2 comments about Christy Mathewson.

1. I recently purchased a few modern biographies of baseball players, and this was the best of the lot by a wide margin. It's not the most exciting biography I've ever read, but it covers Mathewson's career without a lot of extraneous personal life fluff or other modern biography madness. Short, easy, enjoyable read which manages to stick to baseball; it probably helps that Mathewson never got involved with any movie stars and wasn't able to sell autographs for seven kazillion dollars each.
   
   But quite frankly, the publisher's proofreader needs to be beaten with a cluestick. (I strongly suspect Word was the sole proofreader.) Far too many spelling errors (rather, "correctly" spelled but incorrect words), partially-duplicated sentences, cut-up sentences which don't make any sense at all, and several other minor nits. This sort of mess is difficult to excuse, as it looks as if the book were published straight from the writer's final manuscript with little or no editing. It's certainly not unreadable, but the errors are a surprise.



2. Mike Hartley has written an outstanding book about Giant's pitcher Christy Mathewson. I'm not much of a baseball fan, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Mathewson was one of Pennsylvania's finest, an ace pitcher, and a fine gentleman. It's no surprise that Mike Hartley would choose to write about a figure like Mathewson. Mike, too, is one of Pennsylvania's finest, and a gentleman of high moral character. (I don't know if he's an ace pitcher, but he probably could be if he set his mind to it.) Mathewson stayed on high moral ground throughout his life, while many professional baseball players were drunks, gamblers, womanizers, cheaters, and the like. Author Hartley has managed to do the same, even though he spends much of the year on ships crewed by heavy drinkers, gamblers, profaners, and womanizers. You should buy...and read...this book, if for no other reason than to honor two fine gentlemen: Christy Mathewson and Mike Hartley. You might also want to check out my books (Although I'm not nearly as fine a gentleman as Mike Hartley. But I am a sailor. And I need the royalty money. Thanks.)

5 comments about Baseball's Natural: The Story of Eddie Waitkus.

1. Wow, a can't-stop-reading book for baseball fans who don't care about stats but love the legends.
   
   Waitkus encountered one of the worst stalkers in sports history and when the lable of stalker wasn't even there. Creepy and sad, this book is ironic, bitter and forces us to watch te decline of a player who shoulda, coulda, woulda been better if not for holes in the legal system that allowed a psycho to succeed in destroying a baseball star. Read it for the full, fleshed-out tale: you'll be creeped out more you thought possible.
   
   Mark Braun, Executive Director
   Old Timers' Baseball Association of Chicago



2. In order to fully understand the events described in this book, one needs to place oneself in the time frame in which they arose.

   1949 was a backward period in American history, in which a woman could shoot a man that she did not even know and not even be universally lionized as an empowerment-achieving heroine. It was actually a time in which she could expect to receive a measure of legal and moral reprobation for her actions. Indeed, it was a time when men weren't even universally regarded as worthless, simply for having been born male, and some regarded their lives as having purpose and value. It was a time when millions of people across the country actually found themselves praying for the speedy recovery of the male victim and even lionizing HIM as the hero.

   This was the historical setting in which deranged Baseball Annie, Ruth Steinhagen, shot Philadelphia Phillie first baseman Eddie Waitkus. John Theodore's book largely describes what happened to both the assailant and her victim after the shooting, though, of course, he also includes a pre-shooting biography of both of them.

   As a misogynist and a baseball fan, I would find it easy to simply regard this book as being the story of woman who committed the unpardonable crime of not only shooting a man - but a male baseball player yet.

   Yet - and this is to Theodore's credit - he brings home the realities of Steinhagen's obsession with Eddie Waitkus forcefully enough that even this reader could empathize with it, and I did find myself taking as much interest in Steinhagen's story as I did in Waitkus's.

   This reader himself has undergone two or three experiences in which he found himself strongly obsessed to the point of distraction with an unattainable member of the opposite sex - none of which, I hasten to add, ever had the potential of becoming harmful. But by giving his readers a glimpse into the stark and chilling world of a mind trapped in such a grip, Theodore provided this reader with a glimpse into a mind that once resembled his own - differing (however greatly) only in the strength and emphasis of the grip that seized it.

   The experience gave me a there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I sensation and strengthened my resolve never again to walk that path. I actually would have liked to read more about Steinhagen - her mental health was restored and she is alive today - than Theodore actually provided, and I imagine that Theodore would have liked to have written more about her. But the book is largely about Waitkus, presumably because there is more information about him in the public record and because people close to him (this is obviously not a surprise) were more willing to talk than were people close to Steinhagen (attempts to contact Steinhagen herself were rebuffed).

   I was going to give this book 4 stars on the basis of the author's workmanlike acquisition and delineation of the facts but the Waitkus story, as Theodore weaved it, "grew" on me the more that I read into it.

   Of the World War II generation, Waitkus himself was a corking good ballplayer - though not a Hall of Famer. But he was the best defensive first baseman of his era, one who sprayed the ball around for singles and doubles - more J.T. Snow than Lou Gehrig. There was nothing remarkable about his personality - which appears to have been of a blunt, yet affable character, which philosophically took life, including the tragedies that he suffered, as it was dealt to him. Kilroy in a major-league uniform - he would not be greatly remembered today as anything but one of many names from baseball's past, were it not for the shooting.

   Yet there was really something almost Shakespearean about the story of his life. His recovery from the shooting and his efforts to restore his baseball career match nicely with the rise to glory of the fabled upstart "Whiz Kids" that were the pennant-winning Philadelphia Phillies of 1950.

   But while his physical recovery appears to have been complete and while there is no indication that Waitkus allowed himself to dwell on the past, Theodore tells a story of a man already suffering from the hidden trauma caused by several harrowing war experiences having his trauma heightened by the only experience (occurring, ironically in civilian life) where he was the victim of gunfire.

   After arriving at the summit of fame that was his leading role on the "Whiz Kids", Waitkus, turning too often to drink for solace, suffers slow declines in his baseball career, his marriage, and in his life after baseball that culminated in his untimely death from cancer in 1972 at the age of 53. It makes one wonder if Steinhagen's bullet didn't somehow find its target after all.

   Yet, in his final years, he finds redemption in his continuing relationship with the children that were the product of his marriage and in being an instructor in Ted Williams's baseball camp. Theodore actually misses the opportunity to embellish upon the irony inherent in the fact that Ted Williams had to deal with his own personal demons while he lived, but it was the book's bittersweet ending that moves it into an elite classification in my judgment.

   One minor baseball point that Theodore missed was another brush that Waitkus had with baseball history at the end of the 1951 season, featuring a historic Giants-Dodgers pennant race. Had Jackie Robinson not made a remarkable catch of Waitkus's low line drive in the final game between the Dodgers and the Phillies, the hit would have won the game for the Phillies and knocked the Dodgers out of the pennant race. The Giants would have won the pennant in the regulation season, and Bobby Thomson's miracle homer in the third game of the post-season never would have happened. Waitkus would have achieved the "spoiler's" fame later found by Joe Morgan and Gene Oliver.




3. Here is a first rate baseball story, albeit with a limited audience. "Baseball's Natural" is the story of Eddie Waitkus, who played first base for the Cubs, Phillies and Orioles from 1941 and 1946-1955. That 3 year WW2 break is significant. Many believe that the period after the War to 1960 was a golden age for Major League Baseball. Those were the years of the (pre-expansion) original 16 teams. The NFL was just coming out of the shadows. The NBA and NHL were minor sports by comparison. To appreciate BN, it helps to remember that period, even if one is not familiar with Waitkus. Eddie was a slick fielder and above average hitter with a bright future. He was intelligent, popular off the field, well-spoken and an inquisitive, well-dressed young man. Then, one night in June of '48, he visited a woman in a Chicago hotel room and was shot! He recovered from the physical wounds but not from the mental ones. Somehow the dual demons of the shooting and his WW2 experiences drove him slowly to drink. He was a quiet drunk, not a rowdy one. He hung out in nice bars. His downward slide was slow, almost imperceptible, but just as real. Waitkus was out of baseball by 1955. He never found a second career and was dead by the age of 53. Why is "Baseball's Natural" worthwhile? Because it is a sensitive tale that grabs the reader's interest and holds it. It is a quick reading story. It is also quite well researched, with a wide range of supporting interviews and photographs. Many baseball books deal with the established stars; it's nice to read one that features an average guy. And because we sense that many players must have their own private demons that are invisible to the even the most devoted fan. At the time of this review, Baseball is officially in "hot stove" season, a perfect time to give "Baseball's Natural" a tryout.



4. This book really tells the true story of Eddie Waitkus. If you are a true baseball history fan this book is a must for your collection. At waitkus.org you will find more information about Eddie Waitkus. Read the book, visit the website and you will get to know the man as well as the baseball player.



5. Author John Theodore has provided the reader with the most detailed account of the 1949 shooting of former Philadelphia Phillies' baseball star Eddie Waitkus by an obsessed 19 year-old female fan in a Chicago hotel. At the time of the shooting Waitkus was the leading vote getter among first basemen for the upcoming All-Star game to be played in Brooklyn, New York. Waitkus managed to overcome the attempt on his life and became an integral member of the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies Whiz Kids team that went on to win the National League pennant only to lose the World Series to the New York Yankees in four straight, but hard fought, close games. Waitkus's career began to wind down a couple of years later as he was waived out of the National League, and became a member of the 1954 Baltimore Orioles who were playing their first year in Crabtown after moving from St. Louis. His playing time was very limited and in 1955 the Orioles cut him loose, and he once again returned for a brief period of time with the Phillies. The post baseball years were not kind to Waitkus who, like so many other players during this time, had no training beyond baseball. He tried a job in sales, but hated it. He fought the demons of alcohol, and the memories he had of World War II when he fought in the Pacific in addition to the memory of the evening in 1949 when he nearly lost his life in the Chicago hotel room. He did find happiness as a batting instructor in a Ted Williams baseball camp for young boys. Here he was doing something he loved among kids who shared his devotion to the game. Eddie Waitkus died in 1973 at the age of 53 from esophageal and lung cancer which was most likely brought on by his many years of heavy smoking. I did find a few spelling errors in the book along with the fact that the song Take Me Out to the Ball Game was written in 1908, not 1909, as the book mentions. If you associate the name of Eddie Waitkus only with the unfortunate shooting incident, this book will provide you with additional information about the man's career in addition to details regarding that unfortunate evening in 1949.

5 comments about Stranger to the Game: The Autobiography of Bob Gibson.

1. ...covering breaking into the big leagues black in the 1950s
   and highlights of the 1960s MLB. Competitive force of Gibson
   comes through in his slightly biased and semi-confessional
   bio.



2. During elementary school, 1972-1976, baseball was myth to me. The players were larger than life. Baseball cards were treasured. The World Series was something I looked forward to every year. I loved my Dodgers. I read Baseball Digest.
   I studied those baseball cards and Digests, and I got the impression that this Bob Gibson guy was pretty good.
   A few years later, I noted he was in the Hall of Fame.
   Years passed, I did the whole medical school thing, yadda yadda yadda and baseball got away from me. The strike didn't help.
   Then, whether it was the McGwire/Sosa chase, or I was just ready to come back, my interest in baseball expanded. Now I was reading every book I could on the subject.
   A grateful patient gave me an autographed baseball. I've never owned an autographed baseball, but I must admit, holding it felt like I was holding something with a strange energy. It was charmed. Almost magical.
   It was signed by "Bob Gibson". (He gave me another signed by Lou Brock too...)
   I went back and found my old baseball cards, and then sought out older Gibson cards.
   Then I found this book.
   This is a highly opinionated, often bitter, tell-it-like-it-is autobiography from a pitcher so good, they changed the game. They actually physically changed baseball because Bob Gibson was too good.
   I simplify, but only a bit.
   I smiled reading the account of his childhood, in Omaha, Nebraska.
   That's where I went to medical school...at Creighton, which is where Mr. Gibson went.
   He was a player who only wanted to win. To compete. To dominate.
   AND he played for The Harlem Globetrotters. Seriously. Right before he joined up with the Cardinals.
   He spent his entire career with the Cardinals. I wish people stayed with their teams more nowadays. You'll read about his fight against racism and bigotry; he followed bravely in Jackie Robinson's footsteps. They're cut from similar cloth.
   He became the most feared pitcher in baseball.
   Not because he was unafraid to use the brushback, which he did and did well. It was because batters often felt beat as they stepped into the batter's box. He would routinely strike out the side on ten or eleven pitches. He pitched complete games, even when they went into extra innings. He won twenty games a year, regularly.
   Then came 1968. He was, as it is said, the Pitcher of The Year in the Year of the Pitcher. Only five players hit over .300 that year. Gibson's league-leading ERA was 1.12. That's almost not fair.
   He mentions how proud he was of the fact that he could hit; he's the last pitcher to win 20 games and hit over .300 as well. One year, he hit more home runs than any other Cardinal but two. Yes, a sad comment on the lack of power amongst the rest of the team, but still.
   He is sometimes profane, controversial, thorny, uncompromising but somehow still admirable.
   I think his prickly personality may have overshadowed his amazing career. He defends himself (as if he needs defending) but remains unapologetic.
   I couldn't stop reading this book.
   He is an essential character in the story of baseball. He is the link from old style, confrontational, rough and tumble baseball of the 40's and 50's and the power pitchers of today. I'm talking specifically Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and perhaps Eric Gagne.
   He was overpowering. His legend deserves better.
   Read this book.



3. I am Bob's eldest offspring, Renee Gibson. I'm writing this review for 2 reasons. One is about the book itself; second is to comment about a review by DBW in Oakland, CA. Being it that I experienced most parts of this book, I was moved across the spectrum of emotions, which makes it good. Many things I knew, some I learned for the first time. The single thing that made me not rate this book a 4 or 5 was solely because the offspring who was there at the time has never been asked for their comments or opinions, maybe because we are females? My brother, Chris who I love dearly, was all over the book; I was in California. I was a natural athlete who understood the game as well as anybody, played softball for many years, and had funny inside information about my father. DBW was correct about something, and I'm risking much to say that my father is as mean off the field as he was on the field. He hated to lose ... anything! When I find a ghost-writer for my autobiography, you'll get to know more details. Of course he may not see himself this way, and I understand why. But, it's true. Otherwise, I enjoyed reading his second book from a non-fan's point of view (smile).



4. I am Bob's eldest offspring, Renee Gibson. I'm writing this review for 2 reasons. One is about the book itself; second is to comment about a review by DBW in Oakland, CA. Being it that I experienced most parts of this book, I was moved across the spectrum of emotions, which makes it good. Many things I knew, some I learned for the first time. The single thing that made me not rate this book a 4 or 5 was solely because the offspring who was there at the time has never been asked for their comments or opinions, maybe because we are females? My brother, Chris who I love dearly, was all over the book; I was in California. I was a natural athlete who understood the game as well as anybody, played softball for many years, and had funny inside information about my father. DBW was correct about something, and I'm risking much to say that my father is as mean off the field as he was on the field. He hated to lose ... anything! When I find a ghost-writer for my autobiography, you'll get to know more details. Of course he may not see himself this way, and I understand why. But, it's true. Otherwise, I enjoyed reading his second book from a non-fan's point of view (smile).



5. "Stranger to the Game" can be enjoyed on at least two different levels. On one level, fans get all the details they need about Gibson and his journey with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1959-1975: the early struggles with racist manager Solly Hemus; Gibson's relationship with catcher Tim McCarver; lessons learned by the Cards in their strong run at the pennant in 1963, and the fruits of those lessons in '64; the frustrating seasons of 1965 and '66; the powerhouse Cards of '67 and '68, punctuated by what might have been the greatest pitching performance of all time in 1968, by the author; and the gradual decline of both Gibson's skills and the Cards. The early years of Gibson's life in Omaha, Neb. are interesting, too -- the influence of his older brother; the things he learned from playing basketball, etc.

   But the book also offers some fascinating insights on what it means to be as fierce a competitor as Gibson was. On the field, especially when combined with great talent and intellect, it's a very powerful positive. But in so many other areas -- dealing with the press, trying to get and maintain other jobs in baseball after retirement, coping with the foolish things people do in everyday life, and perhaps even marriage -- it has been a detriment to Gibson. Several times in the book, he is appalled that people see him as "the meanest man to play baseball" (in the words of one fan who approached him in public). It doesn't make sense to him that people would fail to see that his angry demeanor on the mound, and when dealing with most opposing players off it, were designed for a very specific effect, one that made absolute sense in the context of his profession. Even within the limits of the diamond, people sometimes forget that while Gibson hit 90 batters with pitches, Don Drysdale hit 154, and Jim Bunning hit 160.

   The racial element of course serves to underscore this misunderstanding, in Gibson's view. Those determined to see a black man as threatening are that much more likely to be unable to separate job-specific toughness with a person's normal everyday persona. This, as much or more than anything else, has kept Gibson on the periphery of baseball since his retirement.

   Throughout sports, one of the key issues confronting any athlete is how, and when, to turn off the mindset he or she must cultivate for the playing field. In some ways, a competitve approach to life in general is certainly desirable, as so many of our daily struggles are battles, to one degree or another. Gibson portrays himself as being able to flip this switch on or off, depending on the situation. Others disagree.

   Several years after "Stranger to the Game" was published, Gibson, at 66, had a physical altercation with a motorist (can there be any doubt who won?) who cut him off in traffic. The incident suggests that Gibson's competitive fires, perhaps combined with the machismo so intertwined with competition for most male athletes, still rage as intensely as ever.

   What haunted me about "Stranger to the Game" is that I think there should be more room, both in baseball and outside of it, for someone who takes Gibson's approach to things.

No comments about Baseball's Bonus Babies: Conversations With 24 High-priced Ballplayers Signed from 1953 to 1957.

No comments about Dazzy Vance: A Biography of the Brooklyn Dodger Hall of Famer.

3 comments about Honus Wagner: On His Life & Baseball.

1. A member of the board of the Ty Cobb Museum in Royston, Georgia, and a "distant Georgia cousin" of the other early 20th Century player widely thought of at the time as being the game's greatest player, William R. "Ron" Cobb has just edited an invaluable work on the teller of tall tales and possessor of a career 150 OPS+... Honus Wagner. "Honus Wagner On His Life & Baseball" is the Flying Dutchman in his own words... as originally published as a newspaper serial in the Los Angeles Times from December 13, 1923 to January 23, 1924. In effect an oral history originally written and published less than seven years after Wagner retired, it gives us a first-person insight into the great Pirate star, an insight that has generally been missing from history, due to Wagner's own reticence while he was playing, and his tendency to gild the lily in his later years. This then, is Wagner on Wagner, at a time when he was most likely to give us a straight story.
   
   Although the 1920s were the heyday of the ghostwritten column, Cobb states strongly his opinion that the serial's words are Wagner's own. "I based this [opinion] on the overall tone and use of folksy and `down to earth' words and phrases," he explains. "The tone and flow sounds much like the spoken word, which indicates to me that a professional writer likely did not write this - at least not on his own. At the worst, I feel that Wagner might have dictated this and let an editor transcribe in into printable text. Even in this case, the text would be Wagner's story in `his own words.'"
   
   And what a story it is. An historical bonanza, not just about the National League's greatest player, and some of his contemporaries, but also about the game as it was played during the first 50 or so years of his life. In 40 installments Wagner tells of everything from his early, minor league years in baseball, to his extensive thoughts on the skills and strategies of the early 20th Century game, to his admiration for Barney Dreyfuss, to the "good old days," to his thoughts on some of the greats he played with and against. And, of course, like practically every other old timer, he picks his All-Star teams. As with every oral history, Wagner's story is colored by his prejudices, especially when he talks about how the game had changed from when he broke in until 1924, but that hardly makes him unique among baseball storytellers. Indeed, much of Wagner's copy reads like it could well have come out of "The Glory of Their Times," except this is a total of 185 pages (with some marvelous photos) all from one exceptional player.
   
   To cherry pick just a few of Honus' more interesting stories... Fred Lieb told the sad tale of the Philadelphia National League club sending a sore-armed pitcher named Con Lucid to scout the Paterson, New Jersey club in 1897, specifically to scout shortstop Honus Wagner. According to Lieb, Lucid thought the big Honus was too clumsy, and recommended they sign Kid Elberfeld instead, thus blowing the Phillies' chance to have a Wagner/Lajoie double play combination. A good story, but, according to Wagner, not exactly true. Honus' version is even better... no less a figure than Phillies' manager George Stallings was scouting him, and it was Stallings who was unimpressed. Seems as if Wagner was playing the outfield that day, and threw a couple of balls into the stands behind the plate. "I wouldn't give that big bum his carfare from here to Philadelphia," is how Honus quotes Stallings' reply to Patterson's Ed Barrow asking what the Phillies would give for Wagner.
   
   Wagner's contract was sold later in 1897 to Louisville, enabling Honus to be present when the one and only Rube Waddell broke into the majors. In an installment entitled "The Bug Enters Baseball - at 2 a.m.," Wagner tells how Waddell insisted on meeting his new manager, Fred Clarke, when he arrived at the Colonels' hotel in Washington at 2 a.m. He pestered the night man enough to find out Clarke's room number, and proceeded to wake up the manager, who then suggested that Waddell needed to meet the rest of the team. The Rube went around to everyone else's room, pounding on doors and waking the entire team, with one exception. Waddell came back to Clarke's room at 4 a.m., not because the rest of the team wanted to lynch him (a possibility) but because the guy in room 128 wouldn't get up, and the Rube thought something was wrong. What was wrong was that William Hoy was in 128, and since he was deaf, he couldn't hear Waddell pounding on the door. (Actually, Waddell expert Dan O'Brien says that this story IS fiction.)
   
   Although there is a tendency to think that Wagner could hit any pitcher who ever lived, he tells of one hurler, Jack Taylor, who gave him more trouble than any other. So much trouble, that Wagner once turned around and batted left-handed against the right-handed Taylor. Although Wagner says he "swung like a woman" he also punched the ball over the first base bag for a double. Other anecdotes include the time Jack Murray of the Giants made a game-saving catch by a flash of lightning, a bit on the game (and the box score) that clinched the 1901 pennant, Bill Klem tossing Clarke from a game for saying he was "a model umpire," and much more.
   
   Wagner's anecdotes, both about himself and other players, are enlightening and amusing. No, he doesn't tell all, like exactly what he was up to in his 1908 holdout, but this is still a find that also includes a vast amount of what was called in those days "inside baseball." That is, how to play the game. Seems as if Honus coached baseball at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University) after he retired, and he still had all of his old class notes around. Presenting a much different side than his standard, somewhat shallow though pleasant public persona, Wagner shares considerable insight, as he had done with his players, on everything from how to play shortstop to defensive signals to nine very specific points on the hit and run. This was no dumb jock and storyteller, but a deep thinker about the intricacies of the game.
   
   While Wagner's story is rightfully deserving of kudos, so is Cobb's work to bring it forth. A SABR member, a Deadball Era expert, and a graduate of Georgia Tech (he really should be called "Dr. Cobb," since he has a doctorate in Engineering), Cobb is no rookie at enlightening the reading public on stars of that era. He has previously published two autobiographical works on The Georgia Peach, "Busting `Em" and "Memoirs of Twenty Years in Baseball." When asked about the nature of his relation to old Tyrus, he says, "I was raised in Atlanta with the family story that we were related to the `great one.' But, no one ever told me exactly how. Some in my family believe we descend from the half brother of Ty Cobb's great grandfather in North Carolina."
   
   When Ron changed his historical focus from Tyrus to Honus, he undertook a big project, having to re-type the manuscript from 80 year-old printed microfilm images of the Los Angeles Times. As anyone who has ever done microfilm research knows, 80 year-old images are not the easiest medium to work with. The image that comes from this is of Cobb hunched over a microfilm reader, trying to decipher smudged and almost illegible newsprint from the Roaring Twenties - a feat that only an historian of Cobb's knowledge could accomplish with success. As hard to read as the old Times were, Cobb had to use his own, independent understanding on the context to make sense out of some of the more obtuse parts.
   
   Ron Cobb's hard work should not go unrewarded. In a very real sense, "Honus Wagner On His Life & Baseball" is as valuable and entertaining to the baseball historian, and the average baseball fan, as "The Glory of Their Times."



2. Honus Wagner On His Life And Baseball deftly edited by William R. Cobb is an intriguing tale of Honus Wagner's remarkable career in baseball where he was known as "The Flying Dutchman". Following Honus from the beginning of his career in 1897, Honus Wagner On His Life And Baseball informatively carries readers through an epic true life tale of how he became one of the greatest baseball players of his day, playing seventeen consecutive seasons, and retaining a .300 batting average the whole time. Honus Wagner On His Life And Baseball is very highly recommended for all baseball enthusiasts and those intrigued by the accomplished life of baseball legend Honus Wagner.



3. Honus Wagner On His Life And Baseball deftly edited by William R. Cobb is an intriguing tale of Honus Wagner's remarkable career in baseball where he was known as "The Flying Dutchman". Following Honus from the beginning of his career in 1897, Honus Wagner On His Life And Baseball informatively carries readers through an epic true life tale of how he became one of the greatest baseball players of his day, playing seventeen consecutive seasons, and retaining a .300 batting average the whole time. Honus Wagner On His Life And Baseball is very highly recommended for all baseball enthusiasts and those intrigued by the accomplished life of baseball legend Honus Wagner.

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

1. After playing professional baseball for twenty-two years (disrupted for one year to serve in the U.S. Navy during World War II) with the Cardinals, Stan 'The Man' Musial retired holding seventeen Major League records, 29 National League records, and 9 all Star game records. He hit over .300 seventeen times in the course of his career and was second in all-time total bases, fourth in hits, fifth in runs batted in (RBI), and sixth in the number of games played. But every bit as important to his fans as Stan's prowess on the field, was his exemplary character off it. Now the latest titles in the outstanding Greenwood Publishing Group's 'Baseball's all-time Greatest Hitters' series of baseball greats, "Stan Musial: A Biography" by baseball historian and enthusiast Joseph Stanton presents a deftly written, meticulously definitive, and very highly recommended history of Stan's life and accomplishments that will be greatly appreciated by baseball enthusiasts in general, and Stan Musial's legions of fans in particular.

2 comments about Things Happen for a Reason: The True Story of an Itinerant Life in Baseball.

1. This book is a short fast read a fairly detailed account of Terry Leach's major league career. While it contains almost no controversy or dirt, espicially when he was a member of the "bad boy" Late 80s Mets, the book is a good read when if you would like to know about the lesser players in baseball.



2. To be honest, I really wanted to like this book because Terry Leach seems like a good guy and an honest man, but this book isn't one that I'll think of when I think about good baseball books. It's an autobiographical account of his playing days in college at Auburn, the minor leagues, and the big leagues with the Mets, Royals, Twins, and White Sox. It's not a very well-written book. For example, there are a number of grammatical errors. He tends to use the word myself a lot when he could just use I or me. He also makes way too many excuses for his failures (I wasn't used right, I was hurt, etc., etc., etc.,) and he also complains too much about not being treated right by the different teams that unceremoniously dump him. When he does taste success he can't stop raving about himself or praising himself. On the plus side, this book is easy to read and easy to follow. It's possible to finish this book in the amount of time it takes to watch an entire major league baseball game. Another good thing is that he doesn't have anything bad to say about old teammates, managers, etc. The closest he comes to bad-mouthing someone is when he says that he didn't care for some of his teammates in the minors. He seems like a genuinely good man, and that's why it's too bad this book wasn't a bit more interesting to read.

1 comments about The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary.

1. Here's your copy, pilgrim, of the book that lists the players and all of the stuff of researchers of the "League of their own" and a great reference book for any library, public or private. I've used it more than expected and recommend it as my primary source for All American Girls Professional Baseball players. Several other SABR members have it, as well and I haven't heard a single bad word yet. Well done!
   
   Mark Braun
   Old Timers' Baseball Association of Chicago

5 comments about 60' 6'' and Other Distances from Home.

1. I was very impressed by the author's creative way in which he presented this biography. Fuller exercises his gifted skills as a poet as well as delivers a well researched history of Mose Yellowhorse. It's both entertaining and informative.



2. I read this book when I was writting a graduate Thesis for baseball history. Good read to get information. Understand that he wanted a unique way to set up book. Maybe only drawback if reading for information. Is good that it includes oral history of the man, statistical history and analytical history. A good read for entertainment or historical review.



3. Todd was my English Comp teacher in college, good guy, made me believe I could write and I havent stopped since. I was so proud when I read this book.



4. I don't normally read sports biographies, however, a friend of mine, aware of my interest in American Indian history, recommended this book to me after she'd had the priviledge of attending one of the author's readings. Fascinating indeed! The life and legend of Mose Yellowhorse is told wonderfully and passionately through the talents of Todd Fuller. This book is an amazing journey from start to finish. Take it from me, I could not put the book down!



5. Through Fuller's careful research and beautifully written poetry, we get a unique, intriguing, and entertaining biography on the life of Mose Yellowhorse. As a proud member of the Pawnee Nation, I highly commend Fuller for his dedication to see this work to its completion. For without him, Mose's story would have remained untold and what a shame that would have been for Native American history, Native American sports history, the Pawnee Nation and for Mose Yellowhorse himself.

   ...1) This book is about the first full-blood American Indian to play baseball in the major leagues. That he accomplished such a difficult thing in an era when not even African Americans were allowed to play in the majors, is something that all American Indians should be proud of (not just the Pawnee). 2) From this book, Non-Native society learns that Indians DO exist, not just in the historical sense but in contemporary, everyday existence. Non-Native society learns that Indians CAN accomplish great things, such as, playing major league baseball. 3) It could be that Yellowhorse's own words are absent from this book because he passed away nearly 40 years ago and also, it states very clearly in the book that Yellowhorse left no journals or other writings behind. (Possible explanation for that "emptiness," I don't know).