Thirty Tons a Day: The Rough-Riding Education of a Neophyte Racetrack Operator

by Bill Veeck, Edward Linn

In between his romances with baseball, in early 1969 Bill Veeck took up the challenge of managing Boston's semi-moribund Suffolk Downs racetrack. When he took over the track, Veeck had yet to learn that the normal daily output of some sixteen hundred horses (including straw) would amount to so much, or be so hard to dispose of. But that was the least of his problems.

Genres: Nonfiction, Horses, Sports

296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved "Veeck as in Wreck" and love horse racing, so this was a natural. Probably not as good as "Veeck as in Wreck," and certainly not as accessible to as many readers . . . there are more baseball fans than racing fans . . . but I'd recommend it highly. Funny!

[Woody Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book marked Veeck's swan song as an author, but it let me wishing that he had collaborated with Ed Linn one last time before his death in 1986 to reflect on his SECOND ownership/go-'round with the CHISOX.

I would have liked to have rated this book more highly, but I just couldn't do it. There is a sense of litigiousness throughout that pre-dates the McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit that opened the floodgates to our current litigious society. If you are a fan of legal wranglings, fine, but otherwise, there was a tedium that wended its way through the text.

OTOH, there was Veeck's sense of promotion, both self- and track-. He was a master at showmanship and there is no doubt in my mind that his customers never felt ripped off or shortchanged. Bewildered, perhaps, but such is the nature of uniqueness.

Chapter 11, "Fathers and Sons" especially resonated with me, most especially on p. 173, when he says: "The world of baseball was filled with men who were anxious to pay one last tribute to William Veeck by helping his crazy son, Bill." My mother uttered a like sentiment during my first mayoral run, when asked if she knew a "Woody Chandler" and her response was, "Yes, that's my crazy eldest son. What's he done now?" Ha!

His summation of jockeys on p. 185 was especially apt and put me in mind of "The Twilight Zone" episode, "The Last Night of a Jockey", S5E5, starring Mickey Rooney.

Another bit that resonated was in Ch. 15, "The Third Wheel" on p. 252, when he talks about neighboring Wonderland, a dog racing track. "As a basic strategy, it did not seek publicity, it discouraged it. It accepted the fact that it was disreputable. It acted as if it was on the lam." This would be the polar opposite of my way of thinking. I am NOT hiding from anyone! Yeah, I'm admittedly shady and crazy, but they all know just where to find me.

I am now going to find myself in two of Veeck's posthumous biographies, having heard extensively from the man, himself.

[Tim Timberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find Bill Veeck (together with Ed Linn) to be a witty writer. In this book Veeck took his typical creative promotions and brought them to a racetrack. Much of the book told of the many lawsuits and financial issues that plagued Veeck's time at Suffolk Downs. It was difficult to pay attention during the retelling of parts of the legal maneuverings, but it was easy to follow the general meaning of them.

[J Pearson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found myself disappointed with this book. I enjoy Veeck as a baseball raconteur and I love horse racing and degenerate horse gamblers. I figured this would be a fun read. It was really bogged down with endless legal wrangling and minutiae of court proceedings that were completely uninteresting-- number of days allowed in a track's racing season, should minors be allowed into tracks, etc. It just went on and on and ended up being entirely forgettable. The title is the best thing about it.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not nearly as good or as funny as Veeck’s first two autobiographical books, which probably isn’t that surprising – this one covers a period of a couple of years after he’d gotten out of the baseball world and was running a racetrack in Boston so the issues here center on dealing with political bureaucracy, a subject about which he’s neither as knowledgeable nor as entertaining.

[Steve Sewall]

Arguably the best of his three memoirs. Because he breaks into completely new ground - running a race track - with all the commitment and energy and smarts and heart that he brought to running the Cubs & Sox.