Run, Rabbit, Run: The Hilarious and Mostly True Tales of Rabbit Maranville

by Rabbit Maranville, Harold Seymour (Introduction), Bob Carroll (Afterword)

Rabbit Maranville was the Joe Garagiola of Grandpa's day. or maybe he was the Jay Johnstone. In a twenty-four-year career from 1912 through 1936, Rabbit found a lot of funny situations to laugh at. No wonder. He caused most of them himself. Few fans alive today have had the privilege of sitting down for a few beers with the Rabbit and listening to him spin his tales. But fortunately for us, a year before his death in 1954, Rabbit reached back forty years into his memory and put his sotires down on paper after the urging of his daughter and Max Kase, former sports editor of the New York Journal-American , who had employed Maranville in a public relations position. Unfortunately, Maranville did not finish his autobiography before he died. For decades the tales rested, virtually unread, until the Graber brothers, Dallas and Ralph, discovered the manuscript inconspicuously offered for sale by a memorabilia dealer and bought it rescuing it for all future fans to enjoy. The stories give us much autobiographical material about Rabbit. But they are not an autobiography, any more than Baseball Is a Funny Game is the autobiography of Garagiola. They tell us much history. And yet they do not comprise a history, any more than Veeck as in Wreck is a history of the Cleveland Indians. Rabbit's memory played tricks on him, not surprising to anyone who has interviewed old men reaching back into the past. Where errors were found, I have attempted to correct them. Where Rabbit's somewhat Lardneresque prose has breached some rules preached in sixth-grade English classes, I did my best to make him readable without making him slick. In short, I tried to let Rabbit be Rabbit. To fill in the details in Rabbit's life not covered in his stories, Bob Carroll has delved into the records and penned a more scholarly account of dates, places, and names in Bob's own irreverent, even Maranvillian, style.

Genres: Baseball

96 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1991

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Run, Rabbit, Run is a supremely entertaining glimpse into the life of one of baseball's greatest characters. Rabbit is a wonderful storyteller, and the editor does a very good job of letting the man's personality shine through while at the same time keeping factual details accurate.

Note: this is not a biography of Rabbit Maranville, nor a history of baseball, although there are elements of each in the book. It is primarily a collection of stories from one of the funniest men to ever wear a baseball glove.

[Louie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a great book. It is about an written by Boston Brave Hall of Famer Rabbit Maranville who tells about alot of funny and interesting stories that happened in his life. I say any baseball fan would like this book!