What do you think?
Rate this book
The Onion Picker
On September 23, 1957, Carmen Basilio moved up in weight class to challenge the great Sugar Ray Robinson, pound for pound the greatest boxer of all time, for the middleweight championship of the world. Basilio, the ultimate warrior, set the stage for a classic matchup between two of the sport’s best fighters. Leading up to the title fight, Robinson had angered his opponent with his arrogance and one-sided demands. Basilio entered the ring with one goal in the destruction of Sugar Ray Robinson. The matchup was much more than just a battle for a world championship. This fight was “personal.”
This inspiring story recalls boxing’s golden age in the 1950s and two fighters who rose from abject poverty to become boxing legends. Gary B. Youmans traces the remarkable story of Carmen Basilio, who as a boy toiled in the onion fields of Canastota, New York, and dreamed of one day becoming a boxing champion. His difficult journey to the top of his sport is a riveting tale of survival and perseverance. Basilio’s stubborn determination and refusal to deal with the mobsters who controlled boxing in the 1950’s is a testament to his personal integrity and commitment to living an honorable life on his own terms.
This inspiring story recalls boxing’s golden age in the 1950s and two fighters who rose from abject poverty to become boxing legends. Gary B. Youmans traces the remarkable story of Carmen Basilio, who as a boy toiled in the onion fields of Canastota, New York, and dreamed of one day becoming a boxing champion. His difficult journey to the top of his sport is a riveting tale of survival and perseverance. Basilio’s stubborn determination and refusal to deal with the mobsters who controlled boxing in the 1950’s is a testament to his personal integrity and commitment to living an honorable life on his own terms.
- GenresSports
214 pages, Hardcover
First published August 30, 2007
1 person is currently reading
30 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 5, 2008
I came across this book rather randomly, which is to say that it was a surprise Channukah present from my father. My first boxing coach had been a student of Basilio’s, and while I had heard a few stories about Basilio from him, I didn’t really know that much about him. This book seemed like a cool way to learn something—besides, it was autographed by the man himself, which makes any book cooler (well, potentially cooler, anyway).
The book primarily focuses on Basilio’s life, from his childhood growing up in Canastota, NY, through his boxing career until his two championship bouts with Sugar Ray Robinson. At times, the book drifts away from Basilio into a more general discussion of 1950s boxing culture, and the corruption that was rampant during that era (not that modern boxing is filled with paragons of virtue, mind you). “Drifts” is probably an inappropriate term, since the chapters are very clearly and cleanly broken up by subject. Youmans also devotes a few chapters to Sugar Ray Robinson, the man that Basilio would ultimately seek to dethrone.
Youmans’ writing style itself is nice: clear, fluid, and appropriately vivid. Where the book suffers in from Youmans’ use of quotations. Large chunks of some of the chapters (in one case, an entire chapter) are composed of nothing but quotes with names appended, usually the following format.
Stone, amateur book reviewer: Gary, what the hell is this quote doing here? Didn’t you learn how to properly integrate quotes into a text at some point in your life? Wait…I think I’ve answered my own question.
Needless to say, this is an incredibly frustrating, especially when it isn’t clear if the quotes that Youmans’ is using are contemporary to the time period he’s writing about, or the modern day. Some of them are interesting, entertaining, or insightful, but they feel as though they were tacked on in a fashion reminiscent of a student trying to pad out a term paper. As a result, the book ends up feeling like it’s got more fluff than substance, which is unfortunate, because it seems like Youmans’ has a lot more information to present than he ends up putting forward.
Still, I can’t deny that I enjoyed the book, in a fluffy sort of way. Youmans’ does a good job of capturing some of the spirit of Basilio, and giving the reader a good overview of the whole culture and spirit of boxing at the time. If nothing else, it got me interested enough to want to learn some more about a sport that has sadly dwindled in the past several decades, in no small part because of the loss of men like Basilio.
The book primarily focuses on Basilio’s life, from his childhood growing up in Canastota, NY, through his boxing career until his two championship bouts with Sugar Ray Robinson. At times, the book drifts away from Basilio into a more general discussion of 1950s boxing culture, and the corruption that was rampant during that era (not that modern boxing is filled with paragons of virtue, mind you). “Drifts” is probably an inappropriate term, since the chapters are very clearly and cleanly broken up by subject. Youmans also devotes a few chapters to Sugar Ray Robinson, the man that Basilio would ultimately seek to dethrone.
Youmans’ writing style itself is nice: clear, fluid, and appropriately vivid. Where the book suffers in from Youmans’ use of quotations. Large chunks of some of the chapters (in one case, an entire chapter) are composed of nothing but quotes with names appended, usually the following format.
Stone, amateur book reviewer: Gary, what the hell is this quote doing here? Didn’t you learn how to properly integrate quotes into a text at some point in your life? Wait…I think I’ve answered my own question.
Needless to say, this is an incredibly frustrating, especially when it isn’t clear if the quotes that Youmans’ is using are contemporary to the time period he’s writing about, or the modern day. Some of them are interesting, entertaining, or insightful, but they feel as though they were tacked on in a fashion reminiscent of a student trying to pad out a term paper. As a result, the book ends up feeling like it’s got more fluff than substance, which is unfortunate, because it seems like Youmans’ has a lot more information to present than he ends up putting forward.
Still, I can’t deny that I enjoyed the book, in a fluffy sort of way. Youmans’ does a good job of capturing some of the spirit of Basilio, and giving the reader a good overview of the whole culture and spirit of boxing at the time. If nothing else, it got me interested enough to want to learn some more about a sport that has sadly dwindled in the past several decades, in no small part because of the loss of men like Basilio.
July 22, 2019
Basilio's is an interesting story, but at times, this book reads more like a 200 page Wikipedia article.
April 27, 2022
*REVIEW OF THE KINDLE EDITION*
I hail from the same region of Upstate NY as Carmen Basilio and, of course, he is my favorite fighter. I was excited to finally find a book that chronicled his life and accomplishments and at a $2.99 price, who could resist? However, this felt like a Spark Notes version of his life and while I understand that the author wanted to write about Basilio AND boxing in the 1950s, the book is haphazardly organized. It constantly jumps from one person to another before circling back to Carmen for a bit and then jumping around again, sometimes discussing fighters and fights that had absolutely nothing to do with Carmen or had a major impact on boxing in the 1950s; after a while it just felt like padding. And don’t get me started on the typos, my god! They were endless, constant, and really hindered my enjoyment of the book. I hope that another boxing historian comes along someday and does Carmen justice but for now I’ll take what I can get.
I hail from the same region of Upstate NY as Carmen Basilio and, of course, he is my favorite fighter. I was excited to finally find a book that chronicled his life and accomplishments and at a $2.99 price, who could resist? However, this felt like a Spark Notes version of his life and while I understand that the author wanted to write about Basilio AND boxing in the 1950s, the book is haphazardly organized. It constantly jumps from one person to another before circling back to Carmen for a bit and then jumping around again, sometimes discussing fighters and fights that had absolutely nothing to do with Carmen or had a major impact on boxing in the 1950s; after a while it just felt like padding. And don’t get me started on the typos, my god! They were endless, constant, and really hindered my enjoyment of the book. I hope that another boxing historian comes along someday and does Carmen justice but for now I’ll take what I can get.
January 4, 2025
Fun read, pretty basic bio. Quick rip-thru of his family’s history, and then his pre-success existence. The description of the fights was excellent, and being from Syracuse, I really enjoyed reading about some of the famous places that aren’t around today. It’s a book that doesn’t attempt to explore what I’m sure is a complex person, but for those just looking to learn a little bit about one of the greatest fighters in history, this book is sufficient.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews