Voices from Cooperstown: Baseball's Hall of Famers Tell It Like It Was

by Anthony J. Connor (Editor)

Contains the fond remembrances of the greatest players of all time, including Grover Cleveland Alexander, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, and other talents, that bring to light the reasons why baseball is America's favorite national pastime.

Genres: Baseball, Sports

333 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Mike Violano]

I found Voices from Cooperstown at a library book sale; glad I did. This is a selective, informal (partly oral) history of the game as played by about 65 members of the Hall of Fame. It includes book excerpts, interview fragments and lots of anecdotes from baseball’s greats from their early days through circa 1980. Organized somewhat thematically by such chapters as “Rookie days”, “Idols and mentors”, “On the road’, and “Life after baseball”. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Joe DiMaggio and Ty Cobb all speak and appear. My favorites are the HOFers I watched growing up including: Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Casey Stengel, Stan Musial, Roberto Clemente, Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams and Bob Gibson. I especially enjoyed Sandy Koufax’s reminiscences about playing stoopball and stickball in Brooklyn as a kid because I played those too in Jackson Heights. Lots of photos. A fun read for baseball fans.

[Dave]

This book is a compilation of quotes and stories from Hall of Famers (HOFers) about many aspects of the game of baseball and their careers. The book was written in 1980 from interviews the author conducted with the HOFers. The best chapters are on their regrets, memories and wisdom to impart to rookies. My biggest “complaint” about the book is that it doesn’t include HOFers from the ‘70s and ‘80s. It would be great to have input and stories from players like Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Mike Schmidt, Willie Stargell, Yaz, Rollie Fingers, Nolan Ryan, and Ozzie Smith. Also I would have liked to have heard from HOF announcers like Vin Scully, Ernie Harwell, Marty Brennaman and HOF managers like Tommy Lasorda, Sparky Anderson, Billy Martin, Ralph Houk and Walter Alston. Overall though this is an interesting book.

[Zack]

I absolutely love anything with baseball, especially older stories. This book was great to read. Has lots of tidbits and small stories from the old players who are in the HoF. The only thing I don't like about it, is that it's published back in the 80's and obviously doesn't have any stories from other greats in baseball. I'm not worried though, I'm sure a new book will come out soon that has more stories from recent HoF'ers.

[Brent Soderstrum]

Book written in 1980. The author talks to a lot of different hall of famers about various issues throughout their career. It amazed me that each generation thought they had it the toughest and that the younger generations weren't nearly as good and were spoiled. Seem it is a common theme in baseball as in any other activity.