5 comments about In the Ballpark: The Working Lives of Baseball People.

1. Yes, the material is compelling. But beware. The Smithsonian Institution hardback edition is as sloppily edited as any book ever released by a major publisher, with dozens of lazy transcriptions. The names of Tony LaRussa and Lou Piniella are among those misspelled. The Reds broadcaster Joe Nuxhall becomes Joe Mecksaw. Perhaps those errors have been corrected in later editions. If not, you may have a hard time getting past them.



2. I have been a baseball fan for over 40 years, and after reading this fascinating book I will never look at a baseball game, a ballpark or baseball in general the same way ever again. I could not put this book down. It's like a full body CAT scan of something most of us have never seen beneath the skin, or, if we are baseball readers, perhaps at best a few x-rays. Thank you Gmelch and Weiner for writing it. I have been recommending this book to every serious baseball fan I know and I am adding it to my gifts list.



3. Beneath all the publicity, the stories of superstars signing for mega-bucks and of those who blow it all, this book gives us a look at the people who try to make a career in baseball just because they love the game. Some of them succeed, others fail. But they all seem to have an undying love for the game and what it means to the American way of life.

   This book was certainly well worth the time. I recommend it to any baseball fan.




4. Best baseball book ever



5. The fact that the subject is baseball is beside the point. The authors have shown skill, humour, and insight in their ability to identify and highlight all the areas that go into making the game what it is. Some of the people are likable, some you even feel sorry for, but the tact, taste, and even the occasional lack of objectivity serve to make this an enjoyable read. (Coming from a family with many anthropoligists, I can say I've never read anything as fun to read as this.)

No comments about When Baseball Was Fun.

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.

4 comments about Close Shave: The Life and Times of Baseball's Sal Maglie.

1. Let's start with the good points about this book. The author's choice of a subject--pitcher Sal Maglie--is a fine one. His research was obviously exhaustive, as he seems to have documented every game Maglie ever pitched in the minor leagues, major leagues, Mexican League and winter leagues.
   
   Now for the faults. The writing is truly poor. There are spelling errors, grammar mistakes, sentence fragments, run-on-sentences and more. This, combined with a game-by-game approach to telling Maglie's story made the book a chore for me to wade through. I say that with a sense of sadness, because I can tell how much effort and devotion to the subject went into this book.
   
   Sal Maglie seemed to be on a sure track for a major league career, but the combination of World War II and a sojurn in the Mexican League (then an outlaw league in the eyes of organized ball) which led to his suspension for 2 1/2 seasons left him a marginal rookie prospect at age 33. Yet a combination of skill and determination allowed him to become one of the dominant pitchers in the National League during the 1950s. Even when age and injuries seemed to have caught up with the man known as "The Barber," he managed more than one dramatic and heroic comeback. It's a great baseball story, and a great human story that deserves a better telling. I think there's still the core of a good book in this manuscript, crying to get out.--William C. Hall



2. This biography of Sal Maglie proved to be an interesting read. He started out a major leaguer with the team of the legendary Mel Ott.He bacame hated because of his tendency to throw knock-
   down pitches. After getting off to a major league start he found himself blacklisted for playing in the Mexican leagues.He was finally able to resume his major league baseball career at the age of 33.During his time as a major league baseball pitcher
   he was able tp pitch in some world series games. One world series game he pitched in was the perfect game by Don Larsen.
   This is a good sports read. Buy it. You will find it to be very readable.



3. This biography of Sal Maglie proved to be an interesting read. He started out a major leaguer with the team of the legendary Mel Ott.He bacame hated because of his tendency to throw knock-
   down pitches. After getting off to a major league start he found himself blacklisted for playing in the Mexican leagues.He was finally able to resume his major league baseball career at the age of 33.During his time as a major league baseball pitcher
   he was able tp pitch in some world series games. One world series game he pitched in was the perfect game by Don Larsen.
   This is a good sports read. Buy it. You will find it to be very readable.



4. As a lifelong baseball fan with vivid memories of Sal Maglie, this book was a terrible disappointment. I bought it with high hopes of learning more about exactly what this book promises in its sub-title: the "life and times" of one of my childhood heroes and one of Major League baseball's truly fascinating and enigmatic figures. Instead, the reader learns almost nothing about Maglie-the-man and is subjected to an endless stream of data concerning just about every game in which Maglie ever participated, from his early days in the minors through his last days with the St. Louis Cardinals. The eyes of even the most ardent fan of 1940s and 50s baseball are likely to glaze over after a few paragraphs--not to mention quite a few chapters--of this.

   Strike One: The author's prose isn't just dull and flatter than home plate; it frequently borders on illiterate. OK, not everyone who writes about baseball is an artist like Red Smith or Roger Kahn. But readers of even the most ordinary sports book have a right to prose that isn't full of awkward sentences littered with errors of grammar, punctuation, word usage and even spelling, and they shouldn't have to plow through long paragraphs where the sentences meander aimlessly, with no logical connection to one another, as if the writer were randomly transcribing note cards.

   Strike Two: There's an even more serious problem with this book than bad writing, which is that Mr. Szalontai presents and defends two contradictory claims. On one hand he wants us to believe that Sal Maglie was a true American hero, a man who overcame all sorts of obstacles--early failures, black-listing, injuries, old age--to forge a successful baseball career. On the other hand, he presents Maglie as a homicidal maniac. The author keeps insisting that Maglie not only threw at batters--which he definitely did--but that he threw at batters' HEADS, with the intention of HITTING them in the head. This is a debatable claim. If it were true, Maglie, with his pinpoint control, would have beaned a lot more batters than he did and it's very likely he would have severely injured if not actually killed a number of them, which of course did not happen. Szalontai uses the word "beaning" incorrectly, to refer to any hit batsman. He ought to know it's a specialized term that should be used only to describe a pitcher hitting a batter in the "bean," or head, with a pitched ball, and not to describe the batter being bonked anywhere else on his body.

   Strike Three: A final complaint is that the author relied entirely on old newspaper files, books and a few magazine articles for his information. He never interviewed any sportswriters or team officials from Maglie's era, any of Maglie's numerous surviving teammates, or any members of the Maglie family. The players who knew Maglie are now in their 70s and 80s and are dying almost daily. To give just two examples of missed opportunities: Maglie's NY Giants teammate and fellow pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm died just a few weeks ago and Maglie's favorite and most frequent catcher, Wes Westrum, died in May of 2002. Surely Mr. Szalontai could have gleaned some new and interesting insights into Maglie from talking to these men.

   This could have been a terrific book about a colorful era and one of its most exciting players--a real literary home run. But sad to say, despite all the patient research that went into it, the book is dull, badly written and superficial. As a portrait of Sal Maglie it's strictly "three strikes and you're out!"

No comments about Mark McGwire 70!.

1 comments about From Cartwright to Shoeless Joe: The Warwick Compendium to Early Baseball.

1. The first third or so of this book is a history of early baseball from the anarchic "rounders" to an adult game with an agreed on set of rules. There are lots of great stories about basic things, like the invention of the baseball glove and how Al Spalding first came up with the idea that fielders shouldn't stand right by their base (duh!). But most of the book is short histories of all the teams that ever played (like the Cincinatti Porkers), most of them lasting no more than a couple years in the 1880's and 1890s. There are also lifetime stats on lots of early players. I wish more of the book had been on the early history, but perhaps there just isn't that much information known.

No comments about Don't Call Me Joey: The Wit and Wisdom of Albert Belle.

5 comments about Barry Bonds: Baseball's Superman.

1. This one is interesting to read now that we know more about Bonds. It holds up well and is very well written. I loved it!



2. I am one of the few Barry Bonds fans around, so when I decided to find a book on him, I was disappointed to find that there were surprisingly few. Noticing that "Barry Bonds: Baseball's Superman" was purported to be in-depth, not just another glossy biography and had good reviews on Amazon.com, I decided to make the purchase. Now, after reading it and piecing a few things together, I must say that I am thoroughly let-down. A few observations:
   
   1) The cover and title are cheesy. I know that the book's author may not have had any say in this, but using "Baseball's Superman" as a title makes it sound like a cover story for Sports Illustrated for Kids.
   
   2) The book is not written well. It is very choppy and author Steven Travers has a tendency to ramble off-topic for pages on end.
   
   3) Not that I'm some avatar of morality, but what's the deal with all the sexual references? [...]
   
   4) There are contradictions sprinkled throughout the book. For instance, on page 36, Travers quotes Bonds as saying: "My father and I were never really close when I was growing up." Then, just five pages later, he quotes Bonds as saying: "My father and I have always been very close." Sure, Bonds is the one contradicting himself, but Travers never points this out, just one example of the multiple occasions where I almost laughed out loud at the book's inconsistencies.
   
   5) How many times are we to hear that Travers played pro ball? Big deal, you struck out 15 guys in a minor league game. There are minor-leaguers who have hit 60 homers, thrown perfect games, etc. and they are nobodies. I do not mean this as a slight, just a point that we do not need to hear incessantly about things such as "Stan Javier played with me" or how you sat in Randy Johnson's recliner, or how an interview subject calls you "Trav." The book is about Barry Bonds, not Steven Travers.
   
   [...]
   
   The bottom line is that Travers squandered a golden opportunity. Rolling the dice early in 2001 that Bonds would break the home run record, getting permission to do a book, and then seeing him acutally do it is akin to hitting the lottery for a sports journalist. Unfortunately, the finished product seems hastily thrown together, poorly edited, and foolishly out-of-bounds in many areas. Too often we hear about sexual hijinks that have nothing to do with Bonds, and we also get Travers's opinions on a multitude of subjects that I don't care to know his thoughts on. The fact that I'd never even heard of this book should have been enough of a red flag, but it wasn't, and therefore I got what I deserved. This book isn't terrible, but it also is not good, and therefore I would not recommend it. Fans of Barry Bonds should just wait until a comprehensive biography comes out on him when his playing days are over.



3. With the multitude of books written regarding the sport of baseball, Steven Travers writes with a unique insight into not only the sport, but the day to day lives of Bonds and his peers. As a former professional baseball player, Travers touches on the subject matter with a unique insight and perspective. Additionally, Travers attended and graduated from USC during the time Bonds played at Arizona State (Pac-10). As such, Travers is not only a writer, but a fan. Travers not only documents Bond's achievement of becoming baseball's all-time single season homerun champion, but he touches on Bond's trials and tribulations with his peers and the media. Ultimately, the reader soon realizes that Travers was able to do what many has tried and failed at; that is, he was able to garner the respect and support of Bonds in the ability to tell his amazing story to the whole world. As a former Pac-10 pitcher at USC who battled Bonds on many occasions, I found Traver's insight very refreshing and commendable. I found the book a very easy read that kept me entertained throughout.
   '



4. I have lived overseas for many years but was an avid Giants fan in the 60's & 70's. Steven Travers' book on Barry Bonds was a welcome gift. I had read various news articles about the "controversial" Bonds and feel that Travers' book puts things right. I especially enjoyed the insights into the life styles of high powered sports figures. The build-up to Bonds' record setting home run season was handled in an excellent manner. This book is a great read for any baseball fan.



5. This insightful, well-written book is a must-read for the sports fan interested in a personal, inside view of the multi-faceted personality of the immensely talented Barry Bonds.
   
   Bonds has provided few people with the access and insight he provided Steve Travers, the author. History will prove it to be the definitive work on one of baseball's greatest players.
   
   Frank McCormack

4 comments about Armando Marsans: The First Cuban Major League Baseball Player.

1. I'd list this up there with Halberstam's The Teammates, Brashler's Josh Gibson biography, and Kahn's Boys Of Summer as one of the great baseball books.
   Toot's love of the game and deft prose is elegantly interwoven with the history of this one groundbreaking player.



2. Its surprising how a very good book can receive so little publicity.
   We always refer to Jackie Robinson when talking about racial prejudices, but we never stop to think what early Latino players suffered.
   Peter Toote has done an impressive job documenting Armando Marsans' career in the Major Leagues, describing his intelligent and agressive style to play the game.
   We can read how Marsans became one of the iconic scapegoats that the Major Leagues used to expand its monopolistic tentacles against the Federal League. Take a look on Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis' role to protect the Major Leagues.
   Perhaps, one of the disadvantages that I find in this book is the little research that the author does about Marsans' career in Cuba.
   American authors must realize that language is not a barrier anymore as there are many Latin experts that speak English and can give a big help to complete a research project.
   Anyway, I give 5 stars. I really liked it.



3. If he were playing today, Armando Marsans would be a household name. Until this remarkable book, Marsans' name survived only in boxscores, in the occasional mention in the sports pages, and in the memories of those few surviving fans who remember seeing him play. Through his in-depth research, Toot manages to rescue the player from obscurity and bring his story to life.

   Toot's book is also an interesting sociological study of our country's first hispanic celebrity's struggle for acceptance. Further, it provides an eye-opening picture of the early days of baseball, when players played year-round, when sharp metal spikes threatened devastating injury with every slide, and when there was still the prospect of multiple professional leagues in the US.




4. ...then you have to read this book. Toot is that rare breed of writer who can weave together an impressive array of details and facts into a compelling story. This is a great baseball tale with larger-and-lower-than-life characters, nail-biting games, and interesting off-the-field background. It's also an important book about the integration of hispanics into baseball--their experience and the reaction from the American baseball community. In this day and age of hispanics playing such an integral role in baseball, it's more important than ever to understand where they got their start.

No comments about African American Pioneers of Baseball: A Biographical Encyclopedia.