The Bobby Richardson Story

by Bobby Richardson

Vintage autobiography of the artful second baseman for the New York Yankees baseball teams of the 1960s.

Genres: Baseball, Sports

159 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1964/65 at the height of his career, Richardson gives a brief but interesting look into his life as a baseball player, giving equal attention to his life in the minors as well as life as second baseman for the world champion New York Yankees, as well as a look into his life as a Christian. It is fairly common now for Christian athletes to use their platform in sports to share their faith journey as a Christian, but in the early 60's it was a fairly new phenomenon, and Richardson was one of the early athletes to speak at churches, high schools and religious rallies talking about his faith in Christ and what that means as a man and as an athlete. Whereas some athlete's Christian experience can sometimes seem shallow, Richardson comes across as someone genuine with deep conviction. There was a real possibility that he might have entered the ministry rather than pro baseball. (I believe after retirement he may have entered ministry). It's a short book, but interesting, particularly for fans of the Yankees of Mickey Mantle's era (Richardson spoke at Mantle's funeral), and for those interested in seeing how faith and sports fame intersects in an athlete's life.

[Edward Zitvogel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book 36 years ago. It was life-shaping for me. Finally got to meet Bobby 2 years ago and it confirmed why he is my fav baseball player of all-time.

[Jason Bellamy · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a baseball book this one is refreshing. It feels like he is talking to you. Gives more information than the standard baseball biographies typically do. Don’t be mistaken though, it is a Christian book. It doesn’t appear to be based on its description. It is a fast read. Gives you a good sense for what it was like coming into professional baseball in the 1950s.

[Cris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up a New York Yankee fan, even though I was raised in California. Bobby Richardson was a member of the great Yankees teams of those days. What was unusual about Bobby was that he was a practicing Christian and made no bones about it.

In those days, baseball players were a lot more gruff than they are now. They were a meaner lot in general terms. A practicing Christian was somewhat of an oddity, not so much today, when you see guys making the sign of the cross and other gestures, whenever they do something good, indicating to all they are Christians.

Bobby played professionally from 1953 to 1964, appearing in seven World Series and three All Star games. I remembered him during the sixties part of his career. It was fascinating to read how a great professional baseball player was able to incorporate his Christian values into everything he did.

Part of the fun of reading the book was the inclusion of stories of so many other great Yankees I remember while growing up, such as Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, the great manager Casey Stengel, Joe Pepitone, Bill "Moose" Skowren, Ralph Houk, Whitey Ford, Tony Kubek, Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, Don Larson, and the list goes on and on—players I'd idolized.

Having Christian value myself, it was great to see someone in the highlight who was able to keep his priorities straight, which, these days, at least, is very hard to do for those in the limelight.

I certainly recommend the book to anyone who has a love for baseball, especially baseball in the Golden Age. Baseball will never be like that anymore.