2 comments about Whitey Ford.

1. Mr. Coverdale may be the most accurate baseball biographer, but he ranks among the driest. This book details about every start Ford ever made as a major leaguer. It's like a set of 460 box scores made into prose. What it lacks is any description of Whitey's private life after he became a Yankee, including the fun times with Mickey. The most famous stories are repeated in brief: the Copacabana incident, the Phil Linz harmonica strife, and Whitey's late career scuffing of the ball. But seek in vain for a "life" story here. And the book abruptly ends with Whitey's retirement. If you like Whitey, as I do, even though I'm not a Yankee fan, you want to know more about him. Has he been happy these last 39 years?



2. As a lifelong Yankee fan and an avid reader of sports biographies, Mr. Coverdale's Whitey Ford ranks number one in my book. Meticulously researched and consequently bereft of the inaccuracies which mar so many sport biographies, the book fully captures the excitement and mystique of the Yankee glory years in the 1950's and 60's.

1 comments about National League West: The Arizona Diamondbacks, The Colorado Rockies, The Los Angeles Dodgers, The San Diego Padres, And The San Francisco Giants (Behind the Plate).

1. It is not surprising that Barry Bonds appears on the cover of this look at the "National League West" for young fans, but it is ironic since Bonds had not yet played during the 2005 season (he might be ready in September, but who knows). Jim Thome was on the cover of the "National League East" volume and Mark Prior is the cover boy for the "National League Central," and both of them have spent time on the disabled list, but at least they got some games in this year. Then again, this has been a strange year for this particular division. When as of last night this is a division where the San Diego Padres are a game under .500--and in first place. Meanwhile, the N.L. East the New York Mets are playing .513 ball and in last place. What an interesting world in which we live.
   
   Jim Gigliotti introduces the five teams in this division as being an unusual collection of franchises. The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants have storied histories that go back to their days in Brooklyn and New York, while the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, and San Diego Padres are relative new comers. The history of the division, which goes back to 1969, is traced to provide a quick overview of the N.L. West as a whole. Then Gigliotti goes on to provide more about each individual club. His stated goal is to allow his young readers to soon qualify as an expert on all of the teams in this division, but that is overstating the case. However, he does give young fans a solid introduction and the means to learn more.
   
   The teams are arranged alphabetically in this slim volume and in each chapter we learn about the history of the franchise, its best moments on the field, and some of the biggest stars who have played for each team. This becomes a disservice to the Dodgers and Giants who have each been around twice as long as the other three teams put together. The Dodgers have six world championships and the Giants have won five World Series. There are photographs of Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax to go along with Duke Snider's Hall of Fame plaque, but that leaves other Dodger greats like Roy Campanella, Maury Wills, and Orel Hershiser just to get their names mentioned. Carl Hubbell has his plaque and John McGraw, Mel Ott, and Willie McCovey get their photographs in, to go along with a statue of Willie Mays, but Christy Mathewson gets passed over.
   
   Still, when Gigliotti talks about New York Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson snaring McCovey's line drive to end the 1962 World Series he is doing his job (remember the "Peanuts" cartoons where Charlie Brown sits dejectedly on the curb and in the last panel jumps up and asks why McCovey could not have hit the ball 2 feet--or even 1 foot--higher?). Sometimes the details are put in the margins of the book, but the important thing is that they are there.
   
   The book tries to tie the old to the new, so while Randy Johnson and Larry Walker have moved on to other teams, young fans have pictures of current stars like Preston Wilson and Jason Schmidt. However, this is a hit and miss proposition since Sean Burroughs of the Padres gets a color photo but is currently in the minor leagues (the son of former A.L. M.V.P. slugger Jeff Burroughs and a Little League World Series star, Sean has not shown the power numbers somebody playing the hot corner has to have).
   
   A lot of the fun of being a baseball fan is pouring over statistics, and in the back of the book young fans will find several pages of Stat Stuff, so that they can see that Todd Helton's lifetime average of .399 with the Rockies is currently a point higher than that of Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn with the Padres. While Christy Mathewson still has the career team records for wins (372) and strikeouts (2,499) with the Giants, Barry Bonds leads in none of those categories, although his considerable accomplishments are noted in detail at the end of the chapter on the San Francisco team. Young fans will also find a Glossary of baseball terms so they know what it means to be in the "cellar" or an "underdog."
   
   There is also a Time Line that puts Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World" in 1951 in historical perspective and a list of books in the back of this Behind the Plate volume where readers can go For More Information about the National Leagues West and Major League Baseball. If you check out the homepage on the web you will get links to the MLB and ESPN cites, which will help young fans find out more about the players and the teams mention. Gigliotti provides a lot of information, but there is so much out there, especially if you are a fan of the Dodgers or the Giants (no one is a fan of both, as this book should also make clear to its young readers).

1 comments about The Ty Cobb Scrapbook: An Illustrated Chronology of Significant Dates in the 24-Year Career of the Fabled Georgia Peach.

1. It was a refreshing look from a contemporary view of this fasinating era of baseball. Crammed full of interesting pictures. The Author certainly portrays Cobb as a baseball player extroadinaire. This book adornes my coffee table and is great for sneaking in a quick look from the "Deadball area."

5 comments about Inside Power.

1. This is a very brief story about the earlier years of one of baseball's premier players, Gary Sheffield. It is written in very short chapters along the line of Jose Conseco's book, but is more about a maturing process than anything else. Dwight Gooden is Gary's uncle, and that must have been a riot growing up with a role model like that. Gary has alot of baggage he brings around that resembles a chip on his shoulder-- and seems to blame everyone else for any problem that comes along. Sometimes, you have to admit to yourself, that your life is better than most people's and let little things not bother you so much. Eventually, he learns this, and becomes a better person from the "inside". The Inside Power title is to signify his change into becoming a man from a kid. Gary Sheffield is/was one of the world's greatest hitters...when others talked of going 0 for 20, a bad streak for him was 0 for 3. It was an interesting book, but nothing really remarkable about it. You are not going to get any secret tips on how to bat or hit, but you will get a journey on how baseball will make you grow up or you will be very unhappy your entire career. How many people in this world would trade for a career like this guy instead of complaining about 90% of the time about trades and owners? The time he spent with Barry Bonds must have actually made him worse, and is interesting because it was at the wrong time in his career. When I think of Gary Sheffield, I think of a line drive double hit---HARD. guyairey



2. GARY SHEFFIELD DOES A GOOD JOB WITH THIS BOOK. INSIDE POWER IS ABOUT HIS LIFE AND CAREER. ONE THING I DID LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK IS LITTLE IF ANY PROFANITIES. I CAN ALSO APPRECIATE HIS HONESTY ON MANY SUBJECTS AND AGREED WITH HIM ON MOST. I FOUND SHEFFIELD TO BE QUITE HUMAN WITH A BIG EGO AND A BIG MOUTH. I AM GLAD HE HAS FOUND A LOVING WIFE AND GOD, BUT HE IS STILL A PAIN TO DEAL WITH AND A MAJOR HEADACHE IF HE DOESN'T GET HIS WAY. I ADMIRE HIS TALENT AND HE WILL AND SHOULD BE IN THE HALL OF FAME SOME DAY. GROW UP GARY AND BE MORE LIKE YOUR WIFE. I RECOMMEND THIS FOR ALL BASEBALL FANS.



3. one of best books I have read. So many life lessons and intriguing story



4. If you like baseball, then read this book. This book describes most owners and GM's are just business men. It shows really how cruel the Yankees baseball staff is and how great the players. It shows how baseball is unfair to a lot of players and how it is becoming more of a racist sport. This book also shows inspiration and how money isn't everything. This book also shows that Barry Bonds is a really egotistical power-hungry maniac(no offense Giants fans). This is a great book. I picked it up and i didn't put it down until I finished it.



5. Gary Sheffield Is one of My Favorite Players and David Ritz is One of Favorite Writers as well. bring there two Worlds together and you have a strong Book. what I dig about Gary Sheffield is that He is One of the very Few true Soul Brothers around who speaks his mind. I miss that from so many cats who are only too happy to grin and get the Money and Be Bought off. Sheff stays on the real.I dug what he said about his Grandpa I can relate to that. Great mentions of his Uncle Dwight "Doc" Gooden. a Strong Book from a Strong Minded Soul Brother.

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

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

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.

2 comments about The Man in the Dugout: Fifteen Big League Managers Speak Their Minds.

1. This is an excellent oral history about the art of baseball managing. In the 1970's author Donald Honig interviewed 15 former baseball managers (many long retired), including Joe McCarthy, Al Lopez, Walt Alston, Billy Herman, Dick Williams, etc. We hear them speak passionately about their days as team skipper, and often as player too. These men differ somewhat on their recipes for success, but nearly all agreed that good managers handle players effectively, get their respect, and get them to hustle. Eddie Sawyer insisted that catchers and outfielders take infield practice to increase their skills - a valuable idea he attributed to Joe McCarthy. Paul Richards and certain others emphasized practice and preparation on every aspect of the game. Others promoted not becoming buddies with your players, basic fundamentals, and watching opposing players practice to learn their tendencies. Many of these ex-managers were elderly (Joe McCarthy was nearly 90), but each spoke clearly and from the heart.
   
   This book is valuable reading for today's coaches/managers at both the amateur and professional ranks - wish I'd read it before becoming assistant coach in high school. Readers should also consider BASEBALL WHEN THE GRASS WAS REAL (also by Honig) and GLORY OF THEIR TIMES (by Lawrence Ritter), two excellent oral histories of baseball from long ago.



2. This is one more Donald Honig masterpiece that you should add to your baseball library. In this edition, Honig interviews player-managers Ossie Bluege, Roger Peckinpaugh, and Hall of Famers Burleigh Grimes and Al Lopez, among others. This time, you read the stories of a manager's point of view as well, which is very interesting.

   This book is about a rookie third baseman coming up the line to tag out a lumbering Ty Cobb. About Early Wynn just walking into a tryout camp and announcing himself. About how the Chicago White Sox didn't always play to win in 1919-20.

   One of the more memorable parts is Roger Peckinpaugh reflecting on how the illiterate Shoeless Joe Jackson had to listen to what his teammates ordered for dinner first because he could not read the menu. Jackson, by the way, was one of the greatest natural hitters of all time, showing how things were in those days and how they have changed so much.

1 comments about Babe & The Kid: The Legendary Story of Babe Ruth and Johnny Sylvester.

1. I have heard this story many times in movies and books - but this is the accurate full-telling of well-researched facts. Very interesting and educational. A must for any Yankee or Ruth fan.

No comments about Yogi Berra: An American Original.