Some of My Best Friends Are Crazy: Baseball's Favorite Lunatic Goes in Search of His Peers

by Jay Johnstone

Excellent Book

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Humor, Nonfiction, Biography

241 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1990

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are two mutually exclusive approaches to the atmosphere in the clubhouse of a major league baseball team. On one side there are the people that believe that wins should be celebrated, but that the mood should always be serious, for a great deal is at stake. The other side is that there should be a great deal of frivolity, where practical jokes are tolerated in order to keep the players loose and relaxed. Johnstone is clearly in the second category. In other sports, this is rarely an issue, one finds it difficult to envision football coaches Vince Lombardi or Bill Belichick cracking jokes or tolerating practical jokes. Basketball stars like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were all business when games were about to be played. Michael Jordan once punched teammate Steve Kerr in the mouth during a practice. Woe to the player that played a practical joke on Dick Butkus.
This book is a rendition of many of the antics that Johnstone was a part of in his many years as a player. There are also several quotes from players that were humorous for the incongruity of what they said. Of course, no such book is complete without a few from the great Yogi Berra.
Basically, to a first approximation, the enjoyment that the reader will acquire from this book is dependent on their position on silly behavior of baseball players. If you tolerate it, then you will enjoy this book. However, if your position is that the players should be focused at all times, then much of what Johnstone was a part of will annoy you. With salaries in the millions of dollars annually, there is the expectation of focused professional behavior.

[Jeff Olson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took a while to read but I carried on. The two other books by Jay were so much funnier but what I most remember from this book that I thought was crazy was when Jay stated that an inquiry was made by congress in 1907 of General Abner Doubleday as to the invention of the game of baseball as being of American origin. Abner Graves, former classmate of Doublday stated that Doubleday did infact tell a group of classmates the machanics of baseball in Copperstown, New York in 1839. Mr. Graves at the age of 75, would go on to marry a lady 30 years youger than him, and at age 90 he shot and killed his wife saying that she was trying to poison him. He was found insane and sent to a mental hospital...So who are we to believe in the truth of the matter?

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started out fine, but then it turned into a collection of anecdotes collected by Johnstone, some that I've read in other basebal stories and heard numerous times in radio and television broadcasts over the years. The fact the this book was written 20 years ago shows that material written two decades ago may have been funny then, but not necessary funny now.

I did enjoy the the look-back into the mid-60s, 70s and 80s, remembering the antics of Johnstone as a player/cut-up. But as the book went on, it just got too predictable, too boring and not as funny as I had hope this book would be. Again, this would probably have been a great read in 1990 -- not so much in 2012.

[Kamas Kirian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another funny baseball book from Jay Johnstone, though not quite as good as his previous two (Temporary Insanity and Over The Edge). It doesn't have as much to do with Jay as it is him telling about other players.