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Whispers of the Gods: Tales from Baseball's Golden Age, Told by the Men Who Played It
"Anyone who has love for the game of baseball will enjoy this remarkable book." Library Journal, Starred Review
In Whispers of the Gods, bestselling author Peter Golenbock brings to life baseball greats from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s through timeless stories told straight from the players themselves.
Like the enduring classic The Glory of Their Times, this book features the reminiscences of baseball legends, pulled from hundreds of hours of taped interviews with the author. Roy Campanella talks about life in the Negro Leagues before coming up to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Ted Williams recounts why he believes Shoeless Joe Jackson belongs in the Hall of Fame. Tom Sturdivant provides vivid memories of Casey Stengel, Mickey Mantle, and other Yankee icons. Other voices include Phil Rizzuto, Jim Bouton, Monte Irvin, Stan Musial, Ron Santo, Rex Barney, Ellis Clary, Roger Maris, Ed Froelich, Marty Marion, Jim Brosnan, Gene Conley, and Kirby Higbe.
The players interviewed were All-Stars, Hall of Famers, and heroes to many, and their impact on the national pastime is still seen to this day. Baseball history comes alive through the stories shared in Whispers of the Gods, offering a fascinating account of the golden age of baseball.
In Whispers of the Gods, bestselling author Peter Golenbock brings to life baseball greats from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s through timeless stories told straight from the players themselves.
Like the enduring classic The Glory of Their Times, this book features the reminiscences of baseball legends, pulled from hundreds of hours of taped interviews with the author. Roy Campanella talks about life in the Negro Leagues before coming up to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Ted Williams recounts why he believes Shoeless Joe Jackson belongs in the Hall of Fame. Tom Sturdivant provides vivid memories of Casey Stengel, Mickey Mantle, and other Yankee icons. Other voices include Phil Rizzuto, Jim Bouton, Monte Irvin, Stan Musial, Ron Santo, Rex Barney, Ellis Clary, Roger Maris, Ed Froelich, Marty Marion, Jim Brosnan, Gene Conley, and Kirby Higbe.
The players interviewed were All-Stars, Hall of Famers, and heroes to many, and their impact on the national pastime is still seen to this day. Baseball history comes alive through the stories shared in Whispers of the Gods, offering a fascinating account of the golden age of baseball.
206 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 15, 2022
39 people are currently reading
162 people want to read
About the author
Peter Golenbock
81 books27 followersGolenbock grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, and in 1963 graduated St. Luke's School in New Canaan, Connecticut. His heroes were Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford. One day in the local library he discovered the book, The New York Yankees: An Informal History by Frank Graham ( G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1943) and it made a strong impression on him.''
Golenbock graduated from Dartmouth College in 1967 and the New York University School of Law in 1970.
He was a radio sports talk show host in 1980 on station WOR in New York City. He was the color broadcaster for the St. Petersburg Pelicans of the Senior Professional Baseball League in 1989-90 and has been a frequent guest on many of the top television and radio talk shows including "Biography on A&E," the "Fifty Greatest Athletes and the Dynasties on ESPN," "Good Morning America," "Larry King Live," "ESPN Classic," and the YES network.
Golenbock lives in St. Petersburg, Florida with his two basset hounds, Doris and Fred.
Golenbock graduated from Dartmouth College in 1967 and the New York University School of Law in 1970.
He was a radio sports talk show host in 1980 on station WOR in New York City. He was the color broadcaster for the St. Petersburg Pelicans of the Senior Professional Baseball League in 1989-90 and has been a frequent guest on many of the top television and radio talk shows including "Biography on A&E," the "Fifty Greatest Athletes and the Dynasties on ESPN," "Good Morning America," "Larry King Live," "ESPN Classic," and the YES network.
Golenbock lives in St. Petersburg, Florida with his two basset hounds, Doris and Fred.
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January 7, 2022Review coming soon in accordance with the publisher's wishes.
