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Can't Anybody Here Play This Game "The improbable sage of the New York Met's first year"
120 pages.
Paperback
First published April 28, 1963
175 people are currently reading
652 people want to read
About the author
Jimmy Breslin
61 books93 followersJimmy Breslin was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American columnist and author. He wrote numerous novels, and pieces of his have appeared regularly in various newspapers in his hometown of New York City. He was a regular columnist for the newspaper Newsday until his retirement on November 2, 2004.
Among his notable columns, perhaps the best known was published the day after John F. Kennedy's funeral, focusing on the man who had dug the president's grave. The column is indicative of Breslin's style, which often highlights how major events or the actions of those considered "newsworthy" affect the "common man."
Among his notable columns, perhaps the best known was published the day after John F. Kennedy's funeral, focusing on the man who had dug the president's grave. The column is indicative of Breslin's style, which often highlights how major events or the actions of those considered "newsworthy" affect the "common man."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
February 25, 2012
Pretty much everything you need to know about the Mets, the worst season in the history of baseball, greedy owners, and New York baseball fans. Breslin is at times hilarious, with an almost vaudevillian sense of timing. He's also very realistic and very true as to the nature of Mets fans, who know that their team is made up of bums, but cheer just as loud when someone makes second base as they would if it were a home run.
On Mets Fans:
"You see, the Mets are losers, just like nearly everybody else in life. This is a team for the cab driver who gets held up and the guy who loses out on a promotion because he didn't maneuver himself to lunch with the boss enough. It is the team for every guy who has to get out of bed in the morning and go to work for short money on a job he does not like. And it is the team for every woman who looks up ten years later and sees her husband eating dinner in a T-shirt and wonders how the hell she ever let this guy talk her into getting married. The Yankees? Who does well enough to root for them, Laurence Rockefeller?" (pp. 77)
Pretty much.
On Mets Fans:
"You see, the Mets are losers, just like nearly everybody else in life. This is a team for the cab driver who gets held up and the guy who loses out on a promotion because he didn't maneuver himself to lunch with the boss enough. It is the team for every guy who has to get out of bed in the morning and go to work for short money on a job he does not like. And it is the team for every woman who looks up ten years later and sees her husband eating dinner in a T-shirt and wonders how the hell she ever let this guy talk her into getting married. The Yankees? Who does well enough to root for them, Laurence Rockefeller?" (pp. 77)
Pretty much.
September 16, 2021
I’m a Chicago Cubs fan whose childhood was interrupted and irreversibly damaged by the 1969 team that collapsed and got steamrolled by the Amazing Mets, and so have a special distaste for New York’s fourth team. But I really loved this book, and it’s because Jimmy Breslin, an iconic NY newspaper man, understood the fans’ emotions after the Dodgers and Giants left for the west coast in 1958, and helped translate for me how anyone could possibly have loved what was arguably the worst baseball team in history. Plus, it’s flat-out funny. This is a journal of the Mets’ historically disastrous inaugural season, and it deserves a place at the table of great baseball books.
May 14, 2011
Book still stands up, almost 50 years later. I was at the game on that Sunday in May or June at the Polo Grounds when Marvelous Marv Thronberry made an error in the first inning to allow Cubs to score and then hit a triple in the bottom of the first to atone for his error. But then the Marvelous One was called out for missing second base. When Casey Stengel came out to argue, the ump held up his hands to ward Stengel off, explaining "Forget it, Casey, he missed first base, too."
July 31, 2020
This is a hoot. The dated humor works in this snapshot of an era. Fast and fun for any baseball fan or New Yorker - a must if you’re both.
January 23, 2012
"This is a team for the cab driver who gets held up and the guy who loses out on a promotion because he didn't maneuver himself to lunch with the boss enough. It is the team for every guy who has to get a job he does not like. And it is the team for every woman who looks up ten years later and sees her husband eating dinner in a T-shirt and wonders how the hell she ever let this guy talk her into getting married. The Yankees? Who does well enough to root for them, Laurence Rockefeller?"
Amazingly, a lot of the gaffs and improbable losses noted in this book are familiar to someone like me who was born in the 80's, long after they should have disappeared. It's sort of comforting to know that the Mets were lovable losers from the beginning. And fascinating to get a glimpse of NYC in the 60's.
Amazingly, a lot of the gaffs and improbable losses noted in this book are familiar to someone like me who was born in the 80's, long after they should have disappeared. It's sort of comforting to know that the Mets were lovable losers from the beginning. And fascinating to get a glimpse of NYC in the 60's.
September 28, 2014
This book is always listed among the top 50 or 100 books written about baseball. Frankly, I can't see what the fuss is about. The style is meandering. He goes off on tangents for three or four pages that only seem remotely connected to the theme. It had some very interesting points and made some interesting analyses about New York City and the effect the move of the Dodgers and the Giants and the arrival of the Mets had on the city. It is a short book and an easy read. It was an ok book, but having heard about this book for years as a baseball fan, I'm still not sure that all the fuss is about.
June 28, 2020
This book wasn’t really what I was expecting, yet I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was expecting a detailed retrospective of the 1962 New York Mets baseball season. For those who may not follow the game closely, the 1962 New York Mets are widely regarded as the worst team to ever play the game of baseball. This book does highlight a lot of the misfortunes of this uncomfortable year, but it’s more of a thesis as to why and how this team came into existence, and more importantly why this team was so loved when they played so horribly.
Again, for those who aren’t diehards of the game, a bit of history is first warranted. The New York Mets were one of the first “expansion” teams in Major League baseball. This was a team whose star pitcher of that year (Roger Craig) had a won-loss record of 10-24. If you really think about it, you have to be a pretty good pitcher to lose 24 ball games in one season. Since expansion teams are new, they have no farm system of good prospects, and they’re basically forced to start with rejects from other existing teams. So expansion teams (in ANY sport) are never expected to do well for the first few seasons. In fact, the short-term goal of said team is to maybe come in second-to-last place instead of last place. So expectations are never high. Somehow, though, this team still managed to fall way short of such low expectations.
The city of New York (including neighboring Brooklyn) actually had a total of 3 teams through the first 50 years of organized baseball. 2 of those teams deserted the boroughs in the 1950s for California and left many of the baseball faithful in the Big Apple somewhat destitute. The new expansion Mets would now be the “2nd” New York team to compliment the steadfast Yankees over in the Bronx. As soon as they started the season, they were awful and only got worse. Ironically, the awfulness of this team became the charm of rooting for them. So in addition to detailing aspects of this miserable first season, the author spends quite a bit of time pontificating as to why this phenomenon actually occurred.
The author alleges that people generally hate winners and love losers because, well, most of us lose an awful lot more than we win in the game of life. So watching a team like the 1962 Mets flounder, actually touches us in a fond, unique way. To be fair, though, this isn’t one of those deep psychological books that explores this in any amount of detail. It’s actually too short for that. The entire book is something like 160 pages. So don’t be dismayed if you’re wanting a “sports” book and you end up getting a “psychology” book.
Still, some of the off the field anecdotes are quite hilarious. Like the story of a midtown bartender who has a young son that he MAKES watch the New York Mets. The reason? He wants his son to understand that life can be tough and unforgiving. As his son gets older and learns about The Great Depression, he’ll be able to understand it a lot better after watching the Mets play baseball.
The on-the-field stories though are the best. As mentioned, there aren’t that many as one might expect, but when the author does detail some highlights of some of the games, you can’t help but wail out loud in laughter at so many of the misfortunes. The author definitely has a gift for recounting these events. His style of storytelling is rather dry and wry, but this only adds fuel to the fire of reading about this travesty of a club. You really feel as though you’re actually in the stands watching the house of cards collapse as author Jimmy Breslin recounts some of the highlights. “Highlights” is actually a poor choice of words, but never mind.
An interesting factoid about this book is that it was written just after the disastrous freshmen season. This isn’t a book written, say, 20 years after the fact where the author is reminiscing about such a memorable time. For me, this actually adds to the charm. It’s always fun to look back on a time period that was particularly peculiar and smile about it, but to have such a positive attitude when you’re right in the middle of such a fiasco really shows that you just might have the type of character that can prevail through the worst.
It’s a bit funny to hear the author moan about the present time (1963) being so commercialized and too “modern” for his tastes. Things such as the (GASP!) television have brought the national pastime to a new low, he states. This is quite laughable 60 years later. You have to wonder what the author would have felt about indoor baseball, free agency, ESPN, and multi-million-dollar per year utility infielders among other things.
So a book like this really is probably only for the fan of the game. Since it’s well under 200 pages, one won’t feel like it wasted too much of their time if they come away with their expectations not being met. The fact that it was written so long ago added to its appeal for my tastes. It’s fun to see how things have changed, yet to see the character of people stay mostly the same.
You’ll laugh a lot as well.
Again, for those who aren’t diehards of the game, a bit of history is first warranted. The New York Mets were one of the first “expansion” teams in Major League baseball. This was a team whose star pitcher of that year (Roger Craig) had a won-loss record of 10-24. If you really think about it, you have to be a pretty good pitcher to lose 24 ball games in one season. Since expansion teams are new, they have no farm system of good prospects, and they’re basically forced to start with rejects from other existing teams. So expansion teams (in ANY sport) are never expected to do well for the first few seasons. In fact, the short-term goal of said team is to maybe come in second-to-last place instead of last place. So expectations are never high. Somehow, though, this team still managed to fall way short of such low expectations.
The city of New York (including neighboring Brooklyn) actually had a total of 3 teams through the first 50 years of organized baseball. 2 of those teams deserted the boroughs in the 1950s for California and left many of the baseball faithful in the Big Apple somewhat destitute. The new expansion Mets would now be the “2nd” New York team to compliment the steadfast Yankees over in the Bronx. As soon as they started the season, they were awful and only got worse. Ironically, the awfulness of this team became the charm of rooting for them. So in addition to detailing aspects of this miserable first season, the author spends quite a bit of time pontificating as to why this phenomenon actually occurred.
The author alleges that people generally hate winners and love losers because, well, most of us lose an awful lot more than we win in the game of life. So watching a team like the 1962 Mets flounder, actually touches us in a fond, unique way. To be fair, though, this isn’t one of those deep psychological books that explores this in any amount of detail. It’s actually too short for that. The entire book is something like 160 pages. So don’t be dismayed if you’re wanting a “sports” book and you end up getting a “psychology” book.
Still, some of the off the field anecdotes are quite hilarious. Like the story of a midtown bartender who has a young son that he MAKES watch the New York Mets. The reason? He wants his son to understand that life can be tough and unforgiving. As his son gets older and learns about The Great Depression, he’ll be able to understand it a lot better after watching the Mets play baseball.
The on-the-field stories though are the best. As mentioned, there aren’t that many as one might expect, but when the author does detail some highlights of some of the games, you can’t help but wail out loud in laughter at so many of the misfortunes. The author definitely has a gift for recounting these events. His style of storytelling is rather dry and wry, but this only adds fuel to the fire of reading about this travesty of a club. You really feel as though you’re actually in the stands watching the house of cards collapse as author Jimmy Breslin recounts some of the highlights. “Highlights” is actually a poor choice of words, but never mind.
An interesting factoid about this book is that it was written just after the disastrous freshmen season. This isn’t a book written, say, 20 years after the fact where the author is reminiscing about such a memorable time. For me, this actually adds to the charm. It’s always fun to look back on a time period that was particularly peculiar and smile about it, but to have such a positive attitude when you’re right in the middle of such a fiasco really shows that you just might have the type of character that can prevail through the worst.
