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My Greatest Day in Baseball: Forty-Seven Dramatic Stories by Forty-Seven Stars : As Told to John P. Carmichael and Other Noted Sports Writers
My Greatest Day in Baseball , one of the earliest collections of the game’s oral histories, presents forty-seven famous stars from the golden age of baseball relating their most unforgettable moments in the sport. Ty Cobb vividly recreates the seventeenth-inning tie between the Philadelphia Athletics and Detroit Tigers with the 1908 pennant at stake. Grover Cleveland Alexander describes the day he saved the 1926 world championship for the St. Louis Cardinals. Babe Ruth recalls hitting the homer he had promised to the crowd at a 1932 World Series game. Dizzy Dean recounts a run-in with Ford Frick and a record-setting day in 1933 when he struck out seventeen Chicago Cubs. Among the other celebrated baseball figures telling their dramatic stories are Leroy “Satchel” Paige, Casey Stengel, Leo “The Lip” Durocher, Honus Wagner, Johnny Evers, Lefty Gomez, Tris Speaker, Cy Young, Pepper Martin, George Sisler, Billy Southworth, Enos Slaughter, Connie Mack, Walter Johnson, and Rogers Hornsby.
- GenresBaseballSportsNonfiction
243 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1945
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 28, 2016
For the record: I have a passion for baseball and most of its silly aspects from uniforms to statistics to the oddball members of its loyal order. More than any biography; more than any book of statistics; more than any masterful yarn told by Kinsella or observation by Angell; THIS IS THE ONE BOOK EVERY TRUE FAN MUST HAVE!
Almost fifty of the greatest players ever to come along (and eventually find themselves in the Cooperstown Hall of Fame) tell a very competent scribe just why and how one game in each of their lives deserves to be considered the greatest.
I could tell you my favorites, but what difference would that make? Read the book!
Almost fifty of the greatest players ever to come along (and eventually find themselves in the Cooperstown Hall of Fame) tell a very competent scribe just why and how one game in each of their lives deserves to be considered the greatest.
I could tell you my favorites, but what difference would that make? Read the book!
March 17, 2015
A collection of stories by 47 different players that picked their own greatest day in baseball. Most were well known, the stars in their time. The games described range between roughly 1900 and 1943, mostly World Series games. I appreciated the selection of players and managers that I didn't know all that well beyond their names -- it was interesting to understand what they thought made for a great game. I found it interesting the number of times specific series were mentioned, often with different games being chosen as the greatest for a player. I was surprised that in more than a handful of the stories, namecalling was described in detail -- this seems to have been a big component in making a game a great one! (This is another example of how baseball is different than business meetings - namecalling in business meetings very rarely make for great meetings.) The biggest weakness of the book, I believe, is that these stories were purportedly told to a number of different journalists, yet the stories all sounded about the same by the end of the book -- there were a lot of names associated with all the big plays and lots of the little plays for each of the games described. It just doesn't come across as natural. Carmichael must have taken a lot of liberty in re-telling these stories, and while you get some of the vernacular coming across, it doesn't feel like it is real. It's too stagey and similar in content. Perhaps not so strangely, there is a 40s era box score with most of the stories. In the first edition hardback that I read, there are quite a few funny pictures and drawings of the players - they really knew how to bring out some personality with those publicity shots.
November 6, 2021
Sometimes it can be good to back and re-read books from childhood. You can lose people or places or even access to the original book you borrowed from the school library (which got rid of a lot of their old stuff), but as long as there is one copy of the text left somewhere in the world you can once again spend time with this old friend. You can savor again all those words you remember enjoying and discover a few ways that your memory may have played tricks on you since, and that is a comfort.
This time I read the 1945 version whereas originally I had read the 1963 one. But it's not too much different, and was almost entirely as I remembered. These mostly wonderful stories about the greatest days of various players of baseball's early days as told by themselves just never get old. Instead, by reading them -- many of which unintentionally reference others -- you recreate in your mind an entire world of heroes, exploits and surprising tales. Actually, I like, and remember, even better than the baseball parts, those little background incidents and asides. How in one game Babe Ruth took it in his head to suddenly try to steal a base. Or how a pitcher learned on the morning of his greatest game that his father had died. Or that another pitcher had been accused of arriving at the mound drunk. They really give each story its special quality and make you want to learn more. Unlike back then, these days we have Wikipedia and can learn so much more about the biographies of these players. I've waded in a bit, but one could easily enjoy going in much, much more deeply.
This time I read the 1945 version whereas originally I had read the 1963 one. But it's not too much different, and was almost entirely as I remembered. These mostly wonderful stories about the greatest days of various players of baseball's early days as told by themselves just never get old. Instead, by reading them -- many of which unintentionally reference others -- you recreate in your mind an entire world of heroes, exploits and surprising tales. Actually, I like, and remember, even better than the baseball parts, those little background incidents and asides. How in one game Babe Ruth took it in his head to suddenly try to steal a base. Or how a pitcher learned on the morning of his greatest game that his father had died. Or that another pitcher had been accused of arriving at the mound drunk. They really give each story its special quality and make you want to learn more. Unlike back then, these days we have Wikipedia and can learn so much more about the biographies of these players. I've waded in a bit, but one could easily enjoy going in much, much more deeply.
May 26, 2022
This book, originally published in 1945, has been republished a number of times up until this edition from 1968, each time including new entries about star ballplayers from later eras. Each chapter is an “as told to” entry where a player describes a career highlight and his memories are transcribed by a baseball writer. In some chapters the voice of the player rings true in the first person account. Other entries it is obvious that the professional reporter did the bulk of the writing. A couple of entries depart from the “as told to” style and are simply written by the journalist. Some players describe events that are well-known in baseball history, while others choose specific days that were important to them personally. But the book is an interesting keepsake of memorable events in baseball history as told from the perspective of the players involved.
April 27, 2020
Loved this book when I was a kid, still love it. The stories are priceless.
February 11, 2012
To my surprise, this is not the book I read many times as a child. That book was a third person narrative, and the individual stories were, for the most part, of a slightly later generation of players.
Nevertheless, this book was well worth the time. It consists of nearly 50 "as told to" tales, mostly told to John P. Carmichael, a Chicago sports writer. All of these were written in the '40s, and the featured players stretch back to the infancy of modern Major League baseball--the first two decades of the 20th Century. Many of those players were dead by the time I was a child reading about baseball, in the late '50s and early '60s, so it's fascinating to hear their voices in this book. If you are a baseball fan and know the sport's history, most of the names will be familiar, although some only vaguely so.
The narratives themselves are fairly straightforward when describing the particular game. The real value of this book comes in the personal style of some of the narrators, the descriptions of the atmosphere, the fans, the other players, etc. Interestingly, most of the games which players chose to describe as their greatest day were not the games in which their personal exploits represented great achievement; often, the player's own performance in the game was modest. For the most part, the games chosen are memorable to these players because of their significance--pennant clinching games, World Series winning games, a player's first game in the majors or a critical win. Their greatest days are team victories.
Nevertheless, this book was well worth the time. It consists of nearly 50 "as told to" tales, mostly told to John P. Carmichael, a Chicago sports writer. All of these were written in the '40s, and the featured players stretch back to the infancy of modern Major League baseball--the first two decades of the 20th Century. Many of those players were dead by the time I was a child reading about baseball, in the late '50s and early '60s, so it's fascinating to hear their voices in this book. If you are a baseball fan and know the sport's history, most of the names will be familiar, although some only vaguely so.
The narratives themselves are fairly straightforward when describing the particular game. The real value of this book comes in the personal style of some of the narrators, the descriptions of the atmosphere, the fans, the other players, etc. Interestingly, most of the games which players chose to describe as their greatest day were not the games in which their personal exploits represented great achievement; often, the player's own performance in the game was modest. For the most part, the games chosen are memorable to these players because of their significance--pennant clinching games, World Series winning games, a player's first game in the majors or a critical win. Their greatest days are team victories.
April 28, 2015
I enjoyed this book as it gave a brief look into the careers of many stars from the likes of Cy Young, Lefty Gomez and Ted Williams. They may not all be Hall of Famers, but great players nonetheless, and they give entertaining stories of often relatively unremembered moments. As a fan it is fun to enter into those situations and enjoy the outcome. Some players choose games that are their greatest personally rather than what the press would think to be their greatest professionally. In the process, one learns of the personal and professional qualities of the colorful players of yesteryear.
July 12, 2016
A great book about some of the first stars to ever play the game of baseball. The words of each narrative bridge the gap from a photo you may have seen and bring the player to life. I enjoyed reading the stories of Babe Ruth, Jimmy Foxx, Ty Cobb, Satchel Page, Cy Young, Connie Mack, Dizzy Dean and Hans Wagner to name a few. If you are a fan of America's greatest game, this book is for you.
February 15, 2008
The Deadball Era from those who played it. You can't beat that!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews