5 comments about Night Tides: The Striper Fishing Legend of Billy the Greek.

1. This book kept me up for several nights straight. It is not a long book by any means and the average reader can go cover-to-cover in a few hours. However, one WILL find one or two things they missed upon every subsequent reading of the book.
   
   This book is not written by a "Hard-Core" fisherman. Rather, it is the story of a "Hard-Core" fisherman. Mr. Cinquemani, a former NYC English teacher employs his grasp of the English language and writes in a way that is not only understandable, but entertaining to his readers. While the book is about fishing, it is not a "How-to" book and Mr. Cinquemani's choice to not focus on the technical aspect of fishing (i.e. equipment, knots, strategy), combined with his writing skills, does not leave one feeling empty upon the first completion of the book, or all subsequent completions for that matter.
   
   Night Tides is about Billy "The Greek" Legakis, a legend in the striped bass fishing world. It is the story of this man's ongoing pursuit for the "Largest" striped bass. Stories of this man's introduction to this fish, his obsession with this fish, and his unparalleled pursuit of this fish grace the pages of this book. Several pictures are also included in the book, adding to the whole experience.
   
   Having read the book several times, I am not only astonished by the sometimes unbelievable accomplishments of this particular fisherman, but grateful that the paths of these two gentlemen crossed when it did. While the stories of "The Greek" are truly amazing, without Mr. Cinquemani's abilities, these stories may very well have been untold. My utmost gratitude to Mr. Cinquemani and Mr. Legakis for choosing to share their stories with the rest of the world.



2. The book is a very easy read. BTG is a unique man with a true obsession with the straiped bass and the sea. A great book if you are not a fisherman and an even better one if you are. I let a buddy borrow it and he is not a fisherman. He is three quarters finished on the second day of his read. Go for it!



3. A quick read for anyone who enjoys catching a few "Strippahs" from their local haunts. Billy has certainly mastered the art of catching the big ones, but it also comes at a price - Fishing is 1st - everything else, I mean everything else comes after. Catching 2,500 fish with a rod during a slow season was mind boggling to me, I had to do the math twice and was sure there was an extra zero in the numbers, but low and behold this guy is a true master of the species.
   
   It was an inspiration to read and even got me up in the middle of the nite to go for the cows under a full moon and a high tide - I got skunked and humbled.
   
   A great gift with some terrific photos.



4. If you are a striped bass fisherman, this book will not let you down. I read it in 2 days. Eccentrics like Billy make life interesting. On a sad note, I can't imagine what it must have been like to fish back in the 60's and 70's before we wiped out the majority of these monster bass.



5. Michael Cinquemani's bio of striper fishing legend Billy "The Greek" Legakis is an engrossing story. Whether they are committed fisherman or not, readers are bound to recognize in BTG the rare combination of wits, will, and sheer tenacity that marks any person at the top of his or her field. Any die hard fishing fanatic will plow through Night Tides in a single sitting. Casual observers of the sport will love it too. Cinquemani's writing mixes humor and awe to create a realistic portrait of a unique character. The fishing community is lucky to have such a literate, and readable, storyteller!

5 comments about Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train.

1. Has there ever been a Major League Baseball star who was as nice a person as Walter Johnson a.k.a. "The Big Train?"
   
   Even Christy Mathewson and Ernie Banks and a bunch of other guys over the years who were great people would be hard-pressed to top Johnson. Walter was about as kind and gentle as a pro athlete could ever get. That's the main thing I came away with after reading this biography of the Hall of Fame pitcher.
   
   I knew Johnson, just from his victory total alone, was one of the greatest pitchers of all time. (Some still think he was the best.) I didn't know what high character the man had, and that everyone - including infamous nasty guys like Ty Cobb and John McGraw - loved him, too. You read the book and you'll know why Johnson was such a beloved figure.
   
   Despite his superstar celebrity status in Washington, D.C., Johnson had a lot of disappointments and tragedies in his life, too. The book, written by his grandson Henry Thomas, tells us all of them. Being in the family, he would know a lot of family information.
   
   Normally, I would think that since Thomas was a direct relation to the great pitcher, the book would too biased but everyone had so many good things to say about Walter, that I believe this a true account of the man.I would love to see films of him and his 100 m.p.h. fastball.
   
   People talk about role-models in sports. Well, here is one.



2. The strength of this book is its detail. As a scientist as well as a baseball fan, I was always intrigued by the question of pitching speed.
   This, unlike home run distances and nymber of HRs, has not been affected by changes in the baseball, stadium size, etc. There were no means for
   measuring Johnson's ball speed while he was playing, in his prime, but there is a means of getting a good estimate, and that from Bob Felller, whose speed was measured at a bit over 98 MPH. But that was at home plate, not during midflight, as is often the case for measurements performed by doppler guns, and which would show higher speeds, since the ball is slowing down from the instant it leaves the pitcher's hand. So we can assume rather confidently that Feller's pitches exceeded 100 MPH.
   And here's the link to Johnson : Bob Feller had seen Johnson pitch firsthand, at close range, and said that Johnson was way faster than he was. That can only lead me to believe that Johnson's pitches must have exceeded 110 MPH. Other anecdotal evidence has come from Cobb and Ruth
   and Shoeless Joe Jackson, all of whom considered Johnson easily the best pitcher they ever saw, and Cobb remarked that Johnson's fastball actually hissed as it went by. He was rather afraid to stand there while Johnson was throwing, who he said had two pitches : fast, and REALLY fast. At 5 foot 11 inches and 200 pounds, and with very long arms, Johnson was physically well endowed as a fastball pitcher. Statistics fail to portray
   how good he really was, considering the enormous workload he carried and for such a rotten team for most of his best years.



3. I have read most of the "greatest" baseball books and this is one of the best. This is obviously the writer's lifetime work, and he weaves Walter Johnson's life with his very personal belongings to create a masterpiece.
   
   If you want to get a feel for what baseball was like at the turn of the century, then this will answer your questions. This is one of the only hardbacks that I will keep forever.



4. The fact that Walter Johnson was the grandfather of the author does not disqualify this book as a legitimate biography. Since he didn't grow up around the "Big Train" Henry Thomas had to rely on meticulous research and perhaps his family connection gave him easier access to first-person accounts.
   
   Walter Johnson had a freakish right arm. With an easy-going sidearm delivery he threw fastballs with such great velocity that Ty Cobb reported he flinched the first time he stepped into the batter's box and Johnson's pitched "hissed with danger" as it blew by. The book is peppered with other anecdotes of players reporting that Johnson was so fast other players could hardly see, much less hit the ball. He probably wasn't faster than Nolan Ryan or Randy Johnson in their prime, but he was so much faster than his contemporaries his pitches seemed like bullets.
   
   Yet he was perhaps even more of a gentleman. He was modest,kind,loyal and honest. When Johnson's Washington team finally got into a pennant race in Walter's eighteenth season, there was so much support for him from OPPOSING crowds the cheers for him were repeatedly louder than for the home team, even at stadiums such as Boston's Fenway Park and Babe Ruth's Yankee Stadium.
   
   Johnson's lifetime statistics are amazing. Only Cy Young has more wins than his 417, and if not for his record number of one-run losses, including a record number of 1-0 losses (he also owns the record for 1-0 wins), he would have more wins.
   
   He was among the first five players inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame, won two MVP awards, and set the all-time record for batting average by a pitcher with .433 in 1925. He won 20 games 12 times, including a record ten in a row, and over 30 games twice. He had 110 career shutouts - no other pitcher has 100. In 1913 he won 36 games, lost 7, and gave up only 44 runs in 48 games. You need a microscope to see his career ERA of 2.13.
   
   He was also a devoted family man, married to a congressman's daughter until death did part them, with four children. He was so popular that in public appearances with his younger, more handsome available teammates, single young women swooned, even though it was well-known that he was married.
   
   Few American sports heroes have embodied the combination of ability, accomplishment and virtue that were all seen in Walter Johnson. This books stands up well next to the most well-known in the genre. I'd much rather see a film version of this than to have seen "Babe" or "Cobb." This is on the short list of "best baseball books."



5. I will just one particular reason why I like this book. It will seem trivial to some readers, and I will not be surprised if this review gets negative recommendations because of it. After all, the author did not deliberately intend for this "selling point" to occur, but it did. What is it? Well, Henry Thomas is a stickler for names. He insists on calling teams and places what they were called at the time instead of what we refer to them today. The Washington ballpark is not referred to as Griffith Stadium until the early 20's. References are made to the Cleveland Naps and the New York Highlanders. where am I going with this? In the third chapter, Thomas explains how the owners of the Washington American League team decide to officially change the name of team from "Senators" to "Nationals" for good luck. The name did not catch on with fans, who still preferred to call them "Senators", although "Nats" (short for both seNATorS and NATionalS) was a common nickname. Still, Thomas consistently refers to Johnson's team as the "Nationals" since that was the franchise's official name until 1956.
   
   This book was written in 1995. Although there were fans who dreamed major league baseball would eventually return to Washington, D.C., it still seemed like impossible for many people. But eventually, the Montr?al Expos WERE moved to Washington, and Thomas' choice of words proved prophetic. Commissioner Bud Selig wanted to rename the team the "Washington Senators" after the team he remembered in his youth. D.C. Mayor Tony Williams was adamantally opposed to "Senators" since D.C. had no voting representation in Congress---he wanted the team named "Washington Grays" after the champion Negro League team that used to play at Griffith Stadium. "Washington Nationals" was chosen as a compromise.
   
   The result is that if you are sitting in the stands at RFK Stadium watching a Nats game (perhaps the home opener, as I was doing today) and you turn to read Thomas' biography of Walter Johnson and his "Nationals", you realize that the current team is part of a long tradition of Washington baseball, and it is a proud tradition. The proudest part of the history of Washington baseball was the career of Walter Johnson. This book reminds finds why.

No comments about The Motorcycle World Champions: The Inside Story of History's Heroes.

5 comments about One Last Shot: The Story of Michael Jordan's Comeback.

1. ONE LAST CHANCE IS ABOUT THE 3RD COMEBACK BY FORMER NBA GREAT MICHAEL JORDAN. AFTER BEING AWAY FROM THE GAME FOR 3 YEARS, JORDAN RETURNS AT AGE 38 TO TRY AND TAKE THE WIZARDS TO THE PLAYOFFS. MJ HAD ALOT OF RUST AND MILEAGE ON HIM AS HE TRYS TO BE THE MAN ON THE WIZARDS. SOME NIGHTS HE WAS, BUT MOST HE WAS MEDICORE OR LOUSY. MJ LET HIS SUPERSIZE EGO TELL HIM THAT HE WAS STILL GOOD ENOUGHT TO COMPETE AND PLAY MOST OF THE GAME NIGHT AFTER NIGHT. BUT AGE AND A BAD KNEE DID HIM IN. THERE IS SOME INTERESTING STORIES IN THIS BOOK AND I DID LIKE IT. I KNOW JORDAN IS THE BEST GUARD I HAVE SEEN. THIS BOOK MAKES HIM HUMAN, BUT WE DON'T REALLY KNOW MUCH ABOUT JORDAN THE PERSON IN THIS BOOK EXCEPT FOR HIS PASSION FOR BASKETBALL. IF YOU ALREADY KNOW ALOT ABOUT JORDAN'S PERSONAL LIFE THEN THIS IS A BOOK FOR YOU. THIS IS WHAT IT IS COVERING THE 2 YEARS HE TRIED A COMBACK.



2. This book One Last Shot was a good book.It wasn't the best book writen about Jordan but,it had its good points.The book I think tells it good detail most of the time.The book at points made me want to drop the book and stop reading because it didn't tell me anything I didn't know already.At other times it made me not want to put it down because it retells the games that went on.Overall this book ok not the best but it's a good book if you havn't already read a book and Jordan.



3. I was writing stories before MJ was shooting hoops. I was published before he warmed the bench at Laney High School. I've scored more rejection letters than he has points in a game, and in fact I got another one last week. MJ, my classmate, you in my house now!
   
   What? He wasn't involved with this book? Damn.
   
   I really don't have any interest in the NBA. I admire some of the players who've played over the years, I always enjoy reading a well-written bio about an interesting person, I marvel that we (myself included) idolize some celebs the way we do, I'll drop just about anything to watch an MJ highlight reel, and one reason I was cheering him on during his 21st century comeback was that we were both born in 1963.
   
   So what about the book? Well, first I wanted to establish that I'm not a sports nut, unless we're talking about the NFL. That means that, if you don't care about the NBA either, my book review might be of interest. Now let's read.
   
   Well, I read two of its thirteen chapters, 40 of its 300 pages. I guess you do have to be a basketball fan to enjoy it. Very knowledgeable author, but just not what I want to read. Oh well. I still love Michael.



4. This book is just bad, little inside info on what was going on, bar a few quotes that are hardly "inside info". The book has little organization, going over the same things again and again, and worst of all, reads like a perpetual box score, which face it, you could have got yourself from a newspaper backlog.
   
   This doesnt come close to "JORDAN RULES" by sam smith, which is a shame, as it could have given us a much more clear picture of the "3rd coming"



5. This book looks like the author took some newspaper and magazine clips from others and cobbled them together in a sloppily written book devoid of insight. He has nothing of value here. And it's particularly disappointing that he would try writing a book about Jordan's comeback in Washington when it's obvious he spent little time, if any, traveling with the team during Jordan's Washington days. This book reeks of a clip-and-paste job. Don't waste your money.

No comments about Favre: The Total Package.

4 comments about Terry Fox: His Story (Revised).

1. On harsh moments, Terry's story seems to be the reminder and remmedy. An inspiring life. A must read book!



2. This is a great inside look at the inspirational life, and especially the three thousand plus mile 1980 trek, of Terry Fox. If you don't know who Terry Fox is, shame on you... You need to read this book. If you do know who Terry Fox is, read this book to bring back the memories of this selfless hero. The book has been updated since its original publishing 25 years ago and still has the inside story from Terry's family and friends, as well as his own words from interviews and journal entries. If you are interested in Terry Fox, you should check out the Terry Fox Foundation website as well as the newly published "Terry" by Douglas Coupland.



3. Terry Fox His Story is a wonderful and intriguing book about a young man who touched my heart in ways you couldn't imagine. I felt that I was right there with him all the time and I knew what he was going through.
   This is a book about a young man who had a wild dream. Running across Canada. The really unbelievable thing about this is Terry lost his leg to bone cancer. By the time he died he had raised more than 24 million dollars for cancer research. Because of Terry we are getting closer and closer to a cure for this horrible disease!
   I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. It taught me to take a hold on life and to not let it slip away. If everyone read about this amazing young man I'm sure the world would be a better place!!



4. "Terry Fox: His Story" tells of the life of a man who needs little introduction the world over. Terry's one-legged run halfway across Canada in 1980 is a story of great national pride here, and indeed many countries have caught on to the spirit. Terry's tragic, heroic story is commemorated every year with the fundraising "Terry Fox Run", held around the world, with the proceeds going towards cancer research.

   "His Story" succeeds in providing a comprehensive, if not overly personal, look at Terry's life. I was also impressed by the dynamic and care given to the run itself, as it progressed from one location/town to another. Not every city was as enthusiastic as the last one, for instance, and the author takes care to show how Terry learns to respond to these varying regional reactions, and learns to become a very capable public speaker. The author also takes great care to show that the running was not easy work for Terry, that on many days he simply physically could not accomplish what he set out to do. It makes what he did accomplish all that much more impressive.

   All in all, I was left with a new respect for Terry as a result of reading this book. As an occasional runner myself, I know how difficult it is to get up, on two legs, and go. Which makes you wonder, if Terry Fox could jog nearly a marathon every day for six months on one leg, by comparison, what excuse has anybody else got to not do anything?

   Matthew D. Johnston

4 comments about Junior Johnson: Brave in Life.

1. being a relatively new fan of nascar, and having family members that work closely with it gave me the incentive to read this book. after the untimely death of nascar great dale earnhardt, i found it difficult to watch the weekly races.they seemed to be missing an important member of nascar and my reason for tuning in every weekend. after reading this book,i have changed my mind.nascar is truly the junior johnsons,the kale yarboroughs, and the ricard pettys. they made nascar what it is today. they paved the road for the newcomers. i still miss dale,but now i find i really do have another reason to tune in. i enjoy watching. i no longer have a favorite driver. i just cheer on the front runner. the book was a good read. i reccomend it highly.



2. being a relatively new fan of nascar, and having family members that work closely with it gave me the incentive to read this book. after the untimely death of nascar great dale earnhardt, i found it difficult to watch the weekly races.they seemed to be missing an important member of nascar and my reason for tuning in every weekend. after reading this book,i have changed my mind.nascar is truly the junior johnsons,the kale yarboroughs, and the ricard pettys. they made nascar what it is today. they paved the road for the newcomers. i still miss dale,but now i find i really do have another reason to tune in. i enjoy watching. i no longer have a favorite driver. i just cheer on the front runner. the book was a good read. i reccomend it highly.



3. Tom Higgins of the Charlotte Observer and ESPN and Steve Waid of WC Illus. can tell a story like no one else can. Mix Tom, Steve and Junior together and you get lots of NASCAR history AND sore ribs.



