningful information over appearances, not only in baseball, but in ostensibly disparate subjects such as politics and crime stories as well. Essentially Gray's book supports James' method and approach to deciphering the actual and real strengths of a baseball team and of individual players by citing him extensively. But what makes the book such a great read is that Gray provides an enlightening and, at times, poetic, context in which sabermetrics takes on the broader scope of things. His particular form of prose is not ethereal or flowery at all however, on the contrary, it is rather calculated, surefooted, and certain, and possesses edges as sharp as the James analyses cited throughout the book. This book represents what I consider a perfect fusion, a great meeting of the minds. I think the thought that most struck me from reading it is that I'm sure James would have been an incredibly interesting voice in any pursuit - and Gray's book conveys that in a comparably staightforward and precise way and with undeniable enthusiasm and depth.



4. Gray takes the bio genre into uncharted waters--a perfect match for his iconoclastic, quirky subject. Full of unique insights and strange-and-beautiful humor, Gray's book takes us on a remarkable journey as we discover how this maverick came to be so loved and so hated and so influential in the baseball world.



5. As baseball books go, this one is unusual. Instead of mimicking the tried-and-true journalistic voice of authority, the author lets his subject do most of the talking, about baseball in general and the Red Sox in particular, as well as on things that have little to do with sport but are nonetheless interesting, such as the Ramsey murder, life in the Army during the Vietnam era, race, and psychology. In one lengthy passage, the author uses old and new James analysis to make a case for Lou Whitaker being severly underrated and having had more value to his teams than Ernie Banks or Lou Brock to theirs. Whether you agree or disagree, or you like Bill James or don't, this book is pretty fascinating. Some reviewers have complained about the structure, but I found it a fun and easy read. If you're a Red Sox fan, you'll dig the "Pedro Martinez / London pub" story.

1 comments about Hank Greenberg: Hall-of-Fame Slugger.

1. My mother was delighted to receive this item as he was one of her baseball hero's.

No comments about Big Ed Walsh: The Life and Times of a Spitballing Hall of Famer.