February 4, 2023
This is a very short (192 pages) collection of old interviews that the author did while compiling information for a book(s). There is no overriding theme or thread that connects them. Still, it is an enjoyable book. Much of the material is well known, but there are several gems that were newish to me. I loved the chapter on Marty Marion because he disputed two controversial (in baseball lore) legends. The first concerned the 1946 World Series and the infamous Johnny Pesky "hesitation" that allowed Enos Slaughter to score from first to third on a single. Without giving away a fascinating account, suffice it to say that Marion said Pesky had no chance, it wasn't his fault, and it wasn't even an exciting play. You have to read the whole account to see why. The second legend he disputes, concerns the story that the Cardinals held a team meeting and had intended to strike rather than play against Jackie Robinson. He said no such meeting ever took place, and that any animosity there was emanated solely because of the team rivalry rather than the color line. P.S. Stan Musial corroborates Marion's account in the chapter concerning Musial. The chapter on Rex Barney stood out because of his account of the "spiking incident between Enos Slaughter and Robinson at first base. I won't give it away, but it is proof of the moral character of Robinson and Stan Musial in what could have been an explosive incident in baseball history. So, for the younger crowd, you will enjoy these short stories, especially the story of Gene Conley and his "trip" to Jerusalem. All in all, a 3.5 rating. I wish to thank the publishing and loaning firm of Michael Albrecht for the book.
March 22, 2022
I read this book for a challenge in the year long program in my library. These stories are told by the men who lived them either through prerecorded interviews or new material.
In Whispers of the Gods, bestselling author Peter Golenbock brings to life baseball greats from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s through timeless stories told straight from the players themselves. Like the enduring classic The Glory of Their Times, this book features the reminiscences of baseball legends, pulled from hundreds of hours of taped interviews with the author. Roy Campanella talks about life in the Negro Leagues before coming up to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Ted Williams recounts why he believes Shoeless Joe Jackson belongs in the Hall of Fame. Tom Sturdivant provides vivid memories of Casey Stengel, Mickey Mantle, and other Yankee icons. Other voices include Phil Rizzuto, Jim Bouton, Monte Irvin, Stan Musial, Ron Santo, Rex Barney, Ellis Clary, Roger Maris, Ed Froelich, Marty Marion, Jim Brosnan, Gene Conley, and Kirby Higbe. The players interviewed were All-Stars, Hall of Famers, and heroes to many, and their impact on the national pastime is still seen to this day. Baseball history comes alive through the stories shared in Whispers of the Gods, offering a fascinating account of the golden age of baseball.
In Whispers of the Gods, bestselling author Peter Golenbock brings to life baseball greats from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s through timeless stories told straight from the players themselves. Like the enduring classic The Glory of Their Times, this book features the reminiscences of baseball legends, pulled from hundreds of hours of taped interviews with the author. Roy Campanella talks about life in the Negro Leagues before coming up to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Ted Williams recounts why he believes Shoeless Joe Jackson belongs in the Hall of Fame. Tom Sturdivant provides vivid memories of Casey Stengel, Mickey Mantle, and other Yankee icons. Other voices include Phil Rizzuto, Jim Bouton, Monte Irvin, Stan Musial, Ron Santo, Rex Barney, Ellis Clary, Roger Maris, Ed Froelich, Marty Marion, Jim Brosnan, Gene Conley, and Kirby Higbe. The players interviewed were All-Stars, Hall of Famers, and heroes to many, and their impact on the national pastime is still seen to this day. Baseball history comes alive through the stories shared in Whispers of the Gods, offering a fascinating account of the golden age of baseball.
March 21, 2022
This is the type of read that reminds me of sitting on the porch with you grandpa drinking lemonade or sitting at the bar drinking a beer and listening to him and his and friends tell stories. This of course is about baseball players and some that would be the considered the greats in baseball. The author who is definitely no stranger to writing baseball books writes about 16 different ball players with each chapter starting with a short Bio of the player and then it rolls into the stories that player has to tell in his own words about his playing days, his teammates, managers and important dates in their playing careers. The only exception is the chapter of Ed Froelich who was a trainer in baseball and hockey for a while who has a story to tell about Babe Ruth. These players covered times form the 30's up into the 70's. Did you besides Michael Jordan there have been thirteen other players who have played professional baseball and played in the NBA ? Two stories that stood out was one when Casey Stengel was told that he was to short to play baseball that he should go shine shoes because he would never be a big league player and other was about a player who showed up to a try out wearing jeans, a T-shirt and no shoes and this player went on to the hall of fame and no I am not talking about Shoeless Joe Jackson. Some of the players covered are Jim Bouton, Phil Rizzuto, Stan Musial and Ted Williams. This is a quick read about baseball history. Give it a read.
April 19, 2022
I love oral histories so I was very excited to get into this book, but was ultimately left a bit disappointed.
When I think of "oral history" I think of various interview snippets deftly stitched together to create a coherent narrative. This is basically just a bunch of old long interviews from Golenbock's previous books. There is no unifying theme besides the fact that all of the interviewees played baseball professionally (over a really long timeframe). Each player has their own chapter and the subject matter runs the gamut (Ted Williams defending Shoeless Joe Jackson, Jim Bouton describing the fallout from writing Ball Four, Ed Forelich telling Babe Ruth stories).
There are some amusing stories (I love how Ralph Houk told Bouton after a very poorly-pitched shutout "You pitched a shutout kid, but you wore out the whole bullpen") but many fell flat and the book is short (under 200 pages) as well. It's ultimately fine but nothing tremendously special.
When I think of "oral history" I think of various interview snippets deftly stitched together to create a coherent narrative. This is basically just a bunch of old long interviews from Golenbock's previous books. There is no unifying theme besides the fact that all of the interviewees played baseball professionally (over a really long timeframe). Each player has their own chapter and the subject matter runs the gamut (Ted Williams defending Shoeless Joe Jackson, Jim Bouton describing the fallout from writing Ball Four, Ed Forelich telling Babe Ruth stories).
There are some amusing stories (I love how Ralph Houk told Bouton after a very poorly-pitched shutout "You pitched a shutout kid, but you wore out the whole bullpen") but many fell flat and the book is short (under 200 pages) as well. It's ultimately fine but nothing tremendously special.
April 6, 2022
Few American athletic endeavors are as aware of their own history as baseball. No professional sport is as devoted to the past as baseball, a pastime that spans a century-and-a-half at this point; this is a game that draws direct connections between the players of today and the stars of yesteryear.
Of course, this means that there is a wealth of writing about the game past. Biographies and memoirs, books laden with legends and statistics. As a lover of the game, I dig them all, but I’ve always had a particular affinity for oral histories, the books where the players of bygone times offer up the stories from their mind’s eye. Memories of how the game once was from the men who once played it.
Peter Golenbock’s new book “Whispers of the Gods: Tales from Baseball’s Golden Age, Told by the Men Who Played It” compiles a wide assortment of these memories as dictated by the men who were there. Players remembering their time on the field during the tumultuous and triumphant stretch from the 1940s to the ‘60s – acknowledged by many to be the titular Golden Age of the sport.
All told, there are 16 men whose stories grace these pages, ranging from iconic all-time greats to the men who simply played the game. Each of them had their own stories to share; this book compiles those tales, culled from hundreds of hours of interviews that took place over the course of decades. Some of these stories are celebratory, others are sad, but all of them are evocative of the very particular time and place that was midcentury baseball.
The biggest names here are ones that will be familiar to anyone with even a passing knowledge of the game. We get to hear from Ted Williams, talking about his experiences in his own words. We spend some time with Stan Musial. Hall of Famers like Ron Santo and Phil Rizzuto get their say as well.
We also hear from some players who were prominent in their day, but who perhaps aren’t as widely remembered in the present. Guys like Gene Conley and Marty Marion get to tell their stories. And that’s not even mentioning the players whose names will almost certainly ring unfamiliar to all but the most devoted student of baseball history – Tom Sturdivant and Rex Barney and Ed Froelich. The list goes on.
Oh, and it is definitely worth noting that “Whispers of the Gods” is bookended by Jim Bouton, the man whose revolutionary book “Ball Four” pulled back the curtain and gave people a look at what big-league life was really like.
Perhaps the most striking aspects of the book are when Golenbock speaks to players who dealt with the early years of integration. Roy Campanella makes an appearance, as does Monte Irvin – both great players who earned their place in Cooperstown’s hallowed halls. However, it is when the white players active during that time offer up their memories that things get a bit hazy. One gets an almost revisionist sense from some of them, a feeling that they are perhaps underplaying the realities of the fracture of the color line and their own reactions to it.
I’m not going to delve too deeply into the stories that are ultimately shared here – you’ll have to buy the book for that – but it’s worth noting that to a man, all of these players carry deep-seated and powerful memories about their time in the big leagues, however long or successful that time might have been.
Oral histories like “Whispers of the Gods” are engaging reads for those of us who seek to connect our fandom of the now with the deeds of the past. Baseball history is a long and tangled thread – sometimes frayed, sometimes knotted, but never broken. One can draw a line from the earliest days of professional baseball to today – something that can be said about relatively few institutions.
As things stand right now, baseball is in flux. The current circumstances surrounding the game leave many of us yearning for a return to the simplicity of the past (though it is worth noting that many of the sport’s current wounds are self-inflicted by those who would run the show). And while the game was far from perfect back then, marred by bigotry and other tribulations, it was still a time when legends took the field.
The men who share their stories here were far from perfect. They were flawed people whose choices and ideas don’t always reflect well with the benefit of hindsight. And yet, their tales fascinate, taking the reader back to a time when the game, for all its institutional issues, was at the very center of American culture.
Yes, the title of the book is “Whispers of the Gods,” but these men were men. Nothing more. And yet, when they took to the field with their cannon arms and mighty swings, they did, in their own way, approach a kind of divinity.
Of course, this means that there is a wealth of writing about the game past. Biographies and memoirs, books laden with legends and statistics. As a lover of the game, I dig them all, but I’ve always had a particular affinity for oral histories, the books where the players of bygone times offer up the stories from their mind’s eye. Memories of how the game once was from the men who once played it.
Peter Golenbock’s new book “Whispers of the Gods: Tales from Baseball’s Golden Age, Told by the Men Who Played It” compiles a wide assortment of these memories as dictated by the men who were there. Players remembering their time on the field during the tumultuous and triumphant stretch from the 1940s to the ‘60s – acknowledged by many to be the titular Golden Age of the sport.
All told, there are 16 men whose stories grace these pages, ranging from iconic all-time greats to the men who simply played the game. Each of them had their own stories to share; this book compiles those tales, culled from hundreds of hours of interviews that took place over the course of decades. Some of these stories are celebratory, others are sad, but all of them are evocative of the very particular time and place that was midcentury baseball.
The biggest names here are ones that will be familiar to anyone with even a passing knowledge of the game. We get to hear from Ted Williams, talking about his experiences in his own words. We spend some time with Stan Musial. Hall of Famers like Ron Santo and Phil Rizzuto get their say as well.
We also hear from some players who were prominent in their day, but who perhaps aren’t as widely remembered in the present. Guys like Gene Conley and Marty Marion get to tell their stories. And that’s not even mentioning the players whose names will almost certainly ring unfamiliar to all but the most devoted student of baseball history – Tom Sturdivant and Rex Barney and Ed Froelich. The list goes on.
Oh, and it is definitely worth noting that “Whispers of the Gods” is bookended by Jim Bouton, the man whose revolutionary book “Ball Four” pulled back the curtain and gave people a look at what big-league life was really like.
Perhaps the most striking aspects of the book are when Golenbock speaks to players who dealt with the early years of integration. Roy Campanella makes an appearance, as does Monte Irvin – both great players who earned their place in Cooperstown’s hallowed halls. However, it is when the white players active during that time offer up their memories that things get a bit hazy. One gets an almost revisionist sense from some of them, a feeling that they are perhaps underplaying the realities of the fracture of the color line and their own reactions to it.
I’m not going to delve too deeply into the stories that are ultimately shared here – you’ll have to buy the book for that – but it’s worth noting that to a man, all of these players carry deep-seated and powerful memories about their time in the big leagues, however long or successful that time might have been.
Oral histories like “Whispers of the Gods” are engaging reads for those of us who seek to connect our fandom of the now with the deeds of the past. Baseball history is a long and tangled thread – sometimes frayed, sometimes knotted, but never broken. One can draw a line from the earliest days of professional baseball to today – something that can be said about relatively few institutions.
As things stand right now, baseball is in flux. The current circumstances surrounding the game leave many of us yearning for a return to the simplicity of the past (though it is worth noting that many of the sport’s current wounds are self-inflicted by those who would run the show). And while the game was far from perfect back then, marred by bigotry and other tribulations, it was still a time when legends took the field.
The men who share their stories here were far from perfect. They were flawed people whose choices and ideas don’t always reflect well with the benefit of hindsight. And yet, their tales fascinate, taking the reader back to a time when the game, for all its institutional issues, was at the very center of American culture.
Yes, the title of the book is “Whispers of the Gods,” but these men were men. Nothing more. And yet, when they took to the field with their cannon arms and mighty swings, they did, in their own way, approach a kind of divinity.
June 3, 2023
Whispers of the Gods consists of interviews with the men who played baseball in the 1940s and 1950s. It’s enjoyable enough, but I was hoping for something like the audiobook of The Glory of their Times, which had the actual interview audio. There are few things better to me than listening to old men telling stories, except maybe watching young women sing. Whispers has the stories but we don’t get the actual men telling them, and the narrator’s use of inflection/emotive emphasis/etc is liable to be very different. The content itself is interesting, though: one player was obsessed with Shoeless Joe and (in his youth) hunted down one of Jackson’s contemporaries to get the real scoop on the Black Sox affair. The contemporary believed that Jackson was used as a scapegoat. I’d also never heard of the Mexican League, which was started by two Mexican businessmen (brothers) and tried to recruit American ballplayers from both the Negro and Major leagues in the U.S. Unsurprisingly, the MLB resisted the poaching of their players, imposing five-year suspensions on any player who tried to cross the Rio Grande. There’s also disagreement between the interviewed players over matters like the introduction of Jackie Robinson: some said there wasn’t any hazing, some said there was hazing but it was the same as any new guy would get to make him prove himself, and others who said Jackie was targeted. World War 2 is a big factor in a lot of these guys’ stories: one man said the first time he saw a major league game, he was pitching it — just a couple of months out of high school. That happened in part because so many of the players went off to war, of course. A lot of these interviews happened for the authors’ other baseball books, so it’s not the deliberately created record that Glory is. If you’re interested in mid-century baseball, this is an entertaining collection of player memories, but it’s not a patch on Glory.
December 18, 2025
I know its a little early for a baseball book, but I was in the mood. And the WBC is coming soonish!
This was definitely better than the Fay Vincent edited books I read... those ones were decent, and of course had a few good stories (baseball is full of good stories), but it felt like the guys interviewed were given a questionairre to fill out, instead of it being a real interview. Golenbock seems like a really good interviewer... some of the stuff he gets is really good.
He gets people from both sides of Jackie Robinson debuting... of course the people that are pretty well known for causing trouble deny it, and his teammates confim. That's the way it goes with this stuff. What REALLY happened? You just have to decide who you believe I guess... but mostly when the person that ends up on the wrong side of history tries to deny things, it seems pretty hollow.
The down side of this book is its clearly just a bunch of left over stuff he had from his other books. Clearly I got the wrong one! But that's ok, there was some really interesting stuff in here. Usually the lesser players are the most interesting sections, but I really thought the Monte Irvin and Stan Musial bits were really good in this one.
Ron Santo, not so much. He can't possibly be as much of a egotistical jerk as he sounds here (it was a short chapter, maybe edited not in his favor).
Some of the stuff was odd to include.. like I get the author was friends with Jim Bouton, but why put in a quick summary of Ball Four essentially? He then gets ANOTHER chapter at the end, but that one is better, its more about the aftermath of writing the book. I think alot of the content is in the later printings of Ball Four though, and even if you haven't read alot of baseball books, I think you start with Bouton, no?
I would definitely grab one of the authors 'oral history' books he did, but this one feels a little sad.
This was definitely better than the Fay Vincent edited books I read... those ones were decent, and of course had a few good stories (baseball is full of good stories), but it felt like the guys interviewed were given a questionairre to fill out, instead of it being a real interview. Golenbock seems like a really good interviewer... some of the stuff he gets is really good.
He gets people from both sides of Jackie Robinson debuting... of course the people that are pretty well known for causing trouble deny it, and his teammates confim. That's the way it goes with this stuff. What REALLY happened? You just have to decide who you believe I guess... but mostly when the person that ends up on the wrong side of history tries to deny things, it seems pretty hollow.
The down side of this book is its clearly just a bunch of left over stuff he had from his other books. Clearly I got the wrong one! But that's ok, there was some really interesting stuff in here. Usually the lesser players are the most interesting sections, but I really thought the Monte Irvin and Stan Musial bits were really good in this one.
Ron Santo, not so much. He can't possibly be as much of a egotistical jerk as he sounds here (it was a short chapter, maybe edited not in his favor).
Some of the stuff was odd to include.. like I get the author was friends with Jim Bouton, but why put in a quick summary of Ball Four essentially? He then gets ANOTHER chapter at the end, but that one is better, its more about the aftermath of writing the book. I think alot of the content is in the later printings of Ball Four though, and even if you haven't read alot of baseball books, I think you start with Bouton, no?
I would definitely grab one of the authors 'oral history' books he did, but this one feels a little sad.
June 6, 2022
It's hard to rate this because, basically, it's Golenbock's dumping of notes and recordings he did over his career. There's no real writing, just transcripts from older players. Still, there are some interesting bits that make it worth while for baseball fans.
It is a presumptuous title and it says it's the "sequel" to Lawrence Ritter's "Glory of Their Times," which follows the same format and lets players talk about their careers. I'm not sure why this came out now. Some of his interviews were done in the 1980s and even 1970s when he was working on his classic "Dynasty" about the New York Yankees' glory years.
The book opens with Jim Bouton and closes with his comments about the reaction to his book "Ball Four." In between there are gems. Marty Marion, the St. Louis Cardinals shortstop, talks about the myth that Johnny Pesky hesitated before throwing home during the 1946 World Series and Enos Slaughter's "Mad Dash." The myth goes that Pesky hesitated. Marion explains that Pesky had his back to the play and had no guidance of the play.
To me, the best was the recollection of Ed Froelich and the 1932 World Series. Froelich talks about the thought of Babe Ruth's called shot against the Cubs in that Series. He was there; he explains what so many have mystified over the years.
There were several typos in the book. In one case, the name of a player's wife was spelled "Dottie" and "Dotty" in the same graph. There were also a couple of instances of wrongly used words that the spell checker could not have caught.
It was a mere dumping of old notes Golenbock must have found over the years. Maybe he was cleaning out desk drawers and found them. Still, it's a decent book for true baseball fans and, at least for me, recalls a much better era (even though I wasn't alive) of Ted Williams and Roy Campanella and Kirby Higbe and all.
It is a presumptuous title and it says it's the "sequel" to Lawrence Ritter's "Glory of Their Times," which follows the same format and lets players talk about their careers. I'm not sure why this came out now. Some of his interviews were done in the 1980s and even 1970s when he was working on his classic "Dynasty" about the New York Yankees' glory years.
The book opens with Jim Bouton and closes with his comments about the reaction to his book "Ball Four." In between there are gems. Marty Marion, the St. Louis Cardinals shortstop, talks about the myth that Johnny Pesky hesitated before throwing home during the 1946 World Series and Enos Slaughter's "Mad Dash." The myth goes that Pesky hesitated. Marion explains that Pesky had his back to the play and had no guidance of the play.
To me, the best was the recollection of Ed Froelich and the 1932 World Series. Froelich talks about the thought of Babe Ruth's called shot against the Cubs in that Series. He was there; he explains what so many have mystified over the years.
There were several typos in the book. In one case, the name of a player's wife was spelled "Dottie" and "Dotty" in the same graph. There were also a couple of instances of wrongly used words that the spell checker could not have caught.
It was a mere dumping of old notes Golenbock must have found over the years. Maybe he was cleaning out desk drawers and found them. Still, it's a decent book for true baseball fans and, at least for me, recalls a much better era (even though I wasn't alive) of Ted Williams and Roy Campanella and Kirby Higbe and all.
February 5, 2023
Peter Golenbock has been the author of many team histories. I still have a dog-eared copy of 'Bums' (Brooklyn Dodgers) from way back, along with an autographed copy of Amazin' (Mets) up on my bookcase shelf along with my other NY Mets books. My favorite - a picture book, Teammates about the relationship between Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson was a proud part of my classroom library for years. I still recommend it to teachers and friends as a great read aloud book. Thus, I was eager to read this thin volume that collects many of his interviews with ballplayers - some famous, others not so, from the 40's-60's. As a fan and believer of the strength of oral history/primary sources for real-life chronicles of the past, this book did not disappoint. I would recommend it to anyone who has read The Glory of Their Times - one of the all time sports classics. Golenbock's collection here has a New York "flavor" to and why not? During the post-WWII years, the the New York Teams were all competitive and and at least one of them seemed to always be in the post-season. My particular favorites here included, Roy Campanella, Monte Irvin, Phil Rizzuto, Jim Brosnan, Ron Santo, and two chapters from Jim Bouton (clearly one of the author's favorite players) who reflected on his Yankee career and then the fallout from his writing of Ball Four - which changed his relationships with many of his teammates, most notably Mickey Mantle. There are many insights and great stories about life in the minors; making it to the majors; and the breaking of the "Color Line" with Jackie Robinson. As we approach spring training and pitchers and catchers reporting soon, this book is a fine way to get the season started.
February 11, 2022
Subtitle: Tales From Baseball’s Golden Age, Told by the Men Who Played It
I’ve read a handful of author Golenbock’s other books about baseball and enjoyed them. Whispers of the Gods is a bit different, as Golenbock steps aside for the most part. In it, the author lets baseball legends such as Stan Musial, Roy Campanella, Roger Maris, and Monte Irvin tell their stories in their own words.
Over the course of many years, Golenbock built a collection of audio recordings of the interviews he conducted with hundreds of baseball players for his many books. Whispers of the Gods consists of 17 excerpts from those interviews, accompanied by brief introductions by Golenbock himself. It is modeled after Lawrence Ritter’s The Glory of Their Times, which features interviews with baseball stars from the early 20th century. Although I didn’t become a baseball fan until the 1970s, I enjoy reading baseball stories from all eras and enjoyed reading this book quite a bit.
I gave Whispers of the Gods five stars on Goodreads. The only bad thing I have to say about it is on the short side and left me hungry for more. If Golenbock ever writes a similar book about the stars of the 60s, 70s, and 80s I’ll be right there for it.
I’ve read a handful of author Golenbock’s other books about baseball and enjoyed them. Whispers of the Gods is a bit different, as Golenbock steps aside for the most part. In it, the author lets baseball legends such as Stan Musial, Roy Campanella, Roger Maris, and Monte Irvin tell their stories in their own words.
Over the course of many years, Golenbock built a collection of audio recordings of the interviews he conducted with hundreds of baseball players for his many books. Whispers of the Gods consists of 17 excerpts from those interviews, accompanied by brief introductions by Golenbock himself. It is modeled after Lawrence Ritter’s The Glory of Their Times, which features interviews with baseball stars from the early 20th century. Although I didn’t become a baseball fan until the 1970s, I enjoy reading baseball stories from all eras and enjoyed reading this book quite a bit.
I gave Whispers of the Gods five stars on Goodreads. The only bad thing I have to say about it is on the short side and left me hungry for more. If Golenbock ever writes a similar book about the stars of the 60s, 70s, and 80s I’ll be right there for it.
July 5, 2022
A short collection of interviews with players that Golenbock compiled, mostly taken while doing research for other projects such as Dynasty or Bums. There are some big names and some revealing, often funny stories here; in their own words these players really give you a feel for how different the game was back in this era (mainly the 1940s-70s). The interviews are a mix of lesser known players and big names, and there are some rare gets here (The notoriously press shy Roger Maris is a big one). There's a lot of great material here on the Brooklyn Dodgers from the '40s and '50s, great stories about Jackie Robinson, Ray Campanella and the beginning of integrated baseball. If you're a baseball fan or a history buff, you'll mostly get a kick out of this, but I wish the book was a bit more cohesive or fleshed out with more context and outside research; this is a collection of material Golenbock has been sitting on for decades and could have been packaged better instead of just being thrown together and released as is.
August 18, 2022
Listening to old dudes ramble on about the good old days has its appeal, especially when the topic is something I like like baseball. But these guys really needed to lay into each other more. I don't need multiple baseball players defending Enos Slaughter. I want them all calling him racist trash. I want someone to tell a story about the time they watched Stan Musial kick a dog. Even Jim Bouton spent most of his sections apologizing for Ball Four instead of talking shit. Even when the author included an pure pile of garbage like Kirby Higbe, he includes in his intro a smirking reference to all the times he was a dick to his wife. I know a book that in the title refers to the subjects as "Gods" isn't going to be exactly critical, but writing that your favorite Kirby Higbe story is one where he really and truly sucked isn't great.
February 23, 2024
A "sequel" if you will to Glory of Our Times, this is a book full of interviews with Major League players from the 40's through the 60's and 70's.
The Good: There are some really interesting stories told here by Hall of Famers like Stan Musial, who may have been one of the nicest gentlemen who ever lived, Ron Santo, Ted Williams, who spends his story politicking for Shoeless Joe Jackson, and Roy Campanella. Very good stories about guys like Jackie Robinson, Leo Dutocher, Bobby Thomson, etc.
The Bad: There are guys like Kirby Higbe and Gene Conley who were old school southern anti-Jackie racists that were nowhere near good enough to be included in this book. The story of Jim Bouton, who was heartbroken that he and Mickey Mantle never made peace after he wrote Ball Four, which laid bare the old Yankees clubhouse. Sad story.
Great read overall for any baseball history fan.
B+
The Good: There are some really interesting stories told here by Hall of Famers like Stan Musial, who may have been one of the nicest gentlemen who ever lived, Ron Santo, Ted Williams, who spends his story politicking for Shoeless Joe Jackson, and Roy Campanella. Very good stories about guys like Jackie Robinson, Leo Dutocher, Bobby Thomson, etc.
The Bad: There are guys like Kirby Higbe and Gene Conley who were old school southern anti-Jackie racists that were nowhere near good enough to be included in this book. The story of Jim Bouton, who was heartbroken that he and Mickey Mantle never made peace after he wrote Ball Four, which laid bare the old Yankees clubhouse. Sad story.
Great read overall for any baseball history fan.
B+
September 28, 2025
One of my guilty reading pleasures is books about baseball, particularly the major leagues in the '40s-'60s. Golenbock's book consists primarily of excerpts from interviews with players (and in a few cases non-players) from that era. Many of these chapters seem to be outtakes from interviews Golenbock conducted over the years for other, previously published books. Some of it isn't particularly interesting, some of it overlaps. Some of the material isn't so much about the games but about the personality and off-field conduct of some players.
The book starts with a chapter on Jim Bouton and ends with another Bouton chapter. Apparently, Golenbock was good friends with him. The last of those chapters is really about his writing of his famous (or infamous) book Ball Four and the reaction to it. I have to say that that's really not interesting.
The book starts with a chapter on Jim Bouton and ends with another Bouton chapter. Apparently, Golenbock was good friends with him. The last of those chapters is really about his writing of his famous (or infamous) book Ball Four and the reaction to it. I have to say that that's really not interesting.
July 19, 2022
Golenbock puts together some of his best stories from baseball's Golden Era from the interviews he did with players. Some are household names and others are quirky veterans who never got much attention. These players show the game away from the diamond and give insight into a bygone age of the sport, so this is well worth the read for any diehard baseball fan who enjoys the history of the game. If it is a casual reader, this probably won't really get too much interest.
December 21, 2022
I liked the book but since I am 77 and love baseball (have read a lot of baseball books) there is very little new material in the book. Like most oral histories, there is almost no context provided to support or supplement the information given so you are left some times with conflicting tales from the players.
It is a somewhat odd collection of players as Golenbock interviewed the players over several years for different books he wrote.
It is a somewhat odd collection of players as Golenbock interviewed the players over several years for different books he wrote.
April 17, 2022
For serious baseball fans only!!!! It is simply a collection of old interviews of baseball players. It won't interest the casual fan as they would not recognize most of the names. As a life-long baseball fan, it's a decent book. It is not awesome, but I got it for free. I would not spend money to read this book.
September 25, 2022
A compilation of baseball interviews that Golenbock conducted over the years in connection with other books or articles he was writing. Golenbock asks good questions although I with most of the interviews had been longer. The sum result is tidbits of info you add to your knowledge of these stars.
June 24, 2023
A decent compilation of interviews and stories of a number of ball players whose best days were during the time the author grew up to love baseball (1940s-1960s). Mostly famous names, but a few that modern fans may not know. Personal accounts/anecdotes. For the baseball fan, but probably not a wider audience than that.
May 6, 2024
Collection of reminiscences from golden era baseball players. Most are interesting and insightful. Ted Williams’ involves his support for Joe Jackson’s Hall of Fame candidacy. Ron Santo, Roger Maris, Monte Irvin and Roy Campanella are some of the other players featured. I appreciated that the author also featured some lesser-known players who were not superstars.
June 21, 2022
A must for baseball fans who followed baseball from the 1940’s through the 1970’s. Brought back a lot of good memories and explained some baseball history that I was not familiar with before this book.
March 20, 2024
Just in time for the start of a new season. I read this text to visit with some of the greatest players who ever have taken the field all who unfortunately are now on the eternal field. Well worth the time investment to read.
April 5, 2022
Golenbock calls this book a sequel to Lawrence Ritter's The Glory of Their Times, which is widely considered (along with Jim Bouton's Ball Four) to be the best baseball book ever written. Golenbock strikes the right tone in his interviews, and the stories shared are magnificent. He's one of the baseball writers of this, or any, era. Particular standouts in this collection are Stan Musial, Roy Campanella, Ted Williams, and Jim Bouton, but the whole book is engrossing and wonderful.
April 18, 2022
Excellent set of old interviews with players from the 1950s and 1960s. The book is too short and Golenbock should have added many more players than just these.
June 5, 2022
It's baseball so it has to be good. Light reading but enjoyable to hear the names of the old-time players.
June 25, 2022
Enjoyable read, some more interesting than others, of course.
It did stimulate me to get Ball Four and I will read that again.....many many years after the 1st read.
It did stimulate me to get Ball Four and I will read that again.....many many years after the 1st read.
September 18, 2022
Interviews with players from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, some stars, some not. It gives a great flavor of baseball as it was played in those decaedes. A great read for a baseball fan.
October 19, 2023
So happy the author preserved these stories in the words of the men who played with or were themselves great players. A unique perspective for fans.
August 14, 2022
Enjoyable book of stories from old baseball players. I'm guessing that this is a bunch of outtakes from interviews the author has conducted over the years and was not able to use in other books. Some of the stories are just ramblings of old players about their careers, but other stories really do show a human side of these guys.
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