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A review by bickleyhouse
The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond by Jeff Silverman
5.0
Any time a book has a title like this, it's going to be up for debate. I'm not sure that I would agree that these are the "greatest" baseball stories ever told. But they are certainly pretty darned good. There are thirty short stories in this book, some fiction, some not. Some of them made me laugh, some of them brought tears to my eyes, and some of them just brought back good memories of a time when baseball was, well, to be honest, more fun. Some of them even made me wish I had been born a decade earlier. Some of the stories made me want to read more biographies on the people who were the subjects, such as "Ty Cobb's Wild, Ten-Month Fight To Live." I loved the tale of the little boy who had people believing he could predict the future ("A Scotchman, A Phantom, and A Shine Blue Jacket"). In one story, "The Catch," the author just happened to be at the game when Willie Mays made that famous catch. And who knew that Zane Grey wrote about baseball?? I sure didn't. "Old Well-Well" certainly brought tears to my eyes.
There are stories about Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Ty Cobb, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Pistol Pete Reiser, Ted Williams, and Joe DiMaggio. There's even a story about a 17-year-old girl who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. One story chronicles the home run chase of 1998, involving Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Ken Griffey, Jr.
To begin the collection, we are treated to a verbatim transcript of one of Abbot and Costello's "Who's On First" performances. As many times as I've heard/seen that, it still gets me giggling almost uncontrollably. Also very humorous is a tale called "Casey At the Congress," in which the inimitable Casey Stengel speaks to a Congressional hearing on the exemption of professional sports from antitrust laws. I would have hated to have been the senator who was questioning Casey. Perhaps the best line is the very last one, in which Micky Mantle says, "My views are just about the same as Casey's."
"Greatest" stories? Probably not necessarily. But it is a great book.
There are stories about Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Ty Cobb, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Pistol Pete Reiser, Ted Williams, and Joe DiMaggio. There's even a story about a 17-year-old girl who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. One story chronicles the home run chase of 1998, involving Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Ken Griffey, Jr.
To begin the collection, we are treated to a verbatim transcript of one of Abbot and Costello's "Who's On First" performances. As many times as I've heard/seen that, it still gets me giggling almost uncontrollably. Also very humorous is a tale called "Casey At the Congress," in which the inimitable Casey Stengel speaks to a Congressional hearing on the exemption of professional sports from antitrust laws. I would have hated to have been the senator who was questioning Casey. Perhaps the best line is the very last one, in which Micky Mantle says, "My views are just about the same as Casey's."
"Greatest" stories? Probably not necessarily. But it is a great book.