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Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History
From the perspective of 2007, the unintentional irony of Chance's boast is manifest—these days, the question is when will the Cubs ever win a game they have to have. In October 1908, though, no one would have The Cubs were, without doubt, baseball's greatest team—the first dynasty of the 20th century. Crazy '08 recounts the 1908 season—the year when Peerless Leader Frank Chance's men went toe to toe to toe with John McGraw and Christy Mathewson's New York Giants and Honus Wagner's Pittsburgh Pirates in the greatest pennant race the National League has ever seen. The American League has its own three-cornered pennant fight, and players like Cy Young, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and the egregiously crooked Hal Chase ensured that the junior circuit had its moments. But it was the National League's—and the Cubs'—year. Crazy '08 , however, is not just the exciting story of a great season. It is also about the forces that created modern baseball, and the America that produced it. In 1908, crooked pols run Chicago's First Ward, and gambling magnates control the Yankees. Fans regularly invade the field to do handstands or argue with the umps; others shoot guns from rickety grandstands prone to burning. There are anarchists on the loose and racial killings in the town that made Lincoln. On the flimsiest of pretexts, General Abner Doubleday becomes a symbol of Americanism, and baseball's own anthem, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," is a hit. Picaresque and dramatic, 1908 is a season in which so many weird and wonderful things happen that it is somehow unsurprising that a hairpiece, a swarm of gnats, a sudden bout of lumbago, and a disaster down in the mines all play a role in its outcome. And sometimes the events are not so wonderful at all. There are several deaths by baseball, and the shadow of corruption creeps closer to the heart of baseball—the honesty of the game itself. Simply put, 1908 is the year that baseball grew up. Oh, and it was the last time the Cubs won the World Series. Destined to be as memorable as the season it documents, Crazy '08 sets a new standard for what a book about baseball can be.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2007
128 people are currently reading
1624 people want to read
About the author
Cait Murphy
5 books12 followersCait Murphy is an editor and writer in New York, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 216 reviews
January 5, 2017
It's funny. I read this book awhile ago, but it somehow never made it on to my Goodreads list. Every now and then, some random part would come to mind, and I would think "oh, that's right - this is one of the books I forgot to put on my list. I should add it one of these days." One day, I finally remembered while I was logged on, and viola, added.
Fast forward to November 2016. The Cubs win the World Series, and this of course this makes me (and everyone else) think of 1908. I remembered this book, and thought it might be a good time to re-read it, especially since I don't remember it that well.
And now I think I know why - I don't think I ever actually read this book. I clearly read the intro, because it turns out that every tidbit I remember can be found there. But I must have stopped there, and then somehow convinced myself that I had read the whole thing, because everything after the intro has been new to me. It's not a big deal, but it's funny (to me, at least) because it's so out of character. I'm one of those people who can name every book they ever started but didn't finish, and yet I was somehow CONVINCED that I had read this cover to cover.
And it's my loss, too, because here's the thing - this book is great. I'm so glad I picked it back up again. It's rich, colorful, and extremely well-written. But what really hooked me - and this is key - is that the author also spends a lot of time discussing the period itself and other relevant events that were happening at the time. Every chapter has "Time out" sections that discuss non-baseball happenings in 1908, and it really serves to add a great deal of context - context that is often missing from baseball books that treat the game as if it happens in a vacuum.
For example, lots of books about this period (often referred to as the "deadball era," 1900-1919) discuss John McGraw, and they all discuss his temperament in the context of how it effected his managerial style and the actual games. What most books won't tell you is stuff like this: back then, players usually got dressed in their uniforms at the hotel and then either made their way to the field themselves or were taken by horse-drawn carriage. In Pittsburgh, the team was often taken to the field along a route that went through a busy market. And McGraw and other players would use this opportunity to openly taunt Pirates fans. Fans attacking players and vice versa, police escorts, police being needed to clear the field - all of that was common in 1908. Can you imagine the Cubs, in uniform, being taken, en mass, to the field to play the Indians in the World Series, winding through busy streets, yelling at fans? A lot of books leave stuff that like out, but to me, not only is that stuff relevant, it's the stuff I'd rather read. I already know the 1908 Giants were good. And there's only so many ways you can write about someone having a high batting average, or a low ERA. In order to really make a book like this stand out, you need to give the reader context beyond player performance and outcomes. And this book does that very, very well.
In this regard, this book reminds me more of Devil in the White City, or a Bill Bryson book. It also reminds me of October 1964 (another great baseball book that expands beyond the players and the game). Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in early 20th century history.
Fast forward to November 2016. The Cubs win the World Series, and this of course this makes me (and everyone else) think of 1908. I remembered this book, and thought it might be a good time to re-read it, especially since I don't remember it that well.
And now I think I know why - I don't think I ever actually read this book. I clearly read the intro, because it turns out that every tidbit I remember can be found there. But I must have stopped there, and then somehow convinced myself that I had read the whole thing, because everything after the intro has been new to me. It's not a big deal, but it's funny (to me, at least) because it's so out of character. I'm one of those people who can name every book they ever started but didn't finish, and yet I was somehow CONVINCED that I had read this cover to cover.
And it's my loss, too, because here's the thing - this book is great. I'm so glad I picked it back up again. It's rich, colorful, and extremely well-written. But what really hooked me - and this is key - is that the author also spends a lot of time discussing the period itself and other relevant events that were happening at the time. Every chapter has "Time out" sections that discuss non-baseball happenings in 1908, and it really serves to add a great deal of context - context that is often missing from baseball books that treat the game as if it happens in a vacuum.
For example, lots of books about this period (often referred to as the "deadball era," 1900-1919) discuss John McGraw, and they all discuss his temperament in the context of how it effected his managerial style and the actual games. What most books won't tell you is stuff like this: back then, players usually got dressed in their uniforms at the hotel and then either made their way to the field themselves or were taken by horse-drawn carriage. In Pittsburgh, the team was often taken to the field along a route that went through a busy market. And McGraw and other players would use this opportunity to openly taunt Pirates fans. Fans attacking players and vice versa, police escorts, police being needed to clear the field - all of that was common in 1908. Can you imagine the Cubs, in uniform, being taken, en mass, to the field to play the Indians in the World Series, winding through busy streets, yelling at fans? A lot of books leave stuff that like out, but to me, not only is that stuff relevant, it's the stuff I'd rather read. I already know the 1908 Giants were good. And there's only so many ways you can write about someone having a high batting average, or a low ERA. In order to really make a book like this stand out, you need to give the reader context beyond player performance and outcomes. And this book does that very, very well.
In this regard, this book reminds me more of Devil in the White City, or a Bill Bryson book. It also reminds me of October 1964 (another great baseball book that expands beyond the players and the game). Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in early 20th century history.
April 15, 2011
Crazy '08 is a nonfiction account of the 1908 baseball season where three teams vie for the NL pennant up until the very last game of the season. The book focuses on the Cubs (and their Hall of Fame crew of Tinker, Evers, Chance and "Three Finger" Brown) and the (then) New York Giants (led by the immortal Christy Matthewson and infamous John McGraw), and recounts the ebbs and flows of their records over the entire season before ending in the much-noted last World Series championship for the long-suffering Cubs. It was unfortunate that I read this non-fiction baseball book after reading Game Six by Mark Frost (another non-fiction baseball book) because this one suffered mightily in comparison. Murphy's prose is riddled with quotes from newspapers or books from the time period, and while all non-fiction authors cite references from the period they are covering, I haven't read any that cite as often as Murphy does. Because of that, her accounting of events comes off more as a relating of someone else's account, rather than as her own perspective. My second criticism of the book is that it employs a ridiculous structure called "time outs" where she breaks up her baseball narrative to describe non-baseball context (e.g. corruption in the city of Chicago at that time). A good non-fiction author would simply fold that relevant information into the narrative without specific "time out" chapters. It is exacerbated even further by time-outs that had no relation to anything (e.g. a chapter on serial killer Belle Gunness which the author admits was irrelevant but too interesting to her to pass up). Finally, Murphy notes on numerous occasions that 1908 is the greatest baseball season ever -- as if by constant repetition she will convince the reader of that statement's veracity; her narrative should make that case without the repetition, and unfortunately, it did not do that. Overall, while the teams and the time period were interesting, and the cast of baseball characters unique, the writing felt disjointed and unconvincing. This is a pass for me.
July 8, 2023
A very entertaining book about baseball. Mostly set in 1908, the last year the Chicago Cubs won The World Series. The author includes many interesting stories about other teams; although it is mostly about the rivarly between the Cubs and the New York Giants.
I checked the book out of the library expecting it to be just about the Cubs, but it is so much more. I learned about the "Merkle game", Tinkers to Evers to Chance, how gambling has always seemed to be connected with sports and many fascinating facts about legendary players such as Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Mordecai "Three Fingers" Brown and many more.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of baseball.
I checked the book out of the library expecting it to be just about the Cubs, but it is so much more. I learned about the "Merkle game", Tinkers to Evers to Chance, how gambling has always seemed to be connected with sports and many fascinating facts about legendary players such as Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Mordecai "Three Fingers" Brown and many more.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of baseball.
June 15, 2011
Although the 1908 baseball season was memorable, this book is not. Cait Murphy did an admirable job of research, but her writing is uneven and she indulges in some odd digressions that repeatedly halt the narrative (e.g., she gives us seven pages about serial killer Belle Gunness and eight pages on anarchism).
March 19, 2009
Such is my affinity for baseball, and baseball history, that on seeing this book in a Barnes and Noble the subtitle alone was almost enough to make me buy two copies.
Murphy's affection for the woebegone Chicago Cubs makes this chronicle of their last championship season a wistful reminiscence more than taut mystery. None the less, she does a marvelous job fleshing out the faded box scores into more than mere numbers on a page. The old names and sepia images of Ken Burns' documentary or your grandfather's shoe box come to life as complex individuals. Honus Wagner, "Three-Finger" Brown, poor Fred Merkle, each receives their due as people first and ballplayers second.
Beyond the National League Pennant race, Murphy seems to lose her drive. A few of her historical tangents become so tortuous that the whole point of the book becomes lost. The American League race is given short shrift. But, despite this she still manages to engage each reader in the unique reality of forgotten figures. (Devoting one whole chapter to the evilness and skulduggery of early day Yankees is a savvy move)
The occasional long-winded anecdote aside, Murphy's book captures a year in America better than most history books, and a love of baseball that can easily see every fan through the most desolate of winters.
Murphy's affection for the woebegone Chicago Cubs makes this chronicle of their last championship season a wistful reminiscence more than taut mystery. None the less, she does a marvelous job fleshing out the faded box scores into more than mere numbers on a page. The old names and sepia images of Ken Burns' documentary or your grandfather's shoe box come to life as complex individuals. Honus Wagner, "Three-Finger" Brown, poor Fred Merkle, each receives their due as people first and ballplayers second.
Beyond the National League Pennant race, Murphy seems to lose her drive. A few of her historical tangents become so tortuous that the whole point of the book becomes lost. The American League race is given short shrift. But, despite this she still manages to engage each reader in the unique reality of forgotten figures. (Devoting one whole chapter to the evilness and skulduggery of early day Yankees is a savvy move)
The occasional long-winded anecdote aside, Murphy's book captures a year in America better than most history books, and a love of baseball that can easily see every fan through the most desolate of winters.
March 18, 2024
I enjoyed this book cover to cover. The author, Caitlin Murphy, describes the events of the 1908 baseball season, which she considers the greatest baseball season ever. A season she said represents the end of the beginning of Major League Baseball, when baseball began to grip the country. She describes several scenes that make this season interesting: a player steals second, goes back and steals first, and then steals second again, another player complains that the baseball he’s pitching “tastes funny”. Throw in the most unimaginable, controversial play in baseball history and you have the makings of a five-star book. I will read this again one day.
October 3, 2009
Cait Murphy observes that 1908 is an important season in the history of baseball in America. She closes the book with the statement (page 288): "In the sweep of baseball's history, 1908 is not the end of an era, nor the beginning of one. It is, however, the end of the beginning." She starts the work by answering why she explores 1908 (page xiii): "The best season in baseball history is 1908. Besides two agonizing pennant races, it features history's finest pitching duel, hurled in the white heat of an October stretch drive, and the most controversial game ever played." I'm not sure that I buy 1908 as the apogee of baseball; however, Murphy does make a nice case.
The book begins with some context, looking at the earlier years of the National League and American League just after the turn of the century. She also looks at the evolution of gloves and bats and the other artifacts of the game. There are glimpses of stadia of the time.
Also nicely done are the character sketches of some key figures from 1908--from Manager John McGraw of the Giants to John Evers and Frank ("Husk" or "The Peerless Leader") Chance of the Cubs to Honus Wagner and so on. The book takes a chronological look at the season thereafter, from opening day through the great replay of the tie game (when Fred Merkle didn't touch second base, leading to a tie score) to a brief afterword on the World Series (not much time spent on it, since it was a blowout, with the Cubs winning their last World Series over the Detroit Tigers).
Some interesting tidbits are scattered throughout: the seemingly large number of players who committed suicide (pages 66-67), the amazing variety of interests of Cubs' players on one train trip (if accurately portrayed by a reporter)--"Doc" Marshall reading a book on dentistry, Johnny Evers reading a biography of Savonarola, two players discussed how to raise alfalfa, Ed Reulbach reading a chemistry book, five playing poker, and so on.
There is the portrayal of some of the great moments of the season, for instance, Young Fred Merkle not touching second base after an apparent game-winning hit against the detested Cubs (pages 189-191).
There are also several "time-out" inserts that provide interesting side-bar discussions. One of these looks at Chicago and its bawdy politics of the early 1900s; another examines the howler that Abner Doubleday invented the game of baseball. An Epilogue briefly describes what happened to key players after the 1908 season, including Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown (there is a picture of his misshapen hand in the volume, suggesting how he might have created interesting movement on his pitches), Frank Chance, Hal Chase, Fred Merkle, "Cy" Young, and so on.
All in all, a nice detailed view of a fascinating season in baseball history.
The book begins with some context, looking at the earlier years of the National League and American League just after the turn of the century. She also looks at the evolution of gloves and bats and the other artifacts of the game. There are glimpses of stadia of the time.
Also nicely done are the character sketches of some key figures from 1908--from Manager John McGraw of the Giants to John Evers and Frank ("Husk" or "The Peerless Leader") Chance of the Cubs to Honus Wagner and so on. The book takes a chronological look at the season thereafter, from opening day through the great replay of the tie game (when Fred Merkle didn't touch second base, leading to a tie score) to a brief afterword on the World Series (not much time spent on it, since it was a blowout, with the Cubs winning their last World Series over the Detroit Tigers).
Some interesting tidbits are scattered throughout: the seemingly large number of players who committed suicide (pages 66-67), the amazing variety of interests of Cubs' players on one train trip (if accurately portrayed by a reporter)--"Doc" Marshall reading a book on dentistry, Johnny Evers reading a biography of Savonarola, two players discussed how to raise alfalfa, Ed Reulbach reading a chemistry book, five playing poker, and so on.
There is the portrayal of some of the great moments of the season, for instance, Young Fred Merkle not touching second base after an apparent game-winning hit against the detested Cubs (pages 189-191).
There are also several "time-out" inserts that provide interesting side-bar discussions. One of these looks at Chicago and its bawdy politics of the early 1900s; another examines the howler that Abner Doubleday invented the game of baseball. An Epilogue briefly describes what happened to key players after the 1908 season, including Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown (there is a picture of his misshapen hand in the volume, suggesting how he might have created interesting movement on his pitches), Frank Chance, Hal Chase, Fred Merkle, "Cy" Young, and so on.
All in all, a nice detailed view of a fascinating season in baseball history.
December 22, 2022
Here's an interesting opening line for a chapter: PREDICTING THE FUTURE IS A TRICKY BUSINESS, AS THE LACK OF PERSONAL space vehicles and pregnant men proves.
What we today call fans, were before the Great War called cranks. What we call pitchers, or hurlers, were back then often called twirlers. Teams were often called the Bostons or the Brooklyns or the Chicagos rather than their mascot names because the mascot names or nicknamess were changing all the time, sometimes more than once per year. Sometimes there were not even chosen by the teams, but by fans or newspapers.
As I mentioned in my review of A Clever Base-Ballist: The Life and Times of John Montgomery Ward, authors of this type of book tend to go off on the wildest of tangents having zero to do with baseball. There are several in this book as well, but at least they appear to have read my review and taken my advice by setting them in separate chapters (called Time Outs) so that one can skip if desired. There were more such sections than there were Time Outs though.
A 1908 rookie for the Phillies named Coveleski was given an amusing nickname by the Philadelphia press: Nevsky Prospekt.
The architecture of the book didn't work for me. It should have followed one league all the way to the World Series and only then picked up the other league. Instead it wanted to interrupt, but I fixed that by just reading chapters in the order I preferred.
The heart and highlight of this book is the playoff game between the Cubs and Giants to decide the pennant. It really dives into all the events of that day and is written with verve and excitement. It's very difficult to put down. At other times it bogs down in uninteresting tangents and minutia, however, at least for me.
Was 1908 the craziest year ever for baseball? Quite possibly! The case is strong.
What we today call fans, were before the Great War called cranks. What we call pitchers, or hurlers, were back then often called twirlers. Teams were often called the Bostons or the Brooklyns or the Chicagos rather than their mascot names because the mascot names or nicknamess were changing all the time, sometimes more than once per year. Sometimes there were not even chosen by the teams, but by fans or newspapers.
As I mentioned in my review of A Clever Base-Ballist: The Life and Times of John Montgomery Ward, authors of this type of book tend to go off on the wildest of tangents having zero to do with baseball. There are several in this book as well, but at least they appear to have read my review and taken my advice by setting them in separate chapters (called Time Outs) so that one can skip if desired. There were more such sections than there were Time Outs though.
A 1908 rookie for the Phillies named Coveleski was given an amusing nickname by the Philadelphia press: Nevsky Prospekt.
The architecture of the book didn't work for me. It should have followed one league all the way to the World Series and only then picked up the other league. Instead it wanted to interrupt, but I fixed that by just reading chapters in the order I preferred.
The heart and highlight of this book is the playoff game between the Cubs and Giants to decide the pennant. It really dives into all the events of that day and is written with verve and excitement. It's very difficult to put down. At other times it bogs down in uninteresting tangents and minutia, however, at least for me.
Was 1908 the craziest year ever for baseball? Quite possibly! The case is strong.
October 27, 2023
First read this book in the year it was released, 2007 - likely hoping to latch on to a century celebration. 1908 was truly a great baseball season, and this book covers that and a whole lot more. I took my time with this reread, finishing it before the start of the very late 2023 fall classic.
For the baseball fan, this book covers everything - a prehistory of how we got to 1908, rules and playing procedures that are different, and a great sense of the atmosphere around the sport (including gambling). This year in baseball was also known for two great pennant races, one of the best pitching duels of all time, and of course the Merkle game. Names and nicknames and capsule histories of young players (Ty Cobb) and old (Cy Young) appear in context with their teams and times.
For the history fan, life in 1908 breathes through the pages. The author adds a series of "time-out" sections delving into headlines and trends of a time when teams traveled by train.
I read this before being active on goodreads, and my reread is partly because I love the book and partly to write a review for those who haven't had the pleasure yet. There was a resurgence in readers when the Cubs ended a 108 year drought in 2016. I heartily recommend this book, 5 of 5 stars!
For the baseball fan, this book covers everything - a prehistory of how we got to 1908, rules and playing procedures that are different, and a great sense of the atmosphere around the sport (including gambling). This year in baseball was also known for two great pennant races, one of the best pitching duels of all time, and of course the Merkle game. Names and nicknames and capsule histories of young players (Ty Cobb) and old (Cy Young) appear in context with their teams and times.
For the history fan, life in 1908 breathes through the pages. The author adds a series of "time-out" sections delving into headlines and trends of a time when teams traveled by train.
I read this before being active on goodreads, and my reread is partly because I love the book and partly to write a review for those who haven't had the pleasure yet. There was a resurgence in readers when the Cubs ended a 108 year drought in 2016. I heartily recommend this book, 5 of 5 stars!
June 20, 2011
Her title calls it "The Greatest Season in Baseball History," and she makes an excellent case for it. And she's done her homework - the vast, broad research that informs her narrative is really impressive. From a serial killer in Indiana to anarchist terrorism to race riots in Springfield, IL, to the presidential race, she provides context that makes the whole thing more understandable. Oh, she also seems to have read, and references, about 3,487 baseball books, and read every document at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Murphy also writes really well - she has many nice turns of phrase, some of which involve 50 cent words, some of which involve period slang, that create an intelligent but entertaining mishmosh read.
Finally, 1908 is great subject matter. The National League's 3-way race that has all three within a game of each other on the last day of the season, and it's been just about that tight for a month and a half - what better drama could you ask for? Oh, yeah, the Merkle game. Well, you got it. The Merkle game occurs in the midst of that.
Basically, if you're a baseball fan, and interested in its history at all, this is a must-read.
Murphy also writes really well - she has many nice turns of phrase, some of which involve 50 cent words, some of which involve period slang, that create an intelligent but entertaining mishmosh read.
Finally, 1908 is great subject matter. The National League's 3-way race that has all three within a game of each other on the last day of the season, and it's been just about that tight for a month and a half - what better drama could you ask for? Oh, yeah, the Merkle game. Well, you got it. The Merkle game occurs in the midst of that.
Basically, if you're a baseball fan, and interested in its history at all, this is a must-read.
June 28, 2022
I recently read this book for a second time, and I'd forgotten how entertaining, how detailed, how creative it is. I agree completely with the liner notes and recommendations for this book that say it's one of the great baseball history books produced. It has everything -- history, drama, humor, perspective on baseball history, cultural perspective. It's well written, not repetitive, and goes into the details that matter while leaving out the extraneous.
The book is about the 1908 major league season, which the author calls the greatest in baseball history. While one can quibble on that detail, as it depends on what criteria you use to define greatest, her point is well taken. In both leagues, the pennant came down to the last day, with the National League's decided through a makeup game for the Cubs and Giants to after a tie was called earlier in the season in a Giants-Cubs game. That tie game was the famous Merkle Boner moment, when a 19-year-old rookie, Fred Merkle, didn't run from first to second on a safe hit by his teammate, which would have enabled the winning run to score from third. Merkle did what players did all the time in those days, in peeling off before he got to second in order to run to the safety of the clubhouse so that fans rushing onto the field didn't trample him, attack him, etc. The Giants in those days allowed fans to exit through the outfield gates, and players on both teams always raced off the field to avoid angry or happy fans. But in this case, the Cubs noticed the rookie's mistake and managed to get the run voided and the game held as a tie.
Anyway, that was one of only about a dozen huge moments in that season, and Cait Murphy does a great job of describing them. The point she makes a few times through her comments on the events is that the game itself was fully recognizable as baseball the way it's played today, but yet hugely different in some respects. And the way that fans acted and were allowed to act (as well as players and managers) was vastly different than today. And more significantly, changes from the game at that time to the modern era (let's say after 1920) were underway in 1908, but the events of that season propelled them more quickly.
One example is the treatment of fans and the state of ballparks. In 1908, ballparks were rickety wooden structures that could seat maybe 10,000 people in grandstands. When more fans came to a big game, they stood in the outfield or in foul territory, often requiring new ground rules (a ball bouncing into the fans is a ground-rule double) and interfering with play. They threw bottles and seat cushions at players during the game, and chased them after. And yet, at the same time the hometown fans would cheer an opponent for a great fielding play, while then screaming obscenities at him when he came to bat. All of this was evolving, as Shibe Field in Philadelphia opened in 1908 as the first fire-proof (i.e., brick) stadium, and with nice architecture and better seating. In the next decade, every major league team did the same thing, and as fans came in larger numbers, they expanded grandstands and added upper decks. The 50,000-plus stadiums we know today were born out of that desire to capture more fan dollars and present a more civilized, safer environment.
Same thing with rules on the field. After numerous questionable calls by umps that season -- and every season in the past -- the leagues' owners finally agreed after 1908 to permanently have two umps at every game. This reduced rule-breaking in such ways as tripping or grabbing players as they rounded the bases, and it made decisions on close tags or plays at first more likely to be right.
In a season such as 1908, in which three teams in each league finished within a game of first place, getting those calls right could make a huge difference.
The author tells us repeatedly about how short the games were. Many seemed to finish in 90 minutes or less, which is astonishing. I think batters swung more aggressively, plus there weren't TV or radio timeouts, and since there were no lights there was an incentive to get done quickly. But I also wonder if the awful conditions for fans were a factor, and that as stadiums got more plush (better seats, better bathrooms, food concessions) if the owners were happy to have games take longer so that more concessions would be purchased, and fans were more comfortable staying onsite.
Author Murphy explains all of this, but without belaboring the point. Sometimes, she has an aside that states how things changed, and other times she lets the chaos of the time speak for itself. She also gives a flavor for how the game was played -- and while I've read that in numerous other baseball histories, hers is really well done. She explains how the ball became softer and darker as the game continued, with it never being considered out of play unless the umpire decided that it was so deformed that batters couldn't hit it fairly. It wasn't uncommon for a few balls to cover the entire game (with fans required to return those hit into the stands), rather than the approximately 80 per game used today. Murphy even describes one game in which the home team wouldn't let the old ball be removed until they came to bat in the bottom of the ninth, when then promptly got two hits with a clean ball and won the game.
Murphy also does an excellent job of exploding one myth that ballplayers in the early 20th century were indestructible and played through every imaginable injury, compared to today's pampered millionaires. In fact, almost every player on all the pennant contenders missed significant amounts of time due to injury. Often these were from spiking by opposing runners or mangled hands for catchers. For outfielders, attrition was lower, but they missed time due to various ankle sprains and back pains. And pitchers did go 350-plus innings, but late in that season Murphy explains that those workhorses had nothing left in the tank, and sometimes didn't perform well in those crucible final games. (Sometimes they did, such as Mordecai Three-Finger Brown, but again, he benefited from the soft ball of the era.)
Anyway, without going through the entire book, I'll sum it up by saying it's hugely entertaining, and it sheds light on a fascinating period and some of the game's greatest stars: Mathewson, Cobb, Chance, Tinker, Evers, McGraw, Wagner, Walsh, and so on. I'm not sure that I would have enjoyed games in those days, given the rowdiness of the fans, the uncertainty that even my ticket would have actually enabled me to have my seat, and the umpire-baiting, cheating aspects on the field. Maybe since that was the standard at the time I would have been fine with it, but I suspect not; I dislike a lot of the standard things about baseball and other major sports now, such as the fake patriotism, the excessive TV timeouts, and the way they've all become venues for gambling. But even if I wasn't going to games in 1908, I'm sure that I would have been one of those folks the author describes who was totally caught up in the drama of the moment, avidly reading newspaper accounts and following games on public scoreboards. What a fun time it would have been.
The book is about the 1908 major league season, which the author calls the greatest in baseball history. While one can quibble on that detail, as it depends on what criteria you use to define greatest, her point is well taken. In both leagues, the pennant came down to the last day, with the National League's decided through a makeup game for the Cubs and Giants to after a tie was called earlier in the season in a Giants-Cubs game. That tie game was the famous Merkle Boner moment, when a 19-year-old rookie, Fred Merkle, didn't run from first to second on a safe hit by his teammate, which would have enabled the winning run to score from third. Merkle did what players did all the time in those days, in peeling off before he got to second in order to run to the safety of the clubhouse so that fans rushing onto the field didn't trample him, attack him, etc. The Giants in those days allowed fans to exit through the outfield gates, and players on both teams always raced off the field to avoid angry or happy fans. But in this case, the Cubs noticed the rookie's mistake and managed to get the run voided and the game held as a tie.
Anyway, that was one of only about a dozen huge moments in that season, and Cait Murphy does a great job of describing them. The point she makes a few times through her comments on the events is that the game itself was fully recognizable as baseball the way it's played today, but yet hugely different in some respects. And the way that fans acted and were allowed to act (as well as players and managers) was vastly different than today. And more significantly, changes from the game at that time to the modern era (let's say after 1920) were underway in 1908, but the events of that season propelled them more quickly.
One example is the treatment of fans and the state of ballparks. In 1908, ballparks were rickety wooden structures that could seat maybe 10,000 people in grandstands. When more fans came to a big game, they stood in the outfield or in foul territory, often requiring new ground rules (a ball bouncing into the fans is a ground-rule double) and interfering with play. They threw bottles and seat cushions at players during the game, and chased them after. And yet, at the same time the hometown fans would cheer an opponent for a great fielding play, while then screaming obscenities at him when he came to bat. All of this was evolving, as Shibe Field in Philadelphia opened in 1908 as the first fire-proof (i.e., brick) stadium, and with nice architecture and better seating. In the next decade, every major league team did the same thing, and as fans came in larger numbers, they expanded grandstands and added upper decks. The 50,000-plus stadiums we know today were born out of that desire to capture more fan dollars and present a more civilized, safer environment.
Same thing with rules on the field. After numerous questionable calls by umps that season -- and every season in the past -- the leagues' owners finally agreed after 1908 to permanently have two umps at every game. This reduced rule-breaking in such ways as tripping or grabbing players as they rounded the bases, and it made decisions on close tags or plays at first more likely to be right.
In a season such as 1908, in which three teams in each league finished within a game of first place, getting those calls right could make a huge difference.
The author tells us repeatedly about how short the games were. Many seemed to finish in 90 minutes or less, which is astonishing. I think batters swung more aggressively, plus there weren't TV or radio timeouts, and since there were no lights there was an incentive to get done quickly. But I also wonder if the awful conditions for fans were a factor, and that as stadiums got more plush (better seats, better bathrooms, food concessions) if the owners were happy to have games take longer so that more concessions would be purchased, and fans were more comfortable staying onsite.
Author Murphy explains all of this, but without belaboring the point. Sometimes, she has an aside that states how things changed, and other times she lets the chaos of the time speak for itself. She also gives a flavor for how the game was played -- and while I've read that in numerous other baseball histories, hers is really well done. She explains how the ball became softer and darker as the game continued, with it never being considered out of play unless the umpire decided that it was so deformed that batters couldn't hit it fairly. It wasn't uncommon for a few balls to cover the entire game (with fans required to return those hit into the stands), rather than the approximately 80 per game used today. Murphy even describes one game in which the home team wouldn't let the old ball be removed until they came to bat in the bottom of the ninth, when then promptly got two hits with a clean ball and won the game.
Murphy also does an excellent job of exploding one myth that ballplayers in the early 20th century were indestructible and played through every imaginable injury, compared to today's pampered millionaires. In fact, almost every player on all the pennant contenders missed significant amounts of time due to injury. Often these were from spiking by opposing runners or mangled hands for catchers. For outfielders, attrition was lower, but they missed time due to various ankle sprains and back pains. And pitchers did go 350-plus innings, but late in that season Murphy explains that those workhorses had nothing left in the tank, and sometimes didn't perform well in those crucible final games. (Sometimes they did, such as Mordecai Three-Finger Brown, but again, he benefited from the soft ball of the era.)
Anyway, without going through the entire book, I'll sum it up by saying it's hugely entertaining, and it sheds light on a fascinating period and some of the game's greatest stars: Mathewson, Cobb, Chance, Tinker, Evers, McGraw, Wagner, Walsh, and so on. I'm not sure that I would have enjoyed games in those days, given the rowdiness of the fans, the uncertainty that even my ticket would have actually enabled me to have my seat, and the umpire-baiting, cheating aspects on the field. Maybe since that was the standard at the time I would have been fine with it, but I suspect not; I dislike a lot of the standard things about baseball and other major sports now, such as the fake patriotism, the excessive TV timeouts, and the way they've all become venues for gambling. But even if I wasn't going to games in 1908, I'm sure that I would have been one of those folks the author describes who was totally caught up in the drama of the moment, avidly reading newspaper accounts and following games on public scoreboards. What a fun time it would have been.
August 19, 2023
Really fascinating. Does a great job of pulling in a mass of connections between baseball and other things going on at the time. Huge fan of the author’s writing style. She manages to be funny without detracting from sincerity.
April 29, 2008
From a standpoint of telling the stranger-than-fiction story of one of the oddest and most remarkable seasons in the history of God's Game, this is a fine book, and that's why I'm getting it for my son-in-law the Cubs fan (shhh, don't tell!) for his birthday.
On the other hand, Murphy's editor did her no favors by failing to restrain her impulse to stretch every routine rhetorical single into a two-sacker (as she would be inclined to put it, except that she'd probably strain for something even more "colorful"). Presumably she's trying to give a flavor of early-twentieth-century sportswriting to her prose--I've seen such historical transrhetoricism tried before, and I've never seen it done satisfactorily, except occasionally in fiction.
Another absolutely maddening stylistic element: bouncing verb tenses, at the paragraph level and sometimes even at the sentence level. In a self-serving Q&A (one wonders who asked the Qs; well, no, one doesn't) at the back of the paperback edition, she claims a method to this madness, but I suspect you'd find if you charted throughout the book that she's inconsistent even withing the rules of her own inconsistency.
On the other hand, Murphy's editor did her no favors by failing to restrain her impulse to stretch every routine rhetorical single into a two-sacker (as she would be inclined to put it, except that she'd probably strain for something even more "colorful"). Presumably she's trying to give a flavor of early-twentieth-century sportswriting to her prose--I've seen such historical transrhetoricism tried before, and I've never seen it done satisfactorily, except occasionally in fiction.
Another absolutely maddening stylistic element: bouncing verb tenses, at the paragraph level and sometimes even at the sentence level. In a self-serving Q&A (one wonders who asked the Qs; well, no, one doesn't) at the back of the paperback edition, she claims a method to this madness, but I suspect you'd find if you charted throughout the book that she's inconsistent even withing the rules of her own inconsistency.
April 19, 2012
Watching Ken Burn's Baseball series has rekindled my love for this great game. I have always been a huge fan of the dead-ball era and (along with my home state, MN Twins) have been a Cubs fan since I was 10. Crazy 08 captures the last season the Cubs won the world series, 1908. The book seemed like it would be a perfect fit.
I only finished this because of the era and the colorful nature of the players themselves. The book is thoroughly researched and the author made sure that she stuck every fact and story in the book. Giving context for a sport is admirable, but somethings are just tangential and do not need to be addressed in one book. The crazily inconsistent use of tenses drove me buggy. And in an effort to make this yarn a real corker I'm sure, she attempts a voice that would be fun and precocious coming from a middle school student but is god-awfully annoying in this context. Also, the premise (see subtitle) is unnecessary, unconvincing, and just a distraction. 1908 was a hell of a season for ball and was replete with some real jim dandy players. Let them speak for themselves.
I only finished this because of the era and the colorful nature of the players themselves. The book is thoroughly researched and the author made sure that she stuck every fact and story in the book. Giving context for a sport is admirable, but somethings are just tangential and do not need to be addressed in one book. The crazily inconsistent use of tenses drove me buggy. And in an effort to make this yarn a real corker I'm sure, she attempts a voice that would be fun and precocious coming from a middle school student but is god-awfully annoying in this context. Also, the premise (see subtitle) is unnecessary, unconvincing, and just a distraction. 1908 was a hell of a season for ball and was replete with some real jim dandy players. Let them speak for themselves.
June 19, 2017
This is my second reading of the book and I still get so enthralled into what is arguably the best season of baseball. The Times and characters come alive as the season winds down with the final game of the season in the NL being a replaying of a game called on a controversial call and fan pandemonium. It is hard not to get excited when the National League is decided in a one game play off between the Cubs and the Giantd, with the Pirates only a game behind them. The American League is even closer with the Tigers beating the Cleveland Naps by a 1/2 game for the pennant.
This is a book I have and will recommend to any history, baseball or really anybody with a passing interest in sports
This is a book I have and will recommend to any history, baseball or really anybody with a passing interest in sports
October 25, 2007
Murphy argues that 1908 is the best baseball season ever, what with close pennant races in both divisions, Merkle's bonehead play against the Cubs and the subsequent makeup game that decides the National League pennant, the very beginning of structured salaries for players, the hint of gambling and the bizarre nature of the times. Interesting perspective with loads of other sources for further reading.
January 11, 2009
This was, hands down, the very best baseball book I have ever read! Intermingled with some of the history of the very early 20th Century, and containing an epilogue describing life after the 1908 baseball season for a great number of the people in this book, it was exactly the kind of book I most enjoy reading and the essence of the book I wish I could write myself. If you are in any way interested in baseball history, this is a "must read."
June 13, 2008
Good coverage of the 1908 season, one of the wildest ones ever. Could do more with the American League pennant race. Some annoying stylistic idiosyncracies. Better than a 3 but not quite a 4--3.5 would be about right.
June 25, 2012
A fun and informative read about old time baseball that's marred by overwritten prose and weird digressions (called Time Outs in the book) on everything from serial killers to anarchists that detracts from the narrative. There's a cool read here, but it could've used a bit more editing.
February 4, 2017
As a baseball fan and a writer, I have to say this is one of the best books on the sport ever written. Murphy's wit shines through as she takes you through a season that center's on some of the game's biggest legends and forgotten stars.
March 26, 2008
I can't deal with the overwrought writing style in this book, maybe I will revisit it another time.
October 5, 2018
Was neither good nor bad. Just lacked that certain something that draws you into a book.
November 3, 2023
An outstanding book on the 1908 baseball season that included Merkle's boner and so much more.
May 31, 2024
This book was just awful. It's basically a collection of apocryphal tales and debunked myths thrown together in an attempt to convince you this was the greatest baseball season ever. I don't have an alternate season to put forth or even care about a Best Season Ever debate but I know one thing... this wasn't it. It WAS crazy, baseball was an amateurish circus back then with error-riddled play, fan interference, poor umpiring (mostly because there was usually only one or MAYBE two umpires trying to see everything happening on the diamond and failing) and more leading to it being a crazy seasons but not the kind of drama that makes for good baseball. All these things and inconsistent play led to a close race in both leagues and ultimately an anti-climatic World Series the author admits was bad and only bothered to devote a couple paragraphs to before spending the rest of the chapter talking about gambling and game-fixing. Not sure why as the author says there's no reason to believe game-fixing played any part in the 1908 season, that would hurt the best season ever claim I guess, it was just a problem every year before 1908 and for many years after. Sure.
Aside from constantly trying to put forward the idea that this was the greatest season the main problem with the book is just the inaccuracy. One review commented on the insane amount of citations in this book (in my eBook the final chapter ends at 68% and the rest of the book is the citations) which seems to be the author's shield for repeating every tall tale that sounds colorful enough for inclusion regardless if its true. When there isn't a citation it's just the author using creative license on her own. She also often quotes sportswriter Al Stump as if he were a reliable source when he's now considered about as untrustworthy a source of baseball history as you can get more well known these days for forging sports memorabilia and journals/letters he claimed were written by Ty Cobb. There's one story about Boston's manager ordering his players to get drunk the night before a game because... well there's really not good reason for that and like many of the stories recounted here I could find no actual reference to this ever happening. She cites two players as the sources for this story, one is Honus Wagner who played for Pittsburgh and wasn't there for any of this and the other is some pitcher whose name I forget but who I couldn't find any existence of as I was reading it unless she was referring to a pitcher of the same name who was born 60 years after the supposed event. Even if there had been a good source for the story I would consider it an apocryphal story not to be trusted.
I admit the author would have had a tough time trying to write a good account of the season as about the only thing you can trust from contemporary sportswriters is the box score. They were more interested in telling tall tales and writing bad poetry and the author happily reprints all of it. Rarely does she ever question any of these myths, at one point she has a chapter ridiculing the myth about Abner Doubleday inventing baseball (he didn't invent it) but not long after is repeating the long-debunked myth that the hot dog was invented by Harry Stevens to sell at baseball games.
Aside from constantly trying to put forward the idea that this was the greatest season the main problem with the book is just the inaccuracy. One review commented on the insane amount of citations in this book (in my eBook the final chapter ends at 68% and the rest of the book is the citations) which seems to be the author's shield for repeating every tall tale that sounds colorful enough for inclusion regardless if its true. When there isn't a citation it's just the author using creative license on her own. She also often quotes sportswriter Al Stump as if he were a reliable source when he's now considered about as untrustworthy a source of baseball history as you can get more well known these days for forging sports memorabilia and journals/letters he claimed were written by Ty Cobb. There's one story about Boston's manager ordering his players to get drunk the night before a game because... well there's really not good reason for that and like many of the stories recounted here I could find no actual reference to this ever happening. She cites two players as the sources for this story, one is Honus Wagner who played for Pittsburgh and wasn't there for any of this and the other is some pitcher whose name I forget but who I couldn't find any existence of as I was reading it unless she was referring to a pitcher of the same name who was born 60 years after the supposed event. Even if there had been a good source for the story I would consider it an apocryphal story not to be trusted.
I admit the author would have had a tough time trying to write a good account of the season as about the only thing you can trust from contemporary sportswriters is the box score. They were more interested in telling tall tales and writing bad poetry and the author happily reprints all of it. Rarely does she ever question any of these myths, at one point she has a chapter ridiculing the myth about Abner Doubleday inventing baseball (he didn't invent it) but not long after is repeating the long-debunked myth that the hot dog was invented by Harry Stevens to sell at baseball games.
March 3, 2018
Cait Murphy admits she is a National League fan and her book Crazy ’08, is evidence that she offers as the greatest pennant race is the NL’s 1908 contest. The Giants, Cubs and Pirates were in the three teams until the end. The American League in 1967 offers a similar situation with the three teams fighting for the pennant but Cait Murphy shows that the 1908 season to be the beginning of the modern era.
The men leading the Cubs and Giants are similar in their competitive nature. John McGraw is fascinating to me because I feel he is so out to win he would do anything. Bending rules is fine. He should have been the one to help break the segregation in the sport for no other reason than he wanted to win so bad and wanted the best players for himself.
To me what made baseball great was the pennant race. Unlike other sports the season meant something because only the top teams went to postseason. No wild cards, no playing for seeding in a playoff tournament. Each day, each game had an impact. Like a small river carving out a canyon, one game’s slowly carved the story of the season. The main moment in this season is the play known as Merckle’s boner. The play in a game in September where Carl Merkle was on first and forgot to touch second on a game winning hit. He was forced out and the run failed to count. The play is instilled now as baseball legend. Cait Murphy is right when she points out that traditionally up to that point, the runner did not have to touch the base. The rule was not enforced and therefore Merckle was just going with the custom. The rule become one in fact after the play cost the Giants the makeup game, and the pennant. Fred Merckle’s play led to more unified rule enforcement across the league.
For a great story it comes down to a late game that means everything, like the Merckle game at the end of the season. But to me I am also influenced by the reliever and famed baseball flake Sparky Lyle, the author of The Bronx Zoo, about the 1978 NY Yankee season, when he heard Yankee announcer Phil Rizzuto lamenting that the Yankees lost a rain shortened game in Baltimore. Lyle’s response, “Christ we lost opening day too.” This is the point I love and a reason I love a baseball season more than any other sport. In no other sport does one play every day. In no other sport is the balance between the long term of the season and the goal of winning this one game so difficult especially when there were pennant races and no wild card the conflict was harder. How much do you use this reliever? Should you give your starters a rest? When? Against which teams? In the NBA and the NHL the balance is also there but not to the same extent. There almost always a day off in between games and half the league makes the playoff. In football the weekly games are more events, where the story is created before each game by publicists and writers. In baseball the grind of the season and the ensuing results write their own tale with embellishments. The sport is dominant over the media.
There is so much about the game up to 1908 that seems strange, but Murphy offers the insight that this is the end of the beginning of major league baseball and a new version is beginning that is more familiar to modern eyes. The issue of gambling is very evident in Murphy’s book. The seeds for 1919 are in the clear and what is depressing is that the powers that be in baseball ignore the problem until it blew up in their face, very similar to the steroid scandal at the turn of the millennium. This seems to prove my point that the powers that be in baseball hate change, and that baseball’s one moment of being ahead of the curve, Jackie Robinson and the color line, was an anomaly for the great game.
In 1908 there was more going on than a crazy pennant race and one of the things I enjoy in a good baseball book is the digressions some authors make to show that the season is not taking place in a vacuum. Cait Murphy does this with nice little segments at the end of chapters. In 1908 Teddy Roosevelt was leaving the Presidency, the Great White Fleet was sailing the world, and the Presidential election was around the corner. One of the early digressions is about a serial killer, a woman who it is discovered has killed her boyfriends and husbands. This is stuff one can see the players talking about, joking about, and referencing in their interactions on the long train rides, in the clubhouse and dugouts. It helps put one into the time Cait Murphy is talking about. This helps make Murphy’s book about the old days of baseball an excellent read.
The men leading the Cubs and Giants are similar in their competitive nature. John McGraw is fascinating to me because I feel he is so out to win he would do anything. Bending rules is fine. He should have been the one to help break the segregation in the sport for no other reason than he wanted to win so bad and wanted the best players for himself.
To me what made baseball great was the pennant race. Unlike other sports the season meant something because only the top teams went to postseason. No wild cards, no playing for seeding in a playoff tournament. Each day, each game had an impact. Like a small river carving out a canyon, one game’s slowly carved the story of the season. The main moment in this season is the play known as Merckle’s boner. The play in a game in September where Carl Merkle was on first and forgot to touch second on a game winning hit. He was forced out and the run failed to count. The play is instilled now as baseball legend. Cait Murphy is right when she points out that traditionally up to that point, the runner did not have to touch the base. The rule was not enforced and therefore Merckle was just going with the custom. The rule become one in fact after the play cost the Giants the makeup game, and the pennant. Fred Merckle’s play led to more unified rule enforcement across the league.
For a great story it comes down to a late game that means everything, like the Merckle game at the end of the season. But to me I am also influenced by the reliever and famed baseball flake Sparky Lyle, the author of The Bronx Zoo, about the 1978 NY Yankee season, when he heard Yankee announcer Phil Rizzuto lamenting that the Yankees lost a rain shortened game in Baltimore. Lyle’s response, “Christ we lost opening day too.” This is the point I love and a reason I love a baseball season more than any other sport. In no other sport does one play every day. In no other sport is the balance between the long term of the season and the goal of winning this one game so difficult especially when there were pennant races and no wild card the conflict was harder. How much do you use this reliever? Should you give your starters a rest? When? Against which teams? In the NBA and the NHL the balance is also there but not to the same extent. There almost always a day off in between games and half the league makes the playoff. In football the weekly games are more events, where the story is created before each game by publicists and writers. In baseball the grind of the season and the ensuing results write their own tale with embellishments. The sport is dominant over the media.
There is so much about the game up to 1908 that seems strange, but Murphy offers the insight that this is the end of the beginning of major league baseball and a new version is beginning that is more familiar to modern eyes. The issue of gambling is very evident in Murphy’s book. The seeds for 1919 are in the clear and what is depressing is that the powers that be in baseball ignore the problem until it blew up in their face, very similar to the steroid scandal at the turn of the millennium. This seems to prove my point that the powers that be in baseball hate change, and that baseball’s one moment of being ahead of the curve, Jackie Robinson and the color line, was an anomaly for the great game.
In 1908 there was more going on than a crazy pennant race and one of the things I enjoy in a good baseball book is the digressions some authors make to show that the season is not taking place in a vacuum. Cait Murphy does this with nice little segments at the end of chapters. In 1908 Teddy Roosevelt was leaving the Presidency, the Great White Fleet was sailing the world, and the Presidential election was around the corner. One of the early digressions is about a serial killer, a woman who it is discovered has killed her boyfriends and husbands. This is stuff one can see the players talking about, joking about, and referencing in their interactions on the long train rides, in the clubhouse and dugouts. It helps put one into the time Cait Murphy is talking about. This helps make Murphy’s book about the old days of baseball an excellent read.
June 16, 2024
I don't normally review books that have been covered by many other and often better reviewers but I'm going to make an exception here.
I enjoy going back in time to see how baseball was played by its early stars and from that standpoint enjoyed this book and its wealth of period detail. For the most part, I was not as put off as some other reviewers by Murphy's digressions. However, I thought it was peculiar once she reached the end of the pennant races not to relish in the payoff that was the World Series. Instead she blows through it in just a couple of paragraphs and then spends pages dwelling on gambling during the era leading up to the 1919 World Series scandal. Why emphasize that digression when you have the glory of a World Series to tell?
But what prompted me to take up this review were the four errors I found in just 8 pages (p 104-111). On p 104 Murphy writes that Ben Shibe built Shibe Park for the Phillies. Shibe owned the Athletics, a fact Murphy must know because 3 pages later she notes that the park had a prominent A over the entrance as a monument to the man and his team. On p 107 she writes that the Phillies opened their new stadium in 2005. It was 2004. And that it replaced Veterans Park. It was Veterans Stadium. Then on p 111 she recounts that the Phillies franchise "won't win its first pennant until 1915; it would wait thirty-five years for its second and another fifty after that for its single World Series title." That math would have the Phillies winning their first title in 2000 when it was actually 1980, thirty years after the Whiz Kids delivered their second pennant, not fifty.
I lived in the Philadelphia area most of my life so I can spot these errors. But I'm less familiar with the histories of teams in Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York and Detroit which is why I pick up a book like this and read it. In doing so, I'm relying on the author to provide accurate information along with whatever insight they can derive. To spot four basic errors within 8 pages indicates that Murphy is sloppy in recounting her research and hasn't bothered to check her own writing. So if I can spot 4 errors in just 8 pages what other things has Murphy got wrong and what can I confidently take away from this book? What should have been a 4+ star book ends up being much less.
I enjoy going back in time to see how baseball was played by its early stars and from that standpoint enjoyed this book and its wealth of period detail. For the most part, I was not as put off as some other reviewers by Murphy's digressions. However, I thought it was peculiar once she reached the end of the pennant races not to relish in the payoff that was the World Series. Instead she blows through it in just a couple of paragraphs and then spends pages dwelling on gambling during the era leading up to the 1919 World Series scandal. Why emphasize that digression when you have the glory of a World Series to tell?
But what prompted me to take up this review were the four errors I found in just 8 pages (p 104-111). On p 104 Murphy writes that Ben Shibe built Shibe Park for the Phillies. Shibe owned the Athletics, a fact Murphy must know because 3 pages later she notes that the park had a prominent A over the entrance as a monument to the man and his team. On p 107 she writes that the Phillies opened their new stadium in 2005. It was 2004. And that it replaced Veterans Park. It was Veterans Stadium. Then on p 111 she recounts that the Phillies franchise "won't win its first pennant until 1915; it would wait thirty-five years for its second and another fifty after that for its single World Series title." That math would have the Phillies winning their first title in 2000 when it was actually 1980, thirty years after the Whiz Kids delivered their second pennant, not fifty.
I lived in the Philadelphia area most of my life so I can spot these errors. But I'm less familiar with the histories of teams in Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York and Detroit which is why I pick up a book like this and read it. In doing so, I'm relying on the author to provide accurate information along with whatever insight they can derive. To spot four basic errors within 8 pages indicates that Murphy is sloppy in recounting her research and hasn't bothered to check her own writing. So if I can spot 4 errors in just 8 pages what other things has Murphy got wrong and what can I confidently take away from this book? What should have been a 4+ star book ends up being much less.
May 18, 2021
This was an impulse check out from the library, the very first time they let me back in the stacks this spring (hooray!). I was still waiting on another baseball book, so I went up to the baseball section and this one looked fun. Browsing the stacks! I really missed that. The online algorithm for showing you books is no good. It shows me the same books over and over. Browsing the stacks is so important.
This was fantastic. So glad I found it. Murphy has such a witty yet informative style...I found myself thinking that she must have spent forever in the old newspaper archives, and synthesizing all those old articles into a coherent narrative of the season can not have been easy. But she really nailed it.
One thing I really liked about this was how recognizable this 113 year old baseball season is. There were some big differences, but Murphy has this argument that 1908 was really the first modern season, and she backs it up well. She follows a bunch of different teams - Cubs, Giants, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit - and you can see how over the course of the season they look like world beaters, and then go into slumps, and then sweep a series against a great team, only to then slump and drop three to a terrible team...it's just like now!
Another thing I like about this one, which might not appeal to everyone, is Murphy's willingness to go off on tangents. She will be writing about what Chicago was like in the summer of 1908, and then randomly include a few pages on anarchist movements of the early 20th century and how they affected Chicago. She doesn't just write about Pittsburgh's season, but about what the city was like back then and the complicated reasons why the Pirates had a hard time drawing fans. I love this kind of thing, because it really brings the world of a century ago to life for me, but I suppose some people might decide they don't care about anarchists, only baseball. I think the tangents make the book better though.
This was fantastic. So glad I found it. Murphy has such a witty yet informative style...I found myself thinking that she must have spent forever in the old newspaper archives, and synthesizing all those old articles into a coherent narrative of the season can not have been easy. But she really nailed it.
One thing I really liked about this was how recognizable this 113 year old baseball season is. There were some big differences, but Murphy has this argument that 1908 was really the first modern season, and she backs it up well. She follows a bunch of different teams - Cubs, Giants, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit - and you can see how over the course of the season they look like world beaters, and then go into slumps, and then sweep a series against a great team, only to then slump and drop three to a terrible team...it's just like now!
Another thing I like about this one, which might not appeal to everyone, is Murphy's willingness to go off on tangents. She will be writing about what Chicago was like in the summer of 1908, and then randomly include a few pages on anarchist movements of the early 20th century and how they affected Chicago. She doesn't just write about Pittsburgh's season, but about what the city was like back then and the complicated reasons why the Pirates had a hard time drawing fans. I love this kind of thing, because it really brings the world of a century ago to life for me, but I suppose some people might decide they don't care about anarchists, only baseball. I think the tangents make the book better though.
April 24, 2020
I'm not quite sure what to think of this book.
First off, it was a really interesting, and very worthwhile for fans of baseball history. There are a ton of colorful characters, and the glimpses of what American cities worked and looked like over a century ago are fascinating and vivid.
I was stunned to find that apparently it was commonplace for sports writers at the beginning of the 20th century to write in verse about the games and players they witnessed. There's a fair amount of that reproduced here and it's fantastic. I think I'm too old or too used to watching TV to be moved by written descriptions of game action. Reading about who got a hit or a strikeout or who scored from second for the winning run is, ironically, the least interesting part of the book to me. But there's so much more in here that I don't mind, even if I'm skimming here and there.
The biggest issue I had is that, while it tells an interesting main story and is full of little side stories, they all seem highly disorganized. A story about what happened in games in June will come to a particular town, and then we get several pages about the history of that town or a bit of history from the particular month. Then it's back to the main narrative, until we mention a particular player. Without a break we get several pages of bio on that character before eventually winding back to the season. The chapters seem to be more or less arbitrary because there are so many tangents and diversions throughout each one. Of course, there is a lot of information that is worth packing in. I don't know what a better way to arrange things would be, but as it is it makes the overall narrative hard to follow.
That wrinkle aside, this was highly entertaining and I'm glad I read it.
First off, it was a really interesting, and very worthwhile for fans of baseball history. There are a ton of colorful characters, and the glimpses of what American cities worked and looked like over a century ago are fascinating and vivid.
I was stunned to find that apparently it was commonplace for sports writers at the beginning of the 20th century to write in verse about the games and players they witnessed. There's a fair amount of that reproduced here and it's fantastic. I think I'm too old or too used to watching TV to be moved by written descriptions of game action. Reading about who got a hit or a strikeout or who scored from second for the winning run is, ironically, the least interesting part of the book to me. But there's so much more in here that I don't mind, even if I'm skimming here and there.
The biggest issue I had is that, while it tells an interesting main story and is full of little side stories, they all seem highly disorganized. A story about what happened in games in June will come to a particular town, and then we get several pages about the history of that town or a bit of history from the particular month. Then it's back to the main narrative, until we mention a particular player. Without a break we get several pages of bio on that character before eventually winding back to the season. The chapters seem to be more or less arbitrary because there are so many tangents and diversions throughout each one. Of course, there is a lot of information that is worth packing in. I don't know what a better way to arrange things would be, but as it is it makes the overall narrative hard to follow.
That wrinkle aside, this was highly entertaining and I'm glad I read it.
March 27, 2025
This is a fun, raucous glimpse at the 1908 Major League Baseball season. I especially enjoyed how news of games were shared via telegraph and 'electronic' lighted display boards. This is an age when mass market sports was coming into its own. The suicide rates among major leaguers was higher than the population at large. Baseball paid enough for players to live a lavish urban life of travel. But they didn't make enough to not have to worry about money. Failure meant a steep fall from grace from public acclaim to possibly having to work in a mine.
Baseball legends like Honus Wagner and Mordecai 'Three Finger' Brown come to life in these pages. The story of Merkle's Boner, and how a rookie base running mistake cost the Giants the 1908 pennant, is the climax of this novel. The follow-up playoff game to determine the NL pennant and the Cubs victory over the Tigers in the World Series are merely glossed over.
Author Murphy does a wonderful job immersing me into the cigar-smoked world of 1908, it's fire hazard ball parks, the frenzy of The Game, the crowds gathered on Coogan's Bluff, the rising appeal of baseball to women, the boost this season gave to baseball's popularity as it came into its now-gone heyday as the country's most popular sport. 1908 is the year "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" was a hit. Writers of that day were wont to write in rhyming couplets.
Hope springs eternal. As a Cubs fan, April holds a promise that October so rarely delivers. But in 1908, the Cubs' only dynasty team reached its apex of glory. May the memory of Tinker to Evers to Chance live on forever.
Baseball legends like Honus Wagner and Mordecai 'Three Finger' Brown come to life in these pages. The story of Merkle's Boner, and how a rookie base running mistake cost the Giants the 1908 pennant, is the climax of this novel. The follow-up playoff game to determine the NL pennant and the Cubs victory over the Tigers in the World Series are merely glossed over.
Author Murphy does a wonderful job immersing me into the cigar-smoked world of 1908, it's fire hazard ball parks, the frenzy of The Game, the crowds gathered on Coogan's Bluff, the rising appeal of baseball to women, the boost this season gave to baseball's popularity as it came into its now-gone heyday as the country's most popular sport. 1908 is the year "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" was a hit. Writers of that day were wont to write in rhyming couplets.
Hope springs eternal. As a Cubs fan, April holds a promise that October so rarely delivers. But in 1908, the Cubs' only dynasty team reached its apex of glory. May the memory of Tinker to Evers to Chance live on forever.
May 28, 2023
I picked up "Crazy '08," published in 2007, at a used bookstore for my collection of Chicago Cubs books. After all, the Cubs won an exciting pennant race that year and won the World Series, too. That doesn't happen very often. In the book, author Cait Murphy recounts the 1908 baseball season — "the Greatest Year in Baseball History," according to the subtitle — occasionally tying in pertinent events in society. The first 100 pages are as slow as baseball in 2022, before this season's rule changes, and I almost benched it before finishing. But the pace quickens along with the three-team pennant race, especially when Murphy dissects the infamous "Merkle Game," in which a rookie's running mistake, in effect, cost the New York Giants the pennant. I was startled to learn that a Giants employee attempted to bribe two umpires before the game was replayed. Gambling was prevalent in baseball long before the Black Sox scandal of 1919. Murphy writes about 1908 in the present tense, and she is prone to overuse nicknames ("Matty" for Christy Mathewson) and slang ("bugs" for fans) that were common in 1908 but not today. A major irritation for a reader's eyes is that the page numbers at the bottom of each page are superimposed on a shaded home plate. The book can be summarized in one sentence on Page 287: "In 1908, baseball blossoms. But it also buries deeper the seed of its darkest hour."
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