Playing Right Field: A Jew Grows in Greenwich

by George Tabb, John Strausbaugh (Introduction)

One of a handful of Jews in the WASPish enclave of Greenwich, Connecticut, and still under 100 pounds in his junior year of high school, Tabb was routinely kicked around by the other kids—one blind, another one with one arm—as well as his father. "Playing Right Field" refers to an early experience of the author and his brother, Lloyd, who played Little League together; they were forced to share one team t-shirt between the both of this because his father the multi-millionaire was too cheap to buy one of each of them. George and Lloyd chose right field because hardly any balls ever got hit out there and they thought it would be safe and provide them with lots of space. The book will include many stories, all true – and some very hard to believe. Each story has a strong sense of morality, and the book will be fun as well as very educational. Using the idea of "right field", the book will trace Tabb's growing sense of isolation and rebellion from birth through near the end of tenth grade.

Genres: Humor

220 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 2004

Reviews

[Arielle Burgdorf · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love George Tabb. He's hilarious, I love his writing style, the sequel to this book is one of my favorite books of all time. So why the low rating? This book was about his earlier experiences, which was basically a lot of getting beaten up for being Jewish and being abused by his father and stepmother. As usual, Tabb manages to find the humor in all of it, but it gets pretty repetitive. Many of the stories seem to start and end the same way. Tabb's still funny, he's still a great writer, but I definitely prefer Surfing Armageddon to this.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always read George Tabb's stories in MaximumRockRoll.
It was nice to find them compiled in this collection.
Highly recommended.

[Jonathan]

A good punk rock book. Fun stories, a good time had by all.
However, if you are new to George, I reccomened his column in MRR, they need to put together a collection.

[ikmalcore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up at a book sale. 5 bucks. Pretty funny stuff from ol' George!