Review of “Pinch Hitting”

This is the second of the two books I finished over a rainy week - a very good baseball novel that was a Casey Award finalist. Here is my review of “Pinch Hitting”

Title/Author: “Pinch Hitting” by Morris Hoffman

Rating: 4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review: It isn’t often a fictional baseball story will intertwine with a story of a loving couple in which the end is near for one of them, but this is the premise of this novel by Morris Hoffman. 

The baseball story is about Harold Fungo, a janitor who is a slow runner, has false teeth due to tooth loss in his youth and has trouble with socializing with others. But he has a gift of being able to hit a baseball no matter where it is pitched. He plays for the local minor league team which is the AA affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. They eventually call Harold up to the major leagues.

Joe Skelton is a humble man who has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. He talks about a fictional baseball player and this story is dutifully written by his wife Katherine. That player is…Harold Fungo. That is how Joe’s and Harold’s stories are connected.

The writing by Hoffman for both stories is very good and he develops these three characters quite well. Even though the connection is made early, I still had some issues trying to keep the stories straight. At least by the end of the book, a reader will realize how the poignant stories of both men will be something that will stick with them for a long time. 

I wish to thank Black Rose Writing for providing a copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own. 

Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CW1DXQ3F/ref=x_gr_bb_kindle?caller=Goodreads&tag=x_gr_bb_kindle-20 

Review of "Mike Donlin"

As we wrap up 2024, there were a couple more books I wanted to get to before starting a new TBR list for 2025 and this one was on that list.  It is a Casey Award finalist (trying to read all of them as well) and it would be worthy of the award should it be selected as the winner.  Here is my review of "Mike Donlin."

Title/Author:

“Mike Donlin: A Rough and Rowdy Life From New York Baseball Idol to Stage and Screen” by Steve Steinberg and Lyle Spatz

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:

Very few people can claim that they left a job or profession in which they excelled for a person they love, then have a new career along with that love that will be just as good and even more profitable.  In the early 20^th century, Mike Donlin had this opportunity and he made good on both careers – baseball and acting.  His story is told in this excellent book by Steve Steinberg and Lyle Spatz.

After briefly describing Donlin’s early life, the authors get into his baseball career early in the book.  Donlin’s first professional games were in the California League in 1897, which soon led him to the major leagues. He started in the majors with the St. Louis Statistics in 1897, but he really blossomed as a player when he joined the Baltimore Orioles in the newly formed American League in 1901 under manager John McGraw.  The professional relationship between Donlin and McGraw lasted a long time, including when McGraw went to the New York Giants and Donlin joined him after a two and a half year stint with the Cincinnati Reds. While he was productive with the Reds, he was a better ball player with the Giants and the authors do a wonderful job of illustrating how much McGraw’s influence had on Donlin on the field.

Off the field, however, Donlin had many issues with drinking and carousing.  This also affected his temper on the field, as he was often ejected for arguing with officials.  However, this all changed once he met Mabel Hite, a vaudeville performer.  Not only did Donlin court and marry Mabel, but he also decided to try his hand in vaudeville with her.  His fame as a baseball player helped attract people to the shows and one could say he got the “acting bug” as he would often use his work on stage as a negotiating ploy to obtain a higher baseball salary.

One tidbit that should be noted is that the authors make an interesting comparison to the life of a baseball player to that of a vaudeville performer. Both occupations required the perfomers to often travel – baseball players for road games, vaudeville performers to various venues.  At that time, unlike today, baseball players did not stay in fancy hotels or eat the best meals, and vaudeville performers had a similar lifestyle.

Nonetheless, Donlin continued to perform in both areas until his beloved Mabel died in 1912 from a long-term illness.  Losing his love at such a young age crushed his spirit, but he eventually was able to return to the baseball field for a couple years although his performance was slipping mainly due to old age.  He eventually remarried and enjoyed a good career in acting, both on stage and eventually in motion pictures as well. 

 Every aspect of Donlin’s life – the baseball, the stage performances, his appearance in motion pictures, his love for Mabel and his marriage to his second wife Rita – they are all well written, well researched and enjoyable to read.  The book is lengthy and there are many details in all of these areas that require the reader to read carefully and not skim in order to understand the full life of Mike Donlin. This book was well worth the time and effort as one will learn much about both baseball and stage performing in the early 20^th century.

 Link: Amazon.com: Mike Donlin: A Rough and Rowdy Life from New York Baseball Idol to Stage and Screen: 9781496238962: Steinberg, Steve, Spatz, Lyle: Books

 

Review of "Charlie Hustle"

Sometimes it's hard to find a book that is fair and complete when it is about a controversial person or event, but this book on Pete Rose fits that perfectly.  Here is my review of "Charlie Hustle." 

Title/Author:

“Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose and the Last Glory Days of Baseball” by Keith O’Brien

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:  Pete Rose is one of the most polarizing figures in baseball history.  Even people who have never followed the game but know about him through the news about his gambling, conviction on tax evasion and his banishment from baseball will have an opinion on him.  Whatever one’s opinion is about Rose, it is unlikely to change, even after reading this excellent biography of Rose by Keith O’Brien.

Before getting to all the excellent aspects of the book, I will the two criticisms I have out of the way.  One is a passage about how baseball changed, for the worse in O’Brien’s view, during the steroid era after Rose was banished from the game in 1989.  That fits the subtitle of this book and is an opinion held by many but it just felt out of place – not only where it was placed in the book but by being included at all.  Rose was never believed to use steroids so why is that included in a book on him?

The other detail that was a negative is that in later passages, when mentioning the number of children Rose had, it always stated four – the four he had with his two wives.  There was another daughter who Rose fathered with one of his mistresses, but aside from when she was little, she is ignored and forgotten the rest of the book.  For the record, Pete Rose fathered five children, not four.

With that out of the way, time to talk about all of the good things about this book and there are plenty.  The first is that O’Brien was able to get many quotes, stories and pieces of information from Rose himself.  For a such a controversial figure, it was remarkable that the author was able to glean this much from Rose and it made for more authenticity. Now, whether one believes that Rose is lying, as he did in many of his public statements about his gambling, that doesn’t really matter as the reader will be getting the story from the person himself.

About that gambling – the detail with which O’Brien writes about Rose’s betting is what truly shines in this book.  As many know, Rose gambled on more than just baseball.  It was interesting to read about Rose’s “triple header” days in Florida during spring training.  After the games, he would often head to the dog races, the horse races and the jai alai centers for placing bets. This would often take place with some characters who were less than desirable.  This became known to many who befriended Rose through baseball and they had concerns.  Teammates, managers and front office personnel alike all had questions about Rose’s acquaintances, but because of his success on the field, this wasn’t an issue for awhile.

That is until the FBI and the Department of Justice started investigating some of those acquaintances such as Tommy Gioiosa and Ron Peters.  The latter’s testimony to the agents working for these agencies was the most damaging and O’Brien brings their stories to life in riveting pages.  The same goes for the investigation by John Dowd for Major League Baseball and his report.  The reader will think that they are right there in the room with Dowd and the baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti when reading about this investigation and the banishment of Rose from the game.

These are just a few of the excellent topics covered in this book.  I haven’t even mentioned anything about O’Brien’s writing about Rose’s accomplishments on the field.  The beginning of the book that describes the night when Rose became the all-time leader in hits will give you an idea of how he covers that aspect of Rose as well – which is excellent.

 No matter how one feels about Rose as a person or whether or not he belongs in the baseball Hall of Fame, one who cares at all about him or baseball should read this book.  It deals with a very controversial baseball figure fairly and leaves the reader to make the final judgement for themselves.

 I was provided a review copy via NetGalley and the opinions expressed are strictly my own.

 Link: Amazon.com: Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball: 9780593317372: O'Brien, Keith: Books

 

Review of "Red Barber"

Train rides to the ballpark, in this case Citi Field, often result in plenty of reading time for baseball books.  That was the case for this one as I finally had the time needed to fully immerse myself in the book as it requires careful reading but is worth the time to do so.  Here is my review of "Red Barber"

Title/Author: “Red Barber: The Life and Legacy of a Broadcast Legend” by Judith Hiltner and James Walker

Rating: 5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:  In the 1940’s and 1950’s when baseball was at the height of its popularity in New York City, people associated with the city’s three teams were celebrated as much as anyone else.  Red Barber, who was the play-by-play commentator for the Brooklyn Dodgers through a good portion of this “Golden Age” of New York baseball, was one of those people. He not only had a good career in broadcasting, but he also had an interesting life outside baseball and his complete biography has been written by Judith Hiltner and James Walker.

No matter what part of Barber’s life interests a reader, painstaking detail went into writing about what shaped Barber into the person that he would become during that time. It starts with his upbringing in the southern United States.  Born in Columbus, Mississippi and later moving to Sanford, Florida, Barber saw how Black people were held to different standards than white people and it would later shape his professional career when Jackie Robinson became the first Black player in modern Major League Baseball. 

From his upbringing, the book shifts to his broadcasting career and the values that he brought to the broadcasting booth.  Barber always felt that he was more of a reporter whose objective was to tell the listeners what was happening on the field more than anything else. This was his style whether he was doing work for the Cincinnati Reds, his first job with a Major League Club, the Dodgers, or later for the New York Yankees.  His ending with the latter two teams were both painful and he was not happy with the ownership teams at the time of his departure. 

Through it all, the book reads very well as the reader will learn much about Barber the broadcaster.  One of the better sections on this time in his life was how his catchphrase “sitting in the catbird seat.”  The book also talks about what he did to promote not only baseball, but other worthy endeavors.  Blood donation during World War II was a passionate cause for Barber – just one of many examples of how the authors brought the complete picture of Barber into view for readers.

This is also true for Barber’s life outside of baseball, whether his personal life or his other endeavors.  The latter included shows on National Public Radio (NPR) and writing books, most notably on the thrilling 1947 World Series.  The former takes a very detailed look at not only his long marriage to his wife Lylah, but also how he and Lylah reacted when their only child, Sarah, came out as gay.  Again, just two examples of the painstaking detail and complete research that the authors of this book did to give the reader one of the best looks into the life of one of the most legendary baseball broadcasters.

Barber’s full name was Walter Lanier Barber and the start of the prologue of the book is a great way to summarize the scope of the book, this review and Red’s life.  There are “three consistent threads of Barber’s personality with his name:  Walter, the ambitious achiever; Lanier, the humanist; and Red, the lively performer.”

I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Links:  Red Barber: The Life and Legacy of a Broadcasting Legend: Hiltner, Judith R., Walker, James R.: 9781496222855: Amazon.com: Books

Review of "Cobra"

As typically happens every April, I lag somewhat on my reading when baseball season starts as I watch many of the early games before settling into a routine.  So, when I did find time to read, it was only appropriate to make it a baseball book - the new memoir by Dave Parker.  Here is my review of "Cobra"

 

Title/Author:

"Cobra: A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood" by Dave Parker with Dave Jordan

Tags:

Baseball, memoir, professional, Pirates, Reds

Publish date:

April 1, 2021

Length:

480 pages

Rating:

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

Dave Parker was a hitter many pitchers feared in the 1970s when he was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  He and his teammates, most notably Willie Stargell, became known as the "We Are Family" team in 1979 when the Sister Sledge song would be playing while the Pirates were on their way to a World Series title. He has now written a memoir sharing his memories of that team and his baseball career with David Jordan.

Baseball wasn't the only sport Parker excelled in.  A Cincinnati native, he had dreams of attending Ohio State University on a football scholarship and he may have done so had he not suffered a knee injury in high school.  While that limited his effectiveness on the gridiron, he still excelled on the diamond and as a result, signed with the Pirates as a teenager.

His climb through the minor leagues, his eventual call-up to the Pirates and later his performance with Pittsburgh is filled with entertaining stories.  The reader will have a challenge on their hands keeping up with all the nicknames that Parker had for all his teammates – I often had to look back to see who was named what name.  The book does touch on racial issues, but not overtly so.  The most that he mentions this is when he was receiving death threats before the 1979 All-Star game – the game in which he produced what is most likely the moment every fan who saw it remembers.  It did not come at the plate, but in right field when he threw out Brian Downing at home plate, keeping the game tied at that time and giving his National League teammates a chance to win the game, which they did.

There are also sections about his cocaine use – subtle at first during the peak of his playing career.  He talks about that, the later trial of a Pittsburgh cocaine dealer that rocked the baseball world and also some of his time with other teams, most notably his hometown Cincinnati Reds, where he was still productive, even leading the league in runs batted in during the 1985 season.  However, just sections on his time with the Pirates is what makes the book a very good read and those who are Pirates fans or remember Parker from that era of baseball will want to pick this book up.

I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Cobra-Baseball-Brotherhood-Dave-Parker-ebook/dp/B08MQ5W6T9/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Review of "Tom Seaver and Me"

I decided to pick up this short book while in the middle of two fairly long books (reviews to come soon) just to get a break from them.  It was a productive break from the longer volumes as this one told stories about Tom Seaver that I had never heard before.  Here is my review of "Tom Seaver and Me."

Title/Author:

"Tom Seaver and Me" by Pat Jordan

Tags:

Baseball, memoir, professional, Mets, Reds, White Sox

Publish date:

May 26, 2020

Length:

192 pages

Rating:

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

This friendship between a Hall of Fame pitcher and a well-known sportswriter could fall under two categories. One could say that opposites attract, since Tom Seaver was one of the very best pitchers in the history of baseball while Pat Jordan was a "bonus baby" pitcher of the late 1950's who ended up washing out in the Milwaukee Braves farm system. Or, one could view the friendship between the two men as one of mutual respect for what each of them did in their chosen professions.  Either way, a reader is sure to enjoy this work documenting a friendship that lasted over four decades.

The book is broken into chapters titled with the year that Jordan writes about specific interactions with Seaver. They cover various topics like a pickup basketball between them in 1971, a neat story about Jordan asking Seaver for an autograph because Jordan's grandson found out his grandfather knew a "baseball player", and later on, Seaver's small vineyard that was a successful business for him.  There is baseball talk in the book as well, as one might expect, and it was mostly about Seaver but the reader learns a little about Jordan's pitching as well.  This makes for probably the funniest aspect of the book as Jordan repeatedly tells Seaver throughout the years that his fastball was faster than Seaver's.  Seaver takes this good naturedly, especially when he sees Jordan is not interested in the finer points of growing the perfect grapes for wine.

Even though the book is very short and has a large time gap from the 1980's to 2013, it is notable for covering most of the highlights of Seaver's career.  There isn't much about his 1969 season, which makes sense when the bond between them started in the 1970's but a reader will still learn about Seaver's outstanding years with the New York Mets, his stunning trade to the Cincinnati Reds in 1977 and the blunder that the Mets did when they obtained him again, only to let him be claimed by the Chicago White Sox in 1984, with whom he won his 300^th game.  While the baseball sections are very good, the book's main strength is in the later years when Jordan writes about Seaver's diminishing capabilities due to Lyme disease and later dementia with some melancholy prose.  While it is sad to see the decline of Seaver, Jordan is able to banter with the great pitcher in those years and makes for good reading as well – both the happy and the sad.

Any fan of Tom Seaver or the Mets will enjoy this book, especially with Seaver's recent passing as it tells a side of him that many may not know about and it would take a special friend to tell those stories.  Pat Jordan fits that category and does a terrific job of sharing his bond with the man whose fastball was slower than his.

Book Format Read:

E-book (Hardcover)

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Seaver-Me-Pat-Jordan-ebook/dp/B086H5YK7N/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1614452721&sr=8-1

Review of "Pennant Race"

For baseball fans like me, tomorrow will be somber as it was supposed to be opening day for the 2020 season.  But for now, we will have to be satisfied with replays of games and books.  For a good read on baseball in a different era, Jim Brosnan wrote two books about the game in the late 50's and early 60's.  This is the second of those books and it was a fun read.  Here is my review of "Pennant Race"

Title/Author:

“Pennant Race: The Classic Game by Game Account of a Championship Season 1961” by Jim Brosnan

Tags:

Baseball, professional, history, Reds, diary, classic

Publish date:

March 15, 2016 (e-book.  Original Publication Date: 1962)

Length:

272 pages

Rating: to

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

Sometimes it's best to read a book that is strictly about baseball and nothing but baseball.  For those times, this classic book by Jim Brosnan is just right.  Brosnan was a relief pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds in 1961 and this is his diary of events through the regular season, one in which the Reds won the National League pennant.  

The book is a good reflection of baseball players and their day-to-day work life during the season, especially for relief pitchers.  At the time, these pitchers were the ones who weren't quite good enough to be in the starting rotation, but nonetheless their clubs and managers wanted to have them ready to pitch. Since these were the days when starters would work as many innings as possible, that left a lot of idle time for the relievers to swap stories and jokes with each other and, depending on the ballpark, fans as well.

These stories are told by Brosnan with very dry humor which will make the reader chuckle frequently throughout the book.  Some of the stories will contain names very familiar to fans of baseball in the 1960's such as Frank Robinson and Vada Pinson. Some of the best lines in the book come when Brosnan shares words about the curmudgeonly manager of the Reds that season, Fred Hutchinson.  Whether it is when Hutchinson is making a pitching change to either bring Brosnan in or taking him out or if it is about one of his clubhouse talks, those pieces were very entertaining.

While Brosnan talks about life as a ballplayer in the bullpen and on the road, it is not full of the controversial or shocking (for the time) aspects that "Ball Four" would contain eight years later.  Instead, this book is more like a diary with stories and accounts of Reds games in a season that became one for the ages as Cincinnati was the surprise winner of the 1961 National League Pennant.  It is a bit of a let down that the World Series was not included in the book, but this is still a very good account of a season and a team that is a reflection of the sport before multi-million dollar contracts and constant media exposure.  It's a good book for a reader who just needs a baseball fix.

                                                                  

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Pennant-Race-Classic-Account-Championship-ebook/dp/B013CCTJUE/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Review of "Davey Johnson"

This book was one in which I thought I knew a lot about the subject matter, but it turned out I knew very little.  Oh, sure, I knew Davey Johnson was the manager of the 1986 Mets, that he had a very good playing career with the Orioles, Braves and Philles and that he managed three other teams - in each case taking them from losing records to division championships.  But a lot of the other information gleaned in this memoir - it was all new to me.  Here is my review of "Davey Johnson"

Title/Author:

”Davey Johnson: My Wild Ride in Baseball and Beyond” by Davey Johnson with Erik Sherman

Tags:

Baseball, professional, memoir, Orioles, Mets, Phillies Reds, Nationals

Publish date:

May 15, 2018

Length:

384 pages

Rating: 

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

Having found success as both a player and a manager, it is no surprise that Davey Johnson wanted to share his baseball experiences in a memoir.  What was surprising about this book written with Erik Sherman is that Johnson was using sabermetrics long before computers were used widely, before Bill James published his books and well before the current use of advanced statistics done by every team today.

That is only one of the several surprises in store for the reader of this book. Johnson states in the book that when he was playing second base for the Baltimore Orioles, he created a report of all possible lineups for the Orioles in 1969, writing punch cards and inputting data from the 1968 season.  Johnson did this for a computer class he was taking at Johns Hopkins university. This would certainly aid him later on when he became a manager.

Here’s another surprise in the book, at least for me. While Johnson isn’t unique in his belief that the best managers are those who “handle the bullpen and the bench because that’s the deal”, this statement took me by surprise because every team he managed, from the Mets during their championship season in 1986 to the Reds and Orioles in the mid 1990’s and later the Washington Nationals, his teams usually had stronger starting pitching and were loaded with offensive stars.  Knowing that he felt that managing the bench and bullpen made the difference took me by surprise, even though it makes sense.

One other surprise, again at least to this reader although some others may already know this, was Johnson’s viewpoint that some of the rule changes or proposals such as instant reply challenges, robots calling balls and strikes, or the new rules for sliding into second base, are bad for the game.  He believes that these make the sport “not even the game of baseball anymore. It’s terrible.”  Johnson is far from the only baseball person who believes this, but it was information I learned from this book.

There are many other tidbits of information throughout the book that may be new to readers. Some are serious, some are humorous, but all of them contribute to the overall picture Johnson wants to paint of his time in baseball.  One of them that I have never heard before was that Hall of Fame Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer had the nickname “Cakes” given to him by Orioles teammates because he always ate pancakes on the days he pitched. Of course, Johnson added that “Cakes” also got under the skin of teammates as well, something that wasn’t as obscure as the nickname.

The part of his career that gets the most pages in the book is his time managing the New York Mets and their 1986 championship season. This part was another viewpoint of that team and some of the incidents and highlights of that team and that year. I found his reflections on the seasons AFTER 1986 and the actions of the Mets front office more interesting, especially when a popular topic that is still talked about today is why that team didn’t win more titles.

This isn’t to say that the rest of Johnson’s career, both as a player and as a manger, isn’t discussed thoroughly – in fact, I enjoyed his discussion about his playing days with the Orioles and the Atlanta Braves as it was very interesting to me.  It is often forgotten that he set the record for most home runs by a second baseman when he was playing with the Braves in 1973. He also talks about the night Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s record, as he was the hitter in the hole when Aaron hit the historic blast.

While this baseball memoir does read like many others, it was a good read for me as it was full of information about Johnson that I did not know, especially when the topics were when he was managing teams other than the Mets. I would recommend this book for most baseball fans as there is a lot of ground covered and it is sprinkled with humor throughout. 

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079J6Q573/ref=x_gr_w_glide_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_glide_bb-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B079J6Q573&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/davey-johnson-davey-johnson/1127073134;jsessionid=911538211DEE997616C9D88181C834EE.prodny_store01-atgap03?ean=9781629374116&st=AFF&2sid=Goodreads,%20Inc_2227948_NA&sourceId=AFFGoodreads,%20Inc#/

Review of "Leo Durocher"

Leo Durocher is a name that many people will recognize, even if they are not baseball fans.  He was a colorful and controversial character and this book is a very complete biography of the man both on and off the field.  Here is my review of "Leo Durocher: Baseball's Prodigal Son"

Title/Author:

“Leo Durocher : Baseball’s Prodigal Son” by Paul Dickson, read by Barry Abrams

Tags:

Baseball, professional, biography, Yankees, Dodgers, Reds, Cubs, Giants, Astros, audio book

Publish date:

April 4, 2017

Length:

304 pages

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (outstanding)

Review:

One of the most colorful characters to don a baseball uniform, Leo Durocher had his share of unusual stories as both a player and a manager. Controversy seemed to follow him from the Bronx to Cincinnati to Brooklyn to Manhattan to Chicago and then to Houston.  But through it all, he also gained admiration both as a defensive player and an intelligent, gutsy manager. 

Author Paul Dickson tells many of these tales about Durocher, both on and off the field, in an even-handed balanced manner.  While Durocher had his admirers, he also had many enemies. The one person who seemed to have the biggest grudge against him was the second commissioner of baseball, Happy Chandler, who suspended Durocher for the entire 1947 season when he was managing the Brooklyn Dodgers. The evidence that was presented to Chandler was the type that would not hold up in a court of law and Dickson also mentions a letter from a prominent public figure who was Catholic and demanded the suspension because of Durocher’s courting and subsequent marriage of actress Larraine Day, who was married at the time they started seeing each other.

While that was the story that seemed to affect Durocher’s career the most (even to the point of keeping him out of the Hall of Fame until he passed away as Chandler had sway with the Veterans Committer) there is plenty more written about Durocher. The allegation that he stole Babe Ruth’s watch when the two were teammates on the Yankees, the allegation of stealing signals for the Giants that allowed Bobby Thompson to hit the home run that won the 1951 National League pennant for the Giants (something everyone on the field for both teams denies) and his poor treatment of future Hall of Famers Ernie Banks and Ron Santo when he managed the Chicago Cubs are all covered. 

His off-field life is also covered fairly in and good detail.  His extensive debts, his taste for expensive clothing, his three marriages and divorces and his post-baseball life all make for interesting reading and the writing about them is very good.  The reader will get the complete picture of Durocher, both on and off the field.  Any reader who is interested in the life of “Leo the Lip” will enjoy this book. 

Book Format Read:

Audio book

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Leo-Durocher-Baseballs-Prodigal-Son-ebook/dp/B01M8MBYSX/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/leo-durocher-paul-dickson/1123806870?ean=9781632863119

Review of "Cincinnati Red and Dodger Blue"

Books that cover topics which bring back great memories will always draw my attention. This one did that as I remembered watching some great games between these two teams in the 1970's.  Therefore, I was very anxious to read this book.  This is my review of "Cincinnati Red and Dodger Blue."

Title/Author:

“Cincinnati Red and Dodger Blue: Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Rivalry” by Tom Van Riper

Tags:

Baseball, professional, Reds, Dodgers, rivalry

Publish date:

April 13, 2017

Length:

208 pages

Rating: 

3 ½ of 5 stars (good)

Review:

If one asks a baseball fan today which is the biggest rivalry in the game today, the answer would most likely be one of the following three possibilities:  Yankees-Red Sox, Cubs-Cardinals or Dodgers-Giants.  However, if this same question was asked in the 1970’s there would be only one answer: Reds-Dodgers. The intensity of that rivalry in the old National League West division is relieved in this book by Tom Van Riper.

The two teams combined for 9 division titles in the 1970’s, with the Giants in 1971 being the only other team to do so. The star players were numerous – Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez for the Reds, Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Don Sutton and Bill Buckner for the Dodgers. The rivalry really took off in the 1973 season, when the two teams battled in a terrific pennant race, one in which the Reds made a big comeback in the second half of the season.

That the author concentrates on the 1973 season was part of what made the book not live up to the expectations for which I had hoped.  There is plenty of information on the teams for that year, as well as some of the players for both sides.  There are even multiple pages of information on the general managers (Al Campanis and Bob Howsman for the Dodgers and Reds respectively) and even the broadcasters (Vin Scully and a young Al Michaels).  Therefore, if one wants to read about these two teams in the 1973 season, this is a very good source.

However, there is little information on the rivalry for subsequent years and that does a disservice to readers who remember how the rivalry sustained itself into the early 1980’s.  There is very little mention of any players who appeared for the teams after 1973, such as Tom Seaver who was acquired by the Reds in a trade from the Mets in 1977.  Also, the book shares very little interesting stories of the players as their write-ups are factual and statistical with few anecdotes.  This format is fine for readers who wish to simply learn this aspect of the players but it lacks the comfort of making the reader feel like he or she is talking to that player.  Also, like many other books with a narrow topic, this one will venture off into unrelated topics such as sabermetrics.  However, many of these do help the reader get a complete picture of that snapshot of this rivalry.

Overall, this book does get a passing grade for the sheer volume of information written about these two great teams from that decade.  However, the very factual style of writing makes it a slow read at times and more of a task than a simple pleasurable read.  Baseball historians and fans of one of these teams will enjoy the book and will want to pick up a copy.

I wish to thank Rowman & Littlefield Publishers for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Format Read:

Hardcover

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Cincinnati-Red-Dodger-Blue-Baseballs-ebook/dp/B06XV3782H/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502761132&sr=8-1&keywords=cincinnati+red+and+dodger+blue

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cincinnati-red-and-dodger-blue-tom-van-riper/1126590564?ean=9781442275386