Review of "Schoolboy"

Even though I read a lot about baseball in the early and mid 20th century, I had never heard of Waite "Schoolboy" Hoyt until obtaining this book.  Learned a lot about his life and some about his baseball career.

Title/Author:

“Schoolboy: The Untold Journey of a Yankees Hero” by Waite Hoyt with Tim Manners

Rating: 

3 of 5 stars (Okay)

Review: This is a unique memoir in that the subject of the book died before the book was actually assembled.  Tim Manners took many clippings and notes from former major league pitcher Waite Hoyt and put them together in a manner that reads like a memoir by Hoyt.  Manners deserves a lot of credit for pulling off this project as it does describe Hoyt’s life completely in the first-person narrative.

Maybe it is because of this formatting that while the book mostly describes Hoyt’s life in chronological order, I found it a slog to get through the pages.  Knowing that Hoyt was an important member of one of the greatest baseball teams in history, the 1927 New York Yankees, I expected more about his baseball career and that team.  The parts that do describe any part of his time with that team are mostly about his interactions with teammates, especially Babe Ruth.  However, one of the more interesting parts of the entire book did involve a member of that team, but well after both men had left the Yankees.  When Hoyt was trying to get back into baseball shape one winter, he decided to do so at a local skating rink.  Who did he see at the rink who was also skating as part of his conditioning?  None other than Lou Gehrig!

The encounter with Gehrig, which covers an entire chapter, is an example of how the book reads – some baseball, but mostly topics that are important to Hoyt’s life but are not really part of the game.  There are very interesting events that would not have occurred in Hoyt’s life had he not been a ball player such as meeting Al Capone, but if one is looking for a book on Hoyt’s baseball career, this doesn’t delve into that very deeply.  That is surprising for a memoir, and at times the book does feel tedious to read, but it still deserves some praise just for putting together Hoyt’s complete story.

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

Link: Amazon.com: Schoolboy: The Untold Journey of a Yankees Hero: 9781496236791: Hoyt, Waite, Manners, Tim, Costas, Bob: Books