4. To all outward appearances Jr Johnson was a country bumpkin, yet this book shows beneath that "good ole boy" veneer was a sophisticated mind and drive on which crowds cheered and engineers with PhDs came for advice, the latter not covered by Tom Wolfe's book. A quality presentation.

4 comments about Mastering the Art of Horsemanship: John Lyon's Spiritual Journey.

1. I thought this book was interesting, just because it is the only book that is written about the man and not the horse training principles he usually writes about. Also, if you pay close attention to the last chapter you can find plenty of "behind the scenes" information if you read between the lines. He certainly has had a rough life and been through a lot more than I thought. And although I thought he had trained horses all his life, that wasn't the case. Definately worth reading and the pictures are gorgeous.



2. I think this book was very insightful regarding a man famous for his work with horses. I sometimes got the feeling that the 'dirt' was being left out, but the book was entertaining and insightful nonetheless.



3. Not a particularly skillful accounting of John's journey. Not particularly insightful, either. I found myself wondering about what was left out of the book. More behind the scenes information would have given us more with which to connect to John.



4. John Lyons is an incredible horseman. If you've been to his symposium or watched his tapes, you will buy this book to learn more about him. If you don't know him, don't start with this book, because you need to see the man himself in action, see how gently and respectfully he treats horses, how quickly and calmly they learn from him, to know why this book would be interesting. His voice and manner are so reassuring that when I go out, I leave his symposium tapes that I bought on his website on for my dog. I wish his story could have been written by a truly masterful writer and become a best-seller. This book gets the facts across but could have been deeper and more complex, like the man.

5 comments about Lute!: The Seasons of My Life.

1. I got this book for my husband for Father Day and he absorbed it in about 3 days! Must be some interesting book ....He stated it was a really good read. Not to mention I recieved 20.00 off the bookstore price by ordering on Amazon ....



2. If you are an Arizona fan you will love this book for the personal info the newspaper never could give. Interestingly written too. All basketball fans will enjoy the coaching insights.



3. Glad Lute had a good year with pen and paper because he certainly didn't have a good year on the courts.



4. For basketball fans this book is a humorous look in to the hectic life of a hall of fame basket ball coach and his college players. A very enjoyable and insightful book. It kept my interest throughout the whole book and brought many smiles.



5. I just finished Lute! and thoroughly enjoyed what I read. Ironically, I finished the book a couple of days after the North Carolina Tar Heels (go Heels!) thrashed the Arizona Wildcats by 20 some odd points. Reckon this was payback for the times Arizona beat UNC in the March Madness Tournaments of years past.
   
   Among the topics covered in the book were:
   
   1. Lute Olson's early childhood and early love of basketball.
   2. Various coaching jobs - high school, Long Beach State, Iowa, Arizona.
   3. Relationships with certain coaches (Roy Williams, Bobby Knight, John Wooden, Al McGuire, Jerry Tarkanian, Pete Newell, etc.).
   4. His long-time marriage to his first wife, Bobbi, whom he obviously loved very much and was deeply hurt by her passing.
   5. His current marriage to Christine Torreti.
   6. Relationships with various college basketball players.
   7. Summaries of his various seasons at the colleges he coached at and how they ended (sometimes after a deep run in the NCAA tournament, sometimes, an early first-round exit).
   8. Relationships with other family members and various friendships.
   9. Description of his recruiting, publicity, and other basketball coach-related duties.
   10. Several instances of good humor.
   
   The book was a joy to read and I gained a deeper appreciation for Coach Olson. As a matter of fact, if I had a son who was college basketball material, I would count it a privilege if he played for Coach Olson at Arizona (assuming, of course, that none of the basketball powerhouses in the ACC were interested in him!).
   
   All in all, a great read about a class act. Highly recommended.

5 comments about Sal Maglie: Baseball's Demon Barber.

1. Man oh man! What a great book. I am sure if Mr. Maglie were still with us he would approve. I have read so many great Biogrphies,especially on Baseball players, but none as well researched as this. I was never bored. I was however educated, delightfully so. I could almost hear a lovers voice telling this story, then later more so of a loving daughter. I have to rate this as probably #1 as a researched bio,and definitely in the top 10 all time entertaining baseball bios.Very well done Judith Testa.



2. Fascinating and fully substantiated biography of one of the most notable figures in the greatest and quintessential American sport of Baseball. Written in polished prose this book is on one hand a page turner and on the other hand an erudite work of art, complete with multipage bibliography and citations of interviews and published articles. You don't have to be a baseball fan or even a sports fan to appreciate this book. If you enjoy reading authentic books about the lives of prominent personages, this is the one for you.
   
   I encourage all to buy and read this book.



3. All of the other reviews were quite lengthy, so I'll try to make my brief. This is a very good book and very well researched, except for one thing. The author noted that home plate is 14" wide, whereas it's actually 17" wide. A quick check of the rule would have caught that mistake by the author or her editors.
   
   Though very good I couldn't give this a 5* rating, as it didn't capivate me. The book is quite long - 407 pages of actual text less pictures. The print is 10 point, so it takes some time to read.
   
   Sal had quite a sad life. Sal's wife died at 48 from breast cancer, and left Sal with two adopted sons. He and his wife couldn't have children, so they adopted two. Being childless bothered Sal's wife no end, and she even asked relatives to adopt their yet to be born children. Sal, Jr was a problem child, became a drug addict, and died early in life. Sal, Sr. was neither a model husband or model father. Sal returned to Niagra every winter (except when he played ball), so the town remained loyal to him by honoring him with numerous Sal Maglie Days throughout his lifetime.



4. I never heard of Judith Testa before, but she has done an outstanding job in bringing Sal "The Barber" Maglie to life. Maglie's career encompassed the decade of the 1950's in which he became one of only a few major leaguers to play on all three New York teams. Sal's experience in the Mexican League during the 1940s proved to be a mixed bag for him. Playing conditions and life in Mexico left a lot to be desired, but it reunited him with manager Dolf Luque who rescued Sal's career by changing him from a thrower to a pitcher. Sal benefited from Luque's instruction on his return to the major leagues in the early 1950s. Sal became part of several historic baseball events such as Bobby Thompson's legendary home run in 1951, the four game sweep of the Indians in the 1954 World Series, and being on the losing end of Don Larsen's perfecto in the 1956 World Series. Most people probably remember Maglie as a member of the Giants, but Sal stated his experiences with the Brooklyn Dodgers remained the most memorable to him. Maglie moving from the Giants to the Dodgers was akin to Leo Durocher moving from manager of the Dodgers to the Giants. It was with Brooklyn with the 1956 season winding down that Sal tossed his no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies. Once bitter rivals such as Jackie Robinson and Carl Furillo became close friends of Sal upon his joining the Dodgers. Baseball's Barber spent brief periods with the Yankees, Red Sox, and Cardinals while later serving as a pitching coach with the Red Sox and the one-year 1969 Seattle Pilots. His post-baseball years were not especially kind to Sal since he, like several other players of his era, had a difficult time adjusting to a lower standard of living with only a small pension to live on. If you grew up during the 1950s like I did Sal Maglie was an integral part of the baseball scene whether you a fan of his team or not. Songwriter Terry Cashman honored Sal in his song "Willie, Mickey, and The Duke" and when I think of a photo of Sal Maglie it is the 1953 Bowman color baseball card with a sinister look on his face as he ponders the batter at home plate who has the audacity to bring a bat up to the plate. A ton of thanks to writer Judith Testa for writing this book, and to her subject who played such a significant part in baseball's glorious history. Honor your baseball library with the inclusion of this book.



5. Judith Testa's book on Sal Maglie is the best book I have read about a baseball player. It is refreshing to read a sports book that is well-written and that reached deep into the players life without becoming boring. Testa handles Maglie's career and life skillfully - she always seems to include enough detail to make you feel like you were there, but not so much that you lose interest.
   
   Sal Maglie was an interesting man and fascinating pitcher in the 1950s. Reading about some of his life was of great interest to me as a fan and collector of the old New York Giants. Learning about Sal's childhood, marriage, family and time in the Mexican League with Dolph Luque was fascinating. Reading about many of the summer games he pitched in was all new to me as you usually only read about the major games, such as his no hitter, his participation in the "Shot Heard Around the World" game, Larsen's no hitter and the Willie Mays catch off of Vic Wertz game in the 1954 World Series. The anecdotes that Judith was able to capture thru players still living that played with Maglie added a great deal to her writing. I also enjoyed reading about Maglies coaching days with the Red Sox and how he helped to educate some of the younger ballplayers about how to pitch inside and take control of the plate from the batter.
   
   Judith is a fan of the game and the era, a talented writer who is not a baseball writer per se. I can only hope she chooses to write another baseball book!