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Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize
Johnny Mize was one of the greatest hitters in baseball’s golden age of great hitters. Born and raised in tiny Demorest, Georgia, in the northeast Georgia mountains, Mize emerged from the heart of Dixie as a Bunyonesque slugger, a quiet but sharp-witted man from a broken home who became a professional player at seventeen, embarking on an extended tour of the expansive St. Louis Cardinals Minor League system.
Mize then spent fifteen seasons terrorizing Major League pitchers as a member of those Cardinals, the New York Giants of Mel Ott and Leo Durocher, and finally with the New York Yankees, who won a record five straight World Series with Mize as their ace in the hole—the best pinch hitter in the American League. Few hitters have combined such meticulous bat control with brute power the way Mize did. Mize was a line-drive hitter who rarely struck out and also hit for distance, to all fields, and usually for a high average. Nicknamed the Big Cat, “nobody had a better, smoother, easier swing than John,” said Cardinals teammate Don Gutteridge. “It was picture perfect.”
This is the first complete biography of the Big Cat.
The book is published University of Nebraska Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
Mize then spent fifteen seasons terrorizing Major League pitchers as a member of those Cardinals, the New York Giants of Mel Ott and Leo Durocher, and finally with the New York Yankees, who won a record five straight World Series with Mize as their ace in the hole—the best pinch hitter in the American League. Few hitters have combined such meticulous bat control with brute power the way Mize did. Mize was a line-drive hitter who rarely struck out and also hit for distance, to all fields, and usually for a high average. Nicknamed the Big Cat, “nobody had a better, smoother, easier swing than John,” said Cardinals teammate Don Gutteridge. “It was picture perfect.”
This is the first complete biography of the Big Cat.
The book is published University of Nebraska Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
- GenresBaseball
304 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2024
15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 5, 2024
You can also see this review, along with others I have written, at my blog, Mr. Book's Book Reviews.
Thank you University of Nebraska Press for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
Mr. Book just finished Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize, by Jerry Grillo.
Johnny Mize was one of the greatest first basemen in baseball history. One of the great unsolved mysteries in baseball history was how it took him 28 years from his time of retirement to get into the Hall of Fame—other than the fact that the HOF has made just so many mistakes over the years. This biography finally gives him the credit he deserves.
The stories about Mize’s childhood helped to humanize him. I had never heard of the different variations of the stories about Mize originally signing with Branch Rickey and the Cardinals. Mize later revealed that his signing was illegal under baseball rules, since he was underage, and I definitely would not put that past Rickey, or any of the MLB execs and scouts at the time, if there was a player he wanted.
The chapter about the brief time that Mize spent with the Reds, as well as a leg injury prior to the start of his MLB career, was one of the highlights of the book. The Cardinals had originally agreed to loan him to the Reds, but that deal was vetoed by Landis. They then reworked the deal so the Cardinals sold him to the Reds, but the Reds had a full money back guarantee. Mize injured his leg in spring training and the Reds got cold feet about keeping him, so they ended up getting their refund. Then, his leg injury became so serious that he was placed on the voluntarily retired list. That appeared to be done against his will and he sought a second opinion, which resulted in him continuing his career.
I did find an error in the book. The author said that, in 1938, Mize became the first and only player to have two 3 HR games in the span of eight days. Doug DeCinces (August 1982) and Adam Duvall (September 2020) both subsequently achieved that feat. However, it is important to note that this appears to be an isolated incident. This book did successfully pass several random fact checks.
I especially enjoyed this line in the book: “He was the most feared hitter in the National League— pitchers intentionally walked him twenty- four times, a new Major League record. And of course, there were the two three- homer games. At twenty-seven years old and in his prime, Johnny Mize was probably the best player in baseball in 1940. So naturally, Frank McCormick of the Reds was named Most Valuable Player in the National League.” That’s a great way to sum up one of the very frequent errors in MVP voting.
The events of December 7, 1941 were one of the interesting stories in the book: how Mize found out about Pearl Harbor and the fact that Cardinals were looking to trade him (which they did four days later). Mize had been asked by Leo Durocher if he was interested in being traded to the Dodgers, but instead, he was sent to the Giants. Stan Musial said that trading Mize and Walker Cooper to the Giants cost the Cardinals another five pennants.
I had not known that in spring training 1949, Branch Rickey convened a meeting of Dodgers players and coaches and told them he had a chance to get a power hitting 1B who could win the pennant for the team, but he’d leave it up to them whether he should do it. The team unanimously vetoed the trade, as show of confidence in the young Gil Hodges. Later that year, the Yankees claimed Mize off waivers. I find that story to be both credible, but also highly suspect. There is no way that I can see Rickey delegating the decision to the others, but I can see him already deciding he wasn’t going to trade for Mize, then coordinated things with Durocher and key players for the “vote” to be unanimous as a ploy to try to boost Hodges’s confidence.
This was an excellent biography on Mize. I give this book an A. Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews
Mr. Book originally finished reading this on July 5, 2024.
Thank you University of Nebraska Press for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
Mr. Book just finished Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize, by Jerry Grillo.
Johnny Mize was one of the greatest first basemen in baseball history. One of the great unsolved mysteries in baseball history was how it took him 28 years from his time of retirement to get into the Hall of Fame—other than the fact that the HOF has made just so many mistakes over the years. This biography finally gives him the credit he deserves.
The stories about Mize’s childhood helped to humanize him. I had never heard of the different variations of the stories about Mize originally signing with Branch Rickey and the Cardinals. Mize later revealed that his signing was illegal under baseball rules, since he was underage, and I definitely would not put that past Rickey, or any of the MLB execs and scouts at the time, if there was a player he wanted.
The chapter about the brief time that Mize spent with the Reds, as well as a leg injury prior to the start of his MLB career, was one of the highlights of the book. The Cardinals had originally agreed to loan him to the Reds, but that deal was vetoed by Landis. They then reworked the deal so the Cardinals sold him to the Reds, but the Reds had a full money back guarantee. Mize injured his leg in spring training and the Reds got cold feet about keeping him, so they ended up getting their refund. Then, his leg injury became so serious that he was placed on the voluntarily retired list. That appeared to be done against his will and he sought a second opinion, which resulted in him continuing his career.
I did find an error in the book. The author said that, in 1938, Mize became the first and only player to have two 3 HR games in the span of eight days. Doug DeCinces (August 1982) and Adam Duvall (September 2020) both subsequently achieved that feat. However, it is important to note that this appears to be an isolated incident. This book did successfully pass several random fact checks.
I especially enjoyed this line in the book: “He was the most feared hitter in the National League— pitchers intentionally walked him twenty- four times, a new Major League record. And of course, there were the two three- homer games. At twenty-seven years old and in his prime, Johnny Mize was probably the best player in baseball in 1940. So naturally, Frank McCormick of the Reds was named Most Valuable Player in the National League.” That’s a great way to sum up one of the very frequent errors in MVP voting.
The events of December 7, 1941 were one of the interesting stories in the book: how Mize found out about Pearl Harbor and the fact that Cardinals were looking to trade him (which they did four days later). Mize had been asked by Leo Durocher if he was interested in being traded to the Dodgers, but instead, he was sent to the Giants. Stan Musial said that trading Mize and Walker Cooper to the Giants cost the Cardinals another five pennants.
I had not known that in spring training 1949, Branch Rickey convened a meeting of Dodgers players and coaches and told them he had a chance to get a power hitting 1B who could win the pennant for the team, but he’d leave it up to them whether he should do it. The team unanimously vetoed the trade, as show of confidence in the young Gil Hodges. Later that year, the Yankees claimed Mize off waivers. I find that story to be both credible, but also highly suspect. There is no way that I can see Rickey delegating the decision to the others, but I can see him already deciding he wasn’t going to trade for Mize, then coordinated things with Durocher and key players for the “vote” to be unanimous as a ploy to try to boost Hodges’s confidence.
This was an excellent biography on Mize. I give this book an A. Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews
Mr. Book originally finished reading this on July 5, 2024.
June 30, 2024
A truly wonderful biography of a dreadfully unappreciated superstar of the game. This book is a treasure and one I’m sure to return to over the years. Mize was a special player who was known throughout the game as one of, if not the greatest hitter of his time. This book brings you from his early life in rural Georgia, cousins to both Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, through his arduous grind through Branch Rickey’s labrynthine web of minor league clubs before arriving in the Major Leagues.
His was a quiet life of excellence by a man who approached the game, particularly the hitting part of the game, as an artisan. He seemed to understand hitting in a way that very few, even amongst his peers, could truly grasp.
This was a wonderful book that moves quick but covers every aspect of a life. I really love this book and will be recommending it to my baseball friends for a long time to come.
His was a quiet life of excellence by a man who approached the game, particularly the hitting part of the game, as an artisan. He seemed to understand hitting in a way that very few, even amongst his peers, could truly grasp.
This was a wonderful book that moves quick but covers every aspect of a life. I really love this book and will be recommending it to my baseball friends for a long time to come.
December 28, 2024
Jerry Grillo has a playful way with words making each book he writes a chat between friends. Big about baseball Hofer Johnny Mize is an inspirational tale of the legendary ballplayer. If you are a fan of great stories this book is a must.
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