The 10 Commandments of Baseball: An Affectionate Look at Joe McCarty's Principles for Success in Baseball

by J.D. Thorne

The 10 Commandments of Baseball is an enjoyable mix of professional baseball stories and the author's affectionate retelling of his own amateur baseball experiences. Whether male or female, young or old, the reader is pulled into great baseball moments that make the baseball commandments come to life with compassion and humor. The focal point of the book is the classic, but little-known, 10 Commandments of Baseball, the baseball principles created by Major League baseball's most successful manager, Joe McCarthy.

Genres: Baseball

186 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Lance · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title and subject of this book was inspired by advertisement in an Iowa restaurant that listed the “10 Commandments of Baseball.” After reading them, the author set out to not only research the man who created them, former major league manager Joe McCarthy, but also to write about how each one of them affected him in both baseball and in real life.

The book is divided into a chapter about each commandment after a brief history of both the game and the career of McCarthy. This gave the book good organization and the reader is able to see the connection between the stories and the particular commandment illustrated in the chapter. The examples of major league games and players who either did or did not follow the commandment were the best parts of the book as it shows why the commandment plays an important part of the game.

While it is a quick and easy book to read, at times it felt more like a memoir than an informative book. I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be a memoir, but even if it wasn’t it at least was a good way to see how one person made the connection between baseball and life during the telling of his personal experiences, something most fans of the game will tend to do.

I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a quick and informative read on how baseball and its rituals can be a part of anyone’s life, whether or not he or she played the game.

I wish to thank the author for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...

Note: Actually closer to three and a half stars.

[Vinay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book that reflects on McCarthy’s career and his ten simple commandments in the world of baseball success - for both the player and the manager. The author does a good job citing Major league stories, personal experiences, and anecdotes from the world of baseball.
Non-baseball fans will have no trouble reading this book because it is not filled with baseball jargon, nothing that you can’t quickly look up in google to understand. Some of the details in this book are philosophically written where you could draw parallels between the commandments and personal experiences in sports, work, & life goals.

[Sarah Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baseball is not my sport at all, but I enjoyed this book. Baseball fans and fans of history should put this on their to read list.