Me and Dimaggio: A Baseball Fan Goes in Search of His Gods

by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

Offering a behind-the-scenes look at the players, owners, promoters, and reporters of baseball, this book follows a year in baseball and all its rituals, from spring training to the World Series to the Winter Executive Meetings

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, Biography

303 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1986

Reviews

[John]

This book was published in 1986, but covers the 1979 baseball season. It is a friendly and informal story of the author’s “travels” through baseball. It is not so much about the game itself, but essentially a warm treatise on a fan’s relationship to the game. It is a thoroughly pleasant read that evokes a sense of timelessness about baseball.

[Gary Geiger]

This is a book which should not be judged by its cover (a beat up baseball,) but should be judged by its title. For while it is ostensibly about the 1979 baseball season, it is more about Christopher Lehman-Haupt (indeed the book is often self-referential. Lehman-Haupt writes about writing the book,) with a digression into Joe DiMaggio. There is a great anecdote about Joltin' Joe that I would have found more believable had I not heard a similar story about Earl Wilson or a college basketball team.

None of this makes Me and DiMaggio a bad book. It works, in its own way, as a non-comprehensive glimpse at baseball 35 years ago. But it could have been better.

[Gary Geiger]

This is a book which should not be judged by its cover (a beat up baseball,) but should be judged by its title. For while it is ostensibly about the 1979 baseball season, it is more about Christopher Lehman-Haupt (indeed the book is often self-referential. Lehman-Haupt writes about writing the book,) with a digression into Joe DiMaggio. There is a great anecdote about Joltin' Joe that I would have found more believable had I not heard a similar story about Earl Wilson or a college basketball team.

None of this makes Me and DiMaggio a bad book. It works, in its own way, as a non-comprehensive glimpse at baseball 35 years ago. But it could have been better

[Chris Dean]

I enjoyed this book primarily due to the time frame it represented. Much of the book details the authors struggles becoming a writer and what to write but the personalities (Rose, Reggie, Aaron) more than make up for it with me. The DiMaggio story at the central of the title was interesting but a bit anticlimactic. Overall, not a bad read especially if you are a fan of this era 1979-1980.

[George Bounacos]

Nice job by a newspaper writer who isn't a baseball fan following the insular workings of a season as an outsider with insider access. Much more personal reminiscing than one might expect, but fans heavily influenced by mid-1970s baseball will enjoy the insider stories.

[Charles M.]

NY Times Book writer goes in search of his baseball heroes and comes up with some arcane story how the mob was involved with Joe DiMaggio and tried to stop his famous hitting streak. Very mediocre baseball book...

[Calvin]

Interesting Idea, take a writer who is in no way a sportswriter and have him jsut go to games and write about baseball for a year. Ultimately though it just doesnt seem to work.