2 comments about The Wit and Wisdom of Yogi Berra.

1. Customer service was excellent, and the book was also excellent and in great condition when it arrived.
   
   Based upon the service and quality that I received, I would recommend this vendor, and his/her products, to anyone.



2. If you are a fan of the Zenism of Yogi Berra you will love this book!
   Filled with snippets of Yogi's life, with his greatest malaprops.
   I actually bought this for a friend, but read it first!

5 comments about Babe: The Legend Comes to Life.

1. This is a complete and thorough examination of the life and playing career of a baseball icon. The author has done a commendable job of separating the facts from the fanciful fictions that have grown up surrounding George Herman Ruth. While his home run record has been surpassed, I still think one can argue that Ruth was the greatest baseball player when one considers that in addition to his hitting abilities Ruth was an outstanding pitcher. He was shifted to the outfield when his managers determined that he could be of greater value as an everyday player rather than pitching every third or fourth day.



2. As author of the yet to be published "Babe Ruth: The Man Behind The Legend," I have read every book I can find on the subject of Babe Ruth. The more I read, the more I appreciate Creamer's exhaustive account of Ruth's playing career. This one is, by far, the best of all and I keep it with me at all times when I am in need of reference material. It is the most thorough and comprehensive. It is easy to see why this book has endured the test of time - an amazing 33 years in print. Thank you, Robert Creamer, for your truly wonderful contribution, and may you enjoy many more years in print! Sincerely, Rebecca Rau



3. Legends transcend time. The Stories get better, the adjectives get bolder, until they become passé. Ruth was the only athlete who was already at legend at age 21. There was no reason to exaggerate, and no words to describe his ferocious dominance. And the timing of his nuclear assault on history couldn't have been better planned. Fresh from the Black Sox crisis of 1919, America's greatest sport teetered on extinction. To this day, this baby faced Neanderthal had more athletic dominance over his peers than anyone in history...and more charisma than ten W.C. Fields. He changed the sport. Some say he changed the world.
   
   Home Runs were non-existent before him. Baseball runs were earned one base at a time; singles...sacrifice bunts...a sport of hard drinking pitchers, and gritty base stealers led by Cobb. After Ruth arrived, the physical dimensions had to be rearranged just to accommodate his abilities. Mammoth stadiums were built with double the capacity, replete with awe inspiring 450+ ft fences. All because of Ruth. But the parks were no match for him. He was the all-time home run champion at age 25, HR champ 13 times in 15 years, and in his 17 years as a hitter, he hit 235 home runs 450 ft. or further. By comparision, Bonds was HR champ just twice, and hit just 3, count em, 3 450ft HRs his first 15 seasons pre-roids.
   
   I've just read the new Ruth book out called The Big Bam, but afficionado's like me still choose Beamer's documentary as the voice of record. Unlike the rest, he best captures Ruth's massive power and abilities, childhood innocence, great sense of humor and rebelliousness, and rock star image. Ruth was the real deal. He was a true legend in his own time, and wore the badge humbly on his sleeve. He lit up every room he entered, and lit up every pitcher he faced. This book is a classic, like the man himself.



4. Some personalities are too big to be contained in a single book, especially one who exemplified bigness like Babe Ruth.
   
   Ruth was not much into analyzing the whys of his greatness. As retold in Robert Creamer's 1974 biography, when asked the secret of why he hit so many home runs, he replied: "Just swinging." Asked about "the psychology of the home run" by the same reporter, Babe responded: "Say, are you kidding me?"
   
   Creamer seems to feel the same way. He's not the prose version of Jack Webb exactly, but his "Babe" is heavy on facts and remarkably light on the sort of thing modern sports writers like to fill their weighty tomes up with, cultural impact and inner-self profiling. Creamer presents teasing glimpses of Babe's revelries, and some hints of who he really was beneath the legend (one close friend says "I don't think he really loved anybody"). But his focus is on Babe the baseball player, his statistical brilliance and his awesome, game-breaking power.
   
   He broke into the majors as a pitcher, developing into "the best lefthander in the game" before it became clear, in this blessed time before the advent of the designated hitter, that he could do more to win games with his bat than his arm. What followed transformed baseball from a slightly noisier and faster version of cricket into the National Pastime. Babe Ruth didn't invent the home run, but he might as well have deserved the copyright, hitting 54 homers in 1920, more than any other entire team produced except for his Yankees, red-haired stepchildren to the fabled New York Giants until Babe arrived and changed everything.
   
   Even though his career home-run record was in the process of being broken when "Babe" was published, Ruth was about so much more than that. Creamer gets at a lot of the on-field stuff, especially, like the fact he once led the American League in batting average and, as a pitcher, produced the longest stretch of earned-run-free innings for more than 40 years.
   
   The book does come across as dry at points, though, focusing on Ruth's more measurable accomplishments and ignoring the less tangible stuff. Creamer doesn't overwhelm you with a lot of flowing prose, which is a good thing, but he leaves a lot of things alone that seem fertile ground for exploration. Possibly because the last bio I read was Robert Caro's "Path To Power," it felt like Creamer was light on sourcing, but that's probably because his method of research was a lot less formal, chats at the bar with old-timers over the course of decades condensed into the iceberg we get here.
   
   What Creamer wrote, he got right, though, something I know as a fact. My grandfather covered the Yankees and was Babe's favorite ghostwriter, and my father, who saw Babe in the Yankee clubhouse, swore by Creamer as one of sportwriting's best for giving the honest, unvarnished truth. It's not a book for boys, as Creamer notes, but "Babe" will make you feel like one reading about this real-life giant who walked the earth.



5. That was written for boys & swallowed every legend whole. Robert Creamer has written quite a bit on baseball. This may be about the best biography of its time. You can't do much better than Tom Parker if you take the audio route. I've read or listened to other works by Mr. Creamer & they are consistently good. That said he has alway seemed a bit to attached to the numbers. Baseball is the most satistical of sports & I do enjoy them. Ever year there is a new on that can be applied however unofficially to players of other eras such as the Babe. One of the newest ones now in vogue is the quality start.
   Six inningss minimum with three earned runs or less is a quality start. Having said that sometimes the numbers overwhelm the story. Stats on the Babe's minor league years will be forgotten about 2 seonds after you hear them. Mr Creamer endeavors to be accurate & may knock down some of the legends, or reduce them to believable proportions. The belly-ache heard round the world & The Babe hitting three home-runs in his last game are examples of the hype at the time. Creamer gets real & lifts, in the end his biography to a more adult level. I think Mr. Creamer dwells a bit more on Babe's other appetites, as well, such as women. His various ailments, injuries & suspensions have surprisingly depressed records that could have been even greater than they eventually were. Babe's juvenile behavior in his early years & the number of people in the baseball world that he irritated by his sometimes arrogant attitude through-out his career thwarted him in the thing he wanted most: to be a big league manager. That is sad & we'd have a lot more to talk about since he lived for another 10 years after he left baseball. He died relatively young but he was & still is (despite his numbers being slowly
   eclipsed) the greatest. If you wanted a truthful biography this is is a pretty good one & its available in the audio version.

3 comments about Heroes of the Negro Leagues (with free DVD: Only the Ball Was White).

1. I purchased this book for a young boy age 13 and I also have one myself. This book and DVD is an excellent, fun history lesson for a child or pre-teen to reference at his or her leasure. It's an easy read and a great reference for people of all ages who want to know more about the Negro Baseball Leagues! A must have!



2. This book preserves an important aspect in the history of baseball and in African American history, and it does so in a riveting way. A sincere and fascinating tribute -- and a handsome one, to boot.



3. If you have any interest in baseball, you'll definitely want to have this book! Created by very talented men, this is a book to keep.

5 comments about The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America.

1. My son, Jeremy, always gives me good books. He doesn't just pick up the latest best-seller, but takes the time to choose something special just for me. He hit a home run with The Soul of Baseball by Joe Posnanski. It's the story of an extended road trip Posnanski took with legendary Negro League player and manager Buck O'Neil. The lessons learned along the way are great ones for sons and fathers to share.
   
   Posnanski, an award-winning sports columnist for the Kansas City Star, chose not to write a biography of the irrepressible O'Neil, even though the story could bear to be told over and over again. Instead, he penned a moving memoir of the year he spent with the then-93-year-old O'Neil as he toured the country promoting the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City and the memory of those men who played the game in the days before whites and blacks could share the field. The trip takes them everywhere from Nicodemus, Kansas, to New York, New York, and O'Neil has a fascinating story to tell at every stop.
   
   He talks about Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, and Josh Gibson, names that will always be enshrined in baseball's collective memory. But he also tells the tales of forgotten men like Dan Bankhead, the first black pitcher in the major leagues, who would have been a great hurler if he hadn't been afraid to pitch fastballs inside against white batters.
   
   The key theme of the book is Buck O'Neil's spirit-lifting embrace of the best in every person he met. Despite years of back-breaking struggle, O'Neil never turned bitter, never condemned anyone for their prejudice, never had a bad word to say about the often ugly conditions the black ball players endured. Even when he failed to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Buck O'Neil refused to be angry about it. To make up for the egregious mistake, the Hall awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award after his death.
   
   The lessons Posnanski drew from his experiences with O'Neil are well worth telling and the book he created from them is well worth reading.
   
   Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo



2. This book got to me, in a very good way.
   
   Buck's stories are funny and poignant, and we as readers definitely learn some history if we pay attention. But even more than that we can learn from Buck O'Neil's outlook on life. He was patient, caring, outspoken in an articulate and positive way (something our politicians should learn how to do), and he had grace. More than anything else reading about Buck O'Neil was a lesson on how to live with grace.
   
   I want to tell you the last words of the book, but I won't.
   
   If you like baseball, people or life you will like this book.
   
   Highly recommended!!



3. Sometimes a great author writes a 5-star book, and sometimes he must only get out of the way and let 5-star material shine through. "The Soul of Baseball" is one of the latter. This isn't a knock on Joe Posnanski. The decision to tell the story by reporting on a year in O'Neil's life, rather than interpreting O'Neil's history, was a brilliant judgment. The reader benefits from Posnanski's willingness to set his writer's ego aside.
   
   Another good Posnanski decision was reporting O'Neil's occasional querulousness. Rather than seeing O'Neil as a mindless happy face, the reader sees O'Neil as someone who must work to maintain his positive approach. The occasional lapses serve to highlight the effort that O'Neil makes to bring the light into the lives of those around him.
   
   But ultimately, the star of the book is Buck O'Neil. Not because he was a great ballplayer or manager. But because he was a decent, good-hearted human being whose attitude toward life is worthy of emulation.
   
   I give few 5-star rankings, but this book deserves it several times over.



4. Reading this book gave me insight into the Negro Leagues and more importantly into Buck O'Neil. Buck O'Neil was a man today's player should study and revere; not only because of his courage but for his respect of the game.
   
   The Soul of Baseball is a history lesson I encourage any fan or player to read.



5. This is an outstanding book by one of my favorite writers. Joe really knows how to tell a story and paint a vivid picture with his words. I loved it so much that I just couldn't put it down. A must have for any and all baseball fans.

5 comments about Ty and The Babe: Baseball's Fiercest Rivals: A Surprising Friendship And The 1941 Has-Beens Golf Championship.

1. Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb. Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth.
   
   Two of the greatest names ever to play Major League Baseball and a pair of the most fiercest rivals on the diamond. Ruth was the new-school slugger whose gargantuan homers matched his pursuits off the field. Cobb was the oldest of old-school, a master of "small-ball," who saw the game of titan shots with "juiced" baseballs as an utter abomination.
   
   "Cobb disliked much about Ruth. But one of the things that pricked him most was Ruth's lifestyle. The Babe lived with wild abandon, ignoring curfews, staying out all hours, drinking, partying, overeating, and snaking through towns in search of sex," writes Stanton. "Cobb was nearly fanatical about taking care of himself, about being prepared for games, and about the need to sacrifice for the long term. He felt confident that Ruth's nocturnal adventures would eventually undermine him."
   
   But in retirement, the pair were kept at arm's length by the top executives in the game - Ruth never got a shot at managing a club and Cobb was tarnished by a 1926 gambling scandal "cover-up" - though each eventually found the time to frequently chase a golf ball around 18 holes. Ruth was a five handicap and Cobb a nine.
   
   Author Tom Stanton tees up an interesting dual biography of the legends that is built around a 1941 charity golf match which pitted Ruth against Cobb. Along with coverage of every baseball game the paired played against each other, Stanton drives into the professional hatred which erupted into near brawls and vicious taunts, but eventually evolved into a cordial friendship.
   
   Even the biggest fan of baseball history will find some new gems, especially about Cobb, which is a salute to the solid short game of Stanton; meticulously lofting up to the green buried facts from the sand traps of historical fiction.



2. An excellent resource for the Baseball fan, who is always looking for good books about the Legends of baseball.



3. This is a strange little book. For one thing, it presents a far more positive picture of Ty Cobb than one often encounters. Second, golf becomes a key part of the relationship between two bitter antagonists--Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.
   
   Ty Cobb was an exemplar of the old fashioned "scientific" approach to baseball, bunts, stolen bases, sacrifices, etc. Babe Ruth was a harbinger of a new era--focusing on the home run.
   
   Cobb versus Ruth, while they were in the major leagues together, had a pretty negative relationship. Cobb had little respect for Ruth; Ruth despised Cobb.
   
   The book tells of their slowly evolving relationship, to the point where they expressed respect toward one another by the end of Cobb's career.
   
   Their rivalry took a turn after their respective retirements. Both became avid golfers. They took part in a series of golf matches, where there was much greater camaraderie than when they played baseball.
   
   The book chronicles that strange evolution in their relationship.
   
   There is a nice appendix, which chronicles those games in which they opposed one another. Interesting. . . .
   
   An offbeat little book that ends up humanizing Cobb.



4. This book was very interesting and informative and obviously well researched since the author is a baseball historian. It makes you feel as if you know the players and are living in their time period but it isn't the most enjoyable book I've ever read. You rarely smile or laugh, there's very little that's amusing even though these are two very colorfull and bigger than life characters so I felt the book could have been a little lighter. Also check out two of my favorites - The Teammates by David Halberstam and When Life Was Baseball Teams and Egg Creams by Craig Howard, the last one being much lighter and more about life in the time period than baseball itself. Good nostalgia though.



5. I have now read all of Tom Stanton's books, and I have enjoyed them all. I am one of many that had certain perceptions of Ty Cobb's character based on stereoptypical opinion of Cobb in recent years. But Stanton sets the record straight in allowing us to get to know a different Ty Cobb; one who is a great competitor, but no where near the "evil" man that he has been portrayed as. The Babe is as fun loving as ever in this book and it is a fun read. I would recommend it to baseball fans, and golf fans too!

5 comments about I Was Right On Time.

1. What a great book. How I would have loved to just sit with Buck and just talk and listen to him and his stories. I also learned some new things about Sarasota, FL and all the great players in the Negro Leagues and people in general. Now more than ever I believe he is a Hall of Famer and he should be in there. He might not have been the greatest player... but he was a GREAT man. If you want to read a great book that will make you laugh.. smile.. maybe tear up... this book is for you.



2. Just what I needed to learn more about Buck. Horribly over-looked by the Hall of Fame. Very informative book, just in time for baseball season.



3. Back in the early 90's, before Ken Burns, I ran into Buck in the lobby of the Otesaga hotel in Cooperstown. It was the year that Willie McCovey was going in and we "snuck" our way into the building. Buck entertained me for over an hour with stories of guys I never had heard about. When I asked about his career, he really downplayed his greatness. I was mostly struck by the fact that this man did not have a single ounce of remorse or spite. Quite the opposite, he felt he was blessed to have played.
   
   The book is written in a conversational style that goes quickly. I felt I could hear Buck's voice in my head has the pages turned. It was a fantastic book and Buck will be sorely missed.



4. This is not simply an autobiography, but an oral-history on where we have been and where we are going. It was written from the heart, and - if you read closely - it will open yours to live life in a different, better way.
   
   I read the book when it was initially published and recently purchased the soft-cover edition. Rarely do I re-read a book, but I felt the need after hearing Buck O'Neil's moving and uplifting speech this summer at the Baseball Hall of Fame and listening to a rebroadcast of an interview conducted several years ago by radio sports-talker Jim Rome.
   
   The road to racial equality remains long and steep, but by gazing upward you may view what appears to be a finish-line tape rippling in the breeze at the top of the mountain. But look ahead and you see the harsh reality that the road remains unfortunately rugged, with many twists & turns.
   
   Buck O'Neil is an American hero and if your eyes are dry after reading the last page of I Was Right On Time (no matter how many times you read the book), then your heart may not have opened up wide enough to tackle the journey ahead.



5. This easy-going autobiography combines sunny optimism, seriousness, and rich baseball history. John J. "Buck" O'Neil was a first baseman in the Negro Leagues during the 1930-1940's, and he then spent another half decade in baseball, both in the Negro Leagues and in the majors. Here he recounts his upbringing in Florida during segregation (where he was denied entry to high school) and his long career in baseball. O'Neil details life in the Negro leagues, including barnstorming and low pay, playing for the famed Kansas City Monarchs and his friendship with stars like Satchel Paige and Hilton Smith. He also describes managing in the Negro Leagues, coaching for the Chicago Cubs (the first black coach in the majors) and spending decades as a baseball scout. O'Neil is an intelligent man gifted with great charm, and he's often described as the "ambassador to baseball." That charm shines in the prose of co-writers Steve Wolf and David Conrads, and lets O'Neil attack injustice without losing effectiveness via stridency.
   
   Buck O'Neil gained fame from the "Baseball" documentary by Ken Burns, and at this writing remains a board member for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City well into his 90's. This is a readable look at the Negro leagues by one of its most charming members.

2 comments about Ed Barrow: The Bulldog Who Built the Yankees' First Dynasty.

1. A great baseball book. Very well written. This is a must for baseball fans who enjoy the history of the game.



2. Many people think that by just purchasing Babe Ruth from the Red Sox that created the Yankee Dynasty. This book is a great history of the man who really created the Yankee Dynasty. The first 50 years of his life he was not involved with the Yankees but was involved with other teams as a manager and also served as the President of a minor league struggling against the odds of survival. Until Terry Francona, Ed Barrow was the last manager of the Red Sox who won a World Series with Babe Ruth as one of its stars. This is a must read of a tough man who built the first of many Yankees dynasties. The Red Sox fans curse the day the Red Sox owner sold the Babe to the Yankees, but they should be aware the most damaging blow was losing their manager, Ed Barrow to the Yankees. For the students of the game, this is a must read. Even the Red Sox Nation should read this book to understand more of their history.

5 comments about Chief Bender's Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star.

1. This book was a delight to read. It is both informative and entertaining. Although it is a work of history it is a very easy and interesting read. Tom Swift has done his homework as the book is filled with many details describing the life and times of this hall of famer. I recommend it to all fans of baseball history and eagerly look forward to his future works.



2. This is the best biography I have read. It provides important details about an player important in baseball history, and also illuminates the history of many Native Americans and how they were assimilated into society in the late 19th early 20th centuries. This is one to purchase and keep.



3. A great book on an early 20th Century forgotten Baseball pitcher who is in the Hall of Fame. "Chief" Bender was one of the mainstays of those early great Philadelphia A's teams. This is a about a native American player who excelled in Major League Baseball in spite of all the racial comments, taunts and low expectations of Native Americans. There is information about his days at the Carlisle School. Tom Swift also uses the racially charged quotes from the papers of those years to demonstrate what he had to live with. His real name was Charles and like Baseball in those days everyone had a nickname some weren't too flattering like "Chief", "Rube" and "Dummy" While this is not a movie where the character has flashbacks of his past, Tom Swift starts with the 1914 World Series game 1 in which the "Chief" lost and continues to go back to that game leading off of many of the chapters of the events surrounding that game. I don't understand by discussing all the racial sterotypes on the man why then does the author keep going back to that same unsuccessful game? To me it is slamning the man all over again. If you can get past this stupid movie technique then the book is a worth while read.



4. When I saw there was a new biography of the great Chief Bender, I grabbed it up. Tom Swift has done a great service by bringing the life of Charles Bender to print. He is one of the all-time greats and should not be overlooked.
   
   Swift also lets the reader get to know the man behind the legend, and the Chief was a Hall-of-Famer in nearly every aspect of his life. He was a great man and a great pitcher. Connie Mack said that if he had to win one big game, there is no one he'd rather have on the mound. And Connie Mack saw them all, from the 1880s to the 1950s -- from Cy Young to Walter Johnson to Lefty Grove to Whitey Ford.
   
   There are a few problems with the book, which keeps it, at least in my mind, from meriting five stars. Swift begins his book with the opening game of the 1914 World Series, and then he keeps coming back to it throughout. This doesn't work for a number of reasons, especially since this is the "big game" the Chief lost (the A's were swept in the series by the "Miracle" Boston Braves). There are also occasional problems with Swift's prose. He uses sentence fragments to good effect in some cases, but in most instances, they just confuse the issue and make it seem as though he doesn't realize that a fragment is not a complete sentence. I also felt that many of his similes were weak.
   
   Lastly, a book about a baseball star should include that player's career statistics, but this Swift fails to do. I found myself going to a web site to view the Chief's stats.
   
   Overall, however, I enjoyed getting to know the great Charles Bender a little better.



5. Speaking as a former archivist, "Chief Bender's Burden" is an archivist's dream: well researched with an exquisitely detailed bibliographic essay, and an index! But more than that, it is a book lover's dream. It is the brilliantly written story of a unique American, "the pitcher who looked in the face of pressure and winked." Author Swift replays the Deadball Era games with the enthusiasm of a modern day radio announcer. The inclusion of Bender's quotes on page 128 and 211, and paragraph one on page 275 alone make this book a gem. More than baseball history, it is pathos and glory and inspiration.
   Beverly Hermes

5 comments about Big Papi: My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits.

1. This book is a combination of a narrative by David Ortiz and some background information by Tony Mazzaroti. Both aspects of the book are informative, especially the Mazzaroti part when he is explaining the rational the Twins used in releasing Ortiz. It has been mentioned in other reviews; the use of the words Bro' and Killin' get a bit weary, but it does feel as if you are having a conversation with Big Papi. The part of the book I really enjoyed is the insight as to how it is to grow up in the Dominican Republic and try to work your way through farm systems to the majors. I have always found the process of becoming an elite athlete fascinating and this book just reinforces most athletes do not "come from nowhere" and become superstars. They have to work hard, have some luck and hope for the best. It appears to have worked out for David Ortiz and he realizes just how lucky he is.



2. Too much use of the word "Bro" for me, otherwise, the book was rather light but informative.



3. I am a huge sports fan and I have nothing against Ortiz. He seems like a nice guy and he's certainly a great player. But this book was just not very good. There was nothing controversial or interesting that Ortiz said in the book. Also,the constant ending of sentences in "bro" was extremely annoying.
   
   Ortiz, trying too hard to be the good team player, defends Grady Little's disastrous decision to leave Pedro Martinez in the 7th game of the 2003 ALCS. Sorry, nobody's buying that. We saw the game. Pedro was done, period. While the 2004 Red Sox comeback is an interesting story, there are several books that tell it better. I cannot recommend this book.
   
   One thing I cannot resist mentioning: Ortiz says of his native Domincan Republic that people are so poor they often cannot afford health care. Uh,David,a.k.a Big Papi, whatever you call yourself, are you not aware that there are millions of Americans who cannot afford health care? I know you're a multimillionaire athlete, but can you really be that out of touch?
   
   P.S. I am not a Yankees fan.



4. What Big Papi has done in really such a short period of time as a Boston Red Sox is phenomenal. He has made the city of Boston and all of America fall in love with him by his big personality, love of the game and the respect he shows his team mates and fans alike, and it shows in this book.
   
   He was very honest about the love he had for his team mates in Minnesota but how unhappy he was with the management and ownership of the Twins who did not really know what to do with him. He did not show any bitterness, just a sadness that things could not have turned out differently.
   
   But, then it worked out for the best how he explains Pedro Martinez played a big part in him getting offered a contract by Boston and the rest we can say is history.
   
   Through the book, you can just tell the love and joy that Big Papi has for his family, his team mates, the city of Boston and the game of baseball. You get a lot of insight into how the man thinks and why this sport is so important to him.
   
   You don't have to just be a Red Sox fan to enjoy this book.



5. I found this book to be a good one. I like how it feels like Papi is talking right to you. It gives you a look at how it feels to be a big league ball player. Being a Red Sox fan, I especially enjoyed when he became a Red Sox player and all his clutch hits!! Just fantastic! A must read for all Red Sox fans!!
   
   --Gerard Zemek, husband of author of "My Funny Dad, Harry"

5 comments about A Great Teammate: The Legend of Mickey Mantle.

1. I've got several Mickey Mantle books, but I really think this one is the best. Very detailed and accurate. Well done!



2. My kids grew up wanting to BE LIKE MIKE. Like many of my generation, I always wanted to be like Mick. THE MICK.
   
   Mickey Mantle was, for us, the consummate baseball player. He hit the ball hard and ran the bases fast. His arm was strong and his glove golden.
   
   But that's only part of why he was our hero. Randall Swearingen's book, A Great Teammate, covers the rest. Mickey was one of the greatest team players the game has ever known. He found a way to win. One day he'd hit a home run. The next he'd bunt and steal--or literally outrun a fly ball. It added up. Between 1951 and 1964, Mickey's Yankees made twelve trips to the World Series. Twelve!
   
   When his teammates batted, Mickey cheered. When they slumped, he took them to dinner. When Roger wilted in the Babe's mighty shadow, Mickey took him under his wing and into his home--even as The Mick took his own shot at THE RECORD.
   
   Mickey played hurt nearly every game of his major league career because, as a rookie, he deferred to a teammate named Joe DiMaggio. Mickey never complained or made excuses. He just came to the park early, took his treatments, hid the pain, and played hard. As good as he was, he could have been even better with two legs rather than one.
   
   When asked why he didn't take himself out of the lineup to rest the legs, Mickey replied that some child might come to the ball park to watch him play, and he didn't want to let that child down. Mickey didn't know it, but I was that child. My family drove from North Carolina to New York City in 1961. It was the only chance I ever had, as a kid, to watch a major league game. Mickey didn't disappoint: he hit a line drive into the right field bleachers for a home run. From then on, Mickey was my hero. And, like so many southerners in those days, I became, of all things, a Yankee.
   
   Then came the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Sportswriters forgot who Mickey Mantle was and why he had been our hero. They publicized his alcoholism. His business failures. His divorce. If only he had fallen in his prime, they implied, like Gehrig with ALS or Ruth with cancer. But somehow he dodged the Hodgkin's curse. And even though alcoholism is every bit as much a disease as ALS, or cancer, or Hodgkin's, America stopped loving Mickey the way he had loved us. We forgot. And, I must admit, as I almost forgot.
   
   Then I read A Great Teammate, and the memories came pouring back. Mickey winning games for his team. Mickey bringing out the best in his teammates. Mickey loving and respecting the game. Playing hard. Playing hurt. Always humble. Ever helpful. Never making excuses. And, in bottom of the 9th, whipping his toughest foe, alcoholism, and helping others do the same.
   
   No doubt, Old Timers told these stories time and again at ball games, fantasy camps, reunions, and funerals. But, no one ever bothered to write them down for us, the fans. Until now. Mickey, Randall: thank you.



3. Very impressed with book - my son is big fan and loves it.



4. It was very important to our dad that he be remembered as a great teammate and this book does an excellent job of explaining why he was admired, not only by the fans but his teammates and opponents as well. Randall went to great lengths to research the relevant details of key events in dad's career in order to show the magnitude of dad's courage, competitiveness, loyalty, determination, athleticism and perseverance both on and off the field. Randall spent time with dad and his teammates at the Mickey Mantle fantasy camps and his knowledge and love of dad really shows in this book. Reading the book brought back many great memories and magically transported us back in time to our childhood. The Mantle family gives this book a big "thumbs up" and wishes to extend our heartfelt thanks to Randall for writing this inspiring and enjoyable book that beautifully echoes our deep love and respect for our dad. "A true teammate". - Merlyn, David and Danny Mantle



5. Excellent chronology of many highlights of Mickey's career ... especially the descriptions of those monsterous home runs ... no one before or since has had "power for distance" that Mickey had ... lists his lifetime stats, offense and defense, in the back of the book ...
   
   the numerous descriptions of Mickey by his beloved teamates gives the reader clear insight into what kind of person Mickey was ...
   
   the quintessential teammate who gave everything he had on and off the field to win and help his teammates ... e.g., playing in tremendous amounts of pain (so as not to disappoint, in case the father of a poor family took his boy once a year to see him play); at restaurants, picking up "the check" most of the time; insisting that old teammates come to autograph sessions (or he wouldn't attend) so they could make money too; and the lovable prankster (the "TP" prank)...
   
   truly a one of a kind, the last of the 4 great Yankees (Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle), one of those who really was head and shoulders above the rest, and he was the last player to connect us to the baseball of a by-gone era ...
   
   and to prove it all, he's got his own 4,500 lb. monument in Center Field! I could go on and on ... but ... the book is well worth the money ... buy it!