It’s a bit funny to hear the author moan about the present time (1963) being so commercialized and too “modern” for his tastes. Things such as the (GASP!) television have brought the national pastime to a new low, he states. This is quite laughable 60 years later. You have to wonder what the author would have felt about indoor baseball, free agency, ESPN, and multi-million-dollar per year utility infielders among other things.
So a book like this really is probably only for the fan of the game. Since it’s well under 200 pages, one won’t feel like it wasted too much of their time if they come away with their expectations not being met. The fact that it was written so long ago added to its appeal for my tastes. It’s fun to see how things have changed, yet to see the character of people stay mostly the same.
You’ll laugh a lot as well.
December 31, 2024
Spends most of its time as the fun, amusing tale of a haphazard baseball team. It’s great writing of a light subject. And then in the last moments, the book hits you like a ton of bricks—talk of how we mark the passage of the time with things we watch and listen to. And how sometimes we are shocked by how deep and fast the passage of time can be. The sentiment is expressed very well in a powerful way.
January 23, 2021
This book is a baseball classic, which is awesome that it is back in print.
The 1962 New York Mets were and still are the worst team to ever play baseball. They were Hollywood comedy bad. Fortunately, they were managed by one of the game’s greatest characters Casey Stengel (aged 73) who provided the quote that is the source of the name of the book.
Baseball was expanding and the owners had learned the lesson of the day and did not want to lose any good players to a brand new team. (The NFL generally went the other way, which actually was better for the overall league). So the Mets were a mix of otherwise aged or unwanted players.
Breslin in that time was able to catch it all. He was right in suggesting there’s nothing better for the game than ‘lovable losers’. Even then, most of the problems we associate with modern sports, ownership, money etc was already there in spades. (Remember the genesis of the Mets was that the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers had left town for greener pastures) But the Mets drew fans and were loved. There’s something pure about it.
I am a huge fan so I recognize most of the names of the day. I don’t think you need that background. Breslin does write it as an extended newspaper column (I suspect that it was actually a series of columns written after the 62 season. It reads that way anyway.). It suffers a bit from age, as it was written during the JFK administration and reads like that era, though Breslin is undoubtedly talented which is why we still talk about it.
Improbable characters like Marvelous Marv Throneberry and Choo Choo Coleman live on for future generations. There are a lot of fun anecdotes throughout. You don’t have to be a huge sports fan to enjoy the human interest aspect of the book, but likely it’s best for the baseball aficionado.
The 1962 New York Mets were and still are the worst team to ever play baseball. They were Hollywood comedy bad. Fortunately, they were managed by one of the game’s greatest characters Casey Stengel (aged 73) who provided the quote that is the source of the name of the book.
Baseball was expanding and the owners had learned the lesson of the day and did not want to lose any good players to a brand new team. (The NFL generally went the other way, which actually was better for the overall league). So the Mets were a mix of otherwise aged or unwanted players.
Breslin in that time was able to catch it all. He was right in suggesting there’s nothing better for the game than ‘lovable losers’. Even then, most of the problems we associate with modern sports, ownership, money etc was already there in spades. (Remember the genesis of the Mets was that the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers had left town for greener pastures) But the Mets drew fans and were loved. There’s something pure about it.
I am a huge fan so I recognize most of the names of the day. I don’t think you need that background. Breslin does write it as an extended newspaper column (I suspect that it was actually a series of columns written after the 62 season. It reads that way anyway.). It suffers a bit from age, as it was written during the JFK administration and reads like that era, though Breslin is undoubtedly talented which is why we still talk about it.
Improbable characters like Marvelous Marv Throneberry and Choo Choo Coleman live on for future generations. There are a lot of fun anecdotes throughout. You don’t have to be a huge sports fan to enjoy the human interest aspect of the book, but likely it’s best for the baseball aficionado.
February 15, 2009
I fucking hate the mets but this book is great- a baseball must. Breslin is hilarious and if you've ever loved a shitty team this book will definitely shed some insight into your hopelessness.
March 4, 2020
Five stars for this one because I enjoyed every bit of it. I didn't become a baseball fan until the 1964 season was over. But a lot of the players and characters mentioned in this book were still around in 1964. This book chronicles the NY Mets of 1962, when they won 40 games and lost 120. Jimmy Breslin does a nice job of telling all the wacky tales included in this saga and keeping a realistic yet somewhat sarcastic tone. At the same time, a feeling of love pervades the pages, if you can imagine all that together. One part comes to mind. He was telling about a pitcher named Jackson who pitched and worked very hard and carefully through his innings, all the while the fielders around him muffing possible double plays and routine catches etc. He had done nothing wrong, but Stengle, the manager, took him out the next inning, but neglected to tell Jackson. Jackson found out from the PA address while getting ready to warm up for the next inning. The whole book is like that. It also includes stories of how the club was started, and by who, and how that went. I think I enjoy nostalgia too much judging by my excitement while others shy away or just stare at me to see if I will get sick or go nutzo on them. But if you were a baseball fan in the early '60s and you like nostalgia, I think you will get a kick out of this. My sister got this for me and I owe her a debt of thanks for it.
June 11, 2021
I read this a zillion years ago. I was never a Mets fan - well, maybe a little when I was very young because I liked the name Choo-Choo Coleman - but this was really a fun book, largely because Jimmy Breslin was such an entertaining writer. (I remember when he ran for public office, on a ticket with Norman Mailer; politics was never so much fun!) It's hard for anyone, even a Mets-hater, not to have some affection for a team so hapless but with such a good attitude to being pathetically bad. Oh, and some info on Mr. Coleman, from Wikipedia: "Choo-Choo Coleman was the quintessence of the early New York Mets. He was a 5'8", 160-pound catcher who never hit over .250 in the majors, had 9 career home runs, 30 career RBIs, and couldn't handle pitchers. Plus his name was Choo-Choo. What more could you ask for?" Casey Stengel once complimented Coleman's speed, saying that he'd never seen a catcher so fast at retrieving passed balls. I also seem to remember there was an interview where Ralph Kiner, who did post-game interviews, asked him, What's your wife's name what's she like?", and he answered, indignantly "Her name is Mrs. Coleman and she likes me just fine, bub!" And that's only one player from the group... Lots of fun anecdotes here for baseball lovers or just fans of the inept.
May 13, 2020
3.5 stars rounded down...although this is supposed to be a sportswriting classic, I found it dated in tone and sensibilities with a weird mid-century New York City hipster vibe. I expected a lot more Stengelese and humor, but instead there was a lot of anti-Walter O'Malley stuff (the Dodgers' leaving Brooklyn was still fresh in 1963), many stories that Breslin seemed to be saying were funny (without them being funny), and much that seems to try to make Marv Throneberry and Joan Whitney Payson (Mets' first owner) into compelling figures that doesn't quite work. All of this is written in a New-York-is-the-center-of-the-universe style both breezy and earnest at once. I had to keep reminding myself that this was before all of the turmoil of the sixties, before football had superseded baseball as our most popular sport and six years before the 1969 Miracle Mets, but it felt like it was written by someone from the 1940s dropped down in early sixties New York. It's my first experience reading Jimmy Breslin and I'm not sure there will be a second.
January 3, 2023
Nostalgia, history, and the Metsies
This one is for all the longtime fans who have experienced the sweet sorrow of loving the NY Mets, with our only real joys visiting us in 1969 and 1986. Although I had not yet been born in 1962 when the awful and beloved Mets first graced the fields of a major league stadium, I have owned the misery to which I am rightfully entitled as a lifelong Mets fan. In his inimitably snide and metropolitan style, Jimmy Breslin gifts us with this recent history (written immediately following the Mets’ historic inaugural year), and he truly captures the mythical charm and appeal of the Mets, who—win or lose—never sacrifice that charm or the love of their devoted fans. It’s helpful to know the mortifying history of that 1962 team, if only to acknowledge the demons we’ll exorcise when next we win the World Series.
This one is for all the longtime fans who have experienced the sweet sorrow of loving the NY Mets, with our only real joys visiting us in 1969 and 1986. Although I had not yet been born in 1962 when the awful and beloved Mets first graced the fields of a major league stadium, I have owned the misery to which I am rightfully entitled as a lifelong Mets fan. In his inimitably snide and metropolitan style, Jimmy Breslin gifts us with this recent history (written immediately following the Mets’ historic inaugural year), and he truly captures the mythical charm and appeal of the Mets, who—win or lose—never sacrifice that charm or the love of their devoted fans. It’s helpful to know the mortifying history of that 1962 team, if only to acknowledge the demons we’ll exorcise when next we win the World Series.
December 14, 2017
I like Breslin's style (expect digressions), but this book is a bit of ancient history (1962) on baseball. His remarks about the increased commercialization of baseball is a bit quaint, given the great financial windfalls enjoyed by modern sports leagues today. But his description of the Mets' defensive ineptitude is still humorous today.
January 18, 2020
Best baseball book I’ve ever read! Also the first.
March 18, 2017
Lots of journalistic shoe-leather and awesome bar-room, connect-the-dots tangential anecdotes and asides from a young Jimmy Breslin (early 30s), flashing old-soul wit and wisdom alike as he chronicles and tries vainly to assess the universal appeal of the Marv Throneberry-centric historically bad stumblebum babies of 1962. From Casey Stengel and Choo Choo Coleman to Senators and cab drivers alike, Breslin talks to all the right sources and paints a hilariously pretty picture of a team set up to fail, which won the hearts of millions in process.
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July 12, 2022Amusing tribute to the '62 Mets -- the original lovable losers. And lose they did: 120 games. They lost nine straight to start the season and lost as many as 17 consecutive games later that year. They had two pitchers who *lost* twenty games. But that Mets team, formed to bring National League baseball back to NY, was beloved. Why? As Breslin puts it: "You see, the Mets are losers, just like everybody else in life. This is a team for the cab driver who gets held up and the guy who loses out on a promotion because he didn't maneuver himself to lunch with the boss enough. It is the team for every guy who has to get out of bed in the morning and go to work for short money on a job he doesn't like. And it is the team for every woman who looks up ten years later and sees her husband eating dinner in a T-shirt and wonders how the hell she ever let this guy talk her into getting married. The Yankees? Who the hell does well enough to root for them, Laurence Rockefeller?"
Breslin's account of the '62 Mets encompasses the owners, backers, fans, and coaching staff but it is at its best when he describes the miraculously bad play on the field. My personal favorite was an agonizing (and hilarious) description of how the Mets defense managed to blow *four* consecutive double-play opportunities in a single inning (88-90).
May 20, 2009
I wasn't alive when the Loveable Losers were formed, but I'd like to think that if I lived in New York at the time, I would have been a Mets fan. I'm sure I would have, seeing that I loved the Tigers before they went to the series in '06 (just three years out of being one loss shy of tying the Mets 120 loss record) and I hate the Yankees. If you hate the Yankees in live in New York, you have to like the Mets for your NL team. (For the record, I also hate Boston, since they are just like the Yankees, only even more insufferable).
Breslin's writing is classic, old-school sports journalism, and it reads like you're sitting down with him for a whisky at a sports-bar. You're both smoking Pal Malls, and the radio is carrying the races out at the Aqueduct. That's what this reads like, and he can spin out a bone-headed sports yarn like no bodies business. I think it would be hilarious even if you didn't like baseball; if you do, his timing is fantastic, and you sort of want to travel back to '62 so you can sit in the Polo Grounds with a T-Shirt reading VREM.
Breslin's writing is classic, old-school sports journalism, and it reads like you're sitting down with him for a whisky at a sports-bar. You're both smoking Pal Malls, and the radio is carrying the races out at the Aqueduct. That's what this reads like, and he can spin out a bone-headed sports yarn like no bodies business. I think it would be hilarious even if you didn't like baseball; if you do, his timing is fantastic, and you sort of want to travel back to '62 so you can sit in the Polo Grounds with a T-Shirt reading VREM.
November 20, 2014
Here, back in print, is Jimmy Breslin's marvelous account of the improbable saga of the New York Mets' first year, as Bill Veeck notes in his Introduction, "preserving for all time a remarkable tale of ineptitude, mediocrity, and abject failure." Indeed the 1962 Mets were the worst major league baseball team ever to take the field. (The title of the book is a quote from Casey Stengel, their manager at the time.) Breslin casts the Mets, who lost 120 games out of a possible 162 that year, as a lovable bunch of losers. And, he argues, they were good for baseball, coming as a welcome antidote to "the era of the businessman in sports...as dry and agonizing a time as you would want to see." Although they were written forty years ago, many of Breslin's comments will strike a chord with today's sports fan, fed up with the growing commercialism of the games. Against this trend Breslin sets the exploits of "Marvelous" Marv Throneberry, Stengel, and the rest of the hapless Mets.
January 5, 2014
Here it is....the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the New York Mets first year as a team....the team that made them the worst in baseball history! It wasn't easy to lose 120 games, but the Mets did it. Jimmy Breslin was the perfect person to write this little saga.I really miss the guy.If you care about baseball, then this is the book for you.There are so many interesting stories in this book. One example. Stan Musial waited an extra year to retire because playing the Mets would help his stats! Even if baseball isn't your thing, reading this entertaining book will have you laughing out loud.
March 29, 2015
I've wanted to read this book about the first year of the New York Mets for a long time and finally had the opportunity to do so. I was not disappointed, as this book from the 1960s brought an old school journalistic/sports writing sensibility to the topic. Its a snapshot of a time, a place, a team, and some of the most iconoclastic individuals in baseball lore...Stengel, Thronberry, et al. My only complaint, and it is somewhat minor, is that the author has a tendency toward tangents (sometimes on topic, sometimes off).
February 29, 2008
a) breslin is a serious fucking journalist; he's the guy that the son of sam sent his "hello from the gutters" letter to at the daily news.
b) this is fucking hilarious, heartwarming and why i could never be a yankee fan, 20 some-odd championships be damned.
c) i wish i was alive to see this all happen so badly.
b) this is fucking hilarious, heartwarming and why i could never be a yankee fan, 20 some-odd championships be damned.
c) i wish i was alive to see this all happen so badly.
January 30, 2013
This is a very funny book about the Mets first season in 1962. Great stories about Casey Stengel, Marvelous Marv Throneberry, et al. They still hold the record for the most losses (120) in a season. The book was written in 1963 so the author had a first hand account of all the mishaps and oddities. Little did he know that in seven years they would become the Miracle Mets.
December 18, 2013
Good fun! Jimmy Breslin brings a snarky, sports columnists voice to the truly horrible 1962 New York Mets - arguably the worst, but yet most lovable team in baseball history. At times he's a one-trick pony (we get it, they are so bad they are good!), but his portrayal of early 60s New York and baseball at the time is worth the read.
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January 26, 2016A SF Chronicle columnist called this the "best baseball book ever". So I had to pick it up. A really fun find. It's from 1963 about the Mets first year - when they lost 120 games! Gives you a great view of the love affair of NYC w/baseball and the Mets in particular - the Yankees are too "perfect" while the Mets are more like 'us'. Very fun, quick read.
August 13, 2013
Funny and sentimental without overdoing it. In fact, it could probably use even more zany Mets play-by-play to overcome the "this is what time does" and "everyone is really a loser" mawkishness. But the balances works. Short, funny, and actually a little meaningful.
August 10, 2009
This book effectively sums up why I am a Mets fan in both its description of the 1962 Mets and the wit with which Breslin writes.
January 25, 2010
A look at the New York Mets' first year of baseball. A comedy of errors -- the team, not the book. This is a fast-paced easily digestable tale of abject failure on the diamond.
October 8, 2012
this is a collection of a bunch of newspaper articles that made me think newspapers suck now.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews