Review of "Minnesota's 50 Greatest Baseball Players"

Being a Minnesota Twins fan, I was very interested in this book to see who the author considered to be the greatest player on the team in their 59 year history.  However, this short book was more than just a listing of the best Twins - any player who spent time in the Gopher State was eligible and it made for a good read.  Here is my review of this book

Title/Author:

“Minnesota's 50 Greatest Baseball Player” by Jonathan Sweet

Tags:

Baseball, professional, minor leagues, Twins

Publish date:

May 2, 2019

Length:

186 pages

Rating: to

4 of 5 stars (good)

Review:

One might be surprised to realize how many great baseball players have plied their trade in Minnesota. In this quick-to-read book by Jonathan Sweet, readers will learn a little bit about 50 players, many of whom are enshrined in the baseball Hall of Fame, who spent some time in Minnesota. This can be with the major league Minnesota Twins or one of the minor league teams that called a Minnesota city its home. These include the Minneapolis Millers, the St. Paul Saints, and the St. Cloud Rox.

It should be noted that Sweet wisely did not rank these players from 1-50. Instead he listed them in alphabetical order. And what a list this turned out to be! It didn’t matter how long a player played in Minnesota or how well he performed while in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.  All that mattered was that the player put on the uniform of a Minnesota team.

Some of those players spent their entire careers in Minnesota with the Twins - Kirby Puckett and Joe Maurer for example. A few were in a Twins jersey for only a short time - Steve Carlton is a good example. Carlton was also one example of a player who made Sweet’s list by not performing well in Minnesota but excelling elsewhere.

As for outstanding players who spent time with minor league teams in Minnesota, Sweet include not only the well known stories about players with the Millers or Saints like Ted Williams and Willie Mays, but also other Hall of Fame players whose time in Minnesota was not as well known. Just for starters, before reading this book, I did not realize that Lou Brock, Roy Campanella, Ray Dandridge, Hoyt Wilhelmina and Orlando Cepeda all played in Minnesota. Just to learn about these Hall of Fame players’ time in the state made the book a worthwhile read.

While readers will get only snippets about these men in each chapter, they are filled with information about their time on a Minnesota diamond as well as their career accomplishments. Any reader who has an interest in Minnesota baseball will want to read this book.

I wish to thank Brick Pickle Media for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.    

                                                                   

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Minnesotas-50-Greatest-Baseball-Players/dp/1095694359/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=