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Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud
At age seventeen Joe Pepitone signed with the New York Yankees, and soon experts were predicting that he would be the team’s next superstar. He could run, throw, and field, and he had a sweet home run swing.
But during his twelve years in the major leagues Pepitone devoted most of his energy to swinging off the field. He blew his career, destroyed two marriages, lost custody of three children, and came very close to a nervous breakdown. At the age of thirty-three he quit baseball for good and finally admitted that for most of his life, he’d been living a lie. He’d been acting the carefree clown in order to cover up immense inner pain.
In Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud , first published in 1975, Pepitone reveals what was behind his wild behavior. He does so in the most devastatingly honest terms, holding back none of the embarrassment, anguish, and guilt that perpetually haunted him. He tells of the father he loved so much, “Willie Pep” Pepitone, the toughest man in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood. Obsessed with making Joe a baseball star, Willie beat his son when he failed to meet expectations. One night, enraged at his father, Joe said, “Mom—I wish he’d die!” Willie died the next day.
Along with pain, the book has plenty of humor. Pepitone tells of partying with Frank Sinatra and Mickey Mantle, carousing with groupies and hookers, and “living the life” of a famous ballplayer in the sixties and seventies.
One of the most moving, honest, and hilarious books ever written by an athlete, Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud was selected by Esquire magazine as one of the “20 best baseball books ever.”
Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team.
Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
But during his twelve years in the major leagues Pepitone devoted most of his energy to swinging off the field. He blew his career, destroyed two marriages, lost custody of three children, and came very close to a nervous breakdown. At the age of thirty-three he quit baseball for good and finally admitted that for most of his life, he’d been living a lie. He’d been acting the carefree clown in order to cover up immense inner pain.
In Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud , first published in 1975, Pepitone reveals what was behind his wild behavior. He does so in the most devastatingly honest terms, holding back none of the embarrassment, anguish, and guilt that perpetually haunted him. He tells of the father he loved so much, “Willie Pep” Pepitone, the toughest man in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood. Obsessed with making Joe a baseball star, Willie beat his son when he failed to meet expectations. One night, enraged at his father, Joe said, “Mom—I wish he’d die!” Willie died the next day.
Along with pain, the book has plenty of humor. Pepitone tells of partying with Frank Sinatra and Mickey Mantle, carousing with groupies and hookers, and “living the life” of a famous ballplayer in the sixties and seventies.
One of the most moving, honest, and hilarious books ever written by an athlete, Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud was selected by Esquire magazine as one of the “20 best baseball books ever.”
Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team.
Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 30, 2024
I had mixed feelings about this book. As a lifelong Yankee fan, I had to read everything about my childhood heroes, including all the ghost-written autobiographies. Of course, at the time, I didn't realize that my heroes weren't actually sitting down with pen and paper, nor did I know they were completely sanitized, but I gobbled them up like M & M's.
This of course changed when Jim Bouton wrote "Ball Four", which showed my idols to be more like flawed jocks, even more subject to human failings than most of us because their revered status protected them from scrutiny. (At the time, this was true, but now much less so with reporters scrambling for sordid details.) Joe Pepitone featured in Bouton's book and it was not at all flattering; the era when I first began following baseball with stars in my eyes - Mantle, Maris, etc. - showed my stars to be not all that shining. This brings me to Joe Pepitone, who died last year.
The story here could be seen as a tragedy becuase the truth is that Joe Pepitone ruined his own career fighting his devils - trying to live up to his father, being Italian and playing in his hometown while really being a weak individual - but even in a time when the personal flaws of athletes were not always in the headlines, he was known as a pathological liar and whiner. Nothing was ever his fault, he'd been damaged by all this pressure, he couldn't help being the way he was and doing the things he did. The truth is that he wore on people so I saw this as a book which showed the real Joe Pepitone, a potentially great ballplayer who just never took responsibility, and why he was the way he was. I have no doubt that parts of this book are true - but which parts? When Pepitone came up to the Yankees, did the Mafia really offer to break Bill Skowron's legs so that Joe could be a starter at first base? Did he really smoke marijuana with Mickey Mantle before an exhibition game? Was he really a sex addict who would wander the streets all night looking for a woman - any woman - so that he could relax? The list goes on. (Not in the book but... in later years, he was in a car which was stopped by police and in which were found a substantial quantity of drugs; he denied knowledge, of course, but went to prison anyway.)
There was no love lost between twice (New York and Houston) ex-teammates Bouton and Pepitone which may be why Bouton took such delight in his portrayal of Joe but I got the impression that he didn't have many friends anyway, or at least none that would do him any good. Bouton's portrayal of Pepitone as extremely vain was accurate, I think; he admiited to having two toupees, one for games and one for private life, and I remember he did commercials for The Hair Club for Men, a hairpiece company. This is probably one of the reasons I liked the book, thinking back on it in later years; I had a better sense of what the book said about Joe Pepitone, possibly without his even realizing it, his often false narrative revealing the failure within.
This of course changed when Jim Bouton wrote "Ball Four", which showed my idols to be more like flawed jocks, even more subject to human failings than most of us because their revered status protected them from scrutiny. (At the time, this was true, but now much less so with reporters scrambling for sordid details.) Joe Pepitone featured in Bouton's book and it was not at all flattering; the era when I first began following baseball with stars in my eyes - Mantle, Maris, etc. - showed my stars to be not all that shining. This brings me to Joe Pepitone, who died last year.
The story here could be seen as a tragedy becuase the truth is that Joe Pepitone ruined his own career fighting his devils - trying to live up to his father, being Italian and playing in his hometown while really being a weak individual - but even in a time when the personal flaws of athletes were not always in the headlines, he was known as a pathological liar and whiner. Nothing was ever his fault, he'd been damaged by all this pressure, he couldn't help being the way he was and doing the things he did. The truth is that he wore on people so I saw this as a book which showed the real Joe Pepitone, a potentially great ballplayer who just never took responsibility, and why he was the way he was. I have no doubt that parts of this book are true - but which parts? When Pepitone came up to the Yankees, did the Mafia really offer to break Bill Skowron's legs so that Joe could be a starter at first base? Did he really smoke marijuana with Mickey Mantle before an exhibition game? Was he really a sex addict who would wander the streets all night looking for a woman - any woman - so that he could relax? The list goes on. (Not in the book but... in later years, he was in a car which was stopped by police and in which were found a substantial quantity of drugs; he denied knowledge, of course, but went to prison anyway.)
There was no love lost between twice (New York and Houston) ex-teammates Bouton and Pepitone which may be why Bouton took such delight in his portrayal of Joe but I got the impression that he didn't have many friends anyway, or at least none that would do him any good. Bouton's portrayal of Pepitone as extremely vain was accurate, I think; he admiited to having two toupees, one for games and one for private life, and I remember he did commercials for The Hair Club for Men, a hairpiece company. This is probably one of the reasons I liked the book, thinking back on it in later years; I had a better sense of what the book said about Joe Pepitone, possibly without his even realizing it, his often false narrative revealing the failure within.
June 15, 2016
Pepitone's raw honesty is surprising in a memoir. Even though it was written 40 years ago (with an epilogue from just last year), it shows an amazing sense of understanding. Every step of the way, Pepitone and Stainback show a deep understanding of not just what happened, but why Joe made those decisions, and the collision course it put him on. The book tells the ultimate story of rags-to-riches-to-rags, of redemption, and of guilt. Instead of just laying out the events of his life, Pepitone narrates as a man who's had a lot of time to think and understand. It's less a story of baseball than a story of a baseball player; most of the action takes place off the field (and in Joe's mind). While his understanding may still be flawed and oversimplified at times, it paints a picture of societal pressures ripping a man apart from the inside.
August 8, 2015
I would say that the critics were right in calling this an "honest" book. I just found myself liking Joe Pep less with each page, and waiting for the redeeming moment. it never came.
May 23, 2017
Joe Pepitone’s JOE, YOU COULDA MADE US PROUD is one of the insipid copycat books that followed Jim Bouton's brilliant BALL FOUR. Pepitone’s story is tragic in a wholly self-inflicted way. But the writing is manipulative and the execution lacks the originality and humor of Bouton.
You should feel no guilt if you decide to take a pass on COULDA MADE US PROUD.
You should feel no guilt if you decide to take a pass on COULDA MADE US PROUD.
January 2, 2019
Joe Pepitone has to be high on any list of baseball players that had amazing talent for the game yet threw it away in a self-destructive frenzy. He was a very good fielder as well as a hitter, lost in most of the talk about his wayward ways is the fact that he won three Gold Glove awards at first base. When Mickey Mantle’s legs were giving out and he was moved to first base from center field, Pepitone took over in center and did a credible job.
While Pepitone is open about his many mistakes and childish behavior, the rendition reaches the point where his excuses tire the reader. Yes, his father hit him consistently and he was under great pressure to do what was expected of him. Furthermore, his father did die shortly after Joe yelled to him that he wished his father were dead. Yet, that excuse wears out as you read about how much he failed to put out effort, treated his wives horribly, openly considered women as nothing more than sex objects and was completely irresponsible with money.
In the modern world where professional athletes are regularly excoriated in print and hero worship is a thing of the past, this book is a bit of fresh air in that nearly all of the exposed dirt is in reference to Pepitone. You do have to give him credit for that, as there is no question that he could have said much more about teammates such as Mickey Mantle. From this book, it is clear that if Pepitone could have righted himself in his early twenties, he would likely be in the Hall of Fame. To achieve what he did on the field of play given what he did off of it is an amazing feat.
While Pepitone is open about his many mistakes and childish behavior, the rendition reaches the point where his excuses tire the reader. Yes, his father hit him consistently and he was under great pressure to do what was expected of him. Furthermore, his father did die shortly after Joe yelled to him that he wished his father were dead. Yet, that excuse wears out as you read about how much he failed to put out effort, treated his wives horribly, openly considered women as nothing more than sex objects and was completely irresponsible with money.
In the modern world where professional athletes are regularly excoriated in print and hero worship is a thing of the past, this book is a bit of fresh air in that nearly all of the exposed dirt is in reference to Pepitone. You do have to give him credit for that, as there is no question that he could have said much more about teammates such as Mickey Mantle. From this book, it is clear that if Pepitone could have righted himself in his early twenties, he would likely be in the Hall of Fame. To achieve what he did on the field of play given what he did off of it is an amazing feat.
August 22, 2022
I always remember Joe Pepitone for his odd posture on the 1965 TOPPS baseball card. He looks like he is trying to grab your ankles. I did not know anything about Joe Pepitone's career or personal life before reading this book. Some random mentions in Seinfeld episodes was about all I knew. Joe sure tells it like it was, no punches pulled (something that does have other meaning). Being severely beaten as a child by his father who immediately was "sorry" would mess anybody's head up. His later sexual antics that continued while he was supposedly married curled your hair. Yes, this book was filled with revelations. It actually was a good read.
December 16, 2018
Want to read about the life of a 60s baseball superstar who partied hard, wracked up insane amounts of debt to the point the club had to control his income and who coasted on his baseball success? Read this. Pepitone lived a rockstar life and a result squandered a lot of his baseball talent and opportunities. He should have been the next Ted Williams. He was instead another athletes who didn’t live up to his potential. Great read and told with complete honesty. Pepitone as an author seems to scratch his head and think “how did I get always with all that?”
October 14, 2023
Honest and Interesting!
I really enjoyed Joe Pepitone’s biography. Great insights into the life of a baseball player in the 1960 and 70s. He gives us all the dirt, mostly on himself, in that he knows he didn't realize his true potential on and off the field. I would definitely recommend this book. Growing up in Chicago, Joe was always one of my favorite players.
I really enjoyed Joe Pepitone’s biography. Great insights into the life of a baseball player in the 1960 and 70s. He gives us all the dirt, mostly on himself, in that he knows he didn't realize his true potential on and off the field. I would definitely recommend this book. Growing up in Chicago, Joe was always one of my favorite players.
July 18, 2017
"When I opened my hairstyling place, I brought an extra fifty thousand fags into Yankee Stadium."
December 28, 2019
Amusing first-hand anecdotes.
October 31, 2022
I wanted to shower after reading this book. If I could give zero stars, I would.
October 28, 2025
Pretty funny book. I had no idea who this dude was going into it, but really quite entertaining.. life seemed pretty fun in the 60s and 70s
August 26, 2011
Baseball's dark side -- THE NATURAL meets THE SOPRANOS -- MEAN STREETS on a FIELD OF DREAMS!
There are a million ways to describe this lost, long-forgotten (and possibly suppressed) sports auto-biography by failed Yankees slugger Joe Pepitone. This racy, sordid, despairing, defiant, uplifting, frightening, complex, challenging account of a great star who never quite achieved superstardom contains everything the baseball industry does not, can not, will not ackknowledge about the game.
Pepitone tells all, in a tough, street-wise, Italian-American voice entirely unacquainted with self pity. How he grew up in the toughest Italian neighborhood in New York. How his father, a brutal and psychopathic figure, by turns bullied and spoiled his baseball prodigy son. How the Yankees signed him with no questions asked, rushed him into training camp, and stuck a bat in his hand. How Mickey Mantle, who turned the face of a golden-haired Good Ol' Boy to the world, was in reality an aging, pain-wracked prima donna whose loathing for young competition approached clinical paranoia.
You'll see night life in these pages. Decadence and sin. Hardened mobsters at the Tropicana, forcing soul great Sam Cooke to "jump around and make monkey sounds" for the Italian nobility that was the original mob. You'll see Pepitone drunk, hungover, pilled up, brain addled by hashish, smashing titanic home runs one minute and dropping easy fly balls the next. Lost youth, failed illusions, the tragic desolation in the soul of a sensitive, decent man asked too young to make other people's dreams come true. Joe, you coulda made us proud.
Instead you wrote a masterpiece -- and spoke a truth America refuses to hear.
There are a million ways to describe this lost, long-forgotten (and possibly suppressed) sports auto-biography by failed Yankees slugger Joe Pepitone. This racy, sordid, despairing, defiant, uplifting, frightening, complex, challenging account of a great star who never quite achieved superstardom contains everything the baseball industry does not, can not, will not ackknowledge about the game.
Pepitone tells all, in a tough, street-wise, Italian-American voice entirely unacquainted with self pity. How he grew up in the toughest Italian neighborhood in New York. How his father, a brutal and psychopathic figure, by turns bullied and spoiled his baseball prodigy son. How the Yankees signed him with no questions asked, rushed him into training camp, and stuck a bat in his hand. How Mickey Mantle, who turned the face of a golden-haired Good Ol' Boy to the world, was in reality an aging, pain-wracked prima donna whose loathing for young competition approached clinical paranoia.
You'll see night life in these pages. Decadence and sin. Hardened mobsters at the Tropicana, forcing soul great Sam Cooke to "jump around and make monkey sounds" for the Italian nobility that was the original mob. You'll see Pepitone drunk, hungover, pilled up, brain addled by hashish, smashing titanic home runs one minute and dropping easy fly balls the next. Lost youth, failed illusions, the tragic desolation in the soul of a sensitive, decent man asked too young to make other people's dreams come true. Joe, you coulda made us proud.
Instead you wrote a masterpiece -- and spoke a truth America refuses to hear.
January 2, 2017
I'm sure you'll find the word "honest" to be the most commonly used word to describe Joe Pepitone's autobiography. From discussing his abusive father to his dangerous and disgusting sexual habits to his failures on the diamond, the man doesn't hold back. Give him credit: he doesn't try to seem likable, only genuine. In that sense he succeeds.
There's no doubt that baseball fans will draw parallels between this book and Jim Bouton's Ball Four, published a few years prior. I tried reading Bouton's book several years ago and found it dull. One of the few statements Pepitone makes that I actually agreed with was when he lambasts Bouton for not admitting his own faults while sharing the dirt on others in the game.
As a Chicago Cubs fan, I enjoyed reading about Pepitone's brief tenure with the team in the early 1970s, something I knew nothing about. Hearing the Cubs of that era referred to as a pennant contender by a guy that played on two New York Yankees World Series teams earned a chuckle from me, and I enjoyed the brief anecdotes about Billy Williams and Ron Santo.
Bottom line though: I didn't care for the book. While I give Joe Pepitone credit for his honesty, I found his story to be nauseating and his portrayal of himself unsympathetic. But I suppose that was the point.
There's no doubt that baseball fans will draw parallels between this book and Jim Bouton's Ball Four, published a few years prior. I tried reading Bouton's book several years ago and found it dull. One of the few statements Pepitone makes that I actually agreed with was when he lambasts Bouton for not admitting his own faults while sharing the dirt on others in the game.
As a Chicago Cubs fan, I enjoyed reading about Pepitone's brief tenure with the team in the early 1970s, something I knew nothing about. Hearing the Cubs of that era referred to as a pennant contender by a guy that played on two New York Yankees World Series teams earned a chuckle from me, and I enjoyed the brief anecdotes about Billy Williams and Ron Santo.
Bottom line though: I didn't care for the book. While I give Joe Pepitone credit for his honesty, I found his story to be nauseating and his portrayal of himself unsympathetic. But I suppose that was the point.
August 8, 2013
Joe Pepitone was a scumbag. But he was an honest scumbag, and not a little remorseful, and his autobiography looks back on a disappointing career in baseball and a sordid life everywhere else. I discovered this book in high school around the same time I read Ball Four, and they hardly seemed to belong to the same genre. Where Bouton was bright and relatable, letting me in on a long series of private jokes, Pepitone made it very clear this was another world. I was probably at just the right age to be transfixed by how deep Pepitone was willing to go -- mob stories, sex stories, palling around with Frank Sinatra, breaking the hearts of those who loved him, and ending up a walking cautionary tale. (I don't want to make it sound like existential despair -- introspective though he may have been, he was by no means a navel-gazer.)
August 9, 2015
By far the best sporting book of its time, brutally honest filled with hilarious despair. Joe Pepitone hung with the racket boys at the Copa, fucked everything that he could, hung with Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris while playing for the New York Yankees of the mid 1960s. The Duane Thomas of baseball. A misfit, anti-authoritative, malcontent who blew most of his money before he had it. A beautiful story, really. When Pepitone finally left the MLB, heading to Japan to play, his 90 year old grandfather, Vincent Caiazzo said to him ""...I wanna tell you is to take these," he handed me two dimes. "Before you go to Japan, I wanna you to go down to the butcher shop and buy yourself two pounds of brains and put them in you head." A remarkable read.
December 30, 2015
Joe Pepitone, played for the NY Yankees, the Houston Astros and the Chicago Cubs. He was more famous for his exploits off the field than for his accomplishments on the field. He was a good ballplayer, but never wanted to truly hone his craft. He wanted to party, chase women and hang out with celebrities and mobsters. He went from wearing Yankee pinstripes to wearing a prison uniform. It's a good story and a quick read.
August 4, 2015
Sometimes I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when reading about Pepitone's self-destructive adventures on and off the diamond, but I mostly laughed. Alot. Loudly. Entertaining, but a cautionary tale about how a person can squander their gifts while making themselves and the people who love them miserable. Still, a must-read for fans of 60s and 70s baseball, and the Yankees in particular.
August 17, 2016
A glory days tale. Joe Pep recalls the highs and lows of his upbringing, baseball career, and adult life in his easy-to-read Playboy memoir. It's partially confessional, partially therapeutic, and partially unbelievable. Should be a staple for baseball fans.
October 23, 2013
A lot of "why I didn't do better on the ball field" palaver. Okay, a tough youth and too much booze and broads. Glad I finally read it.
July 10, 2014
Tell all book not so well written but one of the first to tell the dark side of success of unprepared superstar players.
June 13, 2015
One of the best baseball books I have ever read
October 28, 2019
Wow, such an exhilarating read.
September 7, 2015
I can't imagine many women would enjoy this book. Honest story, but honestly not a good man.
May 26, 2016
Joe Pepitone is a total tool, but that said, he's the most self-prurient baseball tool I've ever read a book by.
November 7, 2010
Very interesting read, but, ugh, what a jerk.
February 25, 2011
Exactly what I hoped it would be.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews