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Seasons in Hell: With Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and "The Worst Baseball Team in History" - The 1973-1975 Texas Rangers
“Disastrously hilarious.” — USA Today “Even before the start of spring training, Herzog had said, ‘If Rich Billings is the starting catcher again, we’re in deep trouble.’ When that evaluation was passed along to Billings, he simply nodded and said, ‘Whitey, obviously, has seen me play.’” In early 1973, gonzo sportswriter Mike Shropshire agreed to cover the Texas Rangers for the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram , not realizing that the Rangers were arguably the worst team in baseball history. Seasons in Hell is a riotous, candid, irreverent behind-the-scenes account in the tradition of The Bronx Zoo and Ball Four , following the Texas Rangers from Whitey Herzog’s reign in 1973 through Billy Martin’s tumultuous tenure. Offering wonderful perspectives on dozens of unique (and likely never-to-be-seen-again) baseball personalities, Seasons in Hell recounts some of the most extreme characters ever to play the game and brings to life the no-holds-barred culture of major league baseball in the mid-seventies.
245 pages, Paperback
First published June 12, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
January 17, 2015
Rating:
4 of 5 stars (very good)
Review:
When a young sportswriter received the news that he was going to be working on the Texas Rangers’ beat in 1973, he didn’t really know what to expect. That sportswriter, Mike Shropshire, ended up writing about that assignment in this hilarious book about what was arguably one of the worst baseball teams in the history of the game.
That season the Rangers finished with 105 losses and was managed by Whitey Herzog, who would later achieve more success managing the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals. The bulk of the stories and book is centered on this 1973 team and many of the quotes that Herzog has in this book, especially on the abilities and skills of his players, is reason alone to invest some time in this book.
This is not a new topic for books – the inside stories, some of which are not family-friendly, of a major league baseball team. However, unlike other books that have been written by players, I felt that this version of that theme, from the vantage of a writer who travels with the team and has to submit a story every day during the season, gave the reader a different perspective. Instead of simply telling everything that happened to him, Shropshire’s version of these wacky stories has the feel of being that “fly on the wall” – and it is a very funny version.
Even after that terrible season, the book stays as funny as ever when Billy Martin becomes the new Rangers manager. Anyone who knows about Martin’s history for drinking and fighting will appreciate these stories as well. They stay in the same short, compact format that makes the book easy to read and enjoy.
While it is entertaining, there are editing and factual errors that pop up and were a distraction for me. One is the misspelling of names such as “Mohammad” Ali and Don “Larson” instead of Larsen, the correct spelling of the man who pitched the only perfect game in a World Series. Even worse, when Jim Bibby threw a no-hitter for one of the few bright spots in that 1973 season for the Rangers, Shropshire mentions that it is the third no-hitter in the Senators-Rangers franchise history. He even lists the other two – Walter Johnson in 1920 and Bobby Burke in 1931. Problem is – that Washington Senators franchise did not become the Rangers, but instead moved to Minnesota and became the Twins in 1961. The franchise that became the Rangers was the “new” Washington Senators that started play in 1961 to replace the team that left for the Twin Cities.
While these errors may take away from the historical accuracy, history is not what this book is about. It is about sharing funny stories about a team that was one of the worst the game has seen. In that context, this book is certainly worth reading as the reader will be entertained from the first page to the last.
Pace of the book:
This was a very quick read as I completed it in less than two hours of total reading time. It was a page turner for me because it was so entertaining.
Do I recommend?
Yes, to baseball fans who enjoy humorous stories will enjoy this as it is geared toward readers who enjoyed books such as “Ball Four” and “The Bronx Zoo.”
Book Format Read:
E-book (Nook)
4 of 5 stars (very good)
Review:
When a young sportswriter received the news that he was going to be working on the Texas Rangers’ beat in 1973, he didn’t really know what to expect. That sportswriter, Mike Shropshire, ended up writing about that assignment in this hilarious book about what was arguably one of the worst baseball teams in the history of the game.
That season the Rangers finished with 105 losses and was managed by Whitey Herzog, who would later achieve more success managing the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals. The bulk of the stories and book is centered on this 1973 team and many of the quotes that Herzog has in this book, especially on the abilities and skills of his players, is reason alone to invest some time in this book.
This is not a new topic for books – the inside stories, some of which are not family-friendly, of a major league baseball team. However, unlike other books that have been written by players, I felt that this version of that theme, from the vantage of a writer who travels with the team and has to submit a story every day during the season, gave the reader a different perspective. Instead of simply telling everything that happened to him, Shropshire’s version of these wacky stories has the feel of being that “fly on the wall” – and it is a very funny version.
Even after that terrible season, the book stays as funny as ever when Billy Martin becomes the new Rangers manager. Anyone who knows about Martin’s history for drinking and fighting will appreciate these stories as well. They stay in the same short, compact format that makes the book easy to read and enjoy.
While it is entertaining, there are editing and factual errors that pop up and were a distraction for me. One is the misspelling of names such as “Mohammad” Ali and Don “Larson” instead of Larsen, the correct spelling of the man who pitched the only perfect game in a World Series. Even worse, when Jim Bibby threw a no-hitter for one of the few bright spots in that 1973 season for the Rangers, Shropshire mentions that it is the third no-hitter in the Senators-Rangers franchise history. He even lists the other two – Walter Johnson in 1920 and Bobby Burke in 1931. Problem is – that Washington Senators franchise did not become the Rangers, but instead moved to Minnesota and became the Twins in 1961. The franchise that became the Rangers was the “new” Washington Senators that started play in 1961 to replace the team that left for the Twin Cities.
While these errors may take away from the historical accuracy, history is not what this book is about. It is about sharing funny stories about a team that was one of the worst the game has seen. In that context, this book is certainly worth reading as the reader will be entertained from the first page to the last.
Pace of the book:
This was a very quick read as I completed it in less than two hours of total reading time. It was a page turner for me because it was so entertaining.
Do I recommend?
Yes, to baseball fans who enjoy humorous stories will enjoy this as it is geared toward readers who enjoyed books such as “Ball Four” and “The Bronx Zoo.”
Book Format Read:
E-book (Nook)
June 27, 2013
I was really looking forward to reading this book, but got only as far as page 8 before closing the book and sitting down to write this review. To begin, I love funny baseball books, and I also like books that incorporate the history of sports franchises, thus "Seasons in hell" seemed like the perfect fit for me--but there is one problem--the inaccuracy presented on page 8 ruined the read.
The author spent about half of a page (page 8 and 9) discussing the other teams besides the Texas Rangers in the American League as the 1973 season dawned. Allow me to quote: "In the immediate days ahead, I actually began researching the talent pool around the American League...even Cleveland, a team thought capable of perhaps challenging the Rangers in the loss column, offered names such as Gaylord Perry and Frank Robinson..." (Shropshire 1996, 7-8). Oops--and it's a big oops, because Frank Robinson was playing for the California Angels as the 1973 season began, not the Indians, and he hit 30 home runs that year for the Angels. In addition, Robinson didn't join the Indians until September of 1974. That's lazy writing, pure and simple.
So, this book gets (a very generous) one star from me.
The author spent about half of a page (page 8 and 9) discussing the other teams besides the Texas Rangers in the American League as the 1973 season dawned. Allow me to quote: "In the immediate days ahead, I actually began researching the talent pool around the American League...even Cleveland, a team thought capable of perhaps challenging the Rangers in the loss column, offered names such as Gaylord Perry and Frank Robinson..." (Shropshire 1996, 7-8). Oops--and it's a big oops, because Frank Robinson was playing for the California Angels as the 1973 season began, not the Indians, and he hit 30 home runs that year for the Angels. In addition, Robinson didn't join the Indians until September of 1974. That's lazy writing, pure and simple.
So, this book gets (a very generous) one star from me.
May 15, 2015
Snark without heart... Mike Shropshire's writing is unrelentingly "clever" and a bit of an acquired taste. I didn't acquire it. I was expecting "Ball Four" but got "Hit by a Pitch" instead. If you like to listen to people brag about their drinking exploits or enjoy jokes about alcoholism, this is the book for you. If you like baseball, the one save here is the author's portrayal of Whitey Herzog.
August 30, 2016
The first third or so of this book is really funny. I mean, tears rolling down my face funny. Shropshire's wry descriptions of the utterly inept 1973 Texas Rangers baseball team is really good reading for anyone who likes baseball and loves schadenfreude. But, as with a lot of books that are funny at the start, this one doesn't maintain it.
I had several problems with this book. For one, the title itself is misleading. Yes, it puts "the worst team in baseball history" in quotes, but only the '73 team was bad. The '74 team was actually pretty good, and the '75 team was mediocre. In addition, well over half of the book is devoted to the '73 season; like the humor, it's as if Shropshire himself ran out of gas. There is a strange preoccupation with spring training, with as much space devoted to that as to the regular season. The big preoccupation here, though, is Shropshire's obsession with drinking. Like most drunks, he places tremendous emphasis and importance to what was being consumed, in what quantities, by whom, and where. Again like most drunks, he makes the erroneous assumption that other people are as fascinated with this stuff as he is. I found it really tiresome by the latter portion of the book.
There are some interesting portraits of such figures as Herzog, Martin, schoolboy wunderkind David Clyde, and such lesser lights as "The Strange Ranger" Willie Davis and "Beeg Boy" Rico Carty, so slow running to first base that "you could time him with a sundial." Shropshire fudges some of his facts--he repeatedly misspells Brewer manager and former Braves star Del Crandall's name--and screws up the timeline of some events.
It was fun to hear how some of these baseball icons talk when it's off the cuff, and having lived in Texas and been a (temporary) Rangers fan myself, I liked hearing stories about this team in particular. In the end, though, the endless frat party that Shropshire describes gets old, and like a drunk who was fun when the evening began, it ultimately becomes a little pathetic. Three stars for being howlingly funny for a while, but not really recommended.
I had several problems with this book. For one, the title itself is misleading. Yes, it puts "the worst team in baseball history" in quotes, but only the '73 team was bad. The '74 team was actually pretty good, and the '75 team was mediocre. In addition, well over half of the book is devoted to the '73 season; like the humor, it's as if Shropshire himself ran out of gas. There is a strange preoccupation with spring training, with as much space devoted to that as to the regular season. The big preoccupation here, though, is Shropshire's obsession with drinking. Like most drunks, he places tremendous emphasis and importance to what was being consumed, in what quantities, by whom, and where. Again like most drunks, he makes the erroneous assumption that other people are as fascinated with this stuff as he is. I found it really tiresome by the latter portion of the book.
There are some interesting portraits of such figures as Herzog, Martin, schoolboy wunderkind David Clyde, and such lesser lights as "The Strange Ranger" Willie Davis and "Beeg Boy" Rico Carty, so slow running to first base that "you could time him with a sundial." Shropshire fudges some of his facts--he repeatedly misspells Brewer manager and former Braves star Del Crandall's name--and screws up the timeline of some events.
It was fun to hear how some of these baseball icons talk when it's off the cuff, and having lived in Texas and been a (temporary) Rangers fan myself, I liked hearing stories about this team in particular. In the end, though, the endless frat party that Shropshire describes gets old, and like a drunk who was fun when the evening began, it ultimately becomes a little pathetic. Three stars for being howlingly funny for a while, but not really recommended.
March 30, 2013
I very much enjoyed this book about the early days of the Texas Rangers . Any fan if the game in the 1970s will enjoy this book about a largely-ignored part of baseball history. David Clyde, Billy Martin, Ted Williams and Ten Cent Beer Night. How can you go wrong?
January 4, 2015
This is a weird one.
Back when Hunter S. Thompson and gonzo journalism was sweeping the reporting landscape a baseball reporter, Mike Shropshire, adapted the first person, reporter as a key protagonist, style. He did so for his book about the 1973 Texas Rangers - a team ripe for exploitation, seeing as they were one of the worst in league history.
What follows is interesting not because of Shropshire's style (I've never read Thompson but I imagine he is a more engaging protagonist) but because of how laughably terrible the Rangers were at the outset of Shropshire's writing. In fact, almost all the stuff included in Seasons in Hell that actually deals with the initial ineptitude and eventual respectability of the Rangers franchise is solid car crash entertainment.
Had Shropshire taken a more subjective approach and excised himself from his descriptions of the events it might have been a more enjoyable total package. At some point I lost interest in hearing Shropshire detail how he was a bad drunk.
Of course, this begs the question, if this had been written as just another cookie cutter baseball book would anyone have cared?
I can't answer that, but Seasons in Hell receives a rather warm recommendation from me.
Back when Hunter S. Thompson and gonzo journalism was sweeping the reporting landscape a baseball reporter, Mike Shropshire, adapted the first person, reporter as a key protagonist, style. He did so for his book about the 1973 Texas Rangers - a team ripe for exploitation, seeing as they were one of the worst in league history.
What follows is interesting not because of Shropshire's style (I've never read Thompson but I imagine he is a more engaging protagonist) but because of how laughably terrible the Rangers were at the outset of Shropshire's writing. In fact, almost all the stuff included in Seasons in Hell that actually deals with the initial ineptitude and eventual respectability of the Rangers franchise is solid car crash entertainment.
Had Shropshire taken a more subjective approach and excised himself from his descriptions of the events it might have been a more enjoyable total package. At some point I lost interest in hearing Shropshire detail how he was a bad drunk.
Of course, this begs the question, if this had been written as just another cookie cutter baseball book would anyone have cared?
I can't answer that, but Seasons in Hell receives a rather warm recommendation from me.
August 2, 2015
The best word to use for this book is "irreverent." In a world where baseball is often spoken of in hushed, holy terms, this books is decidedly counter cultural. This is not Rodger Kahn, Ken Burns or Buck O'Niell writing about heroic deeds. This is Mike Shropshire reporting on the worst team in baseball. It is direct, irreverent, often crude but also Laugh Out Loud funny. It is not just LOL, it is "laugh out loud, read this section to the person next to you even if it is a stranger on the plane," kind of funny. It is about losses and futility and guys just trying to make it. Amazingly this terrible team had two great managers in Whitey Herzog and Billy Martin who respond to the situation very differently. It is also about life in the 1970s, a time before AIDS when people thought smoking, getting drunk and sleeping with anyone was just part of life. Imagine being a baseball player -- even a bad baseball player -- at a time like that. Imagine it, or read Mike Shropshire's book and see for yourself.
May 2, 2013
This is the funniest baseball book of all time, and maybe the funniest book ever written. I am probably only saying this because I am from Grand Prairie, Texas, one town over from Arlington, and because I spent every summer night of my young life listening to these teams on WBAP 820, the Voice of the Metroplex. Still, it's a hilarious book and you should read it and give away copies to your friends so they will like you better.
April 10, 2016
Ramblings of a wanna be hedonist rock star. Entertaining if I thought 70 percent of it wasn't exaggerated or a lie. Furthermore, it was published in 1997, 23 years after the events of the book. Not only is the subject matter possibly misremembered but probably loses some of its edge. Probably more notable reading of Texas Rangers fans.
July 7, 2023
Eh it was okay. Was hoping to know a little bit more about these teams but the focus seems to be on Billy Martin (an asshole), Whitey Herzog (another asshole) and David Clyde. There is hardly anything about Jeff Burroughs 1974 MVP season. I wanted to know more about him and Fergie Jenkins and Gaylord Perry and Toby Harrah and Jim Sundberg. And more about the fans at that stadium. Almost just seemed like another Billy Martin book. Parts of the book were funny, but I guess not what I was looking for when seeking out a book on the Rangers in the 1970s.
April 21, 2023
At first, this is a fun book. Shropshire writes about covering the hapless Texas Rangers of 1972. The writing is clever and it offers a bit of a behind the scenes look at a baseball team. It's funny, sarcastic and it embraces that 1970s era.
But as the book progresses, it bogs down a little. It goes from a baseball book by a seasoned sports reporter to a frat boy's bragging on how much he can drink. Some of the jokes he does, the exaggerated examples to show how much he drinks or the negativity of the team, are repetitive.
There is a glaring error, too. Jim Bibby hurled a no-hitter against Oakland in 1973. Shropshire said the only other no-hitters for the Washington-Texas team were done by Walter Johnson in 1920 and Bobby Burke in 1931. Wrong. The Texas Rangers evolved from the second Washington Senators team that came in 1961 after the first Senators went to Minnesota. So, saying those no-hitters were from pre-Rangers team is not exactly correct.
If you're an old baseball fan, and I know I am, it's fun reading about players of our youths. Fergie Jenkins is there, as are Jeff Burroughs, David Clyde, Clyde Wright et al. He also includes more personalities of the players. Cesar Tover, he of my ol' Minnesota Twins, was a fighter in the clubhouse. Rico B-e-e-g Boy Carty was a nut. Billy Martin was constantly fighting folks when he was the manager.
If you can get around some of the sarcasm that seems forced for the book, this a well-written book. Albeit, it took me forever to read through it, but it was fun.
But as the book progresses, it bogs down a little. It goes from a baseball book by a seasoned sports reporter to a frat boy's bragging on how much he can drink. Some of the jokes he does, the exaggerated examples to show how much he drinks or the negativity of the team, are repetitive.
There is a glaring error, too. Jim Bibby hurled a no-hitter against Oakland in 1973. Shropshire said the only other no-hitters for the Washington-Texas team were done by Walter Johnson in 1920 and Bobby Burke in 1931. Wrong. The Texas Rangers evolved from the second Washington Senators team that came in 1961 after the first Senators went to Minnesota. So, saying those no-hitters were from pre-Rangers team is not exactly correct.
If you're an old baseball fan, and I know I am, it's fun reading about players of our youths. Fergie Jenkins is there, as are Jeff Burroughs, David Clyde, Clyde Wright et al. He also includes more personalities of the players. Cesar Tover, he of my ol' Minnesota Twins, was a fighter in the clubhouse. Rico B-e-e-g Boy Carty was a nut. Billy Martin was constantly fighting folks when he was the manager.
If you can get around some of the sarcasm that seems forced for the book, this a well-written book. Albeit, it took me forever to read through it, but it was fun.
May 3, 2015
i got slightly obsessed with billy martin and his weird battle against the world. this book contains some good details about billy martin, such as the many specific times he punched people in bars or was punched by people in bars during his time as manager of the texas rangers. otherwise i cannot recommend it; shropshire is personable and funny, but there are at least two more adjectives than needed in every sentence. shorter version of this book: the seventies were a weird time, because everybody was drunk but cell phone cameras hadnt been invented yet; also, some baseball teams are bad at baseball.
August 16, 2015
Very funny, somewhat poignant. If you're a baseball fan -- especially a fan of the Texas Rangers -- it's a must-read. One of the funniest baseball books ever. The author has a gonzo journalism type quality to his writing. Shropshire had no love for Fort Worth, or Arlington, and his descriptions of those places are laugh-out-loud funny. The Whitey Herzog and Billy Martin anecdotes are hilarious. Perfectly captures the free-wheeling and innocent excesses of the early 1970's in America.
May 11, 2015
This was a decent baseball book. It's about a drinker with a sports writing problem covering a drinking team with a worse baseball problem. I wasn't alive to witness the Rangers in the 70's, but the author did a great job giving you a feel for what it was like covering the team back then. It's short, but worthwhile.
July 4, 2015
It was a good book with some interesting looks at baseball from the view of a sportswriter.
The saddest part about the book is that I could have stopped reading at any point and would have not worried about ever getting to the end of it... To see the payoff pitch so to speak.
The saddest part about the book is that I could have stopped reading at any point and would have not worried about ever getting to the end of it... To see the payoff pitch so to speak.
April 20, 2016
A story that could have been presented in an infinitely more humorous way. There were many terrific anecdotes in this book, but they were sandwiched in the midst of some egregious overwriting. I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did, but all 3 stars are for Whitey Herzog.
June 23, 2010
baseball, Texas Rangers, Billy Martin, White Herzog
July 31, 2010
The author looks back at his tenure as the beat writer of the Texas Rangers back in the mid-seventies.
August 16, 2013
It was fine but not one of the funniest baseball books ever written like some claims have it.
December 26, 2021
This was a pretty big disappointment. I was initially intrigued because it purported to examine a period of baseball history (early 1970s) that tends to be neglected. It was also interesting in its focus on the early days of the Texas Rangers when they were managed by one hall of fame manager (Whitey Herzog) and another near Hall of Famer (Billy Martin). The first year under Martin (after a terrible season under Herzog) actually went pretty well (84-76, second to the eventual World Series-winning A’s) before Martin managed to self-destruct in Texas to get himself hired in New York. I can’t see that these Rangers teams were as bad as Shropshire makes them out to be, despite the records. He seemed to be going for the tone of Ball Four, but he doesn’t have Jim Bouton’s talent or player perspective and it falls far short. Written 20 years after the occurrence of the events described, I’m sure much was misremembered and is just plain wrong (other reviewers point out the author’s confusion over which team Frank Robinson was playing for when). Shropshire’s focus on his own drinking exploits and the general sexist nature of the environment along with his own casual racism as opposed to actual baseball gave the whole book a kind of sophomoric tone. Some reviewers seemed to find him funny, but I guess this just isn’t my sense of humor. At one point, Shropshire is going into some depth about his own back pain while discussing a colleague who’s actually dying of cancer; this type of tone-deaf narrative characterizes the whole book. Further, given the mid-nineties publication date, there’s no consideration of advanced statistics, but I can’t imagine that would be different if it were written today. At any rate, this is definitely not a keeper and I’ll happily live the remainder of my days never reading Mike Shropshire again.
January 8, 2022
Let me preface by saying I thought this book was hilarious. If you like laughing at and pondering the ubsurdity of the human experience through a baseball paradigm, this might be your book.
To say I am a big Texas Rangers fan is an understatement. Baseball is my favorite sport and the Rangers are my team. This book is a raw, humorous (albeit a little disgruntled sounding) account of the author's time with the early Rangers. Shropshire is witty, facetious, and entertaining.
That being said, people who aren't Rangers fans probably will not give this book more than 3 stars. Most of the 70's pop culture references are lost on someone like me who was a 2000's kid, and my wife described the humor as "crass." Many readers will grow weary of the author's lamentations. I understand how this book wouldn't fit everyone's pistol.
But I enjoyed it a lot.
To say I am a big Texas Rangers fan is an understatement. Baseball is my favorite sport and the Rangers are my team. This book is a raw, humorous (albeit a little disgruntled sounding) account of the author's time with the early Rangers. Shropshire is witty, facetious, and entertaining.
That being said, people who aren't Rangers fans probably will not give this book more than 3 stars. Most of the 70's pop culture references are lost on someone like me who was a 2000's kid, and my wife described the humor as "crass." Many readers will grow weary of the author's lamentations. I understand how this book wouldn't fit everyone's pistol.
But I enjoyed it a lot.
January 31, 2024
2.5 stars
Supposed to be a sort of funny baseball book but I didn’t find it that funny. The author clearly thinks he’s just as interesting as the team he’s covering because he spends thousands of dollars on alcohol. He is not.
Supposed to be a sort of funny baseball book but I didn’t find it that funny. The author clearly thinks he’s just as interesting as the team he’s covering because he spends thousands of dollars on alcohol. He is not.
July 25, 2020
3.5 stars.
Well written and humorous at times but pretty sophomoric as the plot follows the sportswriter/author more than the team.
Well written and humorous at times but pretty sophomoric as the plot follows the sportswriter/author more than the team.
February 11, 2009
With all the gnashing of teeth and rending of pinstripes to which the media has been driven by A-Rod's recent steroid "revelations", what could be more refreshing than a book reminding us that the sacred sport of baseball was already plenty lowbrow and disgraced? Luckily that book exists and has just been reprinted: Seasons in Hell, a woozy romp through the hapless inaugural seasons of the Texas Rangers franchise courtesy of gonzo sportswriter Mike Shropshire. SIH is usually likened to Jim Bouton's Ball Four, a famous tell-all memoir that was the first book to expose the sordidness and false mythologies of baseball, but the spirit here is much more Caddyshack than bandbox Jonathan Swift: not an expose demonstrating that sacred cows exist, but rather a knowing comedy that takes those cows for granted and has a lot of fun watching them get tipped into their own poop. Shropshire is a great raconteur, one of the funniest I've encountered, and he's as apt at cranking out fantastic metaphors and descriptions as he is at giving his "characters" free rein, which is wise, considering the carnival of lowlifes, dopes, and semi-functional alcoholics he has to document. The book has a really generous sense of humor that never seems mean-spirited at all -- Shropshire himself admits to living on highballs of Wild Turkey & pain pills for months at a time and to arbitrarily messing up official statsheets to make games more interesting -- and I disagree with the reviewer below who called it 'smart-alecky' - when you're relating stories about players who are wearing pimp suedes purchased at Hot Sam's of Detroit, ordering Everclear for breakfast, and constructing "fart machines" out of rubber bands and thumbtacks in order to torment stewardesses, your stylistic options are clearly either irony or despair. The star of the book is absolutely 1973 manager Whitey Herzog, whose apathetic, deadpan observations on the abjections of his squad had me highlighting every other page, and for a taste you can check some excerpts here. (Though you'll be glad to know that there are plenty of even richer nuggets remaining all throughout the book.) This is a neglected classic, one recommended to baseball fans and foes alike - I can't believe there could be ten funnier books than this that've been written in the past fifty years, and that's in any genre, not just the small library of sports: definitely one to be worked into my perennial rotation, and one of those books I hate to finish because it's ruined me for the fifty so-so books I have to slog through next.
[Brief PS: preliminary investigations via Amazon's "Look Inside!" feature indicate that Shropshire's other books are nowhere near as ripe as this one - seems our man may have been deserted by whatever muse was presiding over this book (my money's on the female desk clerk at the Kansas City Sheraton who he mentions was stalking him for most of 1974, but the aging hippie who started an incense fire in his hotel room has her backers).]
[Brief PS: preliminary investigations via Amazon's "Look Inside!" feature indicate that Shropshire's other books are nowhere near as ripe as this one - seems our man may have been deserted by whatever muse was presiding over this book (my money's on the female desk clerk at the Kansas City Sheraton who he mentions was stalking him for most of 1974, but the aging hippie who started an incense fire in his hotel room has her backers).]
July 10, 2009
Baseball fan? Gut need a little exercise? Reading Mike Shropshire's "Seasons in Hell" will convulse your tummy like one of those killer ab workouts. It's still the funniest non-fiction book I've read, even if the second half drags a little in comparison to the first half.
Shropshire provides a searing, funny inside look at baseball's worst team, circa mid-'70s. It's all here, from spring training hijinks to the Rangers' unfortunate pushing of young pitching phenom David Clyde up to the bigs far too soon, to plenty of Whitey Herzog stories. Shropshire's description of manager Herzog's crazed theory that Milwaukee Brewers mustachioed mascot Bernie Brewer was relaying signs to hitters just about makes me wet myself every time I think about it.
"Seasons in Hell" isn't about in-depth reporting, but it is almost as much fun as the game itself.
Shropshire provides a searing, funny inside look at baseball's worst team, circa mid-'70s. It's all here, from spring training hijinks to the Rangers' unfortunate pushing of young pitching phenom David Clyde up to the bigs far too soon, to plenty of Whitey Herzog stories. Shropshire's description of manager Herzog's crazed theory that Milwaukee Brewers mustachioed mascot Bernie Brewer was relaying signs to hitters just about makes me wet myself every time I think about it.
"Seasons in Hell" isn't about in-depth reporting, but it is almost as much fun as the game itself.
June 15, 2020
The book was dated as it covered a baseball team in the early 70s which was not very good. Occasionally I would recognize a name from the past. Some of the Stories were funny; some were just bizarre. The author certainly did not have a glamorous job covering a bargain basement baseball team. There are the usual stories of players drinking too much, whoring around too much and smoking too much weed.
This was not the best sports book that I have ever read. It was not the best book about baseball that I have ever read. Let’s just say it was the best book about the 1972 - 1975 Texas Ranger baseball team that I have read.
Read Ball Four By Jim Bouton if you would like to read a classic inside baseball book.
This was not the best sports book that I have ever read. It was not the best book about baseball that I have ever read. Let’s just say it was the best book about the 1972 - 1975 Texas Ranger baseball team that I have read.
Read Ball Four By Jim Bouton if you would like to read a classic inside baseball book.
June 6, 2017
Fun Times!!!!
Fun raucous time captured with great panache
Shropshire did great in expressing it. Fun to get insight on the players of my youth
Fun raucous time captured with great panache
Shropshire did great in expressing it. Fun to get insight on the players of my youth
July 2, 2019
The author tries a little too hard to add an Outlaw sensibility to his memoir of the Texas Rangers' early days, which is his right to do. That said, when taken with a grain of salt it's a fine story of the bad, good and mediocre of a fledgling Major League Baseball franchise. I only wish there will be a more comprehensive book on this subject (and the years immediately following Shropshire's time covering the Rangers) some day.
September 8, 2009
Funny. Shropshire writes of his days covering the early 1970s Rangers. The best part of this book is its rich cast of characters, which includes manager Billy Martin, longtime D/FW reporter and columnist Randy Galloway, and Shropshire himself. You'll find yourself doubled-over laughing as Shropshire recounts the shenangins in which these larger-than-life characters engaged.
April 20, 2014
Shropshire writes as much memoir as history. Leavened with humor that is by turns crude and hyperbolic, he paints an ineffective portrait of both being a sportswriter and a baseball team. What he does excel at, aside from drinking to excess, is share interesting character portraits. I'm not certain certain, but he may have drafted this in crayon.
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