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Pages from Baseball's Past
Stories from baseball's past that most people have never heard, including the story of a mascot named "Baseball," who turned out to be a man's best friend. All the stories are written Craig T. Wright, the Dean of Baseball Storytellers, who has hosted a radio show and website of the same name for many years.
231 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 21, 2023
An enjoyable curio, and somehow for me baseball-fandom in microcosm: these are engaging, astonishingly-researched little accounts (reminds me of that great John Thorn book, Baseball in the Garden of Eden, and what I imagine are weeks of poring through densely-printed 19th-c newsprint) that are statistically informed (I think this would have been unbearable if it was one of those grunting "me hate stats" takes about life was better before numbers, yadda yadda; instead, we hear about how many Win Shares dead-ball outfielders managed, which I for one appreciate)...and almost determinedly just baseball stories.
Sure, we get the Eddie Waitkus story (which I knew was the basis of part of The Natural but didn't know much beyond that) and a couple of anecdotes that touch on, say, WWII. But mostly these are about very basebally stories--the firm that constructed early stadiums and still does, astonishingly; brothers and sons of Hall of Fame players (many more good ones among the former than the latter); courtesy runners (if you, say, broke your shoe and just needed someone to fill in for half an inning); statistical oddities (what's the longest recent period someone's hit .400?); and so on. But this never really tries to reach out into the larger world in a compelling way. Also a good bit of repetition early on, which makes sense since these were initially published as individual columns--but I always wish somebody put in the effort to harmonize them, which to be fair we see on occasion later on. The order, aside from a few pieces on connected subjects, seems entirely random, and finding a theme or two by which to sort these might have set up more interesting correspondences among them. So: fun, but not more than that, in the way of, say, Kuper's Football Against the Enemy or Galeano's Soccer in Sun and Shadow, to name two comps.
Sure, we get the Eddie Waitkus story (which I knew was the basis of part of The Natural but didn't know much beyond that) and a couple of anecdotes that touch on, say, WWII. But mostly these are about very basebally stories--the firm that constructed early stadiums and still does, astonishingly; brothers and sons of Hall of Fame players (many more good ones among the former than the latter); courtesy runners (if you, say, broke your shoe and just needed someone to fill in for half an inning); statistical oddities (what's the longest recent period someone's hit .400?); and so on. But this never really tries to reach out into the larger world in a compelling way. Also a good bit of repetition early on, which makes sense since these were initially published as individual columns--but I always wish somebody put in the effort to harmonize them, which to be fair we see on occasion later on. The order, aside from a few pieces on connected subjects, seems entirely random, and finding a theme or two by which to sort these might have set up more interesting correspondences among them. So: fun, but not more than that, in the way of, say, Kuper's Football Against the Enemy or Galeano's Soccer in Sun and Shadow, to name two comps.
May 18, 2014
Terrific stories, told with great detail and just the right mix of anecdote and statistics.
One of the more entertaining baseball books I can think of and a winner for any fan of baseball history.
One of the more entertaining baseball books I can think of and a winner for any fan of baseball history.
January 27, 2015
Nice collection of stories
January 28, 2014
Incredible book. Can't say enough. You will learn a great deal.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews