Friday, April 15, 2022

Review of "Walter Johnson"

 As a Minnesota Twins fan, I am also very interested in books about their time as the Washington Senators. Since the best pitcher in franchise history played during that time, I was very interested in this biography of Walter Johnson and it was terrific.  Here is my review:


Title/Author: “Walter Johnson: Baseball’s Big Train” by Henry W. Thomas, narrated by Ian Esmo

Rating:  5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:  At the time of his retirement in 1927, Walter Johnson was considered by some to be the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball to that point.  Today, nearly 100 years later, he is still considered to be an all-time great despite pitching for mostly losing teams in Washington.  Henry Thomas' biography of Johnson can be considered to be in that same lofty conversation - nearly 25 years after its publication, it should still be considered among the better baseball biographies. 

Every aspect of Johnson's life is covered in great detail and will never come across as "ordinary" or one that a reader will want to skim or skip entirely.  Thomas writes with as much passion about Johnson the man as he does about Johnson the pitcher.  Johnson's childhood and life after baseball was mainly on the farm and he enjoyed that lifestyle - it is said often how much he enjoyed being outdoors.  He was also a very devoted family man to his children and his wife Hazel and he received a lot of praise for his clean living.

That praise was matched by the accolades he received for his pitching as despite pitching for a mostly poor Washington Senators team, Johnson was able to accumulate 417 wins, 3509 strikeouts and an ERA+ of an astounding 147 (100 is considered an average major league pitcher).  While most of his time with the losing Senators is written in mostly positive terms in this book, Thomas' best baseball writing in the book coincides with the two best seasons for the Senators during the Big Train's career when the Nationals (which is the name used for Washington most of the time during that era and is used by Thomas) won the World Series over the New York Giants in 1924 and came within an inning of defending that title against the Pittsburgh Pirates the next year.  Even though Johnson was clearly on the downhill side of his career, it was also very clear he was first in agony in the 1924 World Series when he lost the first game but elated when he came in and pitched game 7 in relief and was the winning pitcher.  This part of the book is the perfect example of how good the writing is throughout. 

The narration in the audio version by Ian Esmo is just as good as the writing as he not only makes the play-by-play sections very exciting but a listener will enjoy the many stories and articles sprinkled in the text by some of the better sportswriters of the time such as Grantland Rice and Damon Runyan.  For this reviewer, it enhanced the writing about Johnson as well.  But whether one wants to read or listen, any baseball fan who wants to learn more about this legendary pitcher should add this to their collection

Link:  Amazon.com: Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train: 9780964543904: Henry W. Thomas, Shirley Povich: Books

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