Baseball Books

With the recent untimely passing of baseball hero Kirby Puckett, it's particularily worth noting that SWINGING FOR THE FENCES: BLACK BASEBALL IN MINNESOTA includes an oustanding chapter on the life of Puckett.

The chapter on Puckett's life was penned by sportswriter and author Jay Weiner, who was the Twins beat writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune during the 1980s. Weiner does a brilliant job in telling the "rags-to-riches" story of the offspring of the Chicago housing projects who became the smiling face of the Minnesota Twins.

Weiner reveals the essence of Kirby Puckett, warts and all, and gives the reader a deeper sense of the tragic aura of Puck's career, injury, blindness, groping for posterity, and his induction into baseball's Hall of Fame.

Perspective is needed on Puckett and his place in the baseball record in Minnesota and author Weiner does this in SWINGING FOR THE FENCES: BLACK BASEBALL IN MINNESOTA. The book gives TWINS fans a new level of understanding of baseball in Minnesota, tying the past to the present, to see how it all fits together in a lively style, rich in storylines, filled with pathos of the intertwining of the themes of manhood, fatherhood, and brotherhood. A great read for fans of Puckett and of the Minnesota Twins.

Twenty-three articles by a variety of authors, mostly college professors and journalists, cover the different facets of black baseball in Minnesota from its first days in the latter 1800s down to contemporary times. The general theme running through all of the diversified articles is the "America Dream" and the "American Tragedy" reflected in the histories of the teams and the careers and lives of individual players. The American Dream part of the theme deals with how playing baseball allowed players to strive for high personal achievement as well as enjoy various levels of economic security and social recognition. The American Tragedy part takes in not only the racism and discrimination players faced, but also personal troubles and disappointments of some of them. Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, and Willie Mays appear along with many relative unknowns. The exploits of teams named the Fergus Falls Musculars, the Quicksteps, and the Brown Stockings, among others, are related. The vibrant Minnesota black baseball scene going back well over a century is treated in a popular style profiling great and other notable players and following the courses, and occasional dramatic moments, of the teams.

Hoffbeck and his group of writers slice through baseball history in a unique way. Minnesota is not known for its baseball history or its African-American history, so at first glance it does not appear to be a very meaty topic. However, the writers have managed to cull together stories dating from the 1870s, covering the local town team right up to major-leaguers with the Twins. Some of the giants of the game stopped in Minnesota on their way to "the show" and therefore the book appeals to all baseball fans, not just Minnesotans.

"Swinging For The Fences," is a fascinating journey through Minnesota african american baseball history from the late 19th century to the present day. The book focuses on themes such as race, manhood, brotherhood, and fatherhood, and traces the struggles and triumphs of several black ball players who lived and played in Minnesota.Through the stories of remarkable athletes such as Bud Fowler, Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, Dave Winfield, and Kirby Puckett, the authors trace the vivid, if not well known,saga of black baseball in the upper midwest , from the town team days right up to the arrival of the Twins and beyond.Unlike many baseball histories, "Swinging For The Fences," doesn't overwhelm you with mind numbing facts and figures and a real love for the game shines through. The book also contains many never before published photos. Painstakingly researched and beautifully written, "Swinging For The Fences," is as exhilarating and fulfilling as a ninth inning rally !
-Todd Peterson, Member, The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)

When one thinks of "black" baseball, an image of Jackie Robinson trying to break the Major League Baseball color barrier with the Dodgers comes to mind. About the last thing one would expect is to associate the lily-white state of Minnesota with black bseball, yet, in this intrigingly interesting book, Dr. Steve Hoffbeck shows how many other black baseball players suffered the same struggles as Jackie Robinson, their stories being told for the first time.

Dr. Hoffbeck has assembled a team of 11 writers to tell the detailed story of black baseball players in Minnesota that begins in the late 19th century and ends with sad story of the fallen hero Kirby Puckett. This is not a book that revels in baseball statistics; rather, the writers focus on the players themselves: who they were, where they came from, the color barrier conflicts each had to face, and what happened to them after baseball. It is this personalized approach that grabs the mind of the reader, and makes this book so interesting.

The book is divided into 24 concise chapters, each centered on a particular black baseball player or team. My favorite player chapters were as follows:

1. Earl Batty and his attempt to bring racial equality to the southern "plantation" owner of the Minnesota Twins, Calvin Griffith.
2. Satchel Paige's baseball barnstorming days in Minnesota. I am amazed with the pure pitching genius of 'Ol Satch, and how he was not allowed to compete against white major league baseball players until he was 42 years old in 1948. Even at that age (Paige being the oldest rookie to ever play major league baseball), Paige amazed the fans, his teammates, every batter he faced, and even the umpires with his amazing throwing skills. What a shame a man like Paige was denied his chance to excel at his first love while in his prime - just think of how the record books would look if Paige pitched 20-plus seasons in the major leagues!
3. Toni Stone, the first black woman (or any woman of any color for that matter) to attempt to pitch at the major league level.
4. The chapter on the tragic story of Kirby Puckett, the first black Minnesota baseball superstar, who had the fans of Minnesota in his back pocket, and then lost it all to allegations of spousal abuse and infidelity. Minnesota has never gotten over the fall of their hero Puckett and we lament to this day the sad ending to his stellar career.

The above chapters are only my personal highlights of what has come together as an excellent book on black baseball. Other chapters deal with lesser known black players in Minnesota, yet, the themes of persistence through intense racial persecution and taunting, the shared black brotherhood of baseball, and the sacrifices these men went through to pursue their love of the game shine through.

Hoffbeck and fellow writers have contributed a vital link to the previously untold "missing" history of black baseball.

This book should be in the collection of anyone who loves the game of baseball, for it documents the early pioneers of black baseball, and shows the heavy financial and emotional price the players had to pay to seek their places in the game of baseball. Modern-day black baseball players owe a debt of gratitude to these early pioneers, for it was their superior abilities, pride, and persistence that finally brought down the long-standing nearly impregnable racial barrier of American baseball. Cudos to Hoffbeck and Company for telling their compelling stories.

Jim Konedog Koenig

Bart Giamatti was an amazing man and a wonderful writer. Former president of Yale University and Commissioner of major league baseball, he had a unique and appealing vision of "Americans and their Games." I heard about this book on NPR and have shared it with many baseball-loving friends.

All men who have served as Commissioner of Baseball--a position more people probably aspire to than aspire to be President of the United States--have a dull sameness in their resumes and their manner of speech compared to the late A. Bartlett Giamatti, who died in 1989 in his rookie season as Commissioner, the only baseball commissioner to be a Renaissance Scholar and President of Yale University.

Giamatti's book is a celebration of baseball's "freedom (for) the promise of an energetic, complex order." "Baseball," Giamtti writes, "fulfills the promise that America made to itself to cherish the individual while recognizing the overarching claims of the group. It sends its players out (around the bases) in order to return again, allowing all the freedom to accomplish great things in a dangerous world. So baseball restates a version of America's promises every time it is played. The playing of the game is a restatement of the promises that we can all be free, that all succeed."

"Sport," Giamatti writes, "contains within itself, as a self-transforming activity, fueld by instinct and intellect alike, the motive for freedom. The very elaboration of sport--it's internal conventions of all kinds, its ceremonies, its endless meshes entangling itself--are for the purposes of training and testing (perhaps by defeating) and rewarding the rousing motion within us to find a moment (or more) of freedom. Freedom is that state where energy and order merge and complexity is purified into a simple coherence, a fitness of parts and purpose and passions that cannot be surpassed and whose goal could only be to be itself.

"If we have known freedom, then we love it; it we love freedom, then we fear, at some level (individually or collectively)its loss. And then we cherish sport. As our forbears did, we remind ourselves through sport of what, here on earth, is our noblest hope. Through sport, we create our daily portion of freedom."

Giamatti's eloquence and unique voice ranges widely over other subjects.
"Human beings made and make cities, and only human beings kill cities, or let them die. We enjoy deluding ourselves in this as in other things. We enjoy believing that there are forces out there completely determining our fate, natural forces--or forces so strong and overwhelming as to be like natural forces--that send cities through organic or biological phases of birth, growth, and decay. We avoid the knowledge that cities are at best works of art, and at worst ungainly artifacts--but never flowers or even weeds--and that we, not some mysterious forces or cosmic biological system, control the creation and life of a city....

"A city is a collection of disparate families who agree to a fiction: they agree to live AS IF they were as close in blood or ties of kinship as in fact they are in physical proximity. Choosing life in an artifact, people agree to live in a state of similitude. A city is a place where ties of proximity, activity and self-interest assume the role of family ties. It is a considerable pact, a city. If a family is an expression of continuity through biology, a city is an expression of continuity through will and imagination--through mental choices making artifice, not through physical reproduction.

"This act of will and imagination, this city, expresses a set of common and continuing needs. These needs are usually expressed as commercial. Cities, we are told, are essentially mediums for commerce--trading, buying, selling, financing. They are centers of negotiation, not simply in all the varieties of commerce, but also of lawmaking and rule-giving--of legislation in all its variety. Cities are centers of negotiations of interests, of competing ideas, of us together against separateness, of me against aloneness of all...entailed at first by work, the work of connecting and assaying, of affiliating and discriminating that markets and legislatures, commerece and courts, traders and advocates carry on....

"The defining characteristic of a city over time is political. Indeed, the word political contains at its root the Greek polis, or city. Politics is the art of making choices and finding agreements in public--or the art of making public choices and agreements. Politics is the ultimate act of negotiation in a city, but it is only relective of the constant activity of the city, as individual, daily choices and agreements and decisions, allowing flowing from the central choice not to live alone but among others, swirl around and make up rambunctious, noisy, restless, demanding, hectic, city life.

"Over millenia, this refinement of negotiation, of balancing private need and public obligation, personal desire and public duty, and keen interests of the one and the many into a common, shared set of agreements--becomes a civilization. That is the public version of what binds us. That state is achieved because city dwellers as individuals or as families or as groups have smoothed the edges of private desire so as to fit, or at least work in, with all the other city dwellers,without undue abrasion, without sharp edges forever picking and wounding, each refining an individual capacity for those thousands of daily, instantaneous negotiations that keep crowded city life from being a constant brawl or ceaseless shoving match....We admire that capacity to proceed, neither impeded nor impeding....

"Many give up...they go to the suburbs, that under-city that is neither urban nor rural, that non-city which is the place of surcease, not of choosing--where energy, to the extent it is desired, is imported but not created; where all decisions are basically private and existence is nonpolitical; where in choosing to give up the stress of endless choosing there is only one choice; to live as if not in a family but rather to live as if alone, and to do so near (that is like-minded, like-colored, and like-employed) families....And when more than some--when many--opt for the suburb, the city begins to die. When those who can make the choice leave, by that choice a city falters because it retains only those who have no choice but stay. Where cities are absorptive and inclusive, suburbs are not. Their impermeability or exclusivity is precisely their allure."

I personally think Giamatti is much too hard on suburbs and suburbanites, but these excerpts give the flavor of the book. Those wanting a book about the day to day mechanics of baseball or other sports should go elsewhere. Those wanting a thoughtful look at the role of baseball in sports, the role of sports in cities and the life of country as a whole, the role of athletes, and the drug culture, and the sports writers, and the fans, should read this book.

The language is poetic, and grandiose. The assertions are one man's only rarely documented opinion. But, in reading this book, one will find visions, insights, and profundity about American life far more on the order of Alexis deToqueville than on the order of your favorite sportswriter.

Giamatti's work here is an insightful look into the spectacle of baseball and sport in general and how they intereact with society and social values. It's a must-read for any baseball-bred sports fan.

A. Bartlett Giamatti wrote this book immediately prior to his unexpected death in 1989. It appeared in print posthumously. That he would pen a paen to baseball at the height of the Pete Rose scandal, as his last published work, is ironic. His prose is sublime. The slender volume is a monograph on the nature of the game of baseball. It is timeless because it is not tied to temporal events. With little alteration, the book could have been written a hundred years ago, or (I hope) a hundred years hence. The Commissioner of Baseball and former Yale Professor of Renaissance Literature explores the intellectual facination of the game. From the geometry of the diamond to the Homeric nature of the baserunner's struggle to reach home again, Giamatti's story is enlightening as well as entertaining. Insights into the nature of our society flow naturally, given that sport in general should be seen in the context of the civilization that spawns it. One that I found to be especially memorable was on the commonalities of learning that change from generation to generation. Giamatti wrote of how the rising generation would understand the world through a computer screen, even as their progenitors had seen it through books, and of the differences, both great and small, that it would make to the thought patterns of our young. All this against the literally timneless fabric of a game played without a clock. -Lloyd A. Conway

A. Bartlett Giamatti wrote this book immediately prior to his unexpected death in 1989. It appeared in print posthumously. That he would pen a paen to baseball at the height of the Pete Rose scandal, as his last published work, is ironic. His prose is sublime. The slender volume is a monograph on the nature of the game of baseball. It is timeless because it is not tied to temporal events. With little alteration, the book could have been written a hundred years ago, or (I hope) a hundred years hence. The Commissioner of Baseball and former Yale Professor of Renaissance Literature explores the intellectual facination of the game. From the geometry of the diamond to the Homeric nature of the baserunner's struggle to reach home again, Giamatti's story is enlightening as well as entertaining. Insights into the nature of our society flow naturally, given that sport in general should be seen in the context of the civilization that spawns it. One that I found to be especially memorable was on the commonalities of learning that change from generation to generation. Giamatti wrote of how the rising generation would understand the world through a computer screen, even as their progenitors had seen it through books, and of the differences, both great and small, that it would make to the thought patterns of our young. All this against the literally timneless fabric of a game played without a clock. -Lloyd A. Conway

Not only fascinating are these stories, but what I find intriguing is a look into a segment of American History of which I know next to nothing.

The only fault of the book is that, at times, it dissipates into exaggeration. It still comes recommended.

This book has been a big hit with local old time baseball fans as I have loaned it many times.

Not only fascinating are these stories, but what I find intriguing is a look into a segment of American History of which I know next to nothing.

McNary weaves the lively narrative with Double Duty's spicy comments interspersed.

About 25 years after A.G. Spalding's world tour of professional baseball, the New York Giants, Chicago White Sox and other superstars undertook another incredible odyssey that touched down in the Philippines, Europe, Egypt and U.S. cities.

Author James E. Elfers does a masterful job in reconstructing this forgotten diamond gem that lasted six months in 1913-1914 which found the players paving the way to the modern marketing of the game, along with trading yarns with millionaires like Thomas Lipton and being granted an audience with Pope Pius X. The pop culture fascination with athletic achievement is certainly not new.

The list of stars could be an all-time team today - Tris Speaker, Buck Weaver, Sam Crawford - and included arguably the greatest all-around athlete ever, Jim Thorpe. Elfers also has excerpts from an interview he conducted with the last living witness of the trek - Ben Mall - who was 100 years old at the time of the meeting.

This is a history that has been dusted off like home plate after the wintry months give way to spring, with the first batter smacking a long home run.

Author James Elfers provides a detailed account of the six-month World Tour of the New York Giants and Chicago White Sox from 1913-1914. A similar tour today would be impressive, but 95 years ago, it was simply amazing.

Elfers descriptive narrative gives the reader a seat on the tour. From the little towns on the United States leg of the tour to Australia, the Philippines, Egypt and Europe, you get a taste of what it was like for the players. Elfers describes the weather, the games, the crowds, the ball fields, the receptions, the ships, the hotels and the off-the-field activities. And, he provides a dose of history for each stop.

Some of the better-known players on the Tour included Jim Thorpe, Buck Weaver, Fred Merkle, Tris Speaker, Mike Donlin, Sam Crawford, Germany Schaefer, Larry Doyle and George Wiltse. Thorpe and a couple other players were on their honeymoons.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in baseball in the Deadball Era or the Tour itself. This is an excellent addition to baseball history.

The US was looking for things to do to take their minds off of the hardships of the time. Baseball was the perfect vehicle to do that. It involved teams with a large number of players, that lasted 2 hours or more. It would also allow a large fan base to surround the field in a picnic atmosphere, to see the action.

The author has conveyed different feelings as to what baseball was about in this time period of US history. To push our emerging sport out for the world to see was an incredible chance to elevate many things. First, that we loved to do things together for fun. Second, that the US was a strong and diverse country reaching out to other countries. It is amazing to think of the diversity of the audience this team played to.

These players who took part in this must have known what they were portraying to the world, THE LOVE OF THE GAME!

The author had to dig hard to research all of the information gathered from this time period. True baseball enthusiats will enjoy this book!

David Vogel

It's amazing that the events Mr. Elfers writes about have been all but forgotten. He brings them back to life so vividly that his book is a very deserving CASEY Award Finalist for 2003. Kudos to Mr. Elfers and the Univ. of Nebraska press!

The Tour To End All Tours is a great book about a seemingly long lost event. Elfers research uncovered several valuable reference materials that made this trip come to life. Mrs. Thorpe's dairy of the trip, for example, adds valuable insights that most readers would never encounter.

I read a broad range of baseball history books and have a great interest in the 1880 through 1919 baseball era. I found the well researched historical aspects combined with the personal anecdotes of the players and tourist on the 1913-14 tour made this book an insightful and entertaining read.

...

After reading this book and discovering that a film was made during the trip, I hold out hope that it may one day it will be found as it would be a great companion to the text.

With help from this workout program I gained baserunning speed and an increase in bat head speed. This program is written very clearly and easy to follow.

This book has been absolutely wonderful for me, as well as the rest of my team. I'm hitting the ball further then I ever have before. The difference was evident in weeks. Truly the single best program out there.

I'm a multi sport athlete who trains all year round regardless of what sport I play. I bought a few of these Ultimate Guide to Weight Training books, and they definitely helped me train specifically for the different sports that I play. Then about a year later I received an email from amazon that there was a new edition out. These upgraded editions are even better than the originals, with more articles and a lot more sport-specific information. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who plays a lot of sports or wants to specifically focus on training for one sport in particular.

I have to admit, I never thought something like this would work. But, I was proven wrong. I just thought I would give my recomendation for this book, and thanks to Robert Price for helping me with my game.

I am very pleased with my copy of this book. It has everything I was looking for with photos, tips, and detailed programs. It goes into depth about the specific muscles used throughout the swing and used when throwing. Possibly the most important thing I got from this book is improved speed and power in rotating my torso which helps with both swinging and throwing harder. My hips are also more powerful and balance has improved.

Doron Ben-Ami is the illustrator of this book.
He did an amazing job on each piece.

Do you remember being a kid and loving the smell of the freshly printed pages of a new book?! I do! I know - I'm a 'book-a-holic'! Seriously though, this book is one of those wonderful books that has the ability to take you back to being a child. It has that nostalgic smell to the pages...but it is beautifully written and put together - the most important part. The theme message (regarding loss of a dear one) is well written for kids and even adults. I recently lost my dear Dad and this book has been wonderful for my four children. I had to read it to myself a few times to get through the tears so I could read it to them without being so choked up. The pictures draw you in, it is incredibly graphic. This book is a treasure to my family.

Randy Alcorn's Wait Until Then is both touching and wise. Any parent who wants to explain what happens to us when we die, how to deal with the death of a loved one, and how to cope with serious disappointment will want to read this book with their child.


The book introduces us to Nathan, a boy of about 9 or 10, and his grandfather. We learn that Nathan loves baseball, and that his grandfather once played in the major leagues. Nathan and Gramps share lots of good times playing catch, talking about baseball, and fishing, but Nathan has a great disappointment in his life. He's in a wheelchair. Too, Gramps is slowing down. He uses a walker, and he has cancer.

Yet when Nathan asks Gramps if he misses baseball, Gramps replies he'd rather play catch with Nathan than play next to some of the great major league players. "I'm grateful for my baseball years," Gramps says. "But they weren't as important as other things - like marrying your grandma and having children, including your mother."

Gramps tries to help Nathan cope with his negative feelings about being in a wheelchair. When Nathan bemoans the fact that he can't play ball, Gramps reminds him: "One day you will [run the bases]...God promises that one day we'll live on a New Earth. He'll fix everything. Nothing will be bad there. And we'll have better bodies than the greatest Olympic athletes." Gramps also tells Nathan that God had a special reason for putting Nathan in a wheelchair, whether or not they can see what it is just now. He also explains what Nathan needs to do to accept God's gift of salvation.


Then Gramps goes to the hospital. When Nathan visits, Gramps reminds him: "I want you to love Jesus and pray to him every day. It's fine to enjoy baseball. But remember, everything we love should cause us to love Jesus more, not less." Gramps dies, and Nathan recalls everything his grandfather taught him. He looks forward to the day he and Gramps can play baseball together.

The last two-page spread of the book shows Nathan running the bases on God's New Earth.

What I Like: This book could easily have been trite or preachy, but it's neither. The story brought tears to my eyes, and I believe it will touch you and your children, too. I also like that Alcorn has backed up his fictional story with plenty of Bible verses. And the illustrations, by Doron Ben-Ami, are amazing! They are rich and lifelike...so much so, many look like photographs, not drawings. I can't imagine better illustrations for this book.



What I Dislike: If you're not a baseball fan, there might be a a couple of moments where you find yourself wondering what the characters are talking about. However, the moments pass quickly, and do not detract from the overall beauty of the book.



Overall Rating: Excellent.

Kristina Seleshanko
Editor of Christian Children's Book Review

I read Wait Until Then to my 8 year old son last night. He followed the story and liked it a lot. I thought it was great and the illustrations are just incredible--some of them look like photographs!

Wait Until Then by Randy Alcorn is a beautiful story about a wheelchair-bound young boy and his grandfather who is dying of cancer. They share a great love for baseball.

Nathan wants more than anything to be able to run and walk like other kids so he can really play baseball. His grandfather knows this and tries to show him that there are other things far more important.

They have many good talks as they fish, play catch, and just spend time together. As Grandpa explains why we have suffering and bad things, he also talks about a time when all will be made new and Nathan will be able to run and jump just like other boys on the New Earth. Grandpa also tells Nathan and his brother and sister about Heaven and how Jesus is building a special place there for each person.

Alcorn designed this book to be used to open dialogue with children about Heaven--what it is like and how to get there. The plan of salvation is presented within the story. Every page is a full-color illustration of the story. It is recommended for the ages of six through ten and will be a great book to be handed down from generation to generation. - Linda Demorest, Christian Book Previews.com

Stars, everyday players, and scrubs share their memories of major league baseball from 1946 to 1964. This is a book that I've had for I don't know how long now and when a copy falls apart, I get a new one - this hardcover version for $15.00 is a bargain but shhhhh, don't tell Amazon. Stars like Brooks Robinson and everyday players like Gene Woodling and unknowns like Eddie Joost and one season players like Ed Bouchee and scrubs like Johnny Berardino discuss opponents and also their own experiences in the major leagues. Every true baseball fan should have this easy-to-read book in their library and those who don't really aren't true baseball fans.

I have spent a lifetime reading about baseball and this tops my list.It covers both leagues and gives a rare insight into the stars and the non-stars and how they played and lived.It makes you feel as though you lived through it as well !!!

THIS IS A BOOK COVERING BASEBALL FROM 1947 THRU 1964. THE AUTHOR HAS A FEW PLAYERS FROM EACH TEAM TELL IN THEIR OWN WORDS WHAT WAS GOING ON DURING THIS SEASON. SOME OF THE PEOPLE INTERVIEWED INCLUDE BROOKS ROBINSON, HARMON KILLEBREW, JIM GRANT, RYNE DUREN AND MANY OTHERS. THE BOOK HAS OVER 600 PAGES OF CONTENTS. FOR THE MONEY THIS IS GREAT BUY. THE DETAILED INTERVIEWS ARE SOMETHING SPECIAL AND I RECOMMEND THIS FOR FANS WHO FOLLOWED THE GAME IN THE 1950'S AND 60'S. AN OUTSTANDING READ.

.... then you will love this book. It's an oral history of the game as told by the non-superstars. Unlike similar books, this one is huge, and the stories are long, fun and will make you nostalgic for your youth. You'll see stories by guys like Ed Bouchee, Billy DeWitt, Don Mossi.... names you'll recognize from the days when baseball cards cost a nickel a pack, provided you with a thin slice of bubble gum, and a bunch of cards to trade with your friends or stick in the spokes of your bike wheels.

I'm only part way through and I love this book!

This is the perfect baseball book for all seasons, but especially now with the World Series over, and spring training still months away. It also seems appropriate to me that this book is set during one of the "Golden Ages" of baseball between 1947 and 1964, a time when the only stats that mattered reflected exploits on the field, rather than tallies of bank accounts off the diamond, as we have heard so much about in the past few seasons.

So sit back, curl up in front of the fire, and dip in and out of this massive volume, which is edited and organized in a way that allows just such delights. Packed with stories about the game's greats, and not-so-greats, it offers wonderful insights into how the men who delighted in playing a boy's game actually felt, thought and acted, as told in their own words. There are baseball heroics here aplenty, but also some bitter truths and some all-too human behavior that just serves to make these men all the more real, and fascinating.

Editor and author Danny Peary obviously loves the game, and isn't tainted with the sort of "celebrity awe" that characterizes so much of today's sports' coverage, and its cynical flip-side. Of course, he does pay homage to the greats of this era, but he also rekindles a thousand memories for those of us old enough to remember some of the less celebrated, but nonetheless extraordinary characters who once inhabited the game. Hopefully, younger readers will also delight in meeting these men as well, who had wondrous names such as Vic Power, Minnie Minoso and Pumpsie Green. Need I say more?

This is a delightful book. Tom Jones has collected a series of interviews with those people who make their livings in baseball, from players to peanut vendors, general managers to batboys. The interviews are presented as-is, with little rhetorical flourish or editing. The subjects relate the day-to-day goings-on in the world of baseball that exists just outside the sight of the average fan in the stands. Tom Jones takes you beyond the usual sportswriting and takes you deep inside the inner workings of the game.

Although he had never written a book before aspiring author Tom Jones had a marvelous idea. Why not ask people involved in all aspects of the baseball industry these three simple questions: "What is your job?", "How did you get into this line of work?" and finally "What does this job mean to you?" It seems like a simple enough premise but would enough people actually be willing to take the time to sit down and talk about their careers in our great national pastime? Thankfully, the answer turned out to be a resounding "yes"!
In the pages of "Working At The Ballpark" you will meet 50 individuals who ply their trade at major league ballparks all across America. The stories of what these people do and how they wound up working in baseball are varied and fascinating. You will meet a few stars, several journeyman ballplayers, coaches, a manager, an umpire, play-by-play announcers, beat writers, front office personnel and even some of the vendors who patrol the stands during the game. What makes "Working At The Ballpark" so compelling is that most of these people were very willing to open up to Tom Jones and reveal why working in and around baseball is a very special way to earn a living.
As Nolan Ryan observes in the Foreward what is really neat about "Working At The Ballpark" is that you can either choose to read the book cover to cover or just pick and choose the interviews that interest you the most. I would concur with that observation. While "Working At The Ballpark" might be a great bathroom book I chose to read it cover to cover. And while I found a few of the stories to be less than scintillating the overwhelming majority were really quite captivating. What comes through loud and clear to me is that it matters not whether you one of the highly paid athletes, involved in club administration, or are toiling as an attendant in the visitors clubhouse: just about everyone who was interviewed in this book has a love affair with the game of baseball.
After reading "Working At The Ballpark: The Fascinating Lives of Baseball People-From Peanut Vendors and Broadcasters to Players and Managers" you will come away with a new appreciation of what it takes to make that yearly trip to your favorite major ballpark so enjoyable and so memorable. There are so many people involved that you just never see or hear about. You will never look at the game of baseball quite the same way again. Highly recommended!

Tom Jones is apparently this author's real name, and he has an ear for the real people who bring us the real game of big-league baseball. Done in a Studs Terkel style, "Working at the Ballpark" lets us know what it's really like behind the scenes on game day in the voices of the people who make the games possible. A must for any baseball fan.

This is an entertaining book. I like how the author preserves the speaking styles of the 50 baseball people interviewed. This makes for very enjoyable reading. I especially enjoyed reading about batting, hitting, and coaching techniques from people like Leo Mazzone, Ron Jackson, and Mike Hargrove. I also enjoyed peeking into clubhouses to see what really goes on, to read about the tensions between ballplayers and the media, and to read how plain folks like ushers, beer vendors, and mascots make their living. I recommend this book strongly.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in readking about baseball from a different perspective. If Studs Terkel had written a baseball book, this is probably what it would have read like.

50 interviews with people with ALL SORTS of careers at a ballpark--players, clubhouse workers, mascot, landscaping, announcer, ballpark vendors (food, beer, etc.).
My favorite interviews were the ballpark architect, the umpire, the shortstop who goes to art galleries when he travels around the US, and the "from Connecticut" ticket hustler.

I like that I can read one interview at a time or several in a row.

This would be a good gift for any man. I will keep it in mind for the impossible-to-shop-for 15-25 year old. It also strikes me as a good graduation gift because everyone in the book talks about how they came to have that job.

I am female 32 years with limited interest in pro sports...

It's too bad that since the last Boston World Series Championship, the New York Yankees have only won about 22. (Heh Ty - who won the CDE Championship in 1961? Give up? - The Yankees!!!)

Nothing but the pain and despair of being a true Bosox fan could ever prepare an author like it must have for Mr. Waterman. The book was a bright read about a very different game in a very different America. As much a chronicle of the era as baseball and the Red Sox themselves. A first class study of the despair of every Red Six fan!

I beleieve the Braves won the 1960 CDE Title!

But in 1918, the Sox won. They really, really won. This well researched book makes me fell like I was there, 83 years ago, following the REd Sox daily, the same way I do now. Difference is, they win it and this is not good fiction, it is great non-fiction. What Ken Burns did for baseball history, Ty Waterman does for the 1918 Red Sox.

Another interesting thing about this book is the news clips which is how you, as a reader, follow along with the season. The interesting part is not just the information from long ago, but how a ball club is written about back in 1918, and how it differs today. Sure the players had "issues" back then, but now days we can get bogged down on the importance of player's personal problems and the effect that has on the team. Looking foward to digesting the next Ty Waterman fact filled book.

No team in professional sports offers a full scale opera with each game more than my beloved Boston Red Sox. All Red Sox and baseball fans know the trials, tribulations, and horror that surrounds this team, and with it Boston, and all of New England. Buckner in '86, Torrez in '78, Bill Lee's junk pitch to Tony Perez in game 7 of '75, the collapse in 72, the could have been of '67, the should have been of '48, Enos Slaughter in '45...the Red Sox have sustained their share of horrific luck since Harry Frazee dealt the Babe to New York in 1919...

Few fans remember, or realize, that the Red Sox dominated baseball for the first 20 years of the past century. They had great pitchers from Cy Young to "Smoky" Joe Wood, to the Babe, and hall of famers Harry Hooper, Tris Speaker, Young, the Babe... yes, the Sox had it all, and it all culminated in 1918, the last time the Babe-led Sox won the World Series.

Waterman's book is a delightful piece of Americana, complete with old tyme sketches, photos, box scores, standings, and everything else that made 1918 what it was- a simpler time in baseball. The stories, from the trade of Speaker to the Indians to the many showcasing the Babe's probelms but undeniable charisma and popularity, to that of Harry Hooper's fight against MLB that lasted all of his life, are fascinating and riviting. The newspaper writers were more than that in those days- they became part of the saga, as well.

This book is a remarkable historical document that fans of baseball, no less those of the Red Sox, will appreciate. Many of the day's brightest stars are mentioned, and it hearkens back to a day when to play baseball was a privledge, not a job. ..and while the 1918 Red Sox were a dysfunctional lot, they played the game hard, and loved what they did. The book, cartoons, and stories from the writers clearly show this. Baseball today can learn more than a thing or 2 from the 1918 Red Sox and baseball of that era. A delightful and informative read.

Great reading !! The book takes you back to that glorious Sox summer of 1918, and as ALL Sox fans are aware of, the last World Championship season. It chronicles the entire season from start to finish. You can also see how the writing style of the sportswriters was quite different than it is nowadays. Also captured in the book are various cartoon illustrations that are no longer a part of the current day sports page, but quite popular back then. This book should be must reading for all Sox fans.

Reviewed by Nick Gauvin (age 12) for Reader Views (8/07)

It's the year 2024, 20 years since your favorite baseball team (the Boston Red Sox) won the World Series, and you and your friends are worried that the 86-year Curse has once again settled on the Red Sox. So during the summer you and your friends (Peter "capisce" Capiscio, Joe "lights" and Paul "paulie" Beacon and you, Jerry "tags" Taglia) come up with a crazy plan to steal it for them. The Plan includes a new system of umpping called the "Cleanerama" which is controlled by cameras and sensors around and on the field called "the Brain," your dad who is a button salesman, a cannibal who lives in the sewer, and a hot dog.

Now let me tell you more about the characters. Capisce is twice the size of everyone else and is stronger than the rest. Lights is the fastest of all of them and is twins with paulie. Tags' dad is a button salesman and one day buys him a Louie Cardinale series glove (and by the way, he's his idol) and tells him to rub baby oil on it to help it squeeze easier. Then, about two weeks later, he and his friends get together and his friends are shocked by the glove. By that time, it is the second half of the season and the red sox are ten games ahead of everyone else and they think that even the Red Sox can't lose this lead.

Overall, I think that "The Year They Won" is an excellent book for anyone who likes baseball. Great job, Gerard Purciello!

This is a lively and fun book about four friends (Jerry "Tags" Taglia, Peter "Capisce" Capiscio, Paul "Paulie" Beacon, and Paul's twin brother, Joe "Lights" Beacon) and the Boston Red Sox. The friends come up with a wild plan to steal the World Series of 2024 for the Sox, who haven't won the Series in twenty years. They spend their whole summer working on the Plan, but the Plan goes hilariously wrong! (Turns out that the boys are brave enough to face the cannibal in the sewer, but they're no match for an elderly security guard.)

What do a robotic umpire, the "Cleanerama," a button salesman, and the "World's Best Sausage" have in common? Not much, but they all come into play in this wacky and entertaining novel about buddies, baseball, and the Boston Red Sox. (Did I mention the cannibal in the sewer?)

One might describe this book as a wonderful Sox adventure. Gerard Purciello is an amazing author. I would read other books by Mr. Purciello. (However, the language could have been chosen more wisely for the displayed age group.) All and all, I loved THE YEAR THEY WON. It's a great book, not only for Red Sox fans, but for all baseball fans'well, maybe not Yankee fans (just kidding)!

By a Flamingnet Book Reviewer for www.flamingnet.com

This book took me back to my summer vacations and hanging out with the kids in the neighborhood. Summer vacation...We never wanted it to end...And this book has magically captured those childhood days.
It is just terrific!
I should also mention, that my son, a very reluctant reader loved it. As a parent in search of books for a young boy (he's 11) who doesn't like to read, I found The Year They Won to be a real winner!

I knew I was going to like this book after just a couple of pages. The characters reminded me of my own childhood friends and the fun we had playing stickball and impersonating our heroes. The story was very creative (I was getting tired of reading recaps of the 2004 Red Sox season - this isn't one of them) and makes you want to grab your son or dad and go watch a game.

Can't wait to read more books by Purciello.

This book made me want to spend all day playing with my friends again and dreaming up outrageous schemes. It made me want to lie in the grass and listen to cicadas in the trees, and bats cracking on balls.

Chock full of funny characters and scary chases through dark tunnels! Exciting behind the scenes glimpses at a Fenway Park we only dream about.
Made me smell the hot dogs. A kids book that grown-ups will love.