Review of “The Big Loosh”

After a short respite from reading sports books as I concentrated on other topics, it’s back to sports. To start this resumption, I read this interesting biography on umpire Ron Luciano. Here is my review of “The Big Loosh”.

Title/Author:

“The Big Loosh: The Unruly Life of Umpire Ron Luciano” by Jim Leeke

Rating: 

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:  

There is an old adage in baseball that the better umpires do their job, the less that they are noticed. That was not the case for Ron Luciano, an American League umpire in the 1970’s. His journey to become one of the most recognizable umpires of that time is captured in this book by Jim Leeke.

Most notable about Luciano’s early life is that baseball was not his first choice for sports. He was an excellent lineman on both sides of the ball for Syracuse University. He played in the 1959 College All-Star game when that game existed and was a second round draft choice of the Detroit Lions. He eventually landed with the Buffalo Bills in the AFL but appeared in only two games as his time in pro football was plagued with injuries. This was where I felt the book was excellent, with Leeke explaining in good detail how Luciano was really a football player at heart. It was also explained that it was here where Luciano was an excellent storyteller (the truth of these stories was often in question). The story of how Hall of Famer “Big Daddy” Lipscomb contributed to Luciano’s injuries is told wonderfully here.

After his football career ended, Luciano decided to enroll in umpire school and did very well, leading to his assignment in the minor leagues with an eventual call-up to MLB in 1969. Much like players, umpires that make it to The Show have an interesting adventure to get there, and Leeke describes that path for Luciano quite well.

While in the regular rotation for American League umpires, Luciano would often provide fans with a little entertainment, such as making a shooting motion to call a runner out at first base.  This drew a mixed reaction from fans, players, managers and the media. Luciano loved hearing from those who liked it, ignored the critics and also became an umpire who was generally considered one of the better umpires in the American League.

Leeke covers as much ground as he can on that topic and also on Luciano’s career as an author after his time as an umpire was done. After a brief time as a baseball broadcaster for NBC, Luciano had a best selling memoir, The Umpire Strikes Back. He also wrote a sequel to this about other umpires, Strike Two, which didn’t do as well plus two other books. Here, Leeke covers more ground on how well or not well the books did than Luciano’s life. 

Finally, the book has a short section on Luciano’s final years, ending tragically with his suicide by running his car in a locked garage at age 57. Here, there isn’t much material and it felt like the ending of this book came on too suddenly. In fairness to the author, Leeke did state that when he was attempting to learn more about the circumstances of Luciano’s suicide, friends and family did not want to discuss that. Despite this ending, if a reader either wants to learn more about this colorful umpire, it is a fairly short and quick read that is packed with good stories about him.

I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing  a copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own. 

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Loosh-Unruly-Umpire-Luciano/dp/1496237668/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0