Hack Wilson Books

I read a lot of baseball biographies, and one of the worst things is reading player propaganda. It seems that hero worshipping infects far too many endeavors in the baseball arena, including biogaphies. Refreshingly, this book on Hack Wilson does not hero worship. It is a serious thorough accounting evidently based on plenty of research. It covers Wilson's rise and fall, from cradle to grave, with warts and heroics, and all. Prior attempts on Wilson's life never gave an adequate accounting of his life otuside baseball. The one thing that would have helped this book is any surviving members of the Wilson clan. That's no fault of Parker, who writes in an engaging, almost poetic, manner about this fascinating character out of Baseball's Roaring 20s. I hope to read more of his work!

I found this to be a very well written and very interesting book. Clifton Blue Parker has done an excellent and very thorough and complete research of a rather difficult subject, and pulled off a solid read from start to finish. Clifton Parker is correct in one of his assessments late in this book...People are forgetting Hack Wilson. Here today and gone tomorrow aptly applies to the career and life of Hack Wilson. That is sad indeed. Hack Wilson was a character of the game both on and off the field. What Mr. Parker has done is preserve a life, career and very important lesson in life in his book.

Clifton Parker puts Wilson's 191 RBI's into perspective and does not candy coat it. He backs it up with reasonable assumptions and hard facts. A tragic figure is Wilson, and Mr. Parker portrays him accordingly. Interesting how some of today's so-called athletes and heros are really no different than Wilson...

I consider this a must read for anyone that loves baseball history. This is as good a read as you will find. An interesting subject and an equally interesting read.

Clifton Blue Parker had a great subject in Hack Wilson but Parker fouled out with his writing.
Parker took a interesting ballplayer and turned him into a bore. His chapter "Hacking Toward Immortality" was written like it was taken out of a daily newspaper. To many mundane accounts of each and every RBI. It would have been nice to also have a little more info on his second wife in the years after Hack died.
It took me weeks to finish this book. I couldn't believe I spent so much money on this bio. I will not buy anything else from Clifton Blue Parker. I think he is a overrated writer.

This book is full of lively anecdotes written in a thoroughly illuminating and informative manner. Learning about the highs and lows of Hack Wilson - one of baseball's biggest enigmas -- was a rollercoaster ride of fun. Heartily recommend it.

The author makes a diligint effort in telling baseball fans the accomplishments and lifestyle of Hack Wilson, one of baseballs most over looked Hall of Famers. The author does an excellent job tying in the roar 20's and the city of Chicago into the book. Wilson's best years were spent in Chicago at Wrigley Feild with the Cubs. All the accomplishments and downfalls of Wilson are noted. What the author does leave the reader wondering is first who exactly is this complicated yet modest man, which may be of no fault of his own. Second, the author fails to describe why the small West Virginia town of Martinsburg was so important to a man who was a star in the "Second City".