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Baseball Wit
A collection of more than 450 quotes and quips by hundreds of baseball players, managers, owners, umpires, and sportswriters
120 pages, Hardcover
First published March 25, 1986
About the author
Bill Adler
335 books15 followersBill Adler pursued his goal of being the P.T. Barnum of books by conceptualizing, writing, editing, compiling and hustling hundreds of them — prompting one magazine to anoint him “the most fevered mind” in publishing.
Mr. Adler achieved early success by collecting and publishing letters children had written to President John F. Kennedy. He followed up with children’s letters to Smokey Bear, Santa Claus, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and President Barack Obama, among many others.
He helped popularize novels written by political, entertainment and sports celebrities, supplying ghostwriters and even plots. He signed up beauty queens to write diet and exercise books.
As an agent, his clients included Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan, Howard Cosell, Mike Wallace and Ralph Nader.
Mr. Adler was best known for his own titles. He wrote “What to Name Your Jewish Baby” (1966) with Arnie Kogen and “What Is a Cat? For Everyone Who Has Ever Loved a Cat” (1987). In 1969, he compiled “The Wit & Humor of Richard Nixon.” In 1995, he published “Cats’ Letters to Santa.”
One of his more famous tricks — a word he preferred to gimmicks — was the 1983 mystery novel “Who Killed the Robins Family?” by Bill Adler and Thomas Chastain. On the cover was an offer of a $10,000 reward for solving a series of fictional murders.
A team of four married couples from Denver won by coming up with the answers to 39 of 40 questions posed in the book. The book reached No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list in January 1984 and remained there for the better part of a year, selling about a million copies.
“Ideas are my mistress,” Mr. Adler told United Press International in 1986, saying he used his “given abilities to conceptualize books.”
It was People magazine that commented on Mr. Adler’s “fevered mind” in 1983, adding that publishing traditionalists regarded book packagers like Mr. Adler as “money-crazed barbarians with the sensibilities of turnips.”
Referring to Mr. Adler’s books, Roger W. Straus Jr., president of the publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux, told People: “They’re pretty chintzy, as a rule. It’s like throwing a quarter in the street. If you listen attentively, you find out it ain’t silver when it hits the ground.”
Others disagreed. “I consider Bill Adler unparalleled in the publishing industry — terribly, terribly original,” Mr. Cosell said.
One of Mr. Adler’s best-selling books was a collection called “The Kennedy Wit.” The president’s aides approved the project early in the administration, but Kennedy was said to have been angry about it, causing Random House to drop the idea. Mr. Adler suspected that the president had not wanted his humor emphasized so soon after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.
After 35 more publishers turned the book down, Mr. Adler finally obtained a $2,500 advance from Citadel Press, a small publisher. The book, released in 1964, after the president’s assassination, was on the New York Times best-seller list for more than six months and sold more than 1.4 million copies.
William Jay Adler was born in Brooklyn on May 14, 1929. His parents died when he was a child, and he was raised by relatives. He attended Brooklyn College for three years and was drafted into the Army, then trained as a flamethrower for the Korean War.
After finding out that flamethrowers led infantry into battle, he applied for Armed Forces Radio, saying he had experience in broadcasting, though he did not. He was a disc jockey in Tokyo until his discharge in 1953. He then worked in broadcasting, as humor editor at McCall’s magazine and as a book editor for Playboy, where he first came up with book ideas.
One brainstorm was to ask the Kennedy White House if he could read mail sent to the president. In a time of much looser security, he was allowed to spend the day copying letters in the White House pos
Mr. Adler achieved early success by collecting and publishing letters children had written to President John F. Kennedy. He followed up with children’s letters to Smokey Bear, Santa Claus, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and President Barack Obama, among many others.
He helped popularize novels written by political, entertainment and sports celebrities, supplying ghostwriters and even plots. He signed up beauty queens to write diet and exercise books.
As an agent, his clients included Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan, Howard Cosell, Mike Wallace and Ralph Nader.
Mr. Adler was best known for his own titles. He wrote “What to Name Your Jewish Baby” (1966) with Arnie Kogen and “What Is a Cat? For Everyone Who Has Ever Loved a Cat” (1987). In 1969, he compiled “The Wit & Humor of Richard Nixon.” In 1995, he published “Cats’ Letters to Santa.”
One of his more famous tricks — a word he preferred to gimmicks — was the 1983 mystery novel “Who Killed the Robins Family?” by Bill Adler and Thomas Chastain. On the cover was an offer of a $10,000 reward for solving a series of fictional murders.
A team of four married couples from Denver won by coming up with the answers to 39 of 40 questions posed in the book. The book reached No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list in January 1984 and remained there for the better part of a year, selling about a million copies.
“Ideas are my mistress,” Mr. Adler told United Press International in 1986, saying he used his “given abilities to conceptualize books.”
It was People magazine that commented on Mr. Adler’s “fevered mind” in 1983, adding that publishing traditionalists regarded book packagers like Mr. Adler as “money-crazed barbarians with the sensibilities of turnips.”
Referring to Mr. Adler’s books, Roger W. Straus Jr., president of the publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux, told People: “They’re pretty chintzy, as a rule. It’s like throwing a quarter in the street. If you listen attentively, you find out it ain’t silver when it hits the ground.”
Others disagreed. “I consider Bill Adler unparalleled in the publishing industry — terribly, terribly original,” Mr. Cosell said.
One of Mr. Adler’s best-selling books was a collection called “The Kennedy Wit.” The president’s aides approved the project early in the administration, but Kennedy was said to have been angry about it, causing Random House to drop the idea. Mr. Adler suspected that the president had not wanted his humor emphasized so soon after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.
After 35 more publishers turned the book down, Mr. Adler finally obtained a $2,500 advance from Citadel Press, a small publisher. The book, released in 1964, after the president’s assassination, was on the New York Times best-seller list for more than six months and sold more than 1.4 million copies.
William Jay Adler was born in Brooklyn on May 14, 1929. His parents died when he was a child, and he was raised by relatives. He attended Brooklyn College for three years and was drafted into the Army, then trained as a flamethrower for the Korean War.
After finding out that flamethrowers led infantry into battle, he applied for Armed Forces Radio, saying he had experience in broadcasting, though he did not. He was a disc jockey in Tokyo until his discharge in 1953. He then worked in broadcasting, as humor editor at McCall’s magazine and as a book editor for Playboy, where he first came up with book ideas.
One brainstorm was to ask the Kennedy White House if he could read mail sent to the president. In a time of much looser security, he was allowed to spend the day copying letters in the White House pos
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 12, 2022
Every baseball fan will get a kick out of this book! The best collection of this type I have seen yet and some of the quotes are simply falling-down funny! Note: While there are two or three that are R-rated, the other 99% of the book is "safe" (Ha ha, pun intended). And I will say this too: without Yogi Berra, Casey Stengel, and Billy Martin, baseball wouldn't have been nearly as much fun! A few examples to lighten your day:
Whitey Herzog knows just the remedy: "We need just two players to be a contender. Just Babe Ruth and Sandy Koufax".
Casey Stengel: "The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided".
Vin Scully describes reliever Pat Zachary just coming into the game: "He looks like he got here on a raft".
Billy Martin evaluates a particular umpire: "He's so incompetent that he couldn't be crew chief on a sunken submarine".
Yogi Berra pays his respects to Little League baseball: "I think it's wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house".
Rick Monday needles a Dodger teammate: "Mike Ivie is a forty-million-dollar airport with a thirty-dollar control tower".
Billy Martin considers an unlikely career change: "When I get through managing, I'm going to open up a kindergarten".
Dodger Billy Loes has an alibi for bobbling a ground ball: "I lost it in the sun".
Pitcher Paul Splittorf comments on a George Brett home-run: "Anything that goes that far ought to have a stewardess on it".
Yogi Berra sums it up: "Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical".
Get a copy. You'll enjoy this book.
Whitey Herzog knows just the remedy: "We need just two players to be a contender. Just Babe Ruth and Sandy Koufax".
Casey Stengel: "The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided".
Vin Scully describes reliever Pat Zachary just coming into the game: "He looks like he got here on a raft".
Billy Martin evaluates a particular umpire: "He's so incompetent that he couldn't be crew chief on a sunken submarine".
Yogi Berra pays his respects to Little League baseball: "I think it's wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house".
Rick Monday needles a Dodger teammate: "Mike Ivie is a forty-million-dollar airport with a thirty-dollar control tower".
Billy Martin considers an unlikely career change: "When I get through managing, I'm going to open up a kindergarten".
Dodger Billy Loes has an alibi for bobbling a ground ball: "I lost it in the sun".
Pitcher Paul Splittorf comments on a George Brett home-run: "Anything that goes that far ought to have a stewardess on it".
Yogi Berra sums it up: "Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical".
Get a copy. You'll enjoy this book.
May 6, 2015
Baseball is unlike any other sport in that the people who make their living in it seem to be funnier than those in other sports. Adler has collected some of the best anecdotes about this wonderful game and while knowledge of the sport is helpful to enjoy them, it is not necessary. Of course, the two masters, Yogi Berra, Casey Stengel, are well represented. Classics like, “It gets late early out there” and “It’s so crowded, nobody goes there anymore” still make me laugh after reading or hearing them scores of times.
I love baseball and I love to laugh. I experienced both when I read this book. It is the funniest sports book that I have ever read.
This review also appears on Amazon
I love baseball and I love to laugh. I experienced both when I read this book. It is the funniest sports book that I have ever read.
This review also appears on Amazon